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

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Jade and Dalee wander through the tender terrain where creativity, womanhood, and everyday life meet. Speaking openly about the way our inner cycles shape what we make and how we show up in the world — and how hard it can be to hold space for both art and livelihood.

Together they explore the slow evolution of Dalee’s creative path, the courage it takes to collaborate, and the quiet emotional work of home-schooling while running a small business. Their chat drifts into community — the messy beauty of shared living in an intentional community, the texture that neurodiversity brings to family life, and the lessons learned from leaning into interdependence.

It’s a conversation about connection — to self, to others, and to place. About boundaries that protect passions, creativity and community so we are reminded of who we each are and what our individual work is to do - within the collective. Today we ask what it means to live a life guided by values — to curate something meaningful, slow, and true.

Buy their co-created perennial Futuresteading calendar

Links You'll Love
Dalee Ella Substack

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EP 151, Dani Wolf, Mashing Together Mama Wisdom and Earth Wisdom

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We talked about:

Creativity rises and falls with our cycles; honouring them deepens the work

Flat moods are quiet ground where truth takes root

Art reminds us we belong to something vast

Balancing commerce and creation asks for courage and clarity

Our art shifts as we do — mirroring each inner season

Collaboration thrives on bravery, honesty, and deep listening

Homeschooling stirs chaos, wonder, and unexpected insight

When values lead, both life and art hold meaning

Creativity wanders, retreats, and blooms anew

Awareness keeps our creative fires tended

Simplicity and making offer a gentle kind of wealth

Neurodiversity brings texture, colour, and grace to family life

Community living teaches patience, humility, and belonging

Shared spaces grow empathy and reciprocity

Boundaries make tenderness possible

Home reveals itself slowly, like a seed choosing where to root

Living together reminds us how to give and receive with care

Discomfort is the soil where growth begins

Intentional living ripples outward in quiet legacy

A meaningful life is curated through focus and gentle discernment

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In this episode, Demi Lee takes us deep into the story of Eclectica — a movement, a community, and a living expression of embodiment and transformation. Together, we explore how dance becomes a language for healing, how grief can serve as an elder and sacred teacher, and how true empowerment begins with self-responsibility.

Demi shares the evolution of Eclectica from a creative experiment into a profound rite of passage — one that invites people to come home to their bodies, their emotions, and their truth. Through honest reflections on community, relationships, and heart-centered living, this conversation reveals how we can turn life’s challenges into initiations that reconnect us with purpose and love.

It’s an exploration of what it means to live embodied, to honor our inner seasons, and to build communities that hold us through the cycles of becoming.

Key Takeaways: 

- Grief is not just loss — it’s an initiation into depth, compassion, and the full spectrum of love.

- Movement and dance can reconnect us with intuition, release stored emotion, and ground us in presence.

- The Power of Community: holding people in the dark.

- Self-Responsibility in Relationships: Owning our patterns and triggers allows for more authentic, heart-based connection.

- Rites of Passage: rituals that mark transformation. 

- Choosing love, responsibility, boundaries, and honesty as guiding principles transforms how we show up in the world.

- A journey into remembering who you are beneath the noise — embodied, empowered, and whole.

Show Notes 

Eclectica - https://www.eclecticahub.com/

Passage of Self Online Course - https://www.eclecticahub.com/passage-of-self

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In this conversation, Jade sits down with Meg Ulman (sadly not in person) — heart led writer, mother, educator, maker & one part of Artists as Family — to unpick what it really means to live on your own terms.

They trace the winding road toward a neo-peasant life — one defined less by nostalgia & more by intention. They talk about living with a fundamental trust in yourself to make decisions, parenting within community & the grit & grace of staying true to your values.

Meg describes herself as cash poor but time rich, together they explore what that trade-off really feels like.

They talk about the ache of impermanence — how everything we love we will lose —  what it means to become good at grief rather than trying to outrun it. What it feels like to feel alive, trusting your instinct to survive & holding a desire to be part of that holding — the invisible web that keeps us tethered to one another & to the earth itself.

Meg shares her reflections on solitude, on listening deeply to the land beneath her feet & on the quiet privileges of aging — not as decline, but as initiation. There’s talk of ritual, of story & of the small daily acts that remind us who we are.

It’s a conversation that doesn’t romanticise simplicity but celebrates the beauty & honesty of a life well noticed.

