The RegenNarration

We head over to the eastern-most point of Australia this week, for the largest gathering of the regenerative movement in this country to date. Join us at the Reconnection Festival, staged by Farmer’s Footprint Australia in November last year. We sit with a panel of three visionary women, for a conversation on culture that laid a foundation for everything that followed. Two of our panellists are previous podcast guests: Dr Amanda Cahill, CEO and founder of The Next Economy, and Jade Miles, CEO of Sustainable Table and farmer and author at Black Barn Farm. They were joined here by Indigenous elder Isira, known as Aunty Jinta. This was one of my favourite conversations last year, and in many ways lays a foundation for this year too. There are profound insights shared here into the cultural bedrock necessary for nurturing life on Earth. Our guests faced some wrenching dilemmas at the time too, providing a powerful launching point for exploring what might actually offer ways through our most trenchant impasses, to beneficial transformations.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (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).This was recorded live in the northern rivers of NSW on 11 November 2023.Title slide L-R: Anthony, Amanda, Jade & Isira (pic: Olivia Katz).See more photos on the episode web page, and 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 the film Regenerating Australia.The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).Find more:Amanda Cahill also features in conversation with Anthony at her home on episode 134.Jade Miles chats with Anthony at her farm on episode 128 (and with RacSend us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Join us at the grand finale of the 2023 Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River WA. Following on from last week, today we’re with another all-star panel. And again, we’ve no predetermined agenda, but to reflect on what had gone before, and what might come next.Dr Judi Earl is a national treasure, having conducted the first studies describing the benefits to pasture from planned grazing. She has been a Holistic Management educator since 2002, and showcases the capacity of grazing animals to regenerate land on her 454 hectare property in NSW.Rowan Reid is a global figurehead in agroforestry. He’s a co-founder of one of Australia’s most successful Landcare groups, the Otway Agroforestry Network, in southern Victoria. More than 12,000 visitors have toured his Bambra Agroforestry Farm, which is set up as a 42-hectare outdoor classroom for farmers, scientists, students and tree lovers.Kristy Stewart is a young leader who was born and raised up the road from Rowan Reid at Yan Yan Gurt West, an award-winning sheep and agroforestry farm of 575 acres, on Wadawurrung and Gadubanud Country. You might remember Kristy from episode 132 out at the family farm, or facilitating for Nicole Masters in her workshop last year.Grant Sims runs the family farm in Victoria, which has been no-till since the early 80’s. When Grant came back to the farm full time he started looking at ways to improve the life and function of the soil through biology. Today he is one of this country’s most popular speakers and trainers on the topic.Our guests are not just talking about change; they're living it, transforming the very soil we stand on, food we eat, water we drink, clothes we wear, air we breathe, livelihoods we make, and communities we belong to.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (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).This was recorded on 7 September 2023.Title slide L-R: Kristy, Rowan, Grant & Judi (pic: Daniela Tommasi).See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.Music:Wadandi Boodja, by The Nomadics, off their latest album.Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Welcome to the new year. And welcome to a new world, where soil renews and pastures flourish, where every bite of food embodies a philosophy of renewal. The Regenerative Era blooms, and with it, a transformative approach to our landscapes and the very sustenance of life. Join us on a journey to Margaret River, where the 2023 Regenerative Agriculture Conference ignited a beacon of hope and inspiration with a turnout of passionate souls exceeding 300. This episode is your exclusive pass to the heart of a movement, with regenerative systems pioneers forming an all-star panel that pulled no punches and had plenty of laughs along the way:Dr Terry McCosker OAM, founder of RCS Australia and one of the great innovators of Australian agriculture for over 55 years;Dianne & Ian Haggerty, globally renowned pioneers in WA’s wheatbelt;Heidi Mippy, award-winning Noongar and Thiin-Mah Warriyangka woman who has worked in community development for over 25 years, runs a business, and has a chapter in the best-selling book Rising Matriarch;And Rod O’Bree from Yanget Farm, whose work has been described as taking Peter Andrews’ famed Natural Sequence Farming to the next level - to say nothing of his work regenerating supply chains. This episode isn't just a recount of a conference; it's an immersion into an era that redefines our relationship with nature, a blueprint for a future where regeneration is not just a concept but a living, breathing reality.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect).Recorded on 6 September 2023.Title slide L-R: Heidi, Terry, Rod, Ian & Di (pic: Daniela Tommasi).See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page. Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics, off their latest album.Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to subscribing member Josie Symons).Find more: Hear more from Terry McCosker (and wife Pam) in ep136, Heidi Mippy iSend us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Welcome to the customary package of highlights from another brilliant array of guests throughout 2023, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country heard along the way. Our guests were farmers, artists, First Nations, entrepreneurs, investors, former miners, migrants, health professionals, writers, journalists, facilitators, producers, consultants, researchers, diplomats, political economists, permaculturalists, market gardeners, chefs and more; some famous, many not, of all ages, from right around Australia and the world. It’s all put together here in what sums to a feast of uplift, fun, beauty, guts and love.See the website for the ‘track list’.Title image: A moment of trust, Anthony face to face with Kalahari the bull, at Kachana Station (pic: Chris Henggeler).With thanks to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here. Find more:To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2024!Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Welcome to a very special final episode for 2023. After seven years of this podcast, covering many inspiring stories, there’s clearly no mystery as to how we go about regeneration. So why is the macro story, if you like, the big picture - extinctions, emissions, inequality, health - still going the wrong way? Is there something we’re missing, for all our regenerative efforts? Something that doesn’t just help a few of us on regenerative trajectories, but all of us? Something that changes what happens, not just in the margins, but all over?Throughout the last 18 months or so, in particular, a thread has emerged on the podcast that suggests there is indeed that something, and we know how to go about that too. And my guest today, Jeff Goebel, has been at it longer than most. You might remember my recent guest on ep175, the award-winning author of The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz, talking about him. She wrote up an incredible story in that book, of community transformation guided by Jeff, and was so inspired by it she has since set up a new initiative with him. Jeff Goebel 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. Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), 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).This was recorded on 8 December 2023.Title slide: Jeff Goebel on Navajo land in 2013.Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.Find more:Community Consensus Institute.Do the Impossible.Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

D’harawal man Gregory Andrews is the Former Ambassador and first Threatened Species Commissioner of Australia who went on Climate Hunger Strike outside Australia’s federal parliament for, as he put it, my kids and country. On the 16th day, he was hospitalised. And while Gregory began his recovery, a community vigil of sorts kicked in, with people taking Gregory’s place, fasting for a day each. And that’s just a hint of some of the extraordinary insight and power sparked by Gregory’s experience - as indeed the history of these sorts of experiences has often found. Though not all progressive voices, in this instance, including my federal independent MP, as it happens, Kate Chaney, were in support.We talk about all this in what became a very personal exchange about the value of what we can give of our lives, in these times.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), 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).This was recorded on 27 November 2023.Title slide: Gregory on his back patio amongst the trees in Canberra during this conversation.Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.Find more:Lyrebird Dreaming, Gregory’s website, including the Climate Hunger Strike petition outlining his 5 demands of the government.Songs from a Hungry Finch (Gregory’s playlist while on hunger strike).Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Earlier this year, Associate Professor in Law, Alessandro Pelizzon, was on the podcast talking about some of the latest global paradigm shifting developments in our legal systems. A couple of weeks ago, there was another such development. The EU is going to criminalise severe environmental harms ‘comparable to ecocide’. And related to that, it’s also broaching post-growth economies. All part of broader shifts in deciding what we value most, and how our systems can best change to reflect that.With this in mind, we also go on to talk about what Alessandro is observing in our media systems - the emergence of a new phase of ‘climate-denialism’, and from some people who have great appeal to many of us, and in a variety of ways, from Elon Musk to Jordan Peterson. How to make sense of that? And to what extent might this be related to the paradigm shifts above?That leads us to the broader question, what do we do about media? We compare notes on what’s been brewing on and around the podcast lately. And to close, we get a brief update on the Resonant Earth project that Alessandro has co-founded and talked about last time.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), 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).This was recorded on 24 November 2023.Title slide: from a media release about the EU agreement (source).Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.Find more:Hear more from Alessandro, most recently on episode 159 in the northern rivers in April of this year (with further links): on the collapse & renewal of universities, the education we need, & latest on Rights of Nature.Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Today is a special release ahead of this week’s scheduled episode. It was recorded with a full house of over 400 people in the main theatre at Federation Square in Melbourne, for the memorial service of my late great mate and mentor, and legend in systems thinking – and practice – in this country, Professor Frank Fisher. Mine was a humble opener for a few beautiful eulogies offered on the day. Today would be, or is, Frank’s 80th birthday. I’ve commemorated the occasion in recent years with episodes featuring fittingly special guests – from the late Hazel Henderson, to the still thriving Allan Savory, Charlie Massy and Paul Hawken. This time, for the big 8-0, I’d been imagining Frank still being here, wondering where our conversations and experiences may have gone over the years. And that took me back to this event, and the best tribute story I could muster at the time. And hard as it was, there did seem to be a bit of magic about.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), 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).This was recorded on 15 September 2012, with deep gratitude to friend and film-maker Chris Grose, who gave so much of himself without notice, to film hours of footage of Frank in the months before he died, along with this event.Title slide: from the back of the room, with Fran Macdonald speaking (credit: Rodney Dekker).See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.Music:Cycles, by Simon Edwards (composed for the occasion). Simon is also guitarist for the incredible Afrobiotics and Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.Find more:You can hear from Frank himself, with legendary ABC broadcaster Robyn Williams, on episode 24, The Wilderness Within.And in an interview an early podcast listener sent in, from the Serbian program on SBS radio, on episode 5: Thinking & Living in Systems.The Understandascope, founded in 2005 by Frank with cartoonist Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

Brooke Purvis is a podcast listener who reached out after hearing the most recent episode with Chris Henggeler from Kachana Station last month. She wondered if she could help with the ‘donkey situation’ there. It turns out she’s co-founded something called the Last Stop Donkey Program, out of Singleton in the Hunter Valley of NSW.Brooke and husband Heath say they saw many people looking to purchase donkeys in an attempt to combat growing stock losses from dingo attacks, as donkeys are renowned for their stock protecting capabilities. Their website explains: ‘There was only one problem, donkeys are hard to come by. However, in the Northern Territory and Queensland they are classified as pests and eradication measures are in place, usually aerial culling.’ Well, we know we can add WA to the culling list, of course. So, partnering with the local school, would you believe, the Last Stop Donkey Program was born - taking in wild donkeys, re-socialising them, and training prospective owners before they purchase the donkeys. But that doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening there, only two years in. From broader education and even donkey therapy programs, to enormously positive ramifications for country and those stewarding it. From the promise of major financial benefits to farmers and the public coffers, to revolutionising how we might view so-called ‘pest’ animals in this country – right through to our Apex predator, the dingo. Along the way, the donkeys are transforming this former horse-riding champ, and the growing number of people the program is reaching. And offering the ultimate prospect of stitching our landscapes and communities back together again.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), 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).This conversation was recorded on 20 November 2023.Title slide: donkey (supplied).Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.Find more:Last Stop Donkey Program.Eight minute video from Landline on the ABC.Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!

This is an excerpt of one of the most pivotal conversations on the podcast this year. So many conversations since, and attempts to navigate the paradigm change talked about here, have come back to this launch event, and the stories expressed in it. Having just returned from the Re:Connection Festival in the northern rivers, and a little tour around it, I’ll have more out on the podcast soon about some of this trailblazing work going on.This conversation marked the launch of a major report and project by not-for-profit outfit, Sustainable Table (you might remember Jade Miles, current CEO, talking about it on last week’s episode). I’m joined here by two international guests – the CEO of Cienega Capital, Esther Park, and the CEO of Steward, Dan Miller. And alongside us are co-founder of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Dr Katherine Trebeck, and regenerative farmer and lead author of the Regenerating Investment in Food and Farming report, Tanya Massy. We pick it up from about the 40 minute mark, where the panel is gathering steam with some ‘real game changers’ coming on, including stories from around the world on how and where paradigm changes in investment are being achieved right now. Then there’s Q&A featuring other prominent folk around Australia, re-framing questions of scale, working in or outside existing systems, and vital processes of learning and transformation. To hear the conversation in full, and see a range of links, head to episode 161, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).This conversation was recorded online with live audience while I was at the Massy farm, Severn Park, on 20 April 2023.Title slide: regeneration of food and farming in action (source: Sustainable Table). Send us a textSupport the showThe RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find my writing). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event, and even The RegenNarration shop. And thanks for sharing with friends!