Good Life Revival: Permaculture, Rewilding, Homesteading

How can we reestablish our fundamental connection with nature, in the context of a culture so thoroughly disconnected from the ecosystems that sustain it?

According to Thomas J. Elpel, founder of Green University and the Outdoor Wilderness Living School, it starts by empowering people of all ages to learn to read the external signals and cues we receive from our environment; to discover how to tune in to the frequency of Mother Nature, always buzzing all around us no matter what kind of landscape we find ourselves moving through.

For episode 54 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Tom to learn more about his latest project, the “dynamic ecology card game” called Wildlife Web.

“Wildlife Web simulates the dynamics of a real world ecosystem with astonishing accuracy. With fifty animals to choose from, players can become anything from a mouse to a moose or a bird to a bear, each foraging or hunting for food to mate and reproduce while trying not to become food themselves. The game is fun, competitive, and addictive!”

Beyond this latest project, Tom is also the author of more than half a dozen books on topics ranging from botany and plant ecology, to natural building, to wilderness survival skills and more. He is perhaps best known for his indispensable Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, a book that I cannot recommend highly enough.

We had a great conversation about the card game and the challenges of teaching ecological literacy; we explore some of Tom’s experiences as a wilderness living instructor; and we also touch upon some other common threads of interest, like frugal living and how and why to try to escape the rat race of modern society.

If you think Wildlife Web sounds as cool as I do, I hope you’ll join me in backing it on Kickstarter so that it will become a reality! EDIT: I just got word that the project has been fully funded! Still, you can and should preorder a copy today!

“Sam Sycamore, how do you define the good life?” 

“Well Sam, I’m glad you finally asked me for a change.

“For me, the good life is defined by interdependence. To feel needed by a group of likeminded people, and to rely on them to meet the basic needs that I can’t take care of for myself.

“To feel needed by the land around me, whether garden or forest, or some combination thereof, to manifest beauty and abundance wherever I go, and to draw my physical and spiritual sustenance through a direct co-creative relationship with the land.

“The good life is within reach, and I know, because I’ve felt it, I’ve tasted it, I’ve observed it, I’ve swapped stories with others who confirm my suspicions and validate my hypotheses.

“I don’t worry about what the future may bring, at any scale along any timeline, whether it’s social or political unrest, global climate disruption, the complete and total collapse of civilization as we know it, or any of a million personal disasters that could arrive in my life in the next moment, either as a direct consequence of the choices I’ve made or else as a purely random occurrence in a universe that’s ultimately indifferent to my temporal physical manifestation as a human animal.

“This moment is where the good life resides. As long as you position the good life in the future, it will remain there, forever out of reach.

“So please, if you take nothing else from my story here today, I hope it’s this:

“Make it now.”

* * *

In this, the final installment of the Good Life Revival Podcast for 2018, I reflect on my search to uncover the good life over the last decade, which has led me to exploring everything from postmodern French philosophy, to psychedelics, to Zen Buddhism, to plant ecology, to the skilled trades and seemingly everywhere in between.

Along the way I share some of the insight I’ve gained in ten years of walking this path, and explain how my search for meaning and purpose in life has led me to an intimate, co-creative relationship with the natural world, and how I’ve learned to let go of my desire to be the master of my destiny and instead trust in my intuition to guide me where I need to go.

As always, if you get some value out of the work that I put into this podcast, and you’re able to translate that value into some financial capital - as little as $1/month - I hope you will consider becoming a supporter over on Patreon! Your contributions allow me to devote quite a lot of my time and energy to this work. I would love to do even more, with your help.

How do you construct a life worth living when your human animal needs are fundamentally at odds with the dominant culture’s agenda?

It’s this sort of questioning that has shaped the sordid path of Dr. Christopher Ryan, host of the Tangentially Speaking podcast and co-author of 2011’s Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships.

More recently, Chris has shifted his focus away from sexuality and towards civilization itself: What if all those hallmarks of modernity that we think we can’t live without are actually stifling our true potential and stunting our growth — not to mention, trashing the planet in the process?

