The RegenNarration

Hugh Mackay is Australia’s preeminent social researcher, and a prolific bestselling author. He has spent sixty years speaking with people in their homes and workplaces, reflecting back to us key insights about who we are – and why we are the way we are. So it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about what we’re like, and by extension how we might best get ourselves through this time of significant transition.

Hugh’s latest book is Australia Reimagined. And while focused on this country, it very much deals with global patterns and concerns. He takes the growing global epidemic of anxiety and depression as the touchstone of what we’re doing to each other, and the rest of the living world. And in turn, the touchstone of what we need to and can change.

The publisher’s blurb on the book states that our ‘unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or harmonious society. Individualism is rampant. Income inequality is growing. Public education is under-resourced. The gender revolution is stalling. We no longer trust our major institutions or our political leaders. We are more socially fragmented, more anxious, more depressed, more overweight, more medicated, deeper in debt and increasingly addicted - whether to our digital devices, drugs, pornography or 'stuff'.’

But there is another story to tell, one that is responding to that trajectory, and that is powering Hugh’s optimism. It all starts in our streets, he says, and from there to the systems we live by, the stories we’re currently buying, and the ones we can create for ourselves.

Hugh spoke with Anthony at his home in Canberra a few weeks ago.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
On Hugh & his latest book, Australia Reimagined: Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society.

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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!

Paul Hawken describes Damon Gameau as an ‘extraordinary artist, visionary, storyteller, and craftsman of the future.’ Damon is the creator of That Sugar Film - the record-breaking, award-winning documentary that, through its extraordinary success, became That Sugar Movement. Damon’s now turned his attention to climate change, with his next film '2040' coming out next year. He met up with Anthony a few weeks ago just after 2040 had been completed.

2040 is described as an aspirational film about the possibility to make changes that will shift the course for future generations. It is a positive vision for the future, structured as an open letter to his young daughter, and again it is gearing up to be so much more than just a film. As with ‘Sugar’, this was a very personal journey - as someone who himself was shutting down on news about climate change. And also like ‘Sugar’, Damon found the appetite for this film was enormous. The money was raised for 2040 in just days. And millions more was raised for the outreach program, in mere minutes.

Damon talks with Anthony about the film, how he’s found story-telling can reach people with these sorts of issues, and what that means for the possibility of positive change. He also talks about how his own life has changed, and what he’s learned in the process of creating these documentaries, and subsequently trying to keep up with the response.

Tellingly, in creating what was nominally to be a film about climate change, he found that emissions reductions are ‘just the bonus, the icing on the cake’. Through years of research and consultation with some of the leading figures and communities grappling with these issues, he found a much richer, promising and universal focus.

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
2040 the film.

That Sugar Film & Movement.

The Mai Wiru Sugar Challenge Foundation.

The Mai Wiru website.

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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 month saw the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that triggered the GFC. It was a fitting occasion to launch a new global alliance on the streets of New York City - the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, poetically abbreviated to WEAll. The Alliance has come about through a collaboration of some of the most influential and inspiring figures in this space. One of them is Dr Katherine Trebeck, the Alliance’s Research Director. She’s also an author, with her new book out next year, ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown-up economy’.

WEAll is set up to help bring about the transformation of the economic system, society and its institutions, so that we prioritise shared wellbeing on a healthy planet. How will it do that? How did it come about? Who’s involved so far, and how do more of us join in?

Katherine talks with Anthony about all this, along with some key developments like the new Wellbeing Economy Governments coalition being launched at the OECD’s Wellbeing Forum next month, and some of her instructive personal journey into the very heart of how we organise ourselves.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
WEAll website.

Katherine's new book, The Economics of Arrival.

Our episodes with Kate Raworth, Bob Costanza, and John Fullerton.

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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!

Today we feature an Australian first, in an area that is developing fast globally, and potentially helping to redefine how money, business and the economy work. It’s called equity crowdfunding. It’s based on the crowdfunding model most of us are probably familiar with, though here it’s used to raise investment capital. The federal legislation for this is new in Australia, and Food Connect seeks to become the first social enterprise in this country – or as they would say, ‘systems enterprise’ - to successfully use the tool.

Food Connect is no ordinary enterprise. It’s really a phenomenon in Brisbane, that has germinated other developments in its mold all over the country. It began with the dramatic transformation of farmer Robert Pekin, and a model connecting farmer to eater more directly, fairly, and healthily, called Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA).

