Good Life Revival: Permaculture, Rewilding, Homesteading

Author Daniel Quinn has passed away at age 82. Join us in revisiting some of the key themes of his life’s work.

For those of us seeking an alternative way of life outside the confines of civilization, Daniel Quinn has had an immense impact on our collective worldview through this bold and unique books. 

Beginning with Ishmael, in which we are introduced to the kinds of insights about civilization that only a captive gorilla could elucidate, Quinn took a fearless approach to questioning the very roots of our modern society, and dissecting the absurd narratives that we tell ourselves regarding our participation in the calamitous mess of civilization.

Most importantly, though—I think—is his message that the world doesn’t *need* to be saved because we as a species are simply not capable of destroying it in the first place. Furthermore, humanity itself is not the cancer on the Earth’s surface that many would have you believe it is. It’s just this *one* culture that has come to dominate the global landscape, as well as the inner landscapes of our minds, that threatens life (as we know it) on this planet.

Because of course, civilization is not merely a place—it’s a way of organizing your lifestyle and orienting your goals as a community. And it’s not a very good one, either.

But what comes “beyond” civilization? Quinn couldn’t tell us precisely, and neither can I. But now that he has passed, it’s up to us to work it out. I hope you’ll join me in doing just that.

In Memoriam D.Q.

Why is it so tough for us modern humans to take good care of ourselves?

We created all of this technology to make life easier on our muscles, bones, and joints—so why do these core components of our bodies now seem to make us suffer more than ever before?

For episode 33 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with biomechanist and movement ecologist Katy Bowman, who likely needs no introduction among my audience but here goes anyway.

Katy is a prolific writer, speaker and podcaster on the topics of natural movement and human physiology from a cross-cultural perspective; she’s a serious research scientist with the rare skill of being able to translate often esoteric scientific jargon into clear, engaging, actionable English.

Through her work in the field of biomechanics, she has become well acquainted with the ways that our bodies have been warped and reshaped by this strange sedentary zoo we call civilization.

She wants to help you and me feel better from day to day, and reclaim as much of our innate human animal potential as possible by educating us on the ins and outs of “nutritious movement.”

Katy and I had a fascinating and insightful conversation, exploring why a healthy relationship with our bodies is about so much more than diet and exercise alone. She also offered some really useful advice for farmers and gardeners like me to help avoid a “monocrop of movement” while playing in the dirt.

Katy’s book ‘Move Your DNA’ is my pick for February in our ongoing book club series – stick around to the end of the episode for a discount code to save 20% when ordering through her website. And keep an eye out in the coming days for my extended audio commentary on the book, exclusively for Patreon supporters!

(Speaking of which: Patreon supporters got to hear this interview days ago, now that I’m offering early access as a new perk. Where were you? Just sayin’.)

Do you believe that we are currently observing the early signs of the collapse of civilization, and that our society could actually quite easily fall apart within our lifetimes, due to any of myriad looming existential threats?

If you knew that civilization was going to collapse one year from now, how would that affect your daily life?

What if that collapse was set to arrive one month from now? Or a week from now?

How would that change your agenda, and what would you prioritize?

If the proverbial shit really did hit the fan, ...what then? What skills, knowledge, and experiences could you call upon in a long-term or potentially permanent survival scenario?

Are you “prepared”? And what does preparedness truly consist of anyway? Does it look like a bunker full of rations, or a more like a healthy mind and body full of earth skills?

For this installment of the Good Life Revival Podcast (no. 32), I spoke with the one and only Aaron Fletcher of Oregon, a self-proclaimed herder-gatherer who leads a lifestyle of intentional homelessness with a modest flock of sheep.

Over a decade ago, Aaron observed all of the ways that our modern civilization subjugates and exploits us while poisoning the planet, and recognized that this house of cards was built to collapse, and so he resolved to check out – to the fullest extent possible.

You might call him a doomsday prepper or a survivalist, but Aaron is someone who understands that true preparedness consists of requiring very little, and being able to acquire it for yourself directly through your interactions with nature.

Aaron Fletcher is truly one-of-a-kind in our era, and I think there’s a wealth of wisdom to be gleaned from his experiences. You may not be convinced to trade all of your worldly possessions for a flock of sheep by the end, but I hope this conversation will spark your imagination about unique possibilities for your own life.

