You want it, you got it: an open discussion about the cracks in our civilisation, and how to catch each other when it all falls apart.

Dave Pollard has been writing about culture, complexity, deep ecology and collapse for longer than some of us have been alive. While he continues to cheer on radical ‘deep green’ activists, he no longer believes that that we can change or reform The System. This convo is about what to do instead.

[first aired in 2023]

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Dave's writings

Dave’s recommended reading list ~ The Books That Have Influenced Me Most

Dave’s article ~ How Do We Teach the Critical Skills Needed to Face Collapse?

Molly Housch Gordon's piece ~ How to Survive the End of The World

[watch] The New Peasants by Happen Films

Could you live without money? No support payments, no savings account, no secret benefactors? 

Jo Nemeth has been doing so for the past decade, and reckons she is less stressed and more secure in her moneyless life (in which she shares a home with eight other humans and plays the role of house keeper/manager/grower/frugavore). 

This is a truly radical tale of a woman who went the whole hog and gave up the bacon 💰 to invest in relationships and reciprocity. We cover:

What is poverty/wealth?

Why live without money?

Jo has no hope!

Less money = more freedom

Why to be a home economist

Issues in a nine person household

The deliciousness of aligning your actions with your values

Moneyless gift giving, cravings, medical and more

Waste food seagull mode

Receiving is harrrrd

Kids + collapse

On taking care of things

Collapse priorities

Growing locally adapted food

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Jo’s home on the web

Jo on Instagram ~ @jolowimpact

Jo in the Guardian

Mark Boyle ~ The Moneyless Man + The Way Home

Eaarth ~ Bill McKibben

Luke Kemp ~ Goliath’s Curse

Artist As Family

The Art of Frugal Hedonism ~ Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb

The really really free market

Just Collapse

Sound credits: first raven, flock of ravens.

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I tell a story about becoming a gardening influencer before sharing an animated and long-awaited conversation with David Trood aka. The Weedy Gardener!  

Weedy, Jord and I discuss:

🌱 Creative land access

🌱 Body as compost

🌱 Hearing nature's call

🌱 Being an eye cell for humanity

🌱 Showing your failures

🌱 Why to love the small stuff

🌱 The all important nutrient cycle

🌱 Decomposing cane toad

🌱 Pest management, the Viking way

🌱 Rhizophagy

🌱 Nitty gritty on why organic produce is healthier

🌱 From grandpa bod to garden god

🌱 Weedy Garden Makeovers

🌱 Sacred social media spaces

🌱 Why garden?

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The Weedy Garden on YouTube

The Weedy Garden online

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I tell a story about the ironic demise of my keepcup, and the difference between light green and deep green choices, before a pot-of-tea-convo with Laura Jean. Laura is a renegade business coach, dietician and permaculturalist who will help you see VALUES in a whole new light, and how to use them to illuminate the life/business/world you really want. Prepare to cry tears of recognition and possibility.

🐝 Building trust in yourself for changes that take courage

🐝 Eating disorder shares and healing strategies

🐝 The very worst thing that can possibly happen

🐝 Body check for making decisions

🐝 Do we change, or choose?

🐝 Laura’s values

🐝 Why we recreate the same old shit even when living “alternatively”

🐝 Figuring out your Bare Ass Minimum

🐝 The felt sense of success

🐝 Money as a tool to enact your values

🐝 Three steps towards a regenerative business

🐝 Commerce vs. capitalism

🐝 Activities for clarifying your values

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Laura on Instagram

Laura’s podcast 

Dietician Values

Gundaroo Growers

Canberra Environment Center

🙏 Yellow-tailed black cockatoo sound credit 🙏 

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Three unbelievable stories about owls, and how to be a myceliating, possibilitarian practivist with the phenomenal Morag Gamble.

Morag has cornflower blue eyes and a glorious crop of hair that curls at the ends like pea shoots. She consorts with broad beans and leafy greens in bare feet, and has sent no dig gardening viral on YouTube.

This convo was recorded at Crystal Waters Eco Village where Morag lives with her family and 200+ other humans on 640 acres shared with a teeming assortment of subtropical wildlife.

📝 SHOW NOTES

Building your livelihood around the seasons of your life

How to find your flow and live with intention

More than human helpers and teachers

“I am the garden gardening”

Ways to access land when accessing land is insane

Myceliating ideas around the world

Why aren’t permaculture villages everywhere?

Possibilitarianism

Nourish threads of connection rather than fighting the fight

How the new unfolds through collapse of the old

The vital role of the arts

How are we to live?

What is enough in these times?

Why permaculture is everything

Gift economy how-to

Do you have what it takes to be a permaculture teacher?

Integrating permaculture with your profession

Morag is a beloved permaculture teacher and designer, founder of The Permaculture Education Institute, pioneer of urban permaculture projects like Northey Street City Farm, and an international changemaker who has led changemaking programs in 22 countries.

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Morag’s home on the web

Morag’s podcast ~ Sense-making in a changing world

Morag on YouTube

Become a permaculture teacher ~ The Permaculture Education Institute

Rob Hopkins

Jeremy Lent

Schumacher College

Vandana Shiva

Arne Ness

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Fritjof Capra

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Can birdsong heal your hearing? Can a rainforest recruit humans to protect it? What is deep ecology, anyway?

Of all the approaches to “saving the world”, this one has my heart. Join me in conversation with elder John Seed as we get to the marrow of the environmental crisis, from the illusion of separation between human beings and nature, to the rituals, ceremonies and stories that can heal it.

About John Seed

Just last year at age 79 John was arrested for strapping himself to logging machinery in the Bulga State Forest, and has been awarded the Order of Australia medal for his services to the environment. John launched the Rainforest Information Center, has initiated global rainforest action networks and campaigns, developed The Council of All Beings with Joanna Macy, co-authored Thinking Like A Mountain with Joanna Macy Pat Fleming and Arne Ness, and spent decades facilitating experiential deep ecology workshops.

