The RegenNarration

Endless economic growth sounds normal until you put it next to one stubborn fact: we live on a finite planet. Live from the State Library of Victoria, a full house gathers with globally renowned writer and speaker Charles Eisenstein, to name the bind many people feel but rarely say out loud. In our current financial system, even slowing growth can trigger real instability, from corporate layoffs to shaky retirement savings. 

So we stop arguing about whether growth is ‘good’ and start asking what kind of money and economy could actually deliver security without constant expansion. And why, despite the glaring reality, we can’t yet seem to manage that transition, but how we could, and are, moving towards it.

This episode called itself forward from where last week’s left off. Particularly the quote I patched in from Charles towards the end of that episode. This is the rest of the very special event from which that quote was drawn. It was somewhat of an oracle back in 2015, and in other ways, could well have been held today.

I organised this one with friends and colleagues as convenor of the Understandascope, a group originally founded by my old Professor mate, Frank Fisher. Today it continues as a home for his work and legacy. But more on that another day. 

On this day, Charles starts us off with a 15-minute fire-starter, taking us deeper than policy talking points and into the culture underneath economics. He challenges the story of separation that treats nature as a pile of resources and other people as competitors, then offers a different foundation: interbeing. When we remember that what we do to the world we do to ourselves, ‘sustainable economy’ stops being a niche idea and becomes common sense. We explore how GDP growth often means converting community, caregiving, and everyday skills into paid services, while the qualitative parts of life that make us feel whole quietly disappear.

Then it’s Q&A, with former corporate executive Keith Badger putting the sceptic’s case to Charles, on corporate incentives, shareholders, and globalisation. Then we delve into practical levers like taxes on pollution and extraction, corporate charters like benefit corporations, universal basic income, and a concept that could help a steady-state economy function: negative interest, where money decays like bread so it must circulate instead of being hoarded. 

Then Charles invites a couple of stories of personal transformation from the audience. Before another former colleague, Carly Williams, heralds a final 15 minutes of Charles answering some terrific questions from the floor.

Sarah McConnell live-scribed an incredible illustration of the event too, which you can find on the episode web page. 

And you can hear some recent episodes that pick up on the latest on all this, such as the Purpose Pledge and the EU’s post-growth announcement, as well as a look back on pioneering legend Hazel Henderson’s ‘love economy’ (you’ll hear why this came to mind). 

If you’re wrestling with de-growth, regenerative finance, 'sacred economics', or what comes after the old story collapses, this conversation gives you language, tools, and a path forward. 

More shout outs and listener mail at the end too.

With thanks to my old teammates at the Understandascope, and Chris Grose from Scout Films for the recording. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review or send us a message below, telling us what you thought of today's episode.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 22 January 2015.

Title slide: from the event flyer used at the time (image supplied).

Hope to see you tonight at our next live audience podcast online, free and exclusive for paid subscribers, with special guests Stacey Curcio and Dr Terry McCosker OAM.

Thanks for listening.

Music: 

Circle of Life, by Letra (from Artlist).

Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

I’ve sat on this for a couple of years now. The day I met Robert F Kennedy Jr at an event in New Mexico. He was on the campaign trail for the 2024 Presidential election as an independent back then. Remember that? The event was actually a film launch for Recovering America. Part of what had attracted me to the event. A solutions-focused journey across the US exploring effective responses to the tragic drug addiction epidemic there.

I was welcomed as part of the visiting international press gallery, and as such briefly met RFK Jr and joined the press gaggle afterwards. I thought about running our exchange on the podcast then – the solutions presented in the film, alone, fit the remit. And the independents movement back home in Australia, which had begun to inspire more civil, positive and effective politics, were on my mind too. But for a number of reasons, which I’ll talk about, I held back.

Two months after that NM event, Kennedy moved to the Trump camp. And fair to say, I think, whatever your view, that the complexities and tensions have mounted since. I say that with respect, too, for the diversity of listeners to – and guests on - this podcast. I talk more about that here too.

Now, in the wake of an unusual mid-term speech by RFK Jr last month, that is suspected by many to have flagged a 2028 presidential run, and a podcast soon after with RFK’s disenchanted former advisor and speech writer - and former event guest of mine, as it happens - Charles Eisenstein, the man credited as being behind the original ‘MAHA source code’, it felt like the time to tell a story about that day in 2024. 

A story that includes some of the great exemplars in the film being premiered, through to what Charles had to say about his disappointing split with RFK, what it means for the similarly disappointed MAHA movement right now, and the ongoing search for a ‘transcendent centre’ capable of meeting the moment.

More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end too.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Title image from the press gallery of the New Mexico event.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Hope to see you at our next live audience podcast online, with special guests Stacey Curcio and Terry McCosker.

