Author of Practicing Simplicity, Jodi Wilson faced a fear of complacently which grew bigger than her fear of change and it prompted her to pack her 4 young chillins into a caravan for a life on the road and the building of a whole new rhythm. Over the coming years, they got comfortable in the discomfort of change, uncertainty and discovered  that the ritual of stirring porridge shouldn’t be underestimated, nor should the  remarkability of the ordinary. She encourages us all to take small steps and make brave choices. We need to step outside our front doors, go for a walk and chat to our neighbours.

*Recorded pre federal election

• Deciding, on a whim to take her 4 children around Australia in a caravan
• Letting her intuition dominate her decisions towards a leap of faith
• Consciously close mental tabs 
• Unravelling the sense of obligation to time frames and social norms
• If we are privileged enough to make choice, we have a responsibility to make change
• Why it’s important we don't get stuck in our bell jar
• How a life on the road in a caravan with 6 people helped refine what we really need in our life.
• Making conscious decisions
• Sustainability as humans - constantly running,
• Creating a life she believed in not one she was wedged into
• Intuition led - heart and gut. If it doesn't feel right it can’t be continued
• Why she cant access her intuition or gut instinct if she is anxious
• Spending time in nature, barefoot on sand, in deserts, 
• Finding a sense of belonging and connection in ancestral landscapes
• Making major decisions via a woven path of experiences
• The romance of a roadtrip was appealing but the reality was that I had to get dirty
• You carry the dirt of your travels are carried in the crevices of your skin
• Reminiscent stories of they’re 2.5 years on the road
• Settling in Tassie in a 1950’s bungalow
• Defining what it is you DO WANT
• Creating ritual and time for self while on the road
• Looking at the stars and basking in the silence of the night
• Creating more time in your life because of the choices we’ve made
• Simplicity starts where you are with what you have - simplicity is an attitude and a mindset
• Simplicity ebbs and flows with the demands of our lives
• Collective heartache and collective exhaustion 
• We haven't evolved from the primal beings we are but we have been distracted.
• Nothing gets done unless you take small steps towards it
• Replacing the perfectionist hurdles of ‘shoulda’ with the compassionate reality of “I will when I can”
• Feeling like a local when the neighbours stop for a chat and the shop owners know your name
• Living with little and raising her kids to see this gives her hope

References

Practicing Simplicity  - book, blog and socials of Jodi Wilson
Kirsten Bradley Futuresteading conversation
Radical Hope Club

Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

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SHOW SUMMARY
Join Billa, co founder of the Wild School, as we navigate back into our custodial selves. Where we use head, hands & heart to rebuild the connective processes that help us become deeply connected people to place & each other. This process requires us to not only think but to really feel, 'It needs to be remembered in the body at a cellular level. “In our bones as women we have generations of wisdom & the sisterhood brings this to life”
'We are designed to live in tribal sized groups & to take care of country but we lack the skills so it's time to unlearn & relearn.'
The right environment will trigger the hard wired settings to make us what we are designed to be & the process of relearning how to live together will be more than just building houses & spaces or owning land.
 Billa & her husband Chief have been doing this earth connection & village making work their entire lives & she is measuring her experiences against something in her bones.  She is doing this via 5 sacred pathways - these being food as medicine, nature connection, ceremony & ritual, village making & art is medicine. A pedagogy you cannot be schooled on, you need to embody them through experience.
The most potent experience of all she says is to have gratitude for the mother. Us two-legged humans form a story - “we are merely the current fruiting mushroom of the ancestral mycelium”. its time to be reminded of this in our modern day story.

Things we chatted about
Wildschool
Gaia University
8 shields movement - Jon Young
Tyson Yinkaporta - right story, wrong story

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Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

Show Notes:
Moving towards a life that moves in circles rather than being square & rigid - finding the sisterhood, herbal medicine, permaculture.
Women need women but we specifically need sisterhood where we share wisdom & DO together - craft, learn, share, 
DIY-ing her own home at 24
Intentional communities - are they a study in failure or can we really do this?
Permaculture has been foundational alongside womens wisdom
Being alive ‘in village’
Finding our way back through the cultural repair journey via the 8 shields movement & the 64 cultural elements
Connecting to country to continue as a species
Reconciling our history is foundational to rebuilding culture
You can’t ground community without the land but you can’t just buy land & assume the community will come - the truth of the land needs to be reconciled. 
What we eat is our relationship to the earth mother - it plugs us back in
Rebuilding deep connection requires all five sacred pathways to be present
Are we existing in captivity
Decolonising our body through food 
Building next level connection with our ancestors 
We’ve stopped knowing our bodies
What else comes with your DNA? More than height or eyes colour
The humble shall inherit the earth
Check in with what your ‘baseline’ is - very high in western culture
Taking care of the baseline & being able to appreciate it is freeing because you can let go of the noisy material things which takes up all the space & consume you.
White privilege blinkers - question what was taken in order for us to have this

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Sarah Andrews has this way of stripping back the noise & replacing hustle with humility. A gentle woman, who describes herself as '90% introvert', she has crated beautiful spaces by considering them her palette to tell stories  & then inviting in a global community of folk to share her special space.