In his forthcoming book Civilized to Death: What Was Lost on the Way to Modernity (set for release in late 2019), the author “explores the ways in which ‘progress’ has perverted the way we live: how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die.”

For episode 52 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the rare pleasure of sitting down with Chris in his humble abode outside Los Angeles to gauge his feelings about the myriad existential crises our global culture faces, how we should react to it all, and whether we ought to be restructuring our lifestyles in light of what we know about the house of cards we call civilization.

I feel really honored to have had the opportunity to pick Chris’s brain like this, and I look forward to seeing his perspective fleshed out further when the book is released next year.

Whether tracking wolves across the Pacific Northwest, or shepherding cattle across California’s coastal prairie grasslands, Doniga Markegard aims not just to tend the land but to become one with its inhabitants.

Doniga’s 2017 memoir, Dawn Again: Tracking the Wisdom of the Wild details all of the ways this intrepid tracker-turned-rancher has tackled the fundamental question of nature connection, from the tumultuous adolescence which led her to wilderness survival training, to professional wildlife tracking, to holistic land management, and eventually to the idyllic rolling hills where the Markegard Family Farm continues to grow and expand just south of San Francisco.

She’s got a great story and a really unique perspective, and it was such a pleasure for me to be able to visit the Markegard’s ranch and pick Doniga’s brain for the better part of an hour about life out on the coastal prairie.

As you’ll hear, our conversation was recorded in two parts: I arrived in the early evening, and we sat down at Doniga’s kitchen table for the first half. Before sunset we took a break so Doniga could take care of evening chores with the animals, and by the time we were ready to start up again the family had gotten home and taken over the house, so we moved to the barn from there, and you’ll hear chest freezers humming behind us.

In the first half we get a sense of who Doniga is and what she’s all about, and in the second half the conversation shifts focus to the hazy elephant in the room: the wildfire smoke that was blanketing the ranch and the entire region during my visit.

Thankfully, despite the hardships Doniga had some really encouraging and optimistic thoughts to share, and that’s always a relief to hear from someone with boots on the ground doing the hard work of restoring land on a pretty massive scale.

With cannabis now legal for recreational use in ten states (plus Canada!), and medicinally available in over half of the country, we have reached pivotal moment for the mainstream acceptance of cannabis in North American culture.

And yet, the industry is still on pretty shaky ground, given that both THC and CBD — the primary medicinal and psychoactive constituents of the cannabis plant — are still classified under federal law as being among the most dangerous drugs a person can get their hands on.

For episode 50 of the Good Life Revival podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Micayla Harland of the Hash It Out podcast at her home outside Eugene, Oregon, to discuss the current state of the cannabis industry in the Northwest.

“Legalized does not mean normalized.”

Micayla has been deeply embedded in the industry for many years, first in Canada and now in Oregon, and her expertise really shines when you ask her to break down the more esoteric and intimidating technical terms related to cannabis.

We had a really informative and fascinating conversation ranging from cannabinoids and terpene profiles, to different medicinal and recreational uses and dosages, to what it’s like working in the industry and how one might get involved as a farmer, herbalist, budtender — or wherever your talents may lie!

Micayla’s passion for cannabis is quite infectious, as you’ll hear, and if you dig her perspective I would highly recommend checking out her podcast Hash It Out, where she goes much deeper into all of the topics we reviewed today.

What motivates ambitious young entrepreneurs to pursue farming as a career, knowing full well that they could end up struggling financially — forever?

That’s a question that each of us has to answer for ourselves, ultimately. But if you’ve caught a chronic case of the farming bug, you probably don’t have to think too hard about it.

“It’s a really big deal to me that I get to interact with the landscape alongside my family, and that we get to do the work together.”

For episode 49 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friend Luke Groce of Groce Family Farm in southern Indiana to pick his brain about what he does and why he does it.

Luke and his wife Katherine — along with their four young children — live and work and learn and play on 25 acres of gorgeous rolling pasture in the heart of Amish country, where they raise all manner of livestock animals to provide the highest quality meat possible to the Kentuckiana region.