You can hear the podcast with Jonathan Lundgren in episode 319.

And with Kate Chaney after her 2022 election win in episode 121.

Simple Promise Farms in Texas. And the beautiful 8 minute video by local media.

The Other Side Academy was another standout from the film. By line: ‘it’s free, it’s hard, it works’. 

Ross O’Reilly in episode 135 at his High Valley Dawn farm in regional Queensland.

BackTrack in regional NSW, as seen in the amazing documentary film Backtrack Boys. 

All my writing mentioned here is in Substack, including this on the regenerative agriculture Executive Order, and A Divided America Agrees, We Deserve Better Than This.

The Why Should I Trust You? podcast: RFK Jr.’s Former Campaign Adviser Charles Eisenstein: On MAHA & The Kind of Candidates America Needs (and the related Substack piece). 

The piece by 'dedicated Democrat' Amanda Litman: I'm Worried About Winning. 

And the brilliant Food Fix, run by Helena Bottemiller Evich.

Thanks for listening.

Music: 

As Far As It Goes, by Earth Tone (from Artlist).

Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

And here's where you can find Over the Rainbow , by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

It has slipped under the radar for years, but food security is in a perilous state. An Australian Bureau of Statistics survey found 1.3 million people (more than 13% of households) are struggling to afford enough healthy food. And in keeping with similar patterns in related areas of water security, chronic illness and biodiversity loss, the trajectory is worsening, and already costing billions in each area. 

As a result, governments have been responding with food security strategies around the world, and governments in Australia are now doing the same. 

Dr Nick Rose, co-founder and ED of Sustain: The Australian Food Network, based in Naarm/Melbourne, has been one of the key forces in this area for decades. And in the last year or so Sustain has been convening community forums nationally (including Launceston and Melbourne to date) to feed into the country’s first National Food Security Strategy, called Feeding Australia.

We met up in Perth/Boorloo last week, between a host of events and meetings with State MPs, First Nations, industry and community groups, in the lead up to the WA Food Policy Forum. That will take place on November 30, and you’re all invited (generous paid subscribers to this podcast, a 25% discount code has been sent your way). 

Joining Nick and I to talk about all this, are a couple of women familiar to longer-term listeners - Noongar and Thin-Mah Warriyangka woman, new CEO of Wagyl Kaip Southern Noongar Aboriginal Corporation, Heidi Mippy; and Natural Intelligence farmer and 2025 West Australian of the Year, Di Haggerty.

This one’s loaded with inspiring updates, and some of Nick’s amazing personal story, as a moment presents for much-needed systemic change.

More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end too.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 16 October 2026.

Title image with thanks to Bec Hamersley (part of the Haggerty farm team, and cherished paid subscriber).

You are also invited to the Noongar Cultural Celebration at the Noongar Land Enterprise Group near Northam WA on 1 December 2026. It’s free, with food provided. 

Hope to see you at both these neighbouring events. And our next live audience podcast, with special guests Stacey Curcio and Terry McCosker.

Listen to the story of Miller & Baker in North Perth, one of the bakeries the Haggerty family supplies too locally (in episode 69). 

Thanks for listening.

Music: 

Spy Fiction, by Young Rich Pixies (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

I met Richard Heinberg by the clear running waters of a restored Santa Rosa creek a couple of years ago. Though it feels like yesterday, such was its impact. So my heart sank when I saw the subject line in an email, ‘In memoriam, Richard Heinberg’. 

Richard is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates on the urgent need, and inviting prospects, of a transition away from fossil fuels. He’s the author of 14 books including some of the seminal works on our current energy, economic and environmental crises. 

I had already been feeling like our conversation by the creek that day was worth re-releasing, even before hearing the sad news. Especially the last 20 minutes or so, where our podcast culminates in Richard’s clear framing of the unprecedented challenge facing us, and how we could pull it off. So here they are for you today.

If you’d like to hear the rest of this conversation, listen to episode 205. It starts with the story of the creek you can hear. And delves more into Richard’s life journey through music, agriculture, energy, economy, psychedelics, Aboriginal Australia, Native America, and all that his decades of work have taught him.

And if you’d like to read more about Richard’s personal story, including his magnificent musical journey, with some photos and videos, have a read of this tribute article I wrote back in July.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Originally recorded 30 April 2024.

Title image: the restored creek from where we sat.

Thanks for listening.

Music: 

Time to Go, by Tristan Barton (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

The revered farmer, poet and prophet, Wendell Berry, died a little over a month ago. This special tribute episode, featuring the voices of Wendell himself, his daughter Mary, and friends, is one I feel extremely privileged to make and share with you. 

