*Recorded outdoors under a passionfruit vine with wind in the banana leaves*

This is one of those conversations that’ll shake you up, rattle your cage and light a fire under your butt to make change – because today’s guest reckons we need to upskill, now! It might just be the greatest pep talk in Reskillience history, from one of the most passionate permies in the movement. It’s Brett Cooper from Limestone Permaculture.

Brett, his wife Nici and fam live on Worimi Country, mid-coast NSW. Not too long ago their one acre block was just grass and hoofprints in a sleepy little rural town. Now there are over 550 fruit and nut trees, 80-140 chooks, ducks and turkeys, veggies galore, herbs, medicines, outdoor classrooms, 4.4 million litres of stored water and one legendary pizza oven. Oh, and some bangin’ community resilience.

Over three million viewers have devoured Brett + Nici’s farm tours on YouTube, pointing to more than just a fetish for gardening content but a deep yearning for the health, abundance and connection that overflows at Limestone Permaculture.

🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍

Visit Limestone Permaculture

Or peruse their upcoming events

The Limestone PDC+HC!

Central Vic permie calendar

4 Day Residential Permaculture Retreat with David Holmgren, Beck Loew + Su Dennett ~ November 1 - 5

The Rocklyn Ashram PDC ~ Feb 2025

Good stuff we mentioned

Book: Roots Demystified ~ Robert Kourik

Book: Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture ~ Rosemary Morrow (currently on sale at Permaculture Principles!)

Book: Permaculture A Designer’s Manual ~ Bill Mollison

Book: Permaculture One ~ Bill Mollison + David Holmgren

Eastern NSW

***join the Reskillience fam on Patreon***

🌼 A spring equinox special 🌼

Meet Amelie Vanderstock – science communicator, artist, musician, native bee pHD and total ray of sunshine.

Amelie has a passion for pollinator-friendly cities, and raises awareness through workshops, collaborative art and obscenely catchy songs that celebrate weeds, bees and bin chickens.

This ain’t just an interview about invertebrates – though, there’s plenty of insectivorous inspiration to be had – nay, it has a solid backbone of advice and solidarity for all those trying to merge their strange passions and professional skills, who are yearning for greater alignment and intentionality in everything, from study to travel to morning routines.

Amelie also has a crowdfunding campaign to support the release of her debut album Let’s Bee Scientists and the resource kit that goes with it, turning ecological knowledge into ear worms for the next generation of earth lovers. It’s extremely close to reaching its target! You can pre-buy the album which will expedite its release and help Amelie do more of her sweet work.

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Pre-buy Amelie Ecology’s album

Amelie’s home on the web

Amelie on Instagram

Amelie on Spotify

Church Street Studios

Blinky Bill nostalgia

Australian Student Environment Network

***support Reskillience on Patreon***

The first time I saw Anisa Rogers (who was basking on the grass reading a book) I thought: this person looks hekkin relaxed, has a tan consistent with living in reality, and the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

We got talking and I learned that Anisa is involved in all kinds of system-disrupting mischief in Naarm, Melbourne, as part of the Degrowth Network – and so many social justice, environmental, guerrilla gardening and new economy groups.

The reason Anisa can lead a rich life in community is that they’ve whittled their living costs down to such an extent that they’re free to be of service to their passions and values. Kudos!

🌟 Other stuff we cover

Quick & dirty capitalism explainer

Quick & lovely degrowth definition

Where activism falls short

Leaning into hard sharehouse conversations

Living on one day’s work per week

Mutual aid funds

Getting paid to process your shit

Friends sharing money

🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS

Degrowth festival. November 30th in Coburg (Melbourne). Follow DNA Facebook or email [email protected] if you want to be involved

Degrowth Network Australia

Degrowth Central Victoria

Four Day Residential Permaculture Retreat with David Holmgren + Beck Lowe at Larnook Community Farm 

***Support Reskillience on Patreon***

My guest today is Joel Meadows, a phenomenal human who happens to be a permaculture teacher, rocket oven engineer, energy geek, green tech sceptic, sculptor, illustrator, musician and composting ninja.

This is one epic episode that encompasses:

🌟Are renewables really all that?

🌟Why we’re using more fossil fuels than ever *cry*.

🌟Smart phone free life.

