SOIL: Rewilding the Underground – Details, episodes & analysis

Bread. How did something so basic, so fundamental, get so complicated – and even start making us ill? This is the question that underpins ‘Cereal’, an investigative series from our friends at Farmerama Radio that uncovers the polarised world of bread, and its connection to seeds, soil, our health and food systems. 

We’re excited to share the first episode ‘Flour, Water, Salt’ in SOIL’s podcast feed this week, partly because it offers a deeper dive into the story of soil, but also to celebrate the launch of ‘Cereal Revisited’, a podcast, impact report and sound map documenting the real-world changes this podcast series has inspired six years on. 

Head to Farmerama’s podcast channel to listen to the rest of this important series, and to hear ‘Cereal Revisited’. Find out more and contribute to the sound map at farmerama.co/cereal-revisited, or via their socials @farmerama_radio. 

To hear more updates about SOIL: Rewilding the Underground, subscribe to our newsletter at thesoilpodcast.com and follow us on socials @soilpodcast. 

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In honour of World Soil Day, we're sharing 5 things you can do to help soils:

1. Talk about soils! Rate, review & share this podcast to help this story reach more listeners.
2. Fill out our short SOIL impact survey here.
3. Host an in-person listening event with your community. Register your interest here.
4. Donate to support the SOIL: Rewilding the Underground impact campaign here.
5. Check out the resources page of our website for podcasts, books, courses & food maps here.

You can find all the above and more at thesoilpodcast.com. Follow us on socials @soilpodcast.

Happy World Soil Day!

Freya & Jess

🦠🪱🌱✨🍄

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Humans can’t create soils on our own, but we can create the conditions for life underground to flourish. In our final episode, we look at existing mechanisms to scale practices that support the restoration of degraded soils - like improving soil testing, research, carbon farming and natural capital frameworks. We feed chickens with kids and hear about government schemes to rewild daycares, and we speak to tech and data experts who are recording the sounds of the underground to restore soil health. Finally, we hear an important call to bring the natural world back into our songs, art and culture, to be guided by First Nations knowledge, and to connect with, restore and protect the life beneath our feet. 

If you’ve listened to SOIL, please share your feedback and a testimonial with us at thesoilpodcast.com to help our impact campaign. You can also find resources for hosting a community listening event here. 

Follow @soilpodcast on socials, and subscribe for updates, read more and support SOIL by purchasing our limited edition ‘PROTECT THE LIFE WITHIN SOILS’ merch or donating via our website: thesoilpodcast.com. 

Featured talent in this episode (in order of appearance): 

Alex Park, Founder of biofonic.earth

Dr Lorraine Gordon, cattle and carbon farmer, Principle of Natural Capital at Climate Friendly

Phil Mulvey, hydrogeologist, soil scientist & co-author of Groundbreaking: soil security & climate change

Victor Steffensen, Founder of Firesticks Alliance and author, Fire Country, Animals on Country, The Trees

Gabrielle Chan, farmer, journalist & author of Why You Should Give A F*ck About Farming

The book Freya read to the kids at daycare is Worms Are Our Friends by Toni D'Alia. This episode also featured an excerpt of Victor Steffensen’s song ‘The Animals’.

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey (Co-author of Groundbreaking: Soil security and climate change), produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. Additional production support in this episode from Aimee Volkofsky (Bush Witch Productions). We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent who shared their voices, and the many soil organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. If you would like to support our ongoing impact campaign, please head to thesoilpodcast.com. 

Thank you for helping us to protect soils.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We cannot survive without the intricate network of life in soils that underlies 95% of the food humans consume. In this episode, we trace global food supply chains, visit an independent butcher and meet farmers and eaters doing things differently. We hear the challenges facing small food business and abattoirs in Australia to small-scale farmers in India, and learn of inspiring alternatives, like community supported agriculture (CSAs), holistic policy approaches, and education programs supporting the transition to nutritious and secure food systems.

Please share your feedback with us here to support our impact campaign!

Featured talent in this episode (in order of appearance): 

Gabrielle Chan, farmer, journalist & author of ‘Why You Should Give A F*ck About Farming’

Matthew Evans, farmer at Fat Pig Farm, Founder of Grounded festival, author of ‘Soil’, ‘Milk’ and others

Laura Dalrymple, Co-Founder of Feather and Bone sustainable butchery

Anika Molesworth, farmer, climate researcher & author of ‘Our Sunburnt Country’

Siddhesh Sakore, UN Land Hero and Founder of AGRO Rangers

Sam Vincent, farmer & author of ‘My Father and Other Animals’

Eli Court, CEO of Soils for Life

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey (Co-author of Groundbreaking: Soil security and climate change), produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. Additional production support in this episode from Aimee Volkofsky (Bush Witch Productions). We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

Follow @soilpodcast, and subscribe for updates, read more and support SOIL by purchasing our limited edition ‘PROTECT THE LIFE WITHIN SOILS’ merch or donating via our website: thesoilpodcast.com. 

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent who shared their voices, and the many soil organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. If you would like to support our ongoing impact campaign, please head to thesoilpodcast.com. 

Thank you for helping us to protect soils.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve already started to feel the brunt of anthropogenic climate change, and our relationship with soil may be crucial to our way through. In this episode, we’ll hear how soil stores carbon and fresh water, how it’s connected to droughts, dust storms and deserts, and why a dusty or concrete landscape is hotter than one covered in trees. We unpack the science behind the small water cycle and sensible heat coming off the land. And we’ll hear stories of farmers working together to rehydrate and regenerate the land, and others banding together to change policies and systems.