With heart-felt thanks and sympathies to Mary Berry, the broader Berry family and team at The Berry Center, Cole Mannix, with Gillian Kennedy, Lizzy Duffy Anderson and team at Old Salt Co-Op and Festival, Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell at Two Birds Film, and writer and land steward Meriwether Lewis Hardie, for your kind permission and assistance to be able to include the audio you’re about to hear.

You can find photos and videos, related to what you’re hearing, in a tribute I wrote last month, that came to inspire this episode. They include the extraordinary opening sequence from the cinematic portrait of Wendell by Two Birds Film, called Look & See (also opening this episode); and Mary Berry in riveting conversation with Meriwether Lewis Hardie at the Old Salt Festival back in June, introduced by Old Salt President, and previous podcast guest, Cole Mannix.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Title image supplied by Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell at Two Birds Film. To see more photos from Look & See, and to buy or rent the film, head to their website.

You can hear more from Di and Ian Haggerty, the 2025 West Australians of the Year, in episode 234. 

And from Tanya and Charlie Massy in episodes 115 and 103 respectively.

Thank you for listening.

Music: 

Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

If this moves you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs steadying words, and leave a review so more people can find these stories of land stewardship, homecoming, and regeneration.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Welcome to our first online live audience event, featuring the legendary Fred Provenza. It took place on the Solstice in June, with an audience of paid subscribers, and was incredibly special. In another first, too, you can also watch this event in video mode where available, including Apple, Spotify and  YouTube, enabling you to see Fred and the artful visuals in his presentation.

If you're not yet aware, Fred is the behavioural ecologist, author and mountain man who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.

Fred was first on the podcast almost four years to the day of this recording, for episode 123: The Wisdom Body: on a paradigm change in animal, human & planetary health. And two years ago, almost to the day, Fred stood on the back of a truck in a field at the Old Salt Festival in Montana, and gave a now famous talk called Cosmic Dreaming. The organiser Cole Mannix said he'd have run the festival for that alone (in an unforgettable end to ep.217). 

The talk has been in demand ever since, most recently by Holistic Management International and a holistic medicine group, and it has continued to evolve. In fact, Fred nearly made it to the recent Grounded Festival in Australia to offer the latest version, but not quite. And Fred has since retired from such events. 

So I asked him if he'd share a reading with us live online, of the updated never-before heard latest version, with a conversation afterwards, on the 2nd anniversary of its first run. 

Fred’s presentation runs for roughly the first half of the episode, and an intimate conversation follows, including some other legendary past guests on this podcast. The exchange between Fred and Terry McCosker at the end is worth the listen in itself.

Co-hosted by my friend, previous podcast guest, and co-founder of our Confluence river journeys, Dr Katie Ross. 

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 20 June 2026.

And heads up, the next interactive online live podcast event will be at 6pm Wednesday 4 November 2026 AEDT. With some very special guests. All paid subscribers welcome.

Title image: Fred happy at home on the Madison River - even with storm front approaching (pic: Anthony James).

Thanks for listening!

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Welcome to a bonus episode bringing home the special series with Michael Gooden, President of the just launched Farmers Helping Farmers. 

We’re back by the Murray River, this time featuring Goodo being questioned in depth by his fellow paddlers on the first Confluence river journey back in March. This was recorded riverside at dusk, having just enjoyed an incredible dinner supplied by Goodo from his farm. Now he tells us about it – how it’s farmed, what sets it apart, and how there could be so much more of it. 

And throughout, we hear more about Michael’s personal journey; the things I didn’t ask him about in part one of this series, because I knew they were talked about so perfectly here. Like the 8 Families group, upbringing and family, rugby life, mentors, heartbreak, change, creating direct markets outside disastrous commodity markets, virtual fencing in a way I didn’t expect (managed from the river!), and it all culminates with his guiding mantra.

If you haven’t yet heard parts 1 and 2 of this series yet, you can find them in episode 320, A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, on that big news, and 321, riverside with me, on what would, could or should be even bigger news, How To Drink From The River Again. They’re at those links on the website (with some photos) or wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 22 March 2026.

Title image by Dominique Hes.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Please share this episode where you can. And thanks for listening!

Music: 

Golden Awakening, by Russo feat. Roy Dotan (from Artlist).

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

We Can’t Fix A River with Water Alone. Welcome to part 2 of a special series with the President of the just launched Farmers Helping Farmers, Michael Gooden. Last week’s episode, A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, focused on that launch, along with of course some of Michael’s story, in what was a powerful and emotional conversation about a significant moment here in this country. 

I’ve still got Mick’s words in mind from the opening of that episode, on whether we can feed the world with regenerative practices? ‘We’ll do it on our ear’, he said, if we focus on solving the real problems. 

