The RegenNarration

Nicole Masters is a globally recognised agroecologist, speaker and author of the book ‘For the Love of Soil’. Meagan Lannan is an award-winning rancher at Barney Creek Livestock in Montana, within the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Nicole and Meagan toured two sold out education programs in Australia last month. First up, 126 people convened for 4 days near the town of Orange, and I was fortunate to be welcomed along for the ride.

It was actually Nicole’s first time back in Australia since her scheduled book tour of 55 dates was cancelled due to covid. We last spoke for the podcast during that time in 2020, when Nicole was in the midst of her own transformations. A few years on, and this program is touring the world, with its focus on training the wayfinders in regenerative soil, systems and life-giving practice. No surprise in that sense, we end up talking polyvagal theory, regenerative finance, shifting consciousness, the education processes that cultivate all that, and a bit of song and dance.

This conversation was recorded at Tombarra near Braidwood in NSW, on 22 April 2023.

Title slide: Nicole Masters & Meagan Lannan riverside at Tombarra (pic: Anthony James).

See more photos on the episode webpage below, and for more behind the scenes pics become a subscriber via the Patreon page.

With great thanks to Dave Murphy and Farmer’s Footprint Australia, for supporting my journey to the Orange intensive. Thanks also to Grahame Rees, local co-host of that intensive, and Martin Royds, co-host of the Tombarra gathering, for your great generosity. And Martin, for showing us around your extraordinary regenerative work at Jillamatong.

Find more:
Integrity Soils.

For more with Nicole Masters (including other links, and photos on the episode web page), listen to episode 72, Restoring the Metropolis of Living Earth: From the chemical paradigm to nature’s paradigm, with Nicole Masters.

Barney Creek Livestock, where Meagan, Pete and family live.

To Which We Belong, the film that Nicole and Meagan feature in.

The short video with Meagan & family on winning the Aldo Leopold award.

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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!

Jeff Pow is at the helm of an extraordinary story of regeneration. You might remember Jeff and his wife Michelle McManus from episode 78, when I first visited them at Southampton Homestead back at the end of 2020. (They were also later highlighted among some globally esteemed names in the acknowledgements of Paul Hawken’s book Regeneration.) Since then, I’d been seeing the land there go from strength to strength. And I’d been hearing about how their pasture-raised poultry (as distinct from so-called free-range), and their micro-processing systems, were now enabling regional regeneration – of country, community and economy. Even in the face of COVID, more fires, and still finding themselves constantly on the brink of folding.

Attempts and experiments with partners to create market systems that get us eaters this nutritious, cruelty-free and regenerative food, and these farmers a livelihood, maybe even the means to do more of their great work, aren’t working. This is still too often the missing piece, it seems. So what shift in lens, and systems, can bring us all together in these situations, to enable the regeneration I’m seeing at Southampton and elsewhere, to happen everywhere?

We start in space, believe it or not. Then come back to earth with how torturously chicken appears in supermarkets, but how brilliantly it happens here. And how it all hinges on the possibilities we explore next.

This chat was recorded at Southampton Homestead near Balingup WA on 30 April 2023.

Title slide: Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus at Southampton.

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

Find more:
Southampton Homestead.

Dirty Clean Food’s terrific profile page on Jeff and Michelle’s operation.

Dirty Clean Food’s online shop for pasture-raised poultry, including from Southampton (it looks like hovering over the pictures brings up the Southampton logo when it’s from there).

For more with Jeff Pow & Michelle McManus (including other links, and photos on the episode web page), listen to episode 78.

And to listen to Jeff with Yeshe, tune into Yeshe Interviews, for Earth & space & chickens & how they’re all connected.

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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 is a special release episode with Tim Winton, broadly considered the preeminent Australian writer of his generation. And not just in Australia. His books have been translated into 28 languages, sold millions of copies, and resulted in numerous prestigious awards (including another one just this week). He’s also in the Australian Surfing Awards Hall of Fame, and has a species of native Australian fish named in his honour. But over the last few years, we were aware Tim had jumped in the deep end as writer, narrator and executive producer of a major film production.

Ningaloo Nyinggulu surfaced at a community screening in Exmouth a few days ago, and will premiere nationwide in Australia on Tuesday 16 May, having also just launched globally as Ningaloo Nyinggulu: Australia’s Ocean Wonder.

The blurb reads: ‘Over three episodes filmed in remote Western Australia, Tim shares the wonders of the place that has inspired his work for decades, joining Traditional Owners, scientists and other experts to understand how Ningaloo endures as a mighty global lifeboat of biodiversity, and showcases why it is a beacon of hope in the face of an extinction crisis and climate emergency.’