The key, she says, to creating spaces that are warm, nurturing and supportive of the community they are designed to hold, is to be sure that “beautiful is not the ‘budget”.
“My plan was to teach a few what I knew and then go sailing but it didn't happen like that because what was being taught was so special & it really did what it said on the box”
Today the futuresteading pod invites you to open the box and learn ways to create spaces that nurture togetherness.

Things we talked about:
Hosting masterclass - Sarahs online program
The Poetry of Spaces - Sarah Andrews
Captains Rest - Sarah's Accommodation

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Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

Show Notes
How a tumultuous life has lead her to creating spaces that make her feel safe
Spaces that make you feel the way you want to feel  & be the best we can
Finding your medium to create stories - art, verbal words, design, written words,
Walking the line of being a hermit that is alone but not wanting to be alone
Understanding her ratio for a happy life - for her its 90% introverted
Attracting people together but without the obligation of having to hold them all.
“I’d found an internal happiness as a host and wanted to gift that to others” 
“Hosting & creating spaces is a science which can be broken down into a process?
Frustration with the creative world using words that don't have meaningful measure.
Building tools that could be taught to people who don't think they're creative.
It’s easy to copy something if you've got a big budget but if you’re creating something that’s creative & individual then the real beauty is uncovered
“For many reasons captains rest should not have been a success but when it was I was inundated with people asking me to help them do the same for them”
Humility in creating a global network of minded individuals 
"I don’t have the energy for it to be all about me so it’s lovely to see a community of people connecting from the comfort of my couch"
Every year I just do what I can - which is different every year - there’s no strategy but it feels good & works for me.
Enough is not about doing more, having more, seeing more, it’s about how much you can give to the world.
Building a meaningful community of people she loves & trusts
I’m a three friend type of person - they’ve seen me through every part of my life
Being part of a community that is protective of one another & generous
Inner huddles & outer huddles
Our community is a success because it’s genuine - it’s not a side hustle or a business venture - I’d be doing it anyway.
The thing that always links to success is ‘realness’ - when it lights up people’s eyes you know it's true. It’s those who have the bravery to follow that
A better way of being a community of people interacting with one another is when we sidestep division. 
Being led by kindness - one of the hardest but most rewarding things about being alive.

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What if all the memories you made as a kid had been replaced by screens? When an aha moment makes you realise that its time to reframe childhood and embrace an analogue life - one that stimulates creativity, imagination and experiences that instil a need to fight for the natural world over technification.   With a biological need for at least 3 hours outside every day...the time to replace screen time with green time is now.

Show notes

Feeling like she was failing as a mum
Breaking the cycle of raising children on full schedules
“Kids are supposed to be outside for 4-6 hours a day when the weather is good” - Charlotte Mason
Her first good day as a mum was spent outside as part of a challenge in order to make friends.
How outdoor play enhances every development for children which gives lifelong benefits
Setting our kids up for success simply by spending time outside
Busting screen time statistics
On average kids are on screens for 7 hours a day but only outside for 7 minutes
1200 hours a year outside creating  rather than on screen 
3 hours of outdoor play for kids of all ages 
Keeping children balanced
Rescheduling early childhood
Raising kids who were ruddy, tough, sleeping better
Outdoor play enhances childhood developing in every sense = cognitive, sensorial, emotional
Laying the groundwork so they keep it up
Play that stretches their body and teaches them to trust their bodies and builds endurance, stamina, alertness
Filling our life with the important things first and push out the time that's left over for screens
It’s never easy to make this your committed approach but it’s worth it
Creating rituals that are intentional
The benefits of being uncomfortable
Why time slows down when you are doing something new and your senses wake up
Building identity via time in the outdoors
If they don’t love an analogue life, they won’t fight for it
Building a foundation in kids that they can resist the tech pull
Success is living a fulfilling life that is balanced, connected, maintained ground on values and illusions but grounded and taken day by day
If we live well today then tomorrow will take care of itself
Clothes for the season: Wonders of wool to enable the kids to play for so much longer
Passing down the things = less stuff
Imagination over screens
Nature is enough - it meets us all at the stage we are at 
Start right now and be happy to bloom at your own pace which follows your instinct
Trust your kids to create their own path

References

1000 hours outside- book, podcast

Charlotte Mason - Childhood educator

Balanced and barefoot - Angela Hanson

Rewilding the urban soul - Claire Dunn

The Comfort Crisis - Michael Easter

The singularity is near - Ray Curswhile

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Do you ever feel a profound connection with nature? 

