The RegenNarration

Pedro Calderon-Dominguez is regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Though as fate would have it, his life took a series of unexpected turns, through wildlife ecology as the first to further Aldo’s Leopold’s work with black bears, into holistic management with some of the legends in Mexico and beyond, and ultimately into working with buffalo. Now he’s regarded by some as the world’s top bison wrangler. 

Pedro is currently based at an ambitious project called American Prairie, in the north of Montana, managing its bison restoration program on the Great Plains. We visited him and his brilliant wife Flora a few weeks ago, and were blown away by the presence of the bison again on this country, and Pedro’s subtle connection with them. 

Mexican-born and raised, with his own indigenous origins and expert horse-handling pedigree, Pedro was recruited to American Prairie to play this key role in their mission to coordinate and leverage, across varied land tenures, the restoration of 3 million acres of essential grasslands. And it’s turning up some remarkable outcomes, including relationships with First Nations, and connections with the broader bison restoration work across the continent. At the same time, we’d also been hearing about the controversy and discontent amongst some locals feeling like big money from outside is supplanting family ranches. Save the Cowboy billboards line the highway as we approach.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 30 July 2024 (intro at Judith Schwartz’s home in Vermont).

Title slide: Pedro with the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a supporter via the links below.

Music:

Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

Find more:

Tune into a special extra, Out Among the Buffalo, later this week.

For more on Pedro, tune into Back to the Land with Cody Spencer - World's Top Bison Wrangler.

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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 we’ve got some special news, and a mail run. That is, I reply to some of the text messages coming from you through the new link in our episode show notes. And I’m coming to you from the extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York, after attending an event last night at their amazing barn venue, with guest-of-honour, the globally renowned author and previous podcast guest, Judith Schwartz.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 29 August 2024.

Title slide: Yours truly in the farmhouse reading room where this was recorded (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

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!

Aldo Leopold has profoundly influenced the modern conservation and regeneration movement. He affected nearly every national conservation initiative in the US during the 1930s and 40s, and this year marks the 75th anniversary of his classic book A Sand County Almanac. Hard to believe now that it was rejected many times before being finally accepted just one week before his death. Since then, the book has been translated into at least fifteen languages and sold well over two million copies.

Today, we visit the land that inspired it, by the Wisconsin River, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Land that was clapped out and abandoned before he bought and regenerated it with his family – also converting the famous shack from what was a chook shed. Our family starts up the road at the Centre run by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, honourably marking the place of Aldo’s death.

Then we head out to the shack, where Aldo arrived at so many of his insights, and where I’m joined in conversation about the man, the regeneration happening here and around it, and the meaning of Aldo’s legacy today, by Dr Katie Ross - dear friend, very generous long-time podcast subscriber, former Acting-CEO of Soils for Life back in Australia (founded by our former Governor-General Michael Jefferies), and now returned local to America’s Dairyland in the State of Wisconsin. Though it was her first time to the shack too.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 14 August 2024 (intro recorded at dawn today at Chute Falls in Ontario, Canada).

Title slide: Aldo Leopold outside the shack (from the Foundation’s website).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

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!

Cole Mannix was featured in the New York Times a couple of months ago as part of a series called ‘Making It Work’, about ‘small-business owners striving to endure hard times’. The title read: Montana Has More Cows Than People. Why Are Locals Eating Beef From Brazil? The by-line followed: ‘Cole Mannix, [co-founder] of Old Salt Co-op, is trying to change local appetites and upend an industry controlled by multibillion-dollar meatpackers.’ And it seems local appetites are ready for it too – with both eaters and producers lining up for a taste of things, apparently just in need of a model that works.

It’s early days, but with a family legacy steeped in stewardship, some hard lessons from past efforts, and Cole’s personal journey from the ranch to theology and other revelations, the co-op is off to a rocking start. Literally. Soon after it formed in 2021, The Old Salt Outpost burger shop was set up in a famous old bar in downtown Helena. Though when I visited Cole, we started in the cruisier country vibes of the new restaurant and retail outlet across the street, called The Union. And we culminate back there with four of my favourite minutes ever on this podcast.