This story is grounded in rich cultural heritage dating back more than 40,000 years, in a place that colonial Australia had once destined to be little more than a quarry and oilfield. Over 2000 hours of footage was shot over a 2-year period for this, portraying the extraordinary resurgence of culture and country happening here.

You’ll also hear some of the wonderful soundtrack from the film, in this episode.

This conversation was recorded on 5 May 2023.

Title slide: Tim releasing a very eager rescued turtle (from the film).

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

The Sargassum piece, by Ash Gibson Greig, off the soundtrack for Ningaloo Nyinggulu, with the kind permission of Artemis Media and the artist.

Find more:
Watch the trailer of Ningaloo Nyinggulu. It premieres in Australia on the ABC from Tuesday 16 May 2023. The global release can be streamed on Love Nature & Sky Nature.

Tim’s national tour dates, starting Saturday 13 May in Victoria (all shows sold out except for Kyneton on Saturday night – waiting lists available in some cases).

Join in the Protect Ningaloo campaign.

For more with Tim Winton, listen to episode 81.

And to hear more about the archaeological work, listen to episode 83 with Peter Veth.

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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 last week’s episode, we heard from Dr Katherine Trebeck on the latest significant developments in the domain of wellbeing, regenerative or just plain good economics. You might remember Katherine alluded to a brilliant conversation she had been part of a few days prior, for the launch of a major new report and project by not-for-profit outfit, Sustainable Table.

Regenerative farmer and award-winning writer, Tanya Massy, is the lead author of that report, part of an all-star team frankly, including a number of past guests on this podcast. And on this day, she and Katherine were joined by two truly trailblazing international guests, CEO of Cienaga Capital, Esther Park, and CEO of Steward, Dan Miller. With an opening statement from Wiradjuri man and director at Black Duck Foods, Joshua Staines.

3.00 - Anthony setting the scene
7.20 - Panel conversation
56.30 - Tanya Massy re a stand out case study from the report, leading into audience questions
83.50 - Tanya’s closing words including how we can each engage from here.

Head here for automatic cues to those chapter markers.

This conversation was recorded online with live audience on 20 April 2023.

Title slide: A screen shot of the panel and some of the Sustainable Table team on the day (L-R: CEO Jade Miles, Megan O’Malley, Kristie Van de Velde, Anthony James, Tanya Massy, Katherine Trebeck, Jess Eddy, Esther Park, Justin Wolfgang, Hayley Morris, Dan Miller).

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

Find more:
Sustainable Table web version of the report.

Hear more from Tanya Massy on episode 115, Serenity Hill on episode 126, and Jade Miles on episode 128.

And you can hear a very special conversation with Carol Sanford on episode 150.

Watch the launch of Sustainable Table’s major new report on Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming, which includes the presentations of Sustainable Table Chair Hayley Morris, and lead author Tanya Massy, at the outset.

Have your say in the Australian government’s Measuring what matters, second consultation process, ending 26 May 2023.

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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!

Dr Katherine Trebeck helps make sense of the state of our economy, amidst recurrent gloomy global forecasts, and stark reports about what’s really driving such drastic inflation and inequality. All that informs the back half of our chat on some recent significant global shifts towards economies that make more sense here and now, and that are inherently designed to work well for people and planet.

This includes an opportunity to get involved here in Australia, with our federal government’s current initiative, and last week’s major project launch by the Sustainable Table team. And we look at some of the stories that are really blazing the trail - beyond profit, financial returns and GDP.

Dr Katherine Trebeck is co-founder of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance and the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments. Now back in Australia, Katherine is also a senior advisor for The Next Economy (featured in episode 134 of the podcast), and co-author of The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy.

This conversation was recorded in Canberra on 23 April 2023.

Title slide: Katherine Trebeck, just as we were about to record.

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

Find more:
Katherine’s website.

Hear more from Katherine on episode 99, and more of her life story on episode 29.

Have your say in the Australian government’s Measuring what matters, second consultation process, ending 26 May 2023.

Join us at a mini-festival with community forum hosted by Anthony James this Sunday 7 May.

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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!

Last week's episode with Dr Alessandro Pelizzon contained a series of global paradigm shifting updates in its last 15 minutes or so. So this week's release is an excerpt of that part of the episode, in case you missed it.

We pick up our conversation at the back half of Alessandro's announcement that he is co-founding a new place of education – akin to the Schumacher College in the UK - offering more of the education we need in these times. And we go on to the rapid developments around the world in the Rights of Nature, along with the recent rescinding by the Pope of the Doctrine of Discovery (if you don't know how significant that is, Alessandro explains).

Title slide: a view of the northern rivers region of NSW, where this conversation took place (pic: Anthony James).

Find more:
Tune into the full episode 159, where you'll also find a few links.

