The RegenNarration

On Monday 28 September, one of this country’s most awarded and long-standing documentary series, Australian Story, featured regenerative farmer and best-selling author, Charles Massy AO. Charles’ best-selling book, ‘Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, A New Earth’ has been described by Paul Hawken as “a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence.”

Charles writes and talks about the growing repertory of stories of what are in some cases extraordinary tales of regeneration – including his own. He also takes a look behind that regeneration, at how change happens not just in the land, but in the landscape of our minds.

This is an extract of my conversation with Charles Massy at his Severn Park farm a couple of years ago, just prior to his touring the global edition of the book. You’ll hear the last half hour or so of what became episode 32, ‘An Underground Insurgency: Regenerative Agriculture & Human Transformation’. It remains one of the top handful of episodes played on this podcast, and one of my most cherished and memorable conversations.

Title slide: New trees as part of the patchwork restoring biodiversity, ecological & farm function (pic: Anthony James).

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 32, ‘An Underground Insurgency: Regenerative Agriculture & Human Transformation’. You’ll find a series of links in the show notes there too, including to an extra with Charles, and photos on the episode web page.

Watch the Australian Story episode on Charles, streaming worldwide.

And if you'd like to hear more from Dianne and Ian Haggerty, also featured in the Australian Story episode on Charles, listen to our recent conversation on location in the WA wheat belt.

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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!

There are so many notable parts of this episode with Tyson Yunkaporta that, true to the title of this extract, invite you to come sit with us for the hour and a bit of the main episode (and the extra if you'd like more). But having said that, this is another little extract I did want to highlight. It’s our foundational exchange early in the piece on long-form podcasting being the new camp fire.

Particularly in the absence of being around a real fire for much of this year, I like Tyson’s articulation of this frame. And his subsequent reflection on what this says about our allegedly shrinking attention spans.

Title slide: Tyson with his daughter at the launch of Sand Talk (supplied – full pic is on the web page of the main episode, linked below).

You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’.

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to an extra with Tyson. There are a series of photos on the main episode page too.

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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 an extract of my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta from the end of episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’. It starts with me suggesting to Tyson, in the wake of our conversation to this point, that a particular tale in his book might offer us a touchstone for our yarn. It turns out he’d never been asked about this part of his book before, but I’d noted it’s something he thinks about every day. The minutes that ensued have stayed with me since – and Tyson too, I’ve been humbled to learn.

And they run here into an awesome story surrounding his choice of music. While, in a way, it’s tough to take this out of the ‘camp fire’ context of our conversation, this sequence might not just offer a touchstone for this yarn, but in many ways for the podcast as a whole.

Title slide: Oldman Juma, in a photo from the launch of Sand Talk. Tyson and his young daughter also appear in this photo, which you can find in full on the main episode page below (pic supplied by Tyson).

You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’. 

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to an extra with Tyson, and there's a series of photos on the website too.

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 extra to episode 70 features the rest of my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta, author of the award-winning book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. This is the part of our conversation that picked up after Tyson’s toilet stop. We delve further here into the universality of loss in being separated from land, the fascinating convergence of thinking around the centrality of the gut to our larger intelligence or big spirit, and the essential value of being with those different to us.

Title slide: Tyson Yunkaporta (source: the Team Human podcast).

Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode 70, Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, living creation & saving the world.

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes there too, along with some additional photos on the website.

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!

Tyson Yunkaporta is the author of award-winning book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, and a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne. He’s also a poet and artist carving traditional tools and weapons, processes that were central to writing the book. Tyson belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York in far north Queensland, with community/cultural ties all over Australia.

Fellow Indigenous writer, last year’s Miles Franklin Award winner Melissa Lucashenko, called Sand Talk ‘An extraordinary invitation into the world of the Dreaming’. Tommy Orange, best-selling author of ‘There There’, said ‘This book shows how vital and alive and essential Indigenous ways of being and thinking are.’

Tyson’s Australian publisher Text describes the book as looking at global systems from an Indigenous perspective, asking how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, and how we can do things differently. A few months ago, Sand Talk was published internationally by Harper Collins, with this statement: A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living.

Well, it’ll be wonderfully new to many, and of course profoundly old to others. Either way, it’s rich and essential terrain to be travelling together. Especially with the spirit of generosity and trust that Tyson embodies here. I’m still feeling deeply moved by this one. And frankly, changed again.

This conversation was recorded Thursday 13 August.

Title slide: Tyson Yunkaporta from Australian publisher Text’s promotional video for the book.

Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
You can hear more of my conversation with Tyson in the extra to this episode, This Galactic Executive Function.

Original Australian version of ‘Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World’, published by Text.

International version of the book, published by Harper Collins.

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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!

