Nicholas is a passionate rare tree grower in the blessed lands of California where just about everything seems to grow. He has tapped into the growing diversity in avocado, and gathered up the remnants of legendary crop breeder Luther Burbank in his backyard.

If you would like to get in touch with Nicholas reach out to me via my Substack.

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Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Peter Ward is a palaeontologist and prolific author with books covering a vast range of the deep past and distant future of life on Earth (and beyond it). His book "Future Evolution: An Illuminated History of Life to Come" caught my attention and I was thrilled for the opportunity to drop an avalanche of speculative biology questions his way.

You can find his books online and in major book stores: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Peter-Douglas-Ward/author/B001I9OZ12

Browse reviews on his many titles here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/28065.Peter_D_Ward

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Edmund Frost founded a collective of seed growers and breeders who sell their selection of seeds suitable for the humid southeast USA as Common Wealth Seed Growers. He lives in Louisa County, Virginia, a center for the intentional communities movement, and spent many years living at Twin Oaks Community. He is passionate about breeding cucurbits for disease resistance, along with many other crops.

Read more about the Common Wealth Seed Growers: https://commonwealthseeds.com

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Arnold Schroder, from the Fight Like an Animal podcast, is an ecological anarchist who bridges the world between biology and politics across the depths of time.

Check out his archive of fascinating articles: https://www.againsttheinternet.com

Grab his new book: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Like-Animal-Revolutionary-Biology/dp/B0GZ1GKCVX/

Listen to his podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/09DTUqzsCjGkvxw0GbFobE

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-like-an-animal/id1511430305

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Julia Dakin and Anna Mieritz are key members of the "Going to Seed" organisation, which brings adaptation crop breeding to numerous communities in the USA.

In this two part interview I learn more about their own vegetable breeding projects, but also take the rare opportunity to learn more about how their organisation got started, how it grew, and plans for the future. A great episode for people keen to get involved or start something similar in their part of the world.

Check out all the work going on at Going to Seed: https://goingtoseed.org

I highly recommend Julia's recent presentation on the link between crop genetics and nutritional content- https://youtu.be/5ErwX5_u7EE?si=ItAFtJzhdOL9PE49

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Roger's Bacon is an evolutionary biologist who turned his tool set on the related problem of how cultures mutate, compete, hybridise and evolve.

He writes fascinating deep dive articles at Secretorum on substack: https://www.secretorum.life

And runs the Seeds of Science blog to give a wider audience to pioneering thinkers: https://www.theseedsofscience.pub

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Steve is an independent crop breeder in southern Australia breeding a host of uncommon crops from similar climates in the Andes. We dive into his work back crossing maize to its ancestor (teosinte), plus his early work preparing to wide cross mauka and arracacha. Steve is pursuing the true zero input approach to breeding staple crops which can produce on unirrigated soil with minimal nutrient inputs and fertility added.

If you want to reach out to Steve get in touch via my substack.

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Glenn Roberts is the founder of Anson Mills, an extraordinary project to bring traditional landrace staple crops back from the brink of extinction in his part of the humid south eastern USA. This interview digs into how he achieved such an extraordinary feat, looking for clues to how others could follow his example in their own bioregions.

Read much more about Anson Mills here: https://ansonmills.com/

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Andiru is a conlang enthusiast who took things the next step and created the auxiliary language Baseyu along with a dedicated community of enthusiasts. Auxiliary languages are designed to be small, simple and accessible enough for anybody to learn them as a new global common tongue- kind of like the Tower of Babel in reverse.

You can check out the project here: https://baseyu.com

Browse the dictionary: https://dictionary.baseyu.com/en

Join the community on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Baseyu/

And request a discord invite there.

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

Okan learnt two of the most successful constructed languages- the sprawling, romantic Esperanto and cute minimalist Toki Pona.

After covering the history of these languages we delve deeper into the dynamics of experimental language communities, the psychology of conlangers, and the potential interplay of culture, technology and experimental languages in the near future.

Drop me a message on substack if you would like to reach out to Jan.

Try learning Toki Pona yourself here: https://wasona.com

Learn more about Esperanto here: https://lernu.net

Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com

Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/