They happened to be prompted by Fred Provenza's presentation at the Old Salt Festival, a gathering to bring the whole lot together. So many essential aspects of systemic, regenerative change. Though as I was to learn, with one critical piece of the puzzle to come. And just the right sources of finance to make it happen.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).

Recorded 20 July 2024.

Title slide: Cole & AJ entering the Old Salt Outpost burger shop (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find more:
Old Salt Co-op’s page on Steward

Hear Dan Miller from Steward on episode 161, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.

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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!

Allan Savory is a legend of regenerative agriculture - the ongoing force behind holistic management, a movement that has featured in so many stories on the podcast. Indeed, as we’ve travelled across the US / Turtle Island, we continue to hear such stories (including in last week's episode).

Longer-term listeners might remember my conversation with Allan on the podcast back in 2020. It still stands as amongst the most listened to, and my personal favourites. So as we neared Denver, Colorado, I reached out to Allan and the team at the Savory Institute. As it happens, Allan was about to front the next course at their nearby ranch. But by the time we were in the ‘hood, it was the week of Independence Day, and holiday movements had set in. So Allan, his wife Jody and I shared the intention to meet later in our journey.

Then, over the weekend just passed, we were privileged to visit Kelsey Scott at the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota (standby for that special episode soon). Allan came to mind there too, with a story I share here from Kelsey’s husband Monte. It reminded me of Allan’s story at the end of our conversation, on the profound place intuition has held for him in his life. Then there was the music he chose, which I was able to include at the end.

So with all that in mind, and as Allan approaches his 89th birthday, I hope you enjoy revisiting one of this podcast's very special conversations.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps too).

Intro recorded 6 August 2024. Conversation recorded 22 November 2020.

Title slide: Allan Savory (supplied).

See more photos and links on the website of the original release, and for more from behind the scenes become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell.

Scotland the Brave, by Eric M. Armour.

Sourced from the Free Music Archive under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

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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!

In episode 164 with Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan (the infamous ‘armoured butts’ episode) we talked about the new ‘train the trainers’ program in agroecological systems thinking they’d created, called CREATE. This time, we visit them at home, as they gather for the first reunion of the program. Fifteen highly accomplished alumni from incredible and varied places gathered at Meagan’s beautiful regenerative ranch. And as the few days together wrapped up, I spoke with six of these people from across each of the three annual runnings of the course to date.

Those three runnings have taken place in some famous places in the US and the UK, including where our first guest today used to be an ambitious CEO for the family estate of Lady Diana. The 4th running of the course is about to start in Paradise Valley, at the foot of Yellowstone, where plans are also afoot to create a major new centre for this and other programs to flourish into the future.

So given this podcast explores the stories of human transformation that allow for the regeneration of everything, and how we can help other people along, I was fascinated to learn who these people are, why they were here, and what transformations they’ve experienced. And there was no shortage of them, from the course, and from this gathering itself.

Recorded 11-12 July 2024.

Title slide: Nicole Masters speaks to all (pic: AJ).

See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Guests:
Garth Clark
Cody Spencer - and his new podcast Back to the Land
Rebecca Baldwin-Kordick
Sérgio Nicolau - and a short video that Sergio put together on Instagram of his journey
Francisco Alves (Herdade de S. Luís) - and on Instagram
Nia Cowcher and Jamie’s Farm
And kudos to Lennan Bate and his new podcast, Renouée Podcast - Agriculture de Régénération.

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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!

A number of you have said last week’s episode was one of the best, with legendary Bioneers founders Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel. So in honour of that, and in case you missed it, or haven’t heard through to the end, this week’s release is an excerpt of the last 20 minutes or so of a very rare public conversation with the two of them together.

We pick it up where the conversation shifted gear, when I asked about the repeated uncanny happenings that have blessed their lives – including the magic tale of how Bioneers was saved (a story Nina doesn’t usually talk about in public).

Then we go on to talk about the power of work to come with Bioneers, what they’ve got to say to us next generations at this time, and what we can do to create and receive better media. Listen for the interplay of the thunder storm that rolled in towards the end too.