Following the birth of their fourth child early in 2018, Luke offered to hire me to take over one of their two farmer’s market booths in Louisville, KY, so that Katherine could stay home with the baby, and so that I would have a venue to sell my farmed and foraged produce in my first season as a market gardener.

As you’ll hear us discuss, this arrangement turned out to be the primary reason why I was able to make ends meet from month to month this year. And though it was not without significant financial burden for the Groces, Luke clearly values being able to offer a helping hand to wannabe farmers like me who are following in his footsteps.

I hope that his gracious generosity will serve as an example to others for whom family and community are more important than the almighty dollar. It’s easy enough to pay lip service to those values, but how to you actually follow through and live them, in the context of a hyper-capitalist culture that doesn’t generally allow to you stay at home with your family?

You should definitely not get into farming if you’re hoping to make the big bucks, or even the medium-sized bucks. But as you dive deeper, you’ll find no shortage of very good non-financial reasons why you might pursue a career in farming.

It won’t always be fun, and it will rarely be easy, but for those of us who’ve caught the bug, we couldn’t imagine doing anything else with our time.

Attention: calling all citizen scientists, farmers, homesteaders, and back-to-the-land types —

Mother Mycelium wants YOU to join the ranks of the few, the proud, and the brave who’ve taken up the cause of radical mycology!

For this week’s installment of the Good Life Revival Podcast (no. 48), I had the pleasure of speaking with thee rad mycologist himself, Peter McCoy.

Peter is the author of the indispensable 2016 tome ‘Radical Mycology,’ which details essentially everything that we collectively know about fungi in the 21st century.

Most recently, Peter launched Mycologos, the “world's first online and in-person school dedicated to the art and science of working with fungi.”

Mycology — the study of fungi — is a very young science, and there is vast potential for creative individuals to make groundbreaking new discoveries and chart courses through completely uncharted fungal territory.

Peter’s bio says he speaks for the fungi, and if the thrust of his message is any indication, the fungi are delighted that we’ve finally taken an interest in them as more than just “funny-looking plants” (fun fact: fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants).

They — and he — would love for you to join us in (re)affirming the sanctity of the mycelial network that unites all beings at the crossroads of life and death. Fungi are incredibly powerful allies who we have only just begun to learn how to work with, and you can be a part of the revolution!

The future is fungi!

If you’re someone with big dreams but limited means, this conversation is for you.

For episode 47 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with John Holzwart of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, better known to most simply as Little John.

If you know Little John, it’s probably as a result of his years of touring the country on the fair circuit, leading demonstrations and workshops on the art of broom-making.

John is a skilled artisan with a sharp eye for honing raw materials into something that’s equally functional, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing. Now he’s looking to transfer those talents into the arena of urban permaculture through his recently organized non-profit Arboreus, whose mission is to reclaim vacant lots around Sheboygan and convert them into community gardens and food forests.

He already has his first lot well under way, and he’s not afraid to dream big about what comes next. I believe he’s on the right track, and I hope his story inspires you to make some serious moves on that passion project of yours that maybe you’ve been holding yourself back from pursuing.

Whether success or failure, I can guarantee that you’ll learn and grow more than you could ever imagine along the way!

To find out more about all the cool stuff that Little John does, visit . To peruse his collection of brooms currently available for sale, visit . And if you’re just here for the Cornelian cherries, head to .

To add your name to the waiting list for my winter 2018/2019 wild food mentorship program, click here. Space is limited and these spots will fill up quickly when the program goes live!

If you want to try out the wonderful hemp CBD products from Blue Ridge Hemp Co., follow this link and be sure to use the code GOODLIFE at checkout for 10% off.

As always, if you get some value out of the work that I put into this podcast, and you’re able to translate that value into some financial capital - as little as $1/month - I hope you will consider becoming a supporter over on Patreon! Your contributions allow me to devote quite a lot of my time and energy to this work. I would love to do even more, with your help.