If you’ve listened to SOIL, please share your feedback and a testimonial with us here! Follow @soilpodcast, and subscribe for updates, read more and support SOIL by purchasing our limited edition ‘PROTECT THE LIFE WITHIN SOILS’ merch or donating via our website: thesoilpodcast.com. 

Featured talent in this episode (in order of appearance): 

Dr Anika Molesworth, farmer & author ‘Our Sunburnt Country’

Prof. Alex McBratney, Professor of soil science & Digital Agriculture, University of Sydney & AROURA think tank

Phil Mulvey, hydrogeologist & soil scientist, co-author of ‘Groundbreaking: Soil security & climate change’

Eli Court, CEO of Soils for Life

John Cherry, farmer & Founder of Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival

Sam Vincent, farmer & author of ‘My Father and Other Animals’

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey (Co-author of Groundbreaking: Soil security and climate change), produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. Additional production support in this episode from Aimee Volkofsky (Bush Witch Productions). We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent who shared their voices, and the many soil organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. 

Thank you for helping us to protect soils.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beneath our feet lies a hidden world of fungi, bacteria, animals and plant roots that has been explored less than outer space. In Part 3, we’re going underground to explore fungal superhighways and the microscopic interactions around the rhizosphere that support all life above ground. We’ll hear how chemical fertilisers disrupt ancient fungal symbioses and human health, how nitrogen run off from agriculture is connected to fish kills and algal blooms, and how, by building life in the soil, we can drastically increase the levels of nutrients in the food we eat.

If you’ve listened to SOIL, please share your feedback and a testimonial with us here!

Featured talent in this episode (in order of appearance): 

Dr Camille Truong, fungal ecologist, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and SPUN (check out the Underground Atlas here)

Phil Mulvey, hydrogeologist & soil scientist, co-author of Groundbreaking: Soil security & climate change 

Anne Biklé, biologist & co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature and What Your Food Ate

Pia Winberg, marine systems ecologist, Founder of Phycohealth and Venus Shell Systems

Dan Kittredge, Founder of the Bionutrient Institute, currently engaging a cross-sectoral global Treaty on the definition of nutrient density in food

Matthew Evans, chef, farmer at Fat Pig Farm, author of many books including Soil, Milk 

*CORRECTION: Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch's work with nitrogen allowed Germany to produce synthetic fertilizers for food production and munitions for WW1 (not WW2).

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey, produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

Follow @soilpodcast, and subscribe for updates, read more and support SOIL by purchasing our limited edition merch or donating via our website: thesoilpodcast.com. 

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent who shared their voices, and the many soil organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. 

Thank you for helping us to protect soils.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our imagination has been captured by stories of rewilding ecosystems… What if we told you that farmers can rewild soils? About half of the world's habitable land is used for agriculture, either for growing crops or grazing livestock, meaning farmers have an outsized responsibility for the complex webs of life that make up the soil. So in Part 2 we’re starting with people. We’ll travel from farms alongside ancient Gondwana rainforest, to rainy green fields north of London, to small-scale growers in India. We’ll unpack the consequences of the Green Revolution on biodiversity, ecosystems and communities, and meet the farmers who are turning things around. 

Featured talent in this episode (in order of appearance): 

Eli Court

CEO, Soils for Life

John Cherry

Founder, Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival

Joshua Gilbert

Worimi cattle farmer, academic and author, Australia’s Agricultural Identity: An Aboriginal Yarn

Gabrielle Chan

Farmer, political journalist & author of Why You Should Give A F*ck About Farming

Sam Vincent

Regenerative farmer and author, My Father and Other Animals

Siddhesh Sakore

UN Land Hero and Founder of AGRO Rangers

Donate to AGRO Rangers to support small-scale farmers in India to transition to agroecological practices.

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey, produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

Follow @soilpodcast, and subscribe for updates, read more and support SOIL by purchasing our limited edition merch or donating via our website: thesoilpodcast.com. 

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent who shared their voices, and the many soil organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. 

Thank you for helping us to protect soils.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Humans have always been intertwined with the soil, but we have degraded over a third of Earth’s soils and now it’s impacting us all on an existential level. In Part 1, we trace our relationship with soil over millennia to understand how humanity impacts the living, breathing universe of soil hidden beneath our feet, and the role that we play in this ecosystem. 

Featured talent in order of appearance: 

Anne Biklé & David R. Montgomery

Biologist/geologist & co-authors of Dirt: the erosion of civilisations, The Hidden Half of Nature & What Your Food Ate

Victor Steffensen

Founder of Firesticks Alliance and author, Fire Country

Right Country, Right Fire podcast

Donate to Firesticks: support Indigenous communities to care for Country by strengthening their capacity to apply traditional knowledges

Charlie Massy

Regenerative farmer & author, Call of the Reed Warbler

Alex McBratney

Professor of Digital Agriculture & soil science, USYD

AROURA Soil Think Tank 

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey, produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.

Follow @soilpodcast on socials. Subscribe for updates & support SOIL by purchasing limited edition merch: thesoilpodcast.com. 

SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent, and the many organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is a 6-part documentary about the people turning degraded dirt into living soil. Launching mid-October 2025

Follow the journey @soilpodcast and subscribe for updates at thesoilpodcast.com. Support SOIL via the Australian Cultural Fund.

Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.