The Quill Nook Experience

The standard theory of biology says organisms are gene-controlled robots, that minds are along for the ride, and that life is fundamentally about survival and reproduction. Charlie Munford thinks the causal arrow points the wrong way.

Charlie Munford runs Banjo Tree Service in southern Vermont. He's also the president of the Agential Biology Institute, a nonprofit he co-founded with researchers at Oxford, Tufts, Tel Aviv, and UVM—including Michael Levin, Denis Noble, and Stuart Kauffman—to challenge one of biology's most foundational assumptions.

We work through the evidence: bacteria editing their own genomes under stress, worms passing inherited memories to offspring across twenty generations, mice transmitting olfactory sensitivities through sperm.

We talk about cancer and autoimmunity as problems of self-recognition, about what it would mean for geopolitics if knowledge—not resources—were the fundamental currency of life.

We also talk about pigs. Specifically: a pot-bellied pig named Mr. T who went to college, and what three radically different human relationships to the same species reveal about where values come from.

Recorded at Quill Nook Farm, Halifax, Vermont.


Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

"There is a degree to which the work I've been doing for 25 years has been a failure, and a degree to which we collectively as a generation of people working on the problem haven't moved the needle as much as we need to." – Dan Ackerstein, Ackerstein Sustainability

Dan Ackerstein reviewed 35 of the first 45 LEED for Existing Buildings projects. He's worked with big companies doing big, creative sustainability work—public waste audits, imaginative projects that made building operations fun. Then those projects evaporated.

In this conversation, Dan processes what it means when the momentum stops. He talks about "the massive con"—the idea that individual choices can solve systemic problems while letting corporations and governments off the hook.

Ackerstein and host Tristan Roberts discuss climate grief, the fragility of corporate sustainability, acting locally, and the San Lorenzo River as a metaphor for irreversible decisions.

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

Richo Cech is the owner of Strictly Medicinal Seeds and author of Making Plant Medicine. He's a legendary figure in the herbalism world who has spent decades growing medicinal plants and teaching others to do the same.

In this conversation, Richo moves seamlessly between scientific observation (seeds erupting under microscopes) and spiritual practice (transmuting desire through incense), between practical farming advice (why he abandoned no-till methods) and philosophical insight (how mandrake teaches you about greed). We discuss:

• Plant consciousness and what seeds reveal under a microscope
• The consequences of separation from nature
• How he's avoided doctors for years using homegrown remedies
• The trap of avarice that mandrake revealed—and how he countered it by giving freely
• Why many medicinal herbs (thyme, rosemary, hyssop) actually need bare soil, not mulch
• His marriage and how opposites attract and complement each other
• Practical advice: late-season cover crops, herbal teas, parenting without food neurosis

Richo doesn't romanticize farming or herbalism. He's honest about what works, what doesn't, and why food self-sufficiency is "a chimera" that requires community and trade. This is a conversation about connection—to plants, to earth, to each other—without any new-age fluff. Resources:

• Strictly Medicinal Seeds: strictlymedicinalseeds.com
• Books: Making Plant Medicine, Growing Plant Medicine (Volumes 1 & 2)
• YouTube: Strictly Medicinal LLC

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

Where were you the morning of September 11, 2001?

Joe McKay was on a Staten Island golf course, but not for long. A New York City firefighter for thirteen years, McKay spent that day, and dozens of days after, filling his lungs with debris, searching shoulder to shoulder with his fellow firefighters. He, and so many others, lost loved ones that day—coworkers and friends. And then, six months later, he started suffering from unidentifiable, debilitating headaches. After a number of appointments and tests, he discovered that he had developed cluster headaches—a condition considered incurable.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Joe decided to take a risk and pursue psychedelic treatment for his pain and his PTSD. After years of living in the dark, suffering from such debilitating pain, he could go whole days at a time without an outburst.

