The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast

Brandon Welch is the co-founder and CEO of Mad Capital, an investment fund dedicated to helping farmers transition from conventional to regenerative and organic agriculture. Brandon knew he wanted to do something to make a positive impact on society and the environment, and he found that the world of finance was the most powerful way for him to do so.  Conventional practices are so deeply ingrained in the culture of agriculture and business of farms, that it takes a big leap of faith and lots of support for farmers to make the switch to adopt more regenerative practices. Welch and Mad Capital connect farmers that are willing to evolve with those that that want to invest in regeneration. Brandon and show host Neal discuss Brandon’s love for outdoor adventure and how a cross country camping trip led him to an internship at Hunter Lovins’ Natural Capitalism Solutions. They trace his path to staring Mad Capital and raising millions of dollars to provide famers with funding to switch from conventional to organic agriculture. They touch on the obstacles to inspiring change in an old industry that’s done things the same way for generations, as well as the creative solutions that connect investors wanting to make a difference in our food system with farmers open to a change. To learn more about Brandon's work, visit MadCapital.com. ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

Mark Lakeman is an architect, placemaker, and urban planner.  He is the founder and design director of Communitecture, and the co-founder of both the City Repair Project and Village Building Convergence.  He believes that public spaces play a foundational role in human society. However with relatively recent colonial systems they have been subdued and replaced by a grid system that connects cars and commerce but not so much people. Now, he is working to revive them by breaking through the cultural inertia and bureaucracy that works to maintain the status quo. Mark and show host Neal discuss the profound impact that Mark's parents had on him—one an urban planner and the other a researcher studying public spaces in ancient cities. After a few years working in traditional architecture firms, he became disillusioned with their values and traveled the world learning how contemporary indigenous villages were organized. Since then, he's been committed to turning Portland into a place full of lively communal spaces and town squares through placemaking activities—like Little Free Libraries, a concept that he helped create himself. For more on Mark's work, visit communitecture.net, cityrepair.org,  and villagebuildingconvergence.com.And check out our Latitude spotlights highlighted at the top of the episode. Latitude Change Agent spotlight: Mark Voss Ecosystem Directory partner spotlight: EcoNest Architecture and Paula Baker Laport's new book "Prescriptions for a Healthy House" ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

David Leon is the Co-Founder & Executive Director at Farmer's Footprint and Drew Dumsch is the President & CEO of The Ecology School. They are both inspiring leaders in the regenerative movement and have taken innovative approaches to funding their projects. Although the topics of profit and capital can make many in the regenerative world queasy, the reality is that funding is a foundational element to most ambitious initiatives. And just like how society's ideas about food production and community can be revolutionized with the ideals of regeneration, so can its ideas about capital and financing.This is the first in a series of Capital Conversations that will dive deep into the state of capital in the regenerative space. It was recorded this summer in front of a live audience at the Regenerative Real Estate Gathering at the bucolic River Bend Farm in Saco, Maine. Show host Neal, David, and Drew discuss the formation of their respective regenerative endeavors: Farmer's Footprint, a nonprofit "creative agency" for farmers, and The Ecology School, which has hosted over 100,000 participants in programs that aim to promote an appreciate for nature and the environment. David talks about how to approach profitability and financial sustainability as a nonprofit, and Drew explains how his group raised $14 million to bring The Ecology School to River Bend Farm through a creative combination of loans and capital campaigns. For more information, visit theecologyschool.org and farmersfootprint.us.———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

David Todd is a longtime designer, green living innovator, and realtor. Now he is Partner and Co-Head of Community at Latitude Regenerative Real Estate. He began practicing regenerative real estate in Portland many years before that phrase entered anyone's vocabulary and he's passionate about bringing like-minded people together to accomplish big things. Now, he lives in Kingston, New York, where he is continuing his mission to empower agents and real estate professionals to be catalysts for healing our relationship to home, place, and planet.David and show host Neal discuss David's long and winding path to eventually working with Latitude Regenerative Real Estate. Never one to take the conventional route, David started his career as a teacher before pivoting to real estate where he created his own title: “Eco Design Consultant & REALTOR.” In Portland, he helped convene a group of regenerative minded professionals and practitioners from a variety of fields to create the Green Home Forum, which launched a sustainable planning and building movement. Now, he's inspired by the great momentum nationwide to create new living systems connected to place and community. You can learn more about his work at chooselatitude.com/davidtodd.———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

Mel Meagher is the founder of Unfold Development, a values-driven design and development studio specializing in regenerative thinking. After spending a decade working in a more conventional real estate setting, Mel realized just how disconnected humans have become from our environment–in particular, the harmful impact that our built environments, materials and construction practices have on the earth and on our health. Mel and show host Neal discuss how Mel’s career led them to completely rethink real estate development, as well as their inspirations behind founding Unfold. Mel details Unfold’s current projects, and how they and their team are bringing intention to every step of the process to restore, reconnect, and reinterpret our built environment. They also discuss how to unite partners in real estate development so they feel connected to the larger project and purpose, and retain their passion for the work. For more information about Unfold Development, visit unfolddevelopment.com. ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