Links You'll Love

Artist As Family You Tube

Loved this? Want More of Meg: Artist as family - rites of passage and grief

Pod Partners Rock:Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Show notes:

• The path to a neo-peasant life begins with tiny, conscious seeds — small shifts that grow into whole new ways of being
• To live authentically is to let your values lead, even when the world is shouting for you to do otherwise
• Raising kids in a web of real connection builds belonging that no algorithm can match
• To feel the full weight of love, we have to make peace with loss — grief is proof that we’ve lived deeply
• Parenting (and life) gets easier when we trust the quiet tug of intuition more than the noise of advice
• Simple living isn’t always easy — the work is real, but so is the satisfaction
• None of us are meant to do this alone; community is the net that catches us 
• Feeling the whole spectrum — joy, ache, awe — is what it means to be truly alive
• Sometimes self-discovery starts with walking away from the script you were handed.
• Rites of passage & initiations remind us where we’ve been, and mark who we’re becoming
• Listening with your body — not just your head — tunes you into the language of the earth
• Solitude isn’t loneliness; it’s the quiet space where truth grows roots
• Moving from maiden to elder 
• Aging is a privilege — each wrinkle a story of survival & grace
• Being time-rich beats being time-poor every single day

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What does it really look like to live inside the dream of community? To share walls & gardens, decision-making & dinner tables — & to raise children in a village that actually lives its values?

In this conversation, we sit down with Suzie Brown, long-time advocate for sustainable living & proud resident of the Narara Eco-Village. Suzie opens the gate & lets us wander through the realities of intentional community life — from the joy of shared purpose & spontaneous connection, to the inevitable challenges of governance, regulation & difference.

She shares how Narara’s unique decision-making structures help navigate conflict, why research & planning matter long before the first foundation is laid & what it takes to keep a community diverse, accessible, & truly alive.

This chat is as much about belonging as it is about building — about the quiet power of volunteering, the laughter that spills from community events & the deep satisfaction of knowing you’re part of something larger than yourself.

So settle in & join us as we explore what happens when a group of humans decides to live more lightly — & more together.

Pod Partners Rock:  Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

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Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

We talked about:

• How children benefit from growing up in a supportive environment
• Sociocracy allows for effective decision-making in communities
• Conflict resolution is crucial for the success of eco-villages
• Research into successful eco-villages informs best practices
• Accessibility and affordability are challenges for eco-village living
• Community events help integrate new members into the village
• Pets can be a contentious issue in community living
•  Participating in an eco-village requires active engagement
• Community members are joint owners of the cooperative
• Building a sustainable community involves significant effort & collaboration
• The concept of 'pulsing' allows for shared leadership & energy levels
• Joy & fun are essential for community cohesion.
• Governance models like sociocracy help manage community dynamics
• Financial planning is crucial for the sustainability of eco-villages
• Regulatory challenges can hinder the building process in eco-villages
• Volunteering is a key aspect of community involvement
• Living in an eco-village fosters a deep sense of belonging

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Today we wander into the layered world of Tim Pilgrim—a landscape architect and gardener who sees soil, water, and wildness as teachers. Tim invites us to connect with the land rather than control it, to design gardens that honour both human need and ecological integrity.

Together we explore the art of observation and the quiet discipline of water management, learning how these practices build truly sustainable landscapes. Tim shares how gardens evolve over time, shaped by climate change and by the gentle hands—and sometimes heavy footprints—of people. We tackle the prickly debates too: lawns that demand more than they give, the dance between native and non-native plants, and the cultural stories that every planting choice can tell.

Tim also speaks to the community side of gardening: how diversity—of species, of people, of ideas—creates resilience; how food can slip seamlessly into ornamental spaces; how the rhythm of a gardener’s life becomes a legacy of naturalistic design.

This is a conversation for anyone ready to see gardens not just as pretty spaces but as living narratives—places where history, ecology, and our shared future root down together.

We chatted about:

• Landscapes shape the stories we tell & vice versa
• A holistic approach to gardening fosters biodiversity
• Designing for wildness requires sensitivity & observation.
• Gardens should evolve with the needs of their inhabitants
• Climate change necessitates adaptable gardening practices
• Water management is crucial for sustainable gardening
• Human influence can coexist with natural ecosystems
• Saying phooey to lawns
•  "I'm not a purist; I embrace all plants that look good"
• Gardens as spaces for community connection 
• Gardening to build a rhythm that aligns with nature's cycles
• Gardens as places that reflect personal & cultural histories
• Gardens as inclusive spaces for all living things

Links You'll Love
Find Tim online including his book "Wild By Design"

Loved this? Try another

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

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Today we wander into the wild tangle that is Sarah Firth’s world—a place where curiosity is currency and difference is pure gold. Sarah calls herself a polyhuman, and you’ll feel why as she opens up about neurodivergence, the grit and grace of making art, and the small, daily rituals that stitch meaning into our messy lives.

This is a conversation about courage and kindness, about owning our impact while staying tender enough to connect. It’s an invitation to question the systems around us, take responsibility for the ripples we make, and revel in the glorious complexity of being human.