IN THIS CONVO

John’s story of being called into service by Nature

Collaborating with Joanna Macy

The root of the planetary crisis

Community therapies to heal civilisational wounds

Business As Usual, The Great Unravelling, The Great Turning

The Work That Reconnects

Activism as ceremony

The antidote to cultural amnesia

Why John loves podcasts!

How not to judge gross human behaviour

Honouring our pain for the world

Feelings as ancient intelligence

Can anyone run a grief circle?

The council of all beings

The cosmic walk

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John Seed’s home on the web

The Rainforest Information Center

[read online] Thinking Like A Mountain by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming & Arne Ness

Deep Ecology 

The Work That Reconnects

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Field recording credit: Thrushes, golden whistlers, yellow faced honeyeaters and a spotted marsh frog by Afro408 License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

Friends! Here’s a D&M (Dharma & Meditation) conversation I recorded with mindfulness meditation teacher and founder of Australian Parents for Climate Action Suzie Brown while visiting Narara Eco Village last week. 

If you’ve ever felt anxious, unsure how to process difficult/obstinate emotions, or sad for no reason, this episode will provide ample tools for stilling the mind and relating to yourself – and the world – with kindness. 

On that note, I start the ep with an emo travel diary entry, and how a snaggy creek helped me see my internal struggles in a whole new light.

IN THIS CONVO

🕊️ When you feel sad for no reason despite the trappings of success

🕊️ Can we *really* choose happiness?

🕊️ The pleasant/unpleasant emotional pinball machine

🕊️ The magic of noticing

🕊️ Name it to tame it

🕊️ Kindfulness

🕊️ How to establish a non-militant meditation habit

🕊️ Rejigging negativity bias

🕊️ The R.A.I.N practice for difficult emotions

🕊️ Dharma + ecodharma explained

🕊️ How interbeing can solve the polycrisis

🕊️ Long Shower Syndrome

🕊️ Resource guilt

🕊️ Parents for Climate!

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Insight Meditation Australia

Sydney Insight Meditators

Suzie’s teaching profile

Banyan Together

Weekly online (by donation) Sky Sangha Meditation gathering

Australian Parents for Climate Action!

Give Suzie a hoy at [email protected]

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It's the RESKILLIENCE ROADTRIP where I'm intercepting all sorts of good sorts along Australia's east coast!

First up is Ceilidh Meo who teaches no less than 80 apocalypse skills (!!!) while also growing olives, shoring up the food system and being casually shamanic.

This is a ROMP of a convo that is INSPIRING ME TO USE CAPS. Such fun. Such depth. 

I also share about the caravan park we've just checked into.

🔥 WITHIN 

GEEK OUT ON MICRO NICHE OLIVE PRESSING

An antidote to the olive oil crisis

Cooperation is not the same as collaboration!

POMMUS

The gross truth about imported olive oil

THE FIVE C FRAMEWORK

When knowledge ain't power

Systems design thinking for avoiding monumental fuck ups

WHY 40s ARE THE BEST DECADE

Yay for confirmation bias!

Loyal soliders of the psyche

Birth story REWRITE

Learning types

Manifestation vs. MAGIC

Where does the need to know everything come from?

Do more of what you’re already good at, or challenge your comfort zone?

Not here to consume, but to create!

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Connect with Ceilidh ~ CIVILITAS

Ceilidh's olive oil ~ Apulia Grove

The Long Road Olive Coop

Art exhibition + workshops ~ Ancient Roots in the New World

Mel Robbins ~ The Let Them Theory

School of Shamanic Womancraft 

Happen Films ~ The New Peasants screening tour

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It's a Jordan + Catie double bill for the Season Four finale 🎊  

Join us for a fireside D&M as two humans just tryna digest the microplastic casserole of modernity… and make something better. 

You’ll hear about my secret storytelling anxiety, Jord’s new award nominated film, my other boyfriends, law breaking, roadkill harvesting, why we took the Good Death-i-vore Pledge, sacred hunting, how to really give a shit about your ecosystem AAAAAND turning baboozlement into useful skills. 

⚠️ A warning for sensitive ears, we swear a lot in this episode.

LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️

Jord + Happen Films' newest doco ~ The New Peasants

The New Peasants Australian screening tour (come meet us!)

Film ~ In My Blood It Runs

Film ~ Honeyland

Best show ever ~ Bruce Parry’s TRIBE

Cal Newport 

Richard Telford’s DIY mini biochar kiln

Dylan Graves’ biochar podcast ~ Char Chit Chat

The Do with Su zine ~ Su Dennett + Catie Payne (inc. the Good Death-i-vore Pledge)

David Holmgren

Bill Mollison

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I share a recipe for de-zombifying your life before chatting with Imogen Ive, Director at Mittagundi – a remote 520 acre farm and off grid education centre built by and for young folks in the high country. This convo is a reminder that sometimes hard is good, together is better and a pack horse, tent and sense of adventure beats air conditioned comfort any day.

In the conversational cauldron:

🍯 Setting up a working farm and outdoor ed centre in the middle of nowhere

🍯 Living without modern comforts, electric tools, phones or watches

🍯 Wilderness adventures for young folks from all walks of life

🍯 An oh-snap safety vs. risk reframe

🍯 The dilution of outdoor ed in schools

🍯 How to facilitate confidence and capacity in young people

🍯 Why we don’t try new things, and how to hack our fear of failure

🍯 Bringing off grid flavours to the urban palate

LINKY POOS 

Mittagundi Outdoor Education Centre

Mittagundi on Instagram

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