Finally:

I’m taking the Good Life Revival Podcast on the road in November 2018!

My dog Jojo and I will be cruising our rusty old pickup truck from Indiana to Oregon via Colorado, then down the California coast, across the Southwest and back home over the course of about three weeks. Here’s our rough itinerary, accounting for a couple people I will definitely meet up with along the way:

If you are somewhere along this route, and you’d be interested in opening up your home/farm/woodland shelter to me and the dog, and possibly sharing your story and good conversation for the podcast, let me know! Send me an email through this link and we’ll go from there. I hope to meet as many of you as possible while we’re ramblin’!

It's time to come clean: I have been self-medicating with psychedelic drugs for over a decade — essentially my entire adult life.

It started in college, first just "recreationally" and because I had a strong interest in altered states of consciousness. After a handful of deeply spiritual experiences that I was wholly unprepared for, I started to take psychedelics more seriously as "soul medicine."

Over the years, I developed an intentional ritual practice for myself that incorporated LSD, yoga, meditation, and nature immersion. A few times a year, I would spend a weekend out in the woods under the influence of psychedelics, carefully deconstructing and reconstructing my mind while cultivating loving energetic exchanges with the other-than-human spirits residing on the land.

This practice has been integral to my development as a fully formed adult human animal, enabling me to achieve emotional self-improvement and spiritual healing at a level that I never thought possible before I experienced it. Psychedelics have informed all aspects of my art (as a musician and writer), my spirituality, and my lifestyle.

I have never exactly tried to hide my appreciation for psychedelics, but in this episode I am speaking openly and candidly for the first time about my personal experiences with some of these powerful medicinal substances -- primarily LSD, psilocybin and cannabis, but also Salvia divinorum and DMT -- across 14 years and at least 50 sessions.

I try my best to describe the state of mind that psychedelics facilitate, and the therapeutic benefits that I stumbled upon through years of trial and error before "psychedelic therapy" was a topic that anybody was taking seriously.

I believe our culture is ready for a psychedelic renaissance, in which we finally learn to acknowledge and respect the gifts that psychedelic drugs offer us -- both in the healing of mental illness and in the overall improvement of emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Now more than ever, I believe it is of the utmost importance for people like me, who've seen immense benefits through the (admittedly irresponsible) use of psychedelics to step up and share our accounts, so that we might normalize these drugs the same way that cannabis is currently being normalized.

Prohibition will come to an end, but it's going to take a serious upswing in popular opinion and public momentum before that day arrives. I offer my personal experiences here as yet another resounding voice of praise in the growing chorus of psychedelic advocates from all walks of life. I invite the rest of you to sing out with us!

Have you ever intentionally killed a living, breathing animal?

Was it to feed yourself, your family, friends, community? How did it make you feel?

For Jeff and Ella Kennedy of Ouiska Run Farm in Milltown, Indiana -- my guests on episode 45 of the Good Life Revival Podcast -- raising animals for meat led them to conclude that they would be better off pursuing a plant-based lifestyle.

What they were both surprised to discover was just how much their meat-free diet seemed to improve all aspects of their lives.

“I find myself having more clarity daily. Who knows where I would be right now had I not made that first choice when I was thirty to take a different life path? […] The freak flag’s out and I’m letting it fly.”

The topic of whether or not to eat meat has become increasingly polarized in the social media era, so much so that it seems nearly impossible for a vegan and a meat-eater to have a reasoned, respectful, friendly? discussion.

Well, we've got proof right here that it is possible, my friends. By exploring our relationships with the food that we produce and consume, Jeff and Ella and I were able to find a great deal of common ground between us. After all, despite our differing choices on diet (I am an omnivore), we essentially share the same desires and dreams for our local landscape and our place within it.

Tune in to hear about Jeff and Ella's unlikely conversion to veganism, their efforts to rewild 8 acres in rural southern Indiana, thoughts on what to do with livestock animals after deciding not to eat them, their views on beekeeping as vegans, and much more.