So with that in mind, this week, a really special episode sitting on the banks of the Murray River, Australia’s longest, and arguably most mythologised and politicised river. We grabbed this half hour at the end of a day’s paddle back in March, on the first group river journey my friend Katie Ross and I organised, that we called Confluence. 

Goodo and I start with how it feels on the river, including why he’s even there. Then we explore the key question arising for him – what would it take to be able to drink from the river again?

That’s no abstract question for this irrigator farmer approximate to a region becoming known as ‘MND Alley’ in the Murray Darling Basin. He’s got runs on the board, in terms of successful land and business management, and bringing people together, and has a very clear vision and strategy for how a drinkable river could become a reality once again. 

With thanks to Henry Smith for filming this conversation. 

More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end too.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 26 March 2026.

Title image by Henry Smith.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Please share this episode where you can. And thanks for listening!

Music: 

Down the River, by Ran Raiten (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

This week kicks off a hybrid episode of sorts. First up today, a big launch as a farmer-led movement goes national here in Australia. Which of course isn’t just news for them, but for all of us who eat food, drink water and generally thrive of healthy living systems. 

So I speak with the President of Farmers Helping Farmers, and a farmer himself at Old Man Creek, Michael Gooden, about the bold launch, its daring conference, the big vision, and of course the huge heart behind it all. There’s plenty of emotion and guts in this one, spurring a compelling vision. 

I’ve been looking forward to speaking to Goodo on the podcast for ages. He introduced himself to me with a phone call and a paid subscription to the podcast five years ago now. We’ve since become good friends, and our Confluence river journey back in March wouldn’t have been the same without him and his incredible food straight off the farm. 

We catch him at home today, on the back of all the recent action. And next week, we catch him on the banks of the Murray River. But more on that then. For now, join us for a cuppa in the kitchen.

More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 10 September 2026.

Title image: Goodo is on the left, with the speakers at the recent launch and conference of Farmers Helping Farmers (supplied).

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

For the conversation with Jonathan Lundgren, head to last week’s episode 319, You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is (where you’ll also find a highlight excerpt, What If More Life On Farms Solves Everything?).

Last week’s latest on the situation at Kachana Station, as a bid is launched to save the donkeys. Thanks to everyone who has responded with your support.

Music: 

Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

If this conversation sparks something, share it with a farmer or food-lover in your life, subscribe so you don’t miss the riverside follow-up, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What part of farming’s future do you most want to see changed next?

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Soon after last week's special episode dropped, the messages started coming in. One from a paid subscriber (thanks Dominique Hes) commented on how the first 25 minutes or so alone was so impactful, that I needed to write up a summary on Substack. That, I did. And it made me think some of you might appreciate just that part of our conversation carved out on the pod, to share more easily, hear again, or cut to the chase of it if you don’t have an hour to listen to the full episode. 

My guest was former star USDA scientist turned whistleblower, now farmer and independent researcher in South Dakota, Dr Jonathan Lundgren. The episode was titled You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is.

Today, an excerpt from about 4 minutes in. It leads off with the latest on the Executive Order for regenerative agriculture that Lundgren was pivotal to. We go on to talk about the enormous body of evidence that secured it. Before rounding out here with the beginning of Jon’s incredible, tumultuous personal journey, from the USDA times to the 10th birthday celebrated just last month of his Blue Dasher Farm and independent research foundation, Ecdysis, host of the extraordinary 1,000 Farms Initiative. 

“Mr. President, the most striking data we have generated from our work is that row croppers in the U.S. have twice the asthma rates, 3 times the clinical depression, 3 times the cancer rate, and a 2,600 fold increase in Parkinson’s rates compared to the rest of society. We are killing our farmers.”

“We've got hard data. This became the largest database of regenerative food systems in existence. It's the third largest bio-inventory ever conducted by humans. And the data is like, what these farmers, I mean what they've developed is real. We're not making this up. It's true, it's scalable, it's transferable. This is the answer that we've been looking for.”

To hear the conversation in full, including more of Jon’s story and how this research and community action is developing in Australia right now, head to episode 319 on the website, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, or essentially view a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers and transcript.

Recorded 27 August 2026.

Title slide: In the Oval Office. That’s Jonathan Lundgren on the right, Will Harris to his right (sourced from Lundgren’s post on his website)

Please share this episode and/or the related Substack posts below where you can. And thanks for listening!

My Substack post summarising some of the latest research and developments in the US and Australia: We’re Killing Our Farmers: While the evidence for regenerative agriculture is flooding in

And the previous one, that led to this podcast: Two 'Regen' Farmers Walk Into An Oval Office Debate Blind-Sided – and exit with the 'most support we’ve ever had

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!