Jacob Waddell is the president of the Hemp Building Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and promoting healthy and sustainable building practices. The way we construct our built environment has been a major cause of today’s most pressing environmental and health problems. Moving away from conventional construction materials to those that are more natural is a promising solution that’s only now starting to catch on in the U.S. Jacob and show host Neil discuss Jacob’s path to working with hemp, including his time studying material science and working with plastics before he had a revelation that he should dedicate his life to the environment. It was at that time that he discovered hempcrete—a construction material made by mixing hemp stalks and lime as a binder. They also dive into the environmental, health, and sustainability benefits of hemp building materials, including how it can be “carbon-negative,” improve indoor air quality, and improve soil quality. Now the challenge is making hemp construction mainstream and affordable, so everyone can share in its benefits. For more information about Jacob’s work, visit hempbuildinginstitute.org.———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

Greg Peterson is a green-living innovator, educator, and podcast host. His life vision, which has guided him for more than 30 years, is "I am the person on the planet responsible for transforming our global food system." Greg was introduced to permaculture in the 1990s and was quickly inspired to spread its basic ideals of sustainability and working with nature. In 2001, Greg created the Urban Farm, a real world environmental showcase home in Phoenix, Arizona, where people could learn about permaculture principles and see first hand how they can be applied to homes. Greg and show host Neal discuss Greg's fateful path into permaculture, including a confluence of events in 1991 that would change his life forever and the challenges he faced in brining permaculture to the mainstream decades before it really caught on. They also discuss the basic tenets of permaculture, how to learn about your land by observing it closely, and how you can build an abundant urban garden over years and decades with patience. Finally, they talk about Greg's move to a farm in North Carolina and how he picked the perfect stewards for his Urban Farm in Phoenix. To learn more about Greg's work and to see a schedule for regular Zoom classes on food-growing, visit urbanfarm.org. Also, to listen to Greg's podcast, search for The Urban Farm Podcast in your favorite podcast platform. ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

Scott Snodgrass is an entrepreneur, farmer, and land developer. He's started a number of businesses, including Edible Earth Resources, a productive landscapes company; Agmenity, a community farm developer; and most recently Meristem Communities, a real estate development firm focusing on "places for people." He and his business partner Clayton Garrett are working on their first big community project near Houston, called Indigo. Scott and show host Neal discuss Scott's path to "places for people"-focused real estate, including how he first stumbled into farming after coffee growers in Nicaragua asked him for help with their crops.  They touch on Scott's various business ventures, including starting one of the first big edible landscaping companies in the United States and how he was introduced to development through various projects with his community farm company. They also get into the details around his ambitious Indigo project, a 235 acre community near Houston that will have over 650 homes, a walkable "commons" area with businesses, over 40 acres of farmland with vegetables and animals, wastewater reuse irrigation, a solar-powered battery for backup power, and ecological habitats for migratory birds. To learn more about Scott's work with Agmenity, visit agmenity.com. To learn more about Meristem Communities visit meristemcommunities.com, and to learn more about Indigo, visit www.indigocommunity.com. ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe

James Ehrlich, founder of ReGen Villages, discusses designing regenerative communities focused on food, water, energy, and circular waste management. He talks about harnessing AI and machine learning to create resilient villages worldwide. The podcast covers innovative construction methods and materials, self-reliant neighborhoods in the global south, and planning for changing habitation in response to climate change.

Matt Morley is a Europe-based biophilic designer, entrepreneur, and podcaster. He is the founder of Biofilico and Biofit Health & Fitness, and the host of the Green Healthy Places podcast. He’s passionate about biophilic, healthy spaces and finding and bringing together other people leading innovative initiatives in the world of sustainability—which he gets to do with his podcast.  As this interview is also being published on Matt’s podcast, he and show host Neal interview each other. They both talk about their background and what led them into a life of fusing entrepreneurship and sustainability. They talk about how change on a small scale can have a domino effect and they discuss how their experiences podcasting and talking to others in the field have effected them. For more on Matt’s work, visit biofilico.com and mattmorley.net/podcastand, where you can find his podcast. ———————-This podcast isn’t just about ideas—it’s about action. From these conversations, two organizations have emerged to bring regenerative real estate to life: Latitude Regenerative Real Estate is the world’s first regenerative-focused real estate brokerage, dedicated to aligning values-driven buyers and sellers. With a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, Latitude also supports purpose-driven developments across North America through strategic marketing and branding services. If you're looking to buy, sell, or amplify a regenerative project, Latitude is your trusted partner. Hamlet Capital is an investment and development firm committed to building resilient communities rooted in working farms. If you’re developing an agrihood or conservation community, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can turn visionary ideas into thriving, place-based investments. Get full access to The Regenerative Real Estate Newsletter at regenerativerealestate.substack.com/subscribe