🌟Being deliberately abnormal.

🌟ROCKET OVENS.

🌟Why everyone is practical + can learn shit.

🌟Three steps to household energy resilience.

We recorded this convo at Joel’s kitchen table, in his majestic solar passive strawbale home after gorging ourselves on a garden omelette and roasted wattleseeds.

I wrote about the experience in neurotic detail over on Substack and included masses of photos of Joel’s home + garden for your voyeuristic needs. Here it is.

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[video] Joel’s intro to hot composting

[video] A little explanatory video about YIMBY

[website] YIMBY (note all the tasty resources including the 'Compost Conversation' articles published each week in the Midland Express)

[video] Joe’s Permaqueer talk on appropriate technology

[video] Take a virtual tour of Joel’s house

[eBook] Joel + Tim Barker’s Rocket Oven how-to book

***Join the not-culty-at-all Reskillience community on Patreon***

An interview with the intrepid author of my favourite book in recent years, Robyn Mundy!

(Word nerds, snow bunnies, penguin enthusiasts and fans of the freezing cold, this one’s for you.)

Robyn is a Tasmanian author and adventurer, Arctic guide, Antarctic research assistant, and lifelong lover of snow and ice.

I picked up her book Cold Coast in the library on a whim, because it had a cute Arctic fox on the cover and came recommended by library staff.

It tells the true story of Vanny Voldstad, the first female trapper in Svalbard, who defied 1930s gender norms to claim her place in the perilous and male dominated world of polar bear and fox hunting.

Robyn’s sensitivity, intelligence, and reverence for wild nature shines on the page — and I suspected she’d be a wealth of Reskillient wisdom. (Correct.)

Even if you haven’t heard of Robyn or read her books, there are so many gems in this conversation — strong rewilding themes, advice for aspiring storytellers and the unmistakable call to adventure that might just have you booking a ticket on the next ship to Antarctica.

Robyn Mundy ~ Cold Coast

Robyn Mundy ~ Wild Light

Robyn Mundy ~ The Nature of Ice

Robyn on Instagram

Robbie Arnott ~ Flames

Favel Parret ~ Past the Shallows

Maatsuyker island

The mighty Osprey

Arctic fox 

Sound credit: klankbeeld on Freesound.org

***Join the not-culty-at-all Reskillience community on Patreon***

Sit down and whip out your preferred pen* because Dylan Graves is doing back-of-the-envelope calculations to show you how to access land within three to five years.

I know, sounds weirdly left-brained for our whimsical podcast, but fear not, this conversation with an inspiring and intensely honest permaculture teacher will have you dreaming and doing in tandem.

In the deep south of Aotearoa New Zealand, Dylan and his partner Evita are living and breathing Reskillience. Dylan is a permaculture teacher, biochar educator, farmer and frank-as-anything about financial pathways that lead to both personal freedom and a low-resource lifestyle that respects nature’s limits. He also covers these tantalising topics:

Should permaculture courses be cheaper?

Should we all earn radically less?

Jobs no-one is doing in permaculture.

So many options for low-cost living.

Insights as a Workaway host.

Total weekly income.

Living on 10k per year.

Educational holidays.

Accepting financial gifts from friends.

Money taboos.

Small livelihoods.

Anger as a driver.

Forced to farm!

Permaculture sheep farming.

Introverted permaculture teacher lyfe.

Biochar conspiracies.

*The hierarchy of pens is: Quill + ink > any Japanese pen > old school fountain pen > Artline 220 Series Superfine Point Black 0.2mm > all other pens.

LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️

The wise Australian Darter

Dylan’s home on the web

Biochar resource #1

Biochar resource #2

A great chat with Dylan on the Quorum Sense podcast

Robin Clayfield

Rosemary Morrow

The Great Simplification Podcast

Daniel Schmachtenberger on AI + The Superorganism

***support Reskillience on Patreon***

What's the story with free birthing, wild birthing, orgasmic births and births that don't go to plan?

Here to deliver answers to all our laborious questions is the wise and erudite Eleanor Young, researcher, permaculturalist, writer and midwife.

Even if you're not some born-again birthing evangelist, you'll find lots to love in this gentle and soulful exploration of human propagation. Because there is so much overlap between how we treat birth and how we treat the earth; between reclaiming our mammalian birthing blueprint and remembering how to live within nature’s lore and loamy bosom. 

