The RegenNarration

The Economist reports that despite increasing public concern, and renewable power now costing less than coal in some places, rising energy demand means our use of fossil fuels is heading in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, climate calamities, once considered freakish, are now commonplace. All this emphasises the value and importance of this panel conversation.

Globally renowned energy expert Richard Heinberg joined us online from the USA, alongside one of Australia’s most incisive minds in energy systems and societal futures, Josh Floyd, energy and psychology researcher Dr Andrea Bunting, host Anthony James, and a full house of 200 people. We explore why the transition to renewable energy is essential, though not enough in itself. to create a sustainable, fair & flourishing society. And what we need to do, individually and collectively, to create such a society.

Energy is a rapidly changing space, technologically, financially and in some ways politically, but the equally vital broader terrain of re-calibrating society, our cultural norms, and how we think about and understand energy remains as important as ever.  How much energy do we need? What happens to sectors like transport, agriculture and manufacturing? And what’s the best and most plausible proposal we’ve got for actually making the transition?

Format:
Anthony introduces the session, Richard speaks for 10 minutes, and Josh and Andrea for 5 minutes each. Then it’s an all-in conversation with the audience.

Title slide image: sourced from The Economist.

This event was the 3rd and final forum of the Regenerating Society Series, created by Anthony James in 2017. It was recorded at the National Sustainable Living Festival in the heart of Melbourne. And introduced by Professor Brendan Gleeson, Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, valued partner in the Regenerating Society Series.

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

Find more:
Tune into episode 6. Redefining Progress, the 2nd forum of the Regenerating Society Series, mentioned in this conversation.

Our Renewable Future, by Richard Heinberg & David Fridley (freely available online).

Post-Carbon Institute.

Richard’s award winning video, ‘300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds’. 

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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!

Martin Pritchard is Executive Director of Environs Kimberley (EK). He and his team were central to the successful campaign to prevent what could have been the largest LNG plant in the world, at James Price Point (Walmadan) just north of Broome. It was a celebrated outcome around the country, but in many ways was just the tip of the iceberg of ‘old industry’ plans for the region.

With 40,000+ fracking wells slated for the area, is the future to be an endless succession of ‘James Price Points’? Or are we headed for a watershed moment that sees a shift to a new, regenerative economy?

Martin sees the possibilities for the latter in numerous nascent industries, burgeoning Aboriginal enterprise, and a different way of looking at life, country and economy that the Kimberley and its inhabitants inspire. This unique region has massive swathes of country that haven’t experienced a single extinction since colonisation. In so many ways, what happens next here really matters.

So what’s the vision for the future? What’s working now? How are the various powerful – at times opposing - interests engaged? And what is needed to develop the next economy for this unique region and beyond?

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

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

Find more:
Environs Kimberley.

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 a very special episode celebrating NAIDOC Week in Australia. Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Lower Fitzroy River, in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. And if anywhere epitomizes the critical time we’re in, it’s in the spectacular cultural and natural landscapes of her homeland.

Almost incredibly, there are 40,000+ fracking wells slated for this area, along with the damming of the Fitzroy River, and more ‘old-model’ industrial agriculture. Yet the next economy is also in tow here, and this is where Anne is currently focusing her extraordinary breadth of cross-cultural knowledge and experience.

Anne is an international award winner, Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, Councillor at the Australian Conservation Foundation, a qualified nurse, traditional midwife, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development.

Anthony caught up with her at her home in Broome recently, to talk about what shape the next economy might take in the Kimberley and beyond, how we can make it happen, and the enormous opportunity in treaty, recognition and connection with Australia’s First Nations.

Title slide image: Magali McDuffie.

Music:
Song for the Mardoowarra, by Gwen Knox with Anne Poelina, played by Mick Stevens, and sung by the Broome Primary School Choir.

Find more:
An extract of this conversation was published by the good folk at Matters Journal.

Madjulla.

NAIDOC Week, celebrating Indigenous women in 2018.

Environs Kimberley.

New Economy Network Australia.

Gwen Knox & Big Mama productions.

The film clip of the Song for the Mardoowarra (they will be touring this month in the Kimberley, and are available for bookings from early 2019).

Richard Flanagan at the National Press Club.

Welcome to Country, a new travel guide to Indigenous Australia. 

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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!