 Dive into a captivating conversation with Julie Brams - American forest therapy guide and author of "The Nature Embedded Mind". Julie emphasizes the necessity of reclaiming our relationship with nature, "We are never separated from nature; it’s time to reclaim that connection!" 

To truly embrace our connection with nature, we must acknowledge the ties that bind us to the Earth and each other. By fostering kinship with the natural world, we can find comfort, wisdom, and healing. Julie's insights remind us that our mental and emotional well-being is intertwined with the health of our planet. As we reclaim our nature-embedded minds, we pave the way for a more harmonious existence with the Earth, ultimately leading to a more just and sustainable world.

Throughout the conversation we explore the deep kinship we hold with the natural world and how this connection can lead to healing and understanding. From the emotional landscapes of joy and grief to the transformative power of observation and presence.

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Loved this? Try these:

Alice Irene Whitaker - Finding Seeds of Presence in the Woods

Leah Rampy - The Trees Teach Resilience, Beginning and Ending in Silence

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Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

We talked about:

- Remembering our belonging to land, life, and each other

- We are inherently interconnected; separation from nature is a learned narrative that can be unlearned

- Reclaiming a nature-embedded way of being is essential for personal and collective healing

- Observation, presence, and attentiveness deepen our relationship with the living world

- Curiosity and play open pathways for reconnection, learning, and resilience

Joy naturally emerges as we reweave ourselves into ecological rhythms

Grief is a valid and necessary response to loss, signalling care and commitment to life

- Healing the earth and healing ourselves are reciprocal, inseparable processes

- A heart-centred approach to relationships strengthens communities and future possibilities

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Step into the deeper currents of what it means to build a life that lasts beyond a single generation. Explore multi-generational living not just as a practical arrangement, but as an antidote to the fragmentation of modern society—a way of returning to rootedness, continuity, & shared purpose. Reflect on the power of family rituals, enduring traditions & the slow transmission of wisdom that strengthens the family ecosystem.

Through personal stories & cultural insight, Jeremy reveals how honouring ancestral lineage has cultivated belonging & identity, and how intentional gatherings have helped reweave the connections frayed by hyper-individualism. Jeremy speaks to the beauty & complexity of holding the responsibility of caring for aging parents, & the steady vision of togetherness that shapes their family’s choices.

This conversation touches on the importance of building community with both kin & chosen family, redefining success in relational rather than material terms, & rediscovering what “enough” truly means in a world bent toward consumption. It is a conversation about stewardship, resilience, & designing a life that honours both our roots & our future.

Find Jeremy online

Loved this? Try another:

Nat Wilmot - Living her Dream

Support the Show
Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Books - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

Pod Partners Rock:Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Show Notes:

• Embracing multi-generational living as a resilient response to the rhythms of modern life
• Rooting the household in foundational rituals &traditions that anchor future generations
• Honouring ancestral lineage as a compass for long-term stewardship
• Weaving intergenerational wisdom into daily life to strengthen the family ecosystem
• Recognizing how hyper-individualism fractures connection & belonging
• Practising deep long-termism as a cornerstone of sustainable, life-supporting futures
• Caring for aging parents through intentional, dignity-centred practices
• Crafting a shared vision of togetherness to guide family decisions across decades
• Cultivating community that extends beyond bloodlines into chosen kin & local networks
• Redefining success by elevating relationships, contribution, & coherence over consumption
• Understanding what “enough” means in a world shaped by excess & scarcity mindsets
• Preserving generational knowledge as a critical asset for family resilience & adaptability
• Living intentionally through long-range planning, transparent communication, & shared purpose
• Designing a lifestyle that prioritizes stewardship, regeneration, & sustainable prosperity

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In this episode, we sit down with Jamin Heppell to dive into the edges where personal growth, leadership, and nature all meet. We talk about what it means to move through fear, to listen to our intuition, and to find clarity in the moments that challenge us most. Jamin opens up about his own life initiations, the experiences that have shaped who he is and how he leads and shares the practices and rituals that help him stay grounded and resilient. Together, we explore what heart-centered leadership really looks like in today’s world, and how the mountains — both literal and metaphorical — can teach us about courage, authenticity, and alignment.

We talked about:

• The mountains are unforgiving, teaching us resilience.
• Life is a mirror for our personal growth.
• Clarity, clearing, and creation are essential in leadership.
• Fear can be a guide if we learn to listen to it.
• Daily rituals support our resilience and well-being.
• Leadership starts with self-awareness and authenticity.
• Nature provides profound lessons for personal development.
• Initiations in life help us grow and expand.
• Heart-centered leadership is crucial for community well-being.
• Mountains symbolise the challenges and triumphs of life.