I love that Eleanor integrates permaculture principles and midwifery. I love that she walks between worlds, the clinical and the feral. And you’ll love this episode if you’re yearning to learn about undisturbed birth, the current state of midwifery, polyvagal theory, healing birth trauma and why permaculture principles and birthing are natural bedfellows. 

LINKY POOS 🧙🏼‍♀️

Eleanor’s substack ~ Inhabiting the Edge

Eleanor on Instagram

Suzy Muir ~ Deer Medicine 

Donut Economics ~ Kate Raworth

Eleanor + Patrick Jones in conversation

Beck Lowe

Permaculture Principles

***Support Reskillience on Patreon***

Would you pick up a schoolkid’s half eaten apple and eat it?

Annie Raser-Rowland would, while shining a lopsided smile to passersby.

Annie is the radical wordsmith behind the bestselling The Art Of Frugal Hedonism and The Weed Forager’s Handbook, co-authored with the equally-and-proudly-as-stingy Adam Grubb.

This is one helluva conversation that covers:

🌟Why to be even weirder

🌟Rubbing frugality pheromones on your significant other

🌟Starting work at 3am

🌟Engaging teenage goth mode to deal with chronic health challenges

🌟Embracing voluntary extinction

🌟Leaving room for the more-than-human

🌟The plight of a brushtail possum in our wall.

Lap it up!

🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS

The Art of Frugal Hedonism (revised edition!)

The Weed Forager’s Handbook

Permaculture Principles ~ who sell ethically published books and have a wealth of free educational materials.

Melliodora Publishing

*** Support the show on Patreon***

(I’m loving this 🌟emoji which makes me feel like I’m doing a great job. You’re doing a great job too 🌟🌟🌟)

Many of you have requested interviews with folks who are making beautiful nests in less-than-perfect contexts, like the city. Who haven’t flown off to Planet Permaculture but are sticking with modern civilisation. You’ve asked to explore the personal terrain of chronic pain, limited energy and neurodivergence; highlighting radical self compassion as the necessary first step in the radical reimagining of everything.

And so I reached out to Koren Helbig, a restful role model for our times.

If you don’t know Koren, she’s a digital marketing strategist and journalist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide. She shares stories of gardening and climate positive futures for publications like the ABC and the guardian, and top quality fluffy poultry content over on instagram.

I’ve been watching Koren’s work from afar for ages, half envious and wholly admiring of her ability to weave permaculture principles throughout her entire life, from how she grows food, connects with neighbours, pays the mortgage and runs her business to — as I discovered in this conversation — deliberately building rest and reflection and fallowing into her schedule. Best of all, Koren is a real and warm human who exudes a quiet brilliance. I loved spending time with her, and know you will too.

Koren’s home on the web

Koren on Instagram

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

She Makes Magic podcast

The Food Forest

Holistic Decision Making with Dan Palmer

Kirstin Neff ~ Self Compassion

Beyond Climate Grief ~ Jonica Newby

***Support Reskillience on Patreon***

Did you know that women represent less than one third of artists in the music industry? And just 12.6% of songwriters? I’m quoting my guests here, Lauren and Oberon Carter of Spiral Garden and, lately, Suffragette Records in Hobart, Lutruwita.

Suffragette Records stocks music made by women only, not for the sake of exclusion but to rebalance the scales. Because who and what we listen to patterns our thinking, beliefs, communities and civilization. When women aren’t part of our cultural soundscape, we miss out on stories and messages and melodic teachings from a whole portion of the population.

I was delighted to unpack Lauren + Oberon’s new-ish adventures in vinyl, how the’ve embedded permaculture ethics into their business, the day to day experience of running a record shop as a family of five, and the heartfelt chats they’re having with old dudes about music, climate change, the matriarchy and everything in between.

1. Lauren + Oberon’s home on the web ~ Spiral Garden
2. Lauren + Oberon’s record store ~ Suffragette Records
3. Spiral Garden’s Substack
4. Suffragette Records on the gram
   Julia Jacklin ~ Don’t Let The Kids Win
5. Joni Mitchell ~ Court + Spark
6. Vandana Shiva
7. ***Support Reskillience on Patreon***