The RegenNarration

Over the last couple of years Damon Gameau, the brilliant Aussie film-maker behind Regenerating Australia, 2040, That Sugar Film and Animal Beatbox, has joined me at this time to take a look at the year ahead. Last year happened to land on Valentine’s Day. So while Damon’s giving himself and his family some well-earned dedicated time right now, it gives me the chance to share this unique event with you. This was a Town Hall dialogue that followed a community screening of Regenerating Australia, in Beverley, in the wheat belt of WA. Local woman Claire Broun & husband Martin brought together a rare and powerful line up, featuring prominent local Noongar man Oral McGuire, nearby regenerative farmers Di & Ian Haggerty, locally engaged landscape architect and rural planner Grant Revell, and Damon online from the other side of the country. Yours truly was host.We start with a profound Welcome to Country by Oral, before I introduce our guests, and later our audience. With love.3.20  Oral7.20  Panel conversation24.50 Audience gets involvedThis conversation was recorded in the Beverley Town Hall, with Damon appearing online from home in New South Wales, on 17 June 2022.Title slide: Damon Gameau (on screen), Anthony James, Grant Revell, Ian & Di Haggerty, Oral McGuire - & Claire Broun managing the stage (pic: Martin Pell).See more photos of this event & behind the scenes by becoming a supporting listener on our Patreon page.Music: Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for Regenerating Australia.Find more:Regenerating Australia – community film screenings are available.To hear more of Di & Ian Haggerty, with another unique line up out at their place, tune into episode 142.Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane.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!

Starting the year with Carol Sanford feels incredibly special. She’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. Friends and colleagues have spoken about her with me for years, right up until the end of last year. And last month, a previous guest and author of Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta, featured Carol on his podcast. That’s when I learned the sad news that she has only a few months to live. When I wrote to her expressing my care and respect, and to see if she’d possibly be up for a chat with another Aussie podcaster, she said sure, but ‘I am declining and so can’t wait long.’ Days later, we shared this conversation.Carol is Executive Producer at The Regenerative Business Summit, 5x TEDx presenter, and a highly awarded best-selling author of six books – currently writing her seventh. Carol launched two startups, ran and sold them, then turned to educating businesses globally, from big companies like Google and DuPont, to ‘new economy businesses’, as she puts it, ‘developing leaders toward the business of the 21st Century, with individuals who want a Regenerative Paradigm education’. Rebecca Henderson from Harvard Business School said Carol "​created an approach that reimagines business. Her approach will be The Future of Business."​ But all that’s just the touching the surface. This is a deeply cherished conversation about Carol’s regenerative life. This conversation was recorded online with Carol at home in Seattle and Anthony in Perth on 2 February 2023 (Australian time).Title slide: Carol Sanford. Music: Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.Find more:Carol’s website. Carol Sanford Institute.A fundraiser organised by Carol’s family to help her with much needed care and assistance.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!

Our last summer flashback ‘episode that people still talk to me about’ is episode 9, with Frances Pollock (nee Jones). Frances and David Pollock became nationally famous about a decade ago now, for ‘destocking’ the 375,000-acre Wooleen Station in the Murchison region of Western Australia. That was step one in what has become an extraordinary story of regeneration, increasingly reverberating far beyond Wooleen. David’s since been on the podcast a few times, and Frances continues to be recognised and awarded for her work in the region. I also look back on this episode as a huge turning point for me and my family. This was the first episode out on Country, connecting directly with food and agricultural systems. I was set on a path of understanding regeneration, Country, agriculture, food and all other systems at greater depth, in the lived realities of people’s lives, in their places. And while David Pollock was still a bit shy at this stage, at least with this bloke he’d never heard of, thankfully Frances wasn’t! And the names she sent us on our way with set up a transformative journey around Australia in 2018 that gave birth to The RegenNarration and everything it’s become to date.This is an excerpt featuring the last 25 minutes or so of our conversation at the Wooleen Homestead. It picks up with their initial harrowing experiments with letting dingoes roam wild on the property. And on to another harrowing experiment with the bank as they were on the cusp of foreclosure, before the Australian public rallied behind them. We close with the Native Title judgement delivered at Wooleen, and all that might mean. This conversation was recorded in late 2017.Title slide: Frances Pollock (pic: Olivia Cheng) – the full photo (with Anthony in it) is on the episode website. Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra. Find more:Read a transcript of our full conversation on the episode web page. Hear the rest of our conversation back in episode 9. Hear more of Frances with David and Charlie Massy on episode 16.And hear more from David (eventually) on episodes 44, 66 & 111 (what’s with the repeating numbers?!) – episode 111 has links to all the others, and more.Wooleen Station.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!