The business has since developed, with the help of his now wife Emma-Kate Rose, into so much more. And most pointedly, in their sights now, are the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now they aim to raise $2-4 million, to enable a transformative vision, beginning with the purchase of the premises they’ve been operating out of for a little over a decade.

This is the remarkable story of a dairy farmer gone broke and ‘mad’, as he puts it in all sincerity. And a chance meeting with a woman who ended up selling her house to invest in the enterprise, such was her belief in it, while dedicating her life to making it work. So how does Food Connect and equity crowdfunding work? What would investing in Food Connect look like with this crowdfund model? And how does it change the systems and stories we live by, from ‘back-end’ food ‘rescue’ operations, to impact investing, to our broader economy and culture?

Join Rob and Emma-Kate as they chat with Anthony upstairs at the Food Connect warehouse.

Update: The crowdfunder was successful, raising over $2m.

Music:
Sounds of the Forest.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Food Connect Foundation.

The bio’s of Emma-Kate and Robert.

Food Connect enterprise.

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 unique region of Australia is famous for its ancient land and culture, luminous hot springs, and the best-selling book by Jeannie Gunn 'We of the Never Never'. It’s also developing renown for being an engine room for regenerating land, food and related systems.

Moira Lanzarin is a business woman, an artist, a mother, and a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. She’s been central to the introduction of Holistic Management in the Northern Territory of Australia, as Director of the family station at Coodardie.

And her awards tell the tale. They include the Centenary Medal for Services to Regional Australia, NT Young Cattleman award (and no, she doesn’t flinch at being recognised as a Cattleman), NT Rural Woman of the Year Runner Up, and NT Young Australian of the Year. She has extensive board experience at a local, Territory and national level within industry and Government. From 2012 to 2016 she served as Director of Soils for Life - an Outcomes Australian Project under the Chairmanship of past Governor General, Michael Jefferies.

Moira is a clear leader, not just in pastoralism, but in the life of this country. Her insights are as relevant to city-dwellers, as they are to those living outside of them. On how healthy living as a family can be the backbone of regenerating country, why connection with country is so important, how the current nation-wide water contamination crisis should amplify concern about fracking proposals, and what else is most needed for us to create a regenerative society - particularly in the context of the pace, pressure and mindset of modern life.

Join Moira, and some of the other Coodardie locals, as she takes time out with Anthony on the country she calls home.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Coodardie Station.

The disastrous water issue Moira mentions, a little north of Coodardie in Katherine, is now the subject of a town-wide class action with possible repercussions around the country.

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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!

The 2nd National New Economy conference in Australia began with a couple of witty and profound keynote addresses. Together, Professor Ian Lowe and Aboriginal elder Dr Mary Graham craft a deft balance between gravity and levity, authority and guidance, and everyday language with a breadth of insight that genuinely captivates.

Ian is an Order of Australia medal winner, former President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and author of over 20 books. He talks of current trajectories and patterns, offering a broad take on what’s required and what has worked for social movements most effectively in the past.

Mary is a highly respected Aboriginal elder, Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, and a consultant in Aboriginal community planning and development. She offers a sweeping perspective on ‘First Nations Economics’ and its relevance to our society today.

And tellingly, both speakers converge on the moral aspect of achieving the new economy transition. So what are the most important elements – the critical parametres - of the new economy? And how do we go about harnessing them towards making that new economy our reality?

With thanks to Scotty Foster for the production of, and permission to use, the recordings of these keynotes.

Music:
Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Find more:
Professor Ian Lowe.

Dr Mary Graham.

New Economy Network Australia (NENA) website (including international links). 

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!

Due to the popularity of  episode 25, and the fact that we hated editing this part out of the main episode to begin with, here’s Chris talking with Anthony back at the homestead about the back-story to Kachana. They explore Chris’s formative beginnings in Rhodesia, how the family came to acquire this disused part of the famed El Questro, and the personal changes that were needed for the great successes at Kachana to be realised.

And just in case the wind played too much havoc with our recording in the field, Chris and Anthony delved a little further here into some of the key issues from the main episode - the importance of having people on country, along with of course the new megafauna, how holistic grazing works with cattle (and donkeys) as today’s diprotodons, the value of the AWC and its conservation model, and what needs to change to help other pastoralists regenerate the land.