This is an extract from what has quickly become one of the most played episodes on this podcast - and the second most played episode in the last year (behind only my conversation with Zach Bush MD, the keynote international guest to RCS Australia’s Conference scheduled next year). It features the last 20 minutes of my conversation with Terry McCosker for episode 67, Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia: Dr Terry McCosker on life, death and learning true power.

We talk about the power of intention, where the regenerative economy is at in Australia (prompted by a revealing exchange with Hunter Lovins on her home state of Colorado in episode 61), some of Terry’s pioneering story and the history of a movement, the perspectives he’s come to from all that, and his compelling belief and vision for Australia and beyond.

Title slide: off the RCS website.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 67.

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to a special extra with Terry.

You can also hear my conversation with Terry’s close friends and fellow regenerative agriculture pioneers, Dianne and Ian Haggerty, on location in the wheat belt of WA, for episode 68. 

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 is an extract from my conversation with Dianne and Ian Haggerty for episode 68, Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health and community. You'll hear the last 20 minutes of the main episode, back at the homestead, after we’d been getting around a couple of the farms over the preceding days.

We talk about how the Haggerty's are creating and supporting ‘work to own’ and value-add enterprises to help regenerate community on country. This is a great place to live, they say, with plenty of space and opportunity. And they’re helping people do it. We go on to chat about what’s amazed them, and ignited others, on their extraordinary regenerative journey. And given they’ll tell you they’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible, we explore how people everywhere can go about it.

Title slide: Di, Ian & Anthony recording on location in the wheat belt of Western Australia (pic: Olivia Cheng).

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’.

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to some extras. There are a series of photos on the main episode page too.

You can also hear my conversation with Mark Taylor from Miller & Baker in North Perth (talked about in this extract) for episode 69, ‘Communities Were Built Around This: The return of the miller and baker’.

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!

Mark Taylor is the miller and baker at the Miller + Baker store, recently opened in North Perth. It is a spectacular American Stone Mill (the first of its kind in Western Australia), and an amazing bakery, but that’s not the half of it. You might remember in my conversation with pioneering regenerative farmers Dianne and Ian Haggerty, for episode 68, that they mentioned some of their ‘natural intelligence’ grains go to this local miller and baker. Well, I’ve followed the grain’s trail to hear more of this brilliant story.

Mark had barely even run a mill before embarking on this adventure. But with wife Rachel, they found an increasing passion for it, and a growing base of support, and opened late last year. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, and partly because it, business has taken off. They find themselves open every day of the week now, with rapidly growing volumes of regeneratively grown grains coming in from the wheat belt, and out via the mill. And their vision has only just begun.

Mark was kind enough to show me around this pretty special venture – the sort of local processor and store that seems so central to what is needed now – for healthier food and communities, secure and joyful supply chains, and no less than a functional living world as a whole.

Title slide: supplied (see more photos on the episode web page).

Music:
Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.

Find more:
Miller + Baker.

Hear more about where the grains come from, in my conversation with Dianne & Ian Haggerty on location in the wheat belt: Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community. 

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 additional extra to episode 68 features a series of conversations at the homestead that were reluctantly cut from the main episode, along with some off-the-record exchanges around the fire one evening. Together, they chart an important and moving part of the story. From how business is being done with the natural intelligence system, and the opportunities being sought for all – and not just with carbon; to the intuitive depth underpinning their re-connection with Country, and how we might better engage with the land and its traditional custodians to bring that to the forefront.

We start by the fire, where families and friends gathered at dusk. You’ll hear some of those voices in the off-the-record grabs in the second half of this extra. Then jump in the ute with us, as we head back to the homestead.

Title slide: The view from the off-the-record fireside conversation that features in this extra (pic: Anthony James).

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’.

You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to another extra on the Haggerty’s back story.

You’ll find a series of photos on the main episode page too.

You can also hear my conversation with Terry McCosker (Terry is referenced towards the end of this extra) for episode 67, ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in 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!

In this extra to episode 68, we delve into the fascinating back story of Di and Ian’s ‘world breakthrough’ operation. We talk about how they came to their key insights and breakthroughs, Di’s formative experience in the health industry, what owning a remote roadhouse taught them, some of the extraordinary people, places and communities who’ve influenced them on the journey, and yes, how they were told they’d never make it.

Ian and Di Haggerty were raised in farming families. They’re both of the wheat belt in WA. But that line of work didn’t pan out initially, so they headed to other places and professions. When running a roadhouse in the remote Kimberley of Western Australia, they spent formative time with Aboriginal communities and influential pastoralists, and the lights were switched on. They picked up a degraded farm back in the wheat belt and transformed it. That’s now the foundation of their regenerative mission, progressively picking up farms, now totalling around 65,000 acres, each on the regenerative path with staggering speed and success.

Title slide: The sheep at the heart of the ‘natural intelligence’ operation, grazing in the distance under the rainbow (pic: Anthony James).

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’. (You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too.)

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!