An audience of over 200 people joined Dr John Hewson, former federal opposition leader; Mary Crooks AO, Executive Director of the Victorian Women’s Trust; and Chloe Aldenhoven, co-convenor of the Lock The Gate Alliance - which Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews recently called "the greatest political coalition we have seen in public policy for a very long time." Hosted by James Tonson.

The panel explores some of the ideas and spectacular success stories of communities coming together to regenerate our democracy, across generations, gender and geography. And yet how the potential still seems barely realised.

So in the context of dramatically decaying trust in politics, and with multiple transitions to navigate, how do we turn this into a thriving democracy for the 21st century?

Title slide with thanks to the National Sustainable Living Festival.

Anthony's introduction was recorded in the grounds of the University of Notre Dame in Broome, Western Australia.

Find more:
Victorian Women's Trust.

Purple Sage Project.

Lock The Gate Alliance.

Dr John Hewson AM, ANU biography.

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!

Evan Pensini is a pastoralist from the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, on Cheela Plains Station. He and his wife Robin are pulling off some remarkable regeneration of country there, significantly defying official expectations of just how far and fast this land could recover its health and productivity.

So how does the system work, particularly in Australia where hooved animals weren't part of its pre-colonial history? Why don't more pastoralists adopt these methods? What's the value of carbon farming? And is it really inevitable that mining will wipe out everything being achieved here?

Music:
The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.

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

Find more:
Cheela Plains Station.

And listen to episode 16, Grassroots Revolution, with Charles Massy, and David & Frances Pollock from Wooleen Station.

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!

Denise Fitch is a nurse, mum, marine scientist & unlikely leader of the Protect Ningaloo campaign – possibly the next big flashpoint in Australia, as we continue to grapple with transitioning from the dominant extractive, fossil fuel driven model of development, to the next ‘regenerative’ one.

Denise is Chair of the Cape Conservation Group – the local group at the heart of the Protect Ningaloo campaign. She sat under a tree by Exmouth Gulf with host Anthony James to talk about the meaning of place, the latest with the Protect Ningaloo campaign, the great opportunity in it, and what it means to the movement for change more broadly.​

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

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

Find more:
Get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo.

And listen to episode 17 with Tim Winton. 

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 special podcast features one of Australia’s great writers, National Living Treasure, and reluctant activist, Tim Winton, direct from the World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.

Tim has again donated his prize money from a recent literature award to help launch a campaign to protect this area, called Protect Ningaloo. He has also been touring the country extensively with the publication of his brilliant new novel, The Shepherd’s Hut.

Along the way, he’s been talking a lot about manhood and masculinity, and the problem with our narrow – even toxic - view of it. This wide-ranging conversation with host Anthony James explores why that matters, along with fiction and the arts generally, and what it's all got to do with Ningaloo and the state of the world more broadly.​

Music:
The sounds of Ningaloo.

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

Find more:
Get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo.

The Shepherd’s Hut.

Breath, Simon Baker's film adaptation of another of Tim's award-winning novels (which premiered in Sydney the night before this conversation).

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!

Over 250 people filled The Dome at the recent National Sustainable Living Festival for this feature forum hosted by Anthony James, with special guests Frances Jones & David Pollock from Wooleen Station, and regenerative farmer Charles Massy AO.

Frances Jones and David Pollock’s radical project to remove income-earning livestock from their historic property, in remote Western Australia, shocked their entire district, and has gone on to produce remarkable results.

Charles Massy's ground-breaking new book features a range of similar experiments. It is a comprehensive account of how a grassroots revolution is helping to turn climate change around, while building healthy people, communities and landscapes.

Many thanks to our sponsors for this event - Sustain: the Australian Food Network, the William Angliss Institute & the National Sustainable Living Festival.

Find more:
Charles Massy's book, Call of the Reed Warbler.

Wooleen Station.

And tune into podcast 9 for an in-depth conversation with Frances Jones at Wooleen Station.

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!

Following on from our 2-part series in conversation with Paul Hawken, here is his sold out keynote address and Q&A from the recent National Sustainable Living Festival.​

It's hard to overstate the significance of Project Drawdown. There hasn't previously been anything like it. So this keynote packed a real punch.​ It builds on a scathing critique of science communication, 'big agriculture', and the limitations of the Al Gore and Elon Musk phenomena, to present a comprehensive, holistic and uplifting outline of the 'top 100 solutions to reverse global warming' that feature in his new best-seller 'Drawdown'.​

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

Find more:
Project Drawdown.

Paul's website.

Tune into part 1 of Paul and Anthony's conversation.

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!