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

Find more:
Kachana Station.

Tune into the main episode 25, The New Megafauna with Chris Henggeler.

And the 1st extra to this episode, Creating the Kachana Vision with Jacqueline Henggeler.

This is a special 2nd extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series. Listen to podcasts 21 and 22 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.

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 story of Kachana Station and its success is steeped in a family’s adventure. Jacqueline Henggeler is the Swiss paediatric nurse who joined Chris in the remote East Kimberley with their 3 children, to follow a vision for living together as a family on the land. It has been rich, and challenging. From sleeping in the back of a ute in the early days, to home schooling, to facing down the deep trials of life, she has ultimately revelled in a path less travelled.

Jacqui’s insights on the broader project that Chris spearheaded, of regenerating the land, present a fascinating and moving outsider’s view of sorts. Including into how they’ve made it work as a family, financially and socially, how she has sustained a life many couldn’t, and ultimately how her work with the local indigenous folk has taught her the most important thing in life.

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

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Kachana Station.

Tune into the main episode 25 The New Megafauna, and the 2nd extra to this episode The Kachana Back-Story.

This is a special extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series. Listen to episodes 21 and 22 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.

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!

Can the new mega-fauna regenerate land and water systems, take away the need for systematic fire regimes and culling programs, and ultimately be the key to our future prosperity?

Kachana is a remote station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, accessible only by plane or foot. Chris Henggeler and his family have run it for over a generation now. From the early days sleeping in the back of a ute, they set about living a vision for a healthy family life on the land, while regenerating the grasses, forests and wetlands that had largely turned to dust.

A generation later, Chris is a leading figure in the development of holistic grazing in Australia. He runs cattle as ‘gardeners’, as a non-fossil fuel based means of regenerating land. Chris thinks of these animals as the new mega-fauna, the large herbivores we need to restore to the land – along with others too readily designated as ‘pests’ and culled, like the wild donkeys he’s integrated into his management plans.

George Monbiot has contested these methods in a high profile ‘debate’ with Allan Savory. But the successes at Kachana are marked - the creek that runs year-round now provides the homestead with its water, the forest now teems with life, and springs and birdlife are returning to the land.

Join Chris as he takes Anthony for a look around one of the most spectacular places in the world, that could also be one of the most important to our future prospects as a civilisation.

Note: There is the occasional gust of wind in this recording as we walk around the property. We edited out what we could. As for the sounds of family in the background, consistent with the theme of this podcast, they stay.

Music:
43, by Owls of the Swamp.

With the intro tune by Jeremiah Johnson.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Kachana Station.

Tune into two special extras to this episode. The first is a conversation with Jacqueline Henggeler on ‘Creating the Kachana Vision’.

And the second features more on the fascinating back story of Kachana Station, with Chris.

This is the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series. Listen to episodes 21 & 22 for the 1st & 2nd instalments.

You can also hear Charles Massy, mentioned in this podcast, on episode 16, a panel conversation on Grassroots Revolution - and in conversation at his farm with Anthony for episode 32.

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 late Professor Frank Fisher was a pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. He died 6 years ago today. To celebrate his life and insight, we’ve delved into the archives and found this wonderful conversation Frank had with a man who has been described as a legend of science broadcasting, Robyn Williams.

This is no mild walk down memory lane. Their conversation, recorded in 2002, has almost uncanny relevance to so much of what’s happening in the world today. From the fraught terrain of energy transition and human perception, to the enticing prospect of ticketless public transport. And very personal questions of privacy in the context of integrated digital health records, and the broader phenomena of so-called ‘smart’ technologies.

During an adult life shaped largely by his experiences with chronic illness, Frank longed for the sort of digital health record being introduced in Australia and elsewhere, but had a very distinct vision in general for the use of these ‘smart technologies’. In essence, he preferred the ‘smarts’ be located in our minds, more than our machines. He shares various insights here, on how to do just that – regenerating, as he puts it, the wilderness within.

This interview of Frank Fisher by Robyn Williams was originally broadcast on The Science Show, ABC Radio National, on 3 October 2002, and his reproduced here with his kind permission (& joy at hearing Frank's voice again).

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Get more:
Tune into episode 5, Thinking & Living in Systems: In conversation with the late Professor Frank Fisher.

Robyn Williams’ ABC Radio National profile.

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!