Agriculture is one of the primary drivers of of overpopulation, deforestation, erosion, pollution of soil, water, and air, habitat loss, biodiversity loss, and global climate disruption. We know this.

How did we get here? And has it always been this way? 

Is agriculture to blame for the problems of modern civilization? Is modern civilization to blame for the ecological suicide course of modern agriculture? 

Is it possible, as many would have you believe, for us to use more agriculture to repair the health of our bodies and our ecosystems?

To get to the bottom of these questions, we’ll have to take a deep hard look at the origins of agriculture, and how it relates to our modern food system and the relationship we’ve inherited with nature.

In the latest episode of the Good Life Revival Podcast — no. 31 — we will unpack some of the inherent flaws of agriculture, and connect the dots through to our modern-day paradigm of chemical and genetic warfare being waged across hundreds of millions of acres of land around the world.

We’ll also talk about the potential alternatives to our massive, globalized, monopolized, mono-cropped agriculture, and how we might be able to move forward at the individual and community level to rise above the status quo.

(I’ve got some pretty exciting personal news to share on the “moving forward” front, by the way!)

The picture is bleak today, my friends, and you should not expect me to sugar-coat it. With that said, if we have any hope of averting global ecological catastrophe, we need to understand why our brittle multinational systems are now on the brink of collapse.

I hope that this podcast helps you to better understand the sheer magnitude of the problem at hand, and hopefully encourages you to think and work harder to derive solutions — whatever form they might take.

Agriculture was once a highly sacred art - a loving communion between human and more-than-human, weaving us into the spiritual fabric of our landscapes and our ancestors who still reside there.

For episode #30 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I had the honor and pleasure of speaking with farmer-poet-philosopher Steven Elliot Martyn, author of Sacred Gardening: Seeds for the Reemergence of Co-Creative Agriculture and The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden.

Steven has developed a deep spiritual understanding of our place in the natural world through direct communication with the spirits of the land. His vast wisdom shines through immediately in his voice and in his writing, and it’s clearly the result of decades of practicing what he preaches, which he has dubbed wildculturing.

Steven and I spoke about letting go of the human-centered worldview, and learning indigenous arts like sacred land use without engaging in cultural theft, and how those of us born into the cult of Reason can begin to develop our intuitive senses and trust the messages we receive from nature and all of its constituents.

We humans are innately spiritual creatures: we are all driven to seek purpose beyond pure survival, and connection beyond the individual body.

We want to be a part of something greater than our individual selves—to feel that we are working with others, whether human or more-than-human, towards a common goal that supersedes individual needs.

I believe that the civilized cultural paradigm that currently dictates our collective worldview does not serve us, and thus it is in our best interest to plot a new course going forward with a set of cultural tools that are actually useful and relevant to our daily lives.

Over the course of many countless millennia, our species externalized many of its instincts in the form of stories—mythology—because this allowed for more fluidity in our behaviors and thus the ability to more quickly adapt to changing conditions.

Instincts change over the course of evolutionary time, millions of years; stories, on the other hand, can change just a little bit, often imperceptibly so, every single time they’re told – and the ways in which they’re told are invariably a reflection of the time, the place, and the people involved. Thus, culture is an extension of ecology.

Recognizing that the dominant culture of No-Environment is detrimental to our continued survival, how can we create new cultural tools without engaging in cultural appropriation?

How might we reclaim a land-based mythology for ourselves and our kin that allows us to thrive individually, and flourish collectively?

How do we participate in the spiritual landscape of our ecosystems, and cultivate an intimate, co-creative relationship with the Earth?

Explore these questions and more in the latest episode of The Good Life Revival Podcast, no. 29: ‘How to Develop Your Own Myths, Rituals, and Culture.’

Urban farming and small-scale market gardening have become very trendy topics in recent years. But how viable are these projects really, from a business perspective?

For this episode of The Good Life Revival Podcast (#28), I invited back my friend Greg Zimmerer (check out my first interview with Greg in episode #16) to tell us about how things went for him in his first year as a market gardener.

Greg is the farmer behind Talking Trees Gardens, a diverse, intensive 1/8th-acre market garden in the heart of suburban Louisville, Kentucky. He embarked on this adventure in farming earlier this year while finishing his degree in geosciences, delivering pizzas part-time to make ends meet, and oh yeah, let's not forget his five-year-old son!