Now, McKay works hard to spread the news: plant medicine heals. He hopes that the negative stigma that surrounds the use of psychedelics in healthcare will continue to lessen, and that those whose lives are ruled by pain will feel emboldened to take a chance on a treatment that might save them. “It’s not a red versus blue issue,” McKay told Tristan Roberts. “It’s a red, white, and blue issue.”


Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

Daniel Kish is an expert in human echolocation. He serves as the President of World Access for the Blind (WAFTB), a California-based nonprofit that he founded in 2000. Through WAFTB, Kish and acquaintances work with unsighted and blind children across the globe--since its establishment in 2000, they have taught 500 kids the art of echolocation as a means of moving through the world. Kish, whose story gained traction after he was featured on an NPR recording, underwent surgery at just 13 months old to remove his eyes, a result of having eye cancer. He holds master's degrees in developmental psychology and special education. 

Tristan was first introduced to Daniel Kish through the soundwaves of an NPR podcast episode. The story of the real-life "Batman" lodged itself in his psyche, imprinting onto his subconscious--his thoughts often turned back to the blind boy mentioned, the one who taught himself echolocation, who maneuvers through the world in a unique and genuine way. Years later, at a meditation retreat in Alberta, Canada, the two met face-to-face. It was a strange coincidence--that a Vermonter and a Californian should find themselves together in Canada, engaging with each other in such a way. Tristan soon realized that his new friend was none other than the blind Batman he'd admired for so long, and invited Daniel to visit his homestead in Brattleboro, where they discussed the ins-and-outs of echolocation, Daniel's work with blind youth, a PhD thesis proposal, and subverting others' expectations of perceived limitations. 

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

In 2005, Shaun Chamberlin quit his job to devote himself full-time to exploring the dominant cultural stories and ‘myths’ that chart the course for our society and, in particular, how we might change direction before we end up where we are headed. Meanwhile, putting the theory into practice, Shaun is one of the custodians of legendary free pub ‘The Happy Pig‘, and he was involved with the Transition Network since its inception. He was one of the earliest Extinction Rebellion arrestees. His proudest achievement is shepherding his late mentor David Fleming‘s extraordinary, award-winning Lean Logic and Surviving the Future to posthumous publication.

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, author and filmmaker. He is noted for the best-written book to also spawn a great movie and a cliché, The Perfect Storm. His award-winning documentary films Restrepo and Korengal bring viewers into real wartime life. We at Quill Nook have been following Sebastian closely since he wrote Tribe in 2016 about PTSD connected to wartime experiences. He claims that the return home of the veteran, and with it the loss of togetherness of the platoon, breeds PTSD. That really got our attention here! He followed that book up with Freedom in 2021, in which he and some friends go on a long walk as vagabonds. Both the landscape around Sebastian, his companions, and his incredible reach with history make his story gripping, unforgettable, and touching. For this podcast interview, Tristan brought the Quill Nook Experience and all his questions about freedom to Sebastian’s home. Enjoy!

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

In person on Quill Nook Farm, Allison Paradise talks with Tristan about how to trust your intuition, even when it feels disruptive to the rest of your life. How to heal (and not just gain awareness/insight around) behavior stemming from childhood trauma. How to reckon with your shadow self, and stop worrying about what others think of you. Allison was the founder of My Green Lab, a nonprofit certifying sustainable laboratory operations. She served as its CEO from 2013 to 2020. She is now the founder of The Epicenter, a new organization dedicated to empowering students to connect with their authentic selves and their limitless potential.

You can learn more about the Epicenter here:
https://www.be-the-epicenter.org/

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus

Sage Mason is a first-year law student at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. A graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, and Phillips Academy in Exeter, NH, Sage is from New York City.

You can find Sage's interview with Alan Tucker on the Buried Truth's podcast here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/buried-truths/id1334250929?i=1000491416914

Subscribe to The Quill Nook Experience:
Apple | Spotify | RSS

Get in touch: [email protected]

Website: http://www.tristanroberts.org

Music: Produced by Turner Andrasz, beat-boxing by Felix Roberts, guitar by Tristan Roberts, drums by Merrill Garbus