Links You'll Love:

Jamin's offerings: https://linktr.ee/jaminheppell

Jamin's Website: https://mountainsandmarathons.world/aligneverest26/

Article on the Patagonia story mentioned in the pod: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/26/australian-hikers-chilean-mountain-blizzard-survival-stories

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Support the Show
Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

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Summary
If we are going to lay the foundations of a world we are proud to leave as a legacy we need to be comfortable to move into elderhood - for Manda Scott this is about getting comfortable with emergence and asking the living web “what is mine to do”.
 We’ve created a world where separation, anxiety & powerlessness have become the underlying defaults instead of a world of security, belonging & agency. We are addicted to dopamine &exist in a world of trauma rather than initiation so how are we to rewrite these patterns?
By listening to the heart-mind - its very shy & quiet but the head mind will whisper if it needs you to really listen.

Links You'll Love
Any Human Power - Manda Scott
Accidental Gods - Manda Scott program &  podcast
Right story, Wrong story - Tyson Yunkaporta
Sand talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Mans search for meaning - Victor Frankel
Francis Weller - The Wild Edge of Sorrow

Loved this? Try these:
Tyson Yunkaporta
Damon Gameau

Support the Show
Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

We talked about:
Learning to live as functioning members of the earth community
Why she writes fiction not non fiction
Receiving shamanic instruction
How to be in connection with the web of life in all its complexity
Being born into a trauma culture rather than an initiation culture
Why seeing truth without self projection is hard.
Her decades of shamanic teaching - still learning to discern the difference between what her ego is saying and what the energy is saying
Returning to a sit spot to receive instructions to write a book
“Skin Listening” - an ability to be felt with all your senses without pre conceived ideas
Sit spots - what can I see, what can I feel, what does my heart say 
Why some languages say “I am other” and some say “I am intrinsically part of what is happening.
Initiation culture is capable of holding contained encounters with death
We live in a dopamine culture - addicted to turning oil into adrenaline
Yearning for a serotonin mesh of connection of meaning & purpose
The four stages of Adulthood
Undoing our head mind dominance
Offering yourself in service and waiting for your path.
 The chaos of our culture is that we think we can plan ahead
We live in an insane world & ourselves its sane
One of the key measures of adulthood is being prepared to walk against the tide

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As a new Mum, living in a new home, having just released a new book and fertilising the idea of reconnecting back to her Vietnamese heritage Tammy Huyhn is a light hearted joy.

This lass knows a thing or two about plants - you may have seen her face on ABC's Gardening Australia and she runs her own hortucultural business Leaf an Impression which delivers garden talks and workshops...she has even been awarded horticulturist of the year! 

Todays conversation though, mostly asks "how does gardening bridge us back to our ancestral roots and remind us who we are".

Post recording, Tammy thanked us for the unexpected therapy session - so its a short and sweet ep that still manages to dig beyond the top soil.

We talked about:

• How Tammy's Vietnamese heritage influences her gardening practices
• Initially pursuing a career in agriculture before transitioning to writing
• Troubleshooting plant care effectively.
• How Motherhood brings both joy and challenges, impacting identity
• The crucial role of Community in sharing gardening knowledge
• The power of gardens to connect people across cultures & generations
• Starting with one plant can enhance mental well-being.
• The value of rest and self acceptance

Loved this? Try another:

Tim Pilgrim - Creating Wild Spaces; The Art Of Natural Design

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Support the Show
Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

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Come with us for a wander through the fertile grounds of possibility with James McLennon, the visionary behind Farm My School. Todays ep unearths how a patch of school soil can become so much more than a playground—it can nourish bodies, minds, and entire communities. From the thriving farm at Bellarine Secondary College to the ripple effects it’s having on students, neighbours, and local food systems, James shares how education and regeneration can thrive side by side. This is a story about reimagining our schools as living, breathing ecosystems—places where compost becomes curriculum and connection becomes the harvest. Tune in for a hopeful glimpse of a future where every school grows food, community, and a deep sense of belonging. 

We talked about:

• School grounds can become fertile community hubs—places that feed both bellies and belonging
• When locals roll up their sleeves together, school gardens become living lessons in connection
• Building a farm in a single day can spark a groundswell of hope, pride, and shared purpose
• Food production isn’t separate from education—it is education in its most delicious form
• Regenerative farming principles can take root in classrooms, teaching care for soil and soul alike
• Local food systems are the backbone of resilient communities and thriving futures
• When students grow food, they also grow confidence, calm, and mental well-being
• Partnering with local growers deepens food diversity and strengthens community ties
• The Farm My School model offers a blueprint for rewilding education from the ground up
• The vision ahead: a network of school farms growing food, connection, and a future of togetherness

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Links You'll Love
Farm My School online

Loved this? Try these:

Jamie Loveday - Sowing Seeds for Food Deserts in the City

Support the Show
Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

Support the show