Greg is one of the most ambitious people I know, and it might sound like he’s spread himself way too thin here and maybe you’re wondering if the whole thing just blew up in his face at some point, but I’m here to tell you that the dude did indeed pull it all off. He’s now done with school, and after running the numbers it turns out that his farming operation did indeed bring in more money than it took to get it up and running -- if you ask me, that’s a resounding success in year one!

Beyond the hard numbers, we talk about his experiences working with chefs and a new farmer’s market in town, he explains how he uses GIS and Excel to map out and track all of the most useful data on his farm, and we consider some of the ways he might adjust his operations next season to bring in more revenue.

From there we discuss what the picture looks like over on the side of conventional agriculture, and how crucially important it is for all of us to start reimagining the way we provide food for our communities – even if it will never be an especially lucrative endeavor for the vast majority of us out there.

When it comes to homesteading and small farm entrepreneurship, Darren and Espri Bender-Beauregard have had their fair share of successes and failures over the last fourteen years running Brambleberry Farm.

In this episode of the Good Life Revival Podcast, I sit down with Darren and Espri at the kitchen table in their magnificently handcrafted straw-bale home to talk about their history as homesteaders, market gardeners, and natural builders.

We discuss how they became homesteaders in rural Paoli, Indiana, how they got their start as scrappy young farmers and organically evolved into purveyors of edible perennial plants over time, and all of the various ways that they've tried to eke out an honest living for themselves by working with the land.

Along the way they share a wealth of knowledge about natural building, and breeze through countless tidbits of wisdom they've picked up about making a lifestyle and a livelihood out of homesteading -- Espri calls it "homesteading with benefits."

This is a dense one, and it also offers a very realistic portrait, I think, of what young newbies might reasonably expect from pursuing this way of life.

Homesteading offers a great deal of opportunities in terms of deriving an income, but the success or failure of any given enterprise is based on so many different factors that you can never really predict what's gonna stick. Let Darren and Espri's story be a lesson to you to diversify your skills and your knowledge!

Michael Beck and Joana Amorim have spent the last several years traveling the world to acquire natural building skills. Now they're tackling their most ambitious build yet.

Alongside their good friend Loren Heacock, they're in the process of constructing a traditional Appalachian log cabin on the 62 acres of land they jointly own in rural central Kentucky.

For this installment of The Good Life Revival Podcast (#26), I ventured down to the Clear Creek Valley in late October 2017 to join a team of volunteers and well-wishers in helping the trio carry a massive stack of lumber up a winding hill to the build site of the cabin so they could get started constructing the roof.

Halfway through the day, Michael and Joana and I split from the group and made our way up the steep, wooded hillside behind the cabin to the natural spring that will soon feed fresh, clean water directly into their home - you'll hear it flowing steadily through our entire conversation.

We discussed their experiences as natural builders, how they ended up in rural Kentucky, how they're constructing their own home here, and how you can gain hands-on experience and start learning these time-honored building skills that are quickly being lost.

In this episode of the Good Life Revival Podcast (#25), I explore the complicated and often frustrating question of whether humans should eat meat. Is it good for our health? Is it bad for the environment? Are some forms of agriculture more sustainable than others, and to what degree?

This leads to deeper discussion about our connection with the natural cycle of life and death, engaging in reciprocal relationships with wild and domesticated animals, and what it means to revere the animals -- and plants! -- that we must kill, so that we may go on living.

My personal history as a stubborn childhood vegetarian-turned-chicken slaughterer

Why meat is not "murder", but more like compassion and reverence

Why questions of the "ideal human diet" don't make much sense

Why we shouldn't give up on raising livestock just because of the horrors of factory farming

How we can take ownership of our role as apex predators on the landscape

How consuming animals can bring us closer to the universal life force that animates us all

How to Participate In Your Ecosystem: Restoration Through Use - The Good Life Revival Podcast #22

The Great Forgetting: Totalitarian Agriculture & The Lies We've Inherited About Our Ancestors - The Good Life Revival Podcast #20

Nature Deficit Disorder and Ecological Literacy - The Good Life Revival Podcast #6

5 Things I Learned Processing Chickens for Meat - The Good Life Revival blog

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan