Back on Earth Day in April 2024, we started our journey of the Americas with friend of the podcast, legendary best-selling author, Paul Hawken. It was just ahead of the release of his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life. So we recorded a podcast in his incredible garden about it (along with some other life story stuff). 

Later we thought it could be good to record a pod just walking and talking around the steeply sloped streets of his local neighbourhood, among the redwoods - see what this tallest of tree species had to say too. Alas, with both our travels at the time, we didn’t get to it. But having managed to return to northern California a few weeks ago, ahead of flying back to Australia, we did.

And as it happens, Paul’s next book is in full flow. Working title? 'Upstream: Why the climate movement failed and where to from here'. Given this is by the bloke who compiled best-selling volumes Drawdown and Regeneration, this seemed as good a place to start as any - after the redwoods introduce themselves. And after arriving at a powerful analogy for our times, we converge at the end on, well, the wisdom of Dolly Parton.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 26 July 2025.

Title slide photo by Olivia Cheng.

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Music:

The River, by Peter Cavallo (sourced on Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

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Join us for a journey on the Murray River, Australia, for the first Confluence 2026.

Pre-roll music: River, by Onyx Music (sourced from Artlist). 

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