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

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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.

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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.

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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

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• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
• The new Substack (for the same benefits as Patreon)
• Or Buzzsprout (without additional benefits).

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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.

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Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
• The new Substack (for the same benefits as Patreon)
• Or Buzzsprout (without additional benefits).

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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 fasc

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Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
• The new Substack (for the same benefits as Patreon)
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How does a local radio show run with and for children become a global phenomenon - with plenty of adult listeners too? All the more in an age of media disruption and decline, with the ongoing struggle of not only mainstream media models, but public and alternative ones too. In just six years, The Children’s Hour is approaching a listenership of one million people, heard on demand as a weekly podcast and on more than 160 stations in 6 countries. That stratospheric growth started with a pivot – when this local volunteer-run public radio show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became a not-for-profit organisation with loftier ambitions.

Katie Stone became its Executive Director, having been a volunteer for 17 years before that. Today Katie shares this incredible story with us, as we take a seat in the show’s renewably powered studio, alongside 15 year old announcer Amadeus Menendez. Amadeus started with the show as it pivoted, and has grown with it since he was nine. And as the awards roll in, the next generation’s ambitions become loftier still.

Katie and Amadeus share how the show expanded globally, filling educational gaps and teaching media literacy and civics to children globally. Amadeus recounts his experiences engaging with experts like a NASA astronaut (in space!) and the treasurer of New Mexico. And together they emphasize the importance of positive, affirming messages and actionable responses to current events, ensuring that media educates and inspires without commercial influence, and across political divides.

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 16 June 2024.

Title slide: Katie & Amadeus at Sun Spot Studio after our conversation (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.

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
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Our final episode last year was titled Achieving Consensus and Commitment to do the ‘Impossible’. It featured Jeff Goebel, and drew an enormous response from listeners, a number of whom have continued to work with Jeff since. So when I knew we were heading to the States, I reached out to Jeff. And soon after, he got in touch to say he was going to be hosting a workshop soon - would I like to come and be part of it? Would I what! It was one fascinating and enlightening experience. In so many ways. So the morning after the workshop, Jeff and I sat down on the front porch at his beautiful place in New Mexico to chat about it.

The first half is on the workshop, and in the back half we go on to talk about two other key issues. Firstly, how the processes Jeff runs can help transform how finance can work for more of the good stuff we well know is possible, in all sorts of areas. And secondly, how his current efforts are going, to attract major funding to build this capacity in people globally, in the process of addressing our toughest problems everywhere.

More on Jeff: Jeff became a Holistic Management trainer with Allan Savory in the mid-80s. But pretty soon felt it was missing something, as did Allan. Then a series of uncanny events and outstanding successes in Jeff’s life, including a pivotal experience with First Nations, set him on a path of what he calls community consensus work. He is now globally renowned for developing a highly effective program of respectful listening, visioning, and planning that attains 100% consensus - and commitment - of all parties, in all sorts of contexts. And often where human conflict and land degradation are at their worst.

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 in Belén, New Mexico, on 30 May 2024.

Title slide: AJ & Jeff during this conversation (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,

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Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
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The Navajo Diné Nation is the biggest First Nation in the US, crossing Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. There we connected with Diné elder James Skeet, and his brilliant wife Joyce - descendant of award-winning Mennonite farmers in Pennsylvania. Together, they founded Spirit Farm, and the educational non-profit Covenant Pathways.

Spirit Farm is a demonstration and experiential farm focused on healing the high desert southwestern soil, and the communities living there. They do this by weaving insights from modern holistic management and regenerative agriculture, with the ancient wisdom of dryland farming and Native American cosmology. And they’ve created a suite of incredible value-add enterprises that importantly don’t perpetuate the commodisation of food, land and culture. While their education and employment programs bring others along with a range of experiences on the land, such that they’re now called upon around the country and the world. Which is part of where this conversation culminates - with the extraordinary sharing of spiritual stewardship with an African American community, and the profound implications – and inspiration - for all of us.

We sat down together by an ancient spring and sweat lodge for this. And close with something special from the following morning.

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

Recorded 27 May 2024. With thanks to podcast member Chris Diehl for introducing us.

Title slide: Joyce & James Skeet at Spirit Farm (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.

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

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
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Steve Mushin is an award-winning industrial designer and inventor, and an old mate from when we both were part of the team at CERES – the legendary community environment park in inner Melbourne. He’s also now the author of children’s book ‘Ultrawild: An audacious plan to rewild every city on earth’ (Allen & Unwin). Eight years in the making, it's an intricately illustrated book exploring visions for rapidly transforming cities to reverse climate change and species extinction. The book contains over 100 ludicrous sounding, and just maybe possible inventions, illustrated with over 1,000 drawings. It’s packed with curious facts on everything from how plants and fungi share resources and the soil engineering power of megafauna, to insect and mechanical flight, high-tech microbe-powered toilets and much more.

It took me a little while to pry the book from my boy’s hands for a read. And it’s fair to say my brain was bending with the force of Steve’s lens on the world - always a welcome thing. Equally welcome were the parts of our conversation here where we delved into how rewilding might square with the rapid mass deployment of industrial technologies like renewables, EVs and so on. As well as how it might square with a vegan or omnivorous diet, with Steve firmly in the vegan camp, and me? Well, long-time listeners of this podcast will have heard some of my journey from vegetarian to omnivore, largely through the experience of the podcast. Yes, here’s a bit of the George Monbiot/Allan Savory stouch - without the stouch!

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode website), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).

Recorded online with Steve at home in Aotearoa New Zealand on 5 April 2024.

Title slide: Steve at work (supplied).

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

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film

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Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

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A couple of weeks ago, I received some big news. The California State Assembly unanimously passed what’s been dubbed the ‘Beaver Bill’. Yes, California is bringing the beaver back. For those who might not be fully across how big this news is, the beaver is a keystone species that assists in restoring watershed and ecosystem functions in areas that need them most. And in an era of warming, fire and desertification, and with insurers leaving the state in droves, recognition of this is growing here. That’s with thanks to the community that’s been building a campaign for 25 years. And this is just the tip of the beaver dam of what they’ve been up to in that time.

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, and as it happens, has also just been announced as the 2024 Non-profit of the Year for its Senate District. It’s a wonderfully restored 80-acre residential, research, demonstration, advocacy and organizing center in Sonoma County, California, a bit over 50 miles north of San Francisco. And extending out from there, it develops strategies for regional-scale community resilience, working with tribes, non-government organizations, private landowners, and an array of agencies to achieve this, locally and internationally.

So you can imagine how happy I was to meet one of its co-founders while we were in California, Brock Dolman. A man Judith Schwartz describes as an all-round brilliant natural historian, restoration practitioner, teacher and raconteur. All of that is in evidence in this conversation, as we trace Brock’s fascinating life journey from military child to adventurous seeker to founding the OAEC with some other ‘crazy people’ with little money. And how together they would become a powerhouse at bringing people together for increasingly remarkable regeneration.

As always, head here for chapter markers. You can find a transcript there too (also available on Apple and some other apps), which is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.

Recorded 9 May 2024.

Title slide: Brock Dolman.

See more photos on the website, and for more from behi

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Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on:

• Patreon (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge for new subscribers by subscribing on your laptop or PC).
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• Or Buzzsprout (without additional benefits).

Or DONATE:

• Directly via the website (avoiding fees).
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You can also:

• Visit The RegenNarration shop.
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Thanks for your support!