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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!

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 headed out of Brisbane this week to Camp Mountain, to learn about some of the regenerative work being done around there. One of the outstanding places I visited nearby was where Loop Growers happens. Alice Star and Phil Garozzo, hairdresser and marketing graduate respectively, are its founders.

They call it a ‘bio-intensive market garden’, which produces a wide range of chemical free fruit and veg that feeds their growing community of households and local businesses. The loop they refer to comprises 15 cafes, restaurants, bars and brewers who provide their excess organic materials (read, not waste) to feed the worms at the farm, which the farm in turn, cycles back as fresh produce. A functional loop at one level, and at another, a paradigm change in the heart of the places we gather.

With tiny houses, event space and seed bank also emerging onsite, that initial loop is just the start of it. Though it could also have been the end, as the biblical-scale floods of last year almost wiped them out entirely. How this community is rebounding together says so much about what’s possible everywhere.

This conversation was recorded at Loop Growers in the Samford Valley around 30 kilometres outside of Brisbane, on 31 March 2023.

Title slide: Phil & Alice by the creek where we had our conversation.

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
No Such Thing As Waste, by Formidable Vegetable.

Find more:
Loop Growers.

Broadsheet piece with a series of photos at Loop Growers from before and after the flood.

Bush Tekniq.

Upcoming launch of Sustainable Table report on Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.

GoFundMe page set up by the family of Carol Sanford (our guest in ep 150).

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!

Yesterday I hosted a yarn with two brilliant First Nations guests at the World Science Festival in Brisbane, to discuss 'the rise of regenerative agriculture, the intersection with First Nations Knowledges, and the synergies for a harmonious and sustainable future on earth'.

Barkandji woman Zena Cumpston (aka Zena Sky Ranger) is a writer, researcher and story-teller who has also curated some exceptional exhibitions including Emu Sky. She is passionate about plants, particularly the many ways they elucidate the ingenuity and scientific knowledge of her people. Indeed, Zena has co-authored a new book called Plants: Past, Present & Future – the latest in the First Knowledges series – that featured in Booktopia’s ‘best non-fiction’ list for 2022. Her writing also appears in the extraordinary anthology Unlimited Futures, and in the Federal Government's pivotal 2021 State of the Environment Report.

Jacob Birch is a self-described native grains die-hard. He’s an academic, entrepreneur and Churchill Fellow who is working towards reawakening and restoring the grassland foodways that sustained his Gamilaraay ancestors for thousands of generations. Walking within and between many convergent spaces, including lecturing in regenerative agriculture, Jacob is helping to reignite the native grain economy, led by First Nations people, for the benefit of all people. He has just led a national consultation and authored the Australian Native Grains Strategic Plan. And works with the Yunus Centre to develop innovative business frameworks for the native grain industry.

This conversation was recorded live at the World Science Festival Brisbane, in the Cremorne Theatre at QPAC, on 26 March 2023.

Title slide: Zena, Anthony & Jacob against the backdrop of one of the native grain farms Jacob talks about, that was the cover image for the event.

See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

Meanjin Sunrise, by local Aboriginal artists, played as we got ready to take to the stage.

Find more:
Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane.

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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!

Daniel Christian Wahl is the world-renowned author of Designing Regenerative Cultures, still being translated into various languages years after release. Daniel’s also called himself a consultant, educator, activist, speaker, blogger, weaver, catalyst - he’s also become a farmer of sorts, which you’ll hear more about today, along with some other very interesting and entirely relevant parts of his life – like marine biology, martial arts, permaculture, his ongoing learning with elders, and how he looks to live it all, in what has become his home in Mallorca, Spain.

Daniel's blog on Medium is followed by over 25,000 people, and his online advocacy has a combined audience of over 850,000 people around the world. He was an RSA Bicentenary Medal recipient for Regenerative Design in 2021, a Volans Fellow in 2022, and was previously the Director of Findhorn College.

Daniel actually first reached out to me a few years ago, with kind words after my conversation with the late Hazel Henderson, someone we both admired a lot. And for him, as for many, the years since have included some tumult and burn out. All of which made this a doubly cherished conversation, as Daniel talks publicly in a way he never has before, in a moment of great reflection about the state of things and how to approach it.

This conversation was recorded online with Daniel at home in Mallorca, on 15 March 2023.

Title slide: Daniel Christian Wahl in the Tramuntana mountains near Lluc (source).

Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.

Find more:
Daniel’s highly acclaimed book, translated into multiple languages, Designing Regenerative Cultures.

Daniel with Satish Kumar on his YouTube channel recently.

Daniel’s ongoing writing on Medium.

Join me with special guests at Regenerating Country, this weekend, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.

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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!