If you’ve come here first, tune into the full episode, ‘A Life’s Wisdom, Transformation & Romance, with legendary Bioneers founders Nina Simons & Kenny Ausubel’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.

Title slide image: Kenny & Nina from the 2018 Bioneers Conference (pic: Genevieve Russell).

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

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 treasured and unique conversation is with the legendary founders of Bioneers, Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel. Bioneers is a cultural phenomenon - an innovative nonprofit organization that has been highlighting breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet - for 34 years. What started as a somewhat reluctant conference in 1990 has become all sorts of other notable projects, including Bioneers Learning, and Bioneers radio and podcast. And there’s yet more to come.

Nina and Kenny also continue to be award-winning authors and filmmakers. You might even recognise Kenny from an appearance in Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary The 11th Hour, for which he was also a central advisor. And when Nina’s new book landed on my desk last year, it doubled my hopes to meet them both when we reached their town. The book, ‘Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership’, is in many ways, the culmination of Nina’s life’s work to date. We hear more about this and other culminating and transformative moments in their lives here – from the ‘mystery’ illness that nearly claimed Kenny’s life as a teen (that Western medicine had no answer for), to Nina’s walk through a Puebloan garden soon after the couple met.

This was a very personal, at times riotous, and often revelatory wander through their life stories, with a literally thunderous finale. (Listen for the interplay of that storm towards the end!) It was an honour and joy to sit with them around the kitchen table of their beautiful adobe home in the mountains outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, for this rare public conversation with Nina and Kenny, together.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).

Recorded 20 June 2024.

Title slide: Kenny, Nina & AJ (pic: Olivia Cheng).

To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find More:
A favourite episode on the Bioneers podcast: Undam the Klamath! How Tribes Led the Largest River Restoration Project in US History.

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!

Andrew Stone and I continued on for another 15 minutes off-record, but with the recorder still on. The conversation was so fascinating that I asked him if he was ok with it going out to you. So here’s a bonus 15 minutes with Andrew, where we went on to talk about his visit to Wendell Berry and their conversation on technology, some more uncanny connections, being part of the DMT studies in the ‘90s when psychedelics research restarted (and the story behind The Spirit Molecule on Netflix), and finally onto his work designing and building sustainable housing.

If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Andrew, ‘Tech Innovator to Mystic Farmer: Andrew Stone’s Path’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.

Title slide image: Wendell Berry with Andrew’s ma Lib Stone (supplied).

Find more:
The portrait film of Wendell Berry, Look & See.

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!

Andrew Stone has been dubbed the ‘solar mystic farmer’, as a pioneering solar passive designer/builder, former software developer of some of the commonplace apps today working alongside luminaries like Steve Jobs, regenerative farmer with treasured links to Wendell Berry and his family, key presence in the psychedelics resurgence, and a generally fascinating guy.

That was as much illustrated by the fact that when we met to record this episode, he was dressed to the nines as Robert Oppenheimer. You’ll hear why – and you can see him in that splendour on the title slide for this episode. We sat down amidst cottonwood seed falling like sun-drenched snow, magic adobe structures that appear to have spontaneously sprung out of the earth, and regenerating farmland his family has progressively acquired over the last 40 years, right in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I caught up with Andrew the day after he’d been helping others with adobe building and design, part of a power of work he does with community collectives like the People’s Energy Coop. There was much to talk about – about the past and future of all these technologies and techniques. All of which summed to an extremely entertaining and insightful conversation.

This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).

Recorded 16 June 2024.

Title slide: Andrew Stone (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the website, and for more become a member via the Patreon page.

With thanks to Laura & Ben at Grosz Co Lab, for the Americas tour insignia.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).

Find More:
A bonus episode with 15 fascinating minutes off-record with Andrew here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

For more on the Puebloan peoples Andrew mentions, listen to the 6-part series on the history of the American south-west that Andrew’s wife Katie produced on The Children’s Hour, featured in episode 212.

And to hear James and Joyce Skeet, tune into Spirit Farm, on episode 210.

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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!