Recombination Nation

By Shane SimonsenScience Leisure Life Sciences Home & Garden

Recombination Nation episodes

May 15 Julia Dakin and Anna Mieritz- How "Going to Seed" Germinated
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/
1 hr 24 min
May 08 Cultural Evolution with Roger's Bacon
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/
2 hr 14 min
May 01 Teosinte, Arracacha and Mauka Breeding with Steve in Australia
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/
1 hr 30 min
April 24 Reviving Landrace Staple Crops with Glenn Roberts from Anson Mills
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/
2 hr 19 min
April 17 Talking Baseyu with Andiru- The Hot New Auxlang on the Block
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/
1 hr 6 min
April 10 Talking Toki Pona and Esperanto with Okan
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/
1 hr 15 min
April 03 Technopuritanism for the Next New World with Malcolm Collins
Malcolm Collins is an unclassifiable frontiersman for the coming century of chaos, a hardened fighter from the trenches of the culture wars, and a pronatalist who put his own blood line on the line by having a gaggle of embryo selected children with his lovely wife Simone, who cohosts their Based Camp podcast.
You can watch their diverse discussions at Based Camp: https://www.youtube.com/@SimoneandMalcolm
And also check out their Pragmatists Guide book series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/365119-the-pragmatist-s-guide
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/
1 hr 27 min
March 27 Breeding Mashua, Babaco and Passionfruit with Chuck Chan
Chuck Chan is an accomplished amateur crop breeder from the humid cloud forests of California, adapting plants to his little pocket of Andean climate. He has made the most of his challenges by breeding a host of rare crops which struggle in other places, particularly the root crop Mashua, and papaya relative Vasconcellea along with numerous other projects. We also delve into how he manages his diverse plant collection and his experiences sharing the breeding work with the wider community.
You can check out glimpses of his successes through his regular posts: https://www.facebook.com/chuck.chan.562019
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/
1 hr
March 20 Gail Tverberg- My Favourite Data Wrangling Grandma at the End of the Oil Age
Gail Tverberg was a star during the 2000s oil crisis, producing data rich reports on the TheOilDrum.com in a way that only a trained actuary could pull off. She has continued to impress me in subsequent years with her uncommon knack for digging into the numbers beneath the stories that others are trying to spin.
In this interview we discuss the current state of the energy crisis, why a handful of people saw it coming decades ago, and how she hopes society can adapt to the coming challenges.
Read Gail's regular articles at her website: https://ourfiniteworld.com
Check out a teaser for another podcast interview with Geopolitics and Empire (who also interviewed me a while back): https://youtu.be/pW5xeCGWFjM?si=88rThEep8qIcA1GA
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/
1 hr 17 min
March 13 The Dynamic of Declining Civilisation with James Howard Kunstler
From razor tongued darling of the peak oil movement to bette noire of the culture wars, James Howard Kunstler simply cannot keep from running his mouth, rustling feathers and shining a spot light on the absurdity and obscenity of modern civilised life as it staggers toward the dust bin of history.
You can read his weekly blog here: https://www.kunstler.com
His latest fiction book, following a 12 year olds New York adventure the week JFK is assassinated is hot off the presses: https://www.amazon.com/Look-Gone-James-Howard-Kunstler/dp/1952685974
His non-fiction book The Long Emergency is a founding document of the peak oil movement: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Emergency-Converging-Catastrophes-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B008UX3KY2/
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/
2 hr 23 min

About Recombination Nation

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Explore the intersection of evolution, ecology and civilisation with crop and livestock breeders, low input farmers, social engineers and a dazzling array of deep thinkers.