We talked about:

• Being a polyhuman & adapting identity based on context
• How curiosity drives her interactions, leading to meaningful connections
• Neurodivergence has shaped her understanding of herself & her creativity
• Why art in all its forms serve as a medium for exploration & expression of complex emotions
• Courage is found in embracing differences & challenging mainstream narratives
• The creative process is iterative, involving learning from peers & experiences
• Humanity is complex,  understanding this complexity fosters empathy
• Rituals in daily life can create meaning & connection to the world
• Finding 'enoughness' involves balancing personal joy with systemic responsibilities.

Pod Partners Rock: 

Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

Links You'll Love
Eventually Everything Connects - by Sarah Firth
Sarah Firth Instagram

Loved this ep? Try another
Emily Ehlers - Hope is a Verb

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Summary

Today we slip into a cosmic campfire chat with Debra Silverman based in Colorado—where psychology shakes hands with the stars & the four elements (wind, earth, fire and water) become our guides. Debra’s journey weaves scepticism with wonder, showing how astrology (despite its esoteric nature can actually ground us in community and help us really see ourselves through practical, lived experience.

Together Jade & Debra dig into the pull of ritual & nature, the strange hum of technology in our relationships, & the quiet wisdom our elders carry. It’s a conversation that asks us to honour the sacred in everyday life while daring to imagine what AI might mean for the humans we’re remembering to be.

Links You'll Love
Debra Silverman online 

Loved this? Try another:

Fleur Chamber - Riding the Waves of Life with the Essence of Presence

 Cynthia Jurs - The Art of Sacred Activism

We talked about

• The power that asserts itself when Astrology & psychology complement each other
• The four elements of Earth, Air, Wind & Fire are fundamental to understanding personalities.
• How scepticism about astrology can be addressed through practical application
• The role of Community in personal growth & learning
• The incredible role that Eldership brings to wisdom holding & the sense of responsibility that it entails
• Rituals & connection to nature are essential for well-being
• Why technology hinders genuine human connection
• Navigating change w awareness & adaptability
• How her personal growth has been a lifelong journey influenced by astrology
• The future of AI if it considers human values & compassion

Pod Partners Rock

Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

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In this episode, we welcome Stephen Jenkinson—writer, teacher, storyteller, and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. Stephen is known for breaking open the marrow of language and returning it in all its poetic weight. His work on elderhood, grief, dying wise, and the making (and unmaking) of culture has touched people all over the world.

His newest book, Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart’s Work, takes on what he calls the “mother of a culture”—the wedding. In a time when so many weddings risk becoming performances, spectacles, or non-events, Stephen asks: what would it mean to make a wedding real?

In this conversation we explore:

• Why vows are not the same as promises
• How families, friends, and communities become witnesses rather than spectators
• Why weddings matter in a culture of high divorce rates and discredited rituals
• What it means for the union of two people to implicate everyone present
• The difference between a ceremony that entertains and a ceremony that truly happens

This is not just a conversation about marriage. It’s about consequence, culture, and what it might take to make our ceremonies—and our lives—real.

Links You'll Love

Orphan Wisdom

Matrimony the Book

Arc + Craft: An Exploration of Creativity and Culture Making Event

Loved this ep? Try this one:

160 Manda Scott - Pondering how we became accidental gods of this land & seeking connection to it with humility not control

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

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 Lets dig into the quiet, radical world of seeds with plant breeder & seed keeper Gregg Muller. Gregg’s journey has been about more than growing food — it’s about safeguarding diversity, resilience & flavour in the face of a changing climate. From his work on the Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Tomato Project to the community breeding groups he champions, Gregg shows how ordinary gardeners can become part of something much bigger: shaping plants that thrive where we live. We talk about the simple, practical steps of saving seed, but also about the deeper shift in perspective — moving away from industrial uniformity & back towards local adaptation, community sharing & seed sovereignty. It’s a conversation that reminds us that resilience starts in our own backyards, one seed at a time 

Links You'll Love from Gregg:

•  Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination by Joseph Lofthouse
• Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and SeedSaving By Carol Deppe
• https://goingtoseed.org/
•  https://osseeds.org/
•  Central Victorian Adaptive Crop Breeding Project  
• His online seed shop
•  https://www.seedsavers.org.au/

Pod Partners Rock:Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

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

Loved this ep? Try this one:

Shane Simonsen - Taming the apocalypse

Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

We chatted about:

•  Saving seeds from homegrown vegetables.
• Creating new varieties through cross-pollination.
• The Cross Hemisphere Dwarf Tomato Project 
• Genetic diversity is crucial for resilient crops in changing climates.
• Diversity in crops helps ensure food security.
• Breeding as a community effort Community, fostering local adaptation & resilience
• Genetic diversity is crucial for climate resilience in crops
• Modern seed production often limits genetic diversity
• Rethinking agricultural practices can lead to better outcomes.
• Seed banks play a vital role in food security.
• Individuals can take practical steps to save seeds.

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