Our next episode from the archives that people still talk to me about is episode 3, with Kate Raworth. She’s the best-selling author of Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist. And the instigator of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), helping put it into practice in communities everywhere. This is an excerpt of the first 20 minutes or so our conversation just a couple of months after the book came out. And this release comes just a week after the launch in Oxford of Doughnut Economics Live, a free course for all economics students in the city who want to think like 21st century economists. Kate said last week: “It's time for every university's economics curriculum to address the world's extraordinary and extreme realities.” And “We have had to change venues three times to accommodate all the students applying to join the course - now it's in the biggest lecture theatre available in the university and it's oversubscribed. Students demand and deserve change.”You can hear more on the global student revolt that was kicking into gear in the last decade, and has continued to pick up since, in the rest of our conversation (link below).Here, we kick off on with the shift in thinking involved, and how to communicate and practice it. Then it’s onto Kate’s journey, and how she came to this concept that took off around the world. Interestingly, Kate brings up the work of George Lakoff, on the metaphors we live by – which used to be the primary text for the postgraduate students in sustainability that Frank Fisher and I worked with.We close here with how we might go beyond growth and GDP as proxies for society’s progress, towards tracking what’s actually important to us.This conversation was recorded in June 2017. Title slide: Kate Raworth (pic: Roman Krznaric).Music: 43, by Owls of the Swamp. Find more:Read a transcript of the full conversation on the episode website.Hear the rest of our conversation back in episode 3. We go on to talk more about the practicalities of change, the student revolt that has only continued to grow since this conversation, and how we can go about the shift in thinking and acting in our own lives.Kate’s website & book.Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL).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!

A warm welcome to the new year. We’ll resume normal transmission of the podcast in February. But to gear us up, I thought to release a summer flashback or two, delving way back in the archives to episodes that people still speak to me about today. First up is an excerpt from the very first episode I recorded, with John Fullerton. He’s the former Wall Street executive who left that life, and through a fascinating personal journey ended up founding the non-profit Capital Institute, dedicated to bringing about new, regenerative economic and financial systems. We had this conversation back in 2017, but it’s lost none of its currency, and gives wonderful context to the growing influence and activity of the Capital Institute today, and the movement as a whole.Note: Enrolments are now open for the third running of the flagship course of the Capital Institute: Introduction to Regenerative Economics (featuring a number of guests on this podcast).More on John Fullerton: John’s work draws deeply on systems thinking, a broad range of other contemporary and ancient schools of thought, and a range of ‘real world’ case studies, impact investing and other experiments on the ground. All this features in his extensive speaking and writing, including in his booklet, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy.This conversation was recorded in May 2017.Title slide image: John Fullerton.Music: 43, by Owls of the Swamp.Find more:Read a transcript of the full conversation on the episode website.Hear the rest of our conversation, including more on the role of big business and other business structures, in the last 10 minutes or so of episode 1.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 our customary sign-off episode for the year – a package of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2022, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country you heard along the way. Here's the ‘track list’: 1. Jess Beckerling (ep 105)2. To A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper (from the Free Music Archive) – intro3. To The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, then ...4. Flamenco Rhythm, by Sunsearcher (from the Free Music Archive) – Petrine McCrohan (ep 106)5. Di Haggerty (ep 107), including ... 6. To Rockin’ in the 80s, by Dr Sparkles (from the Free Music Archive)7. To Regeneration, by Amelia Barden - Damon Gameau (ep 108), Clinton Walker (ep 109)8. Kate Chaney (ep 110)9. To Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp - Kate Chaney (ep 110), David Pollock (ep 111)10. Natalie Davey (ep 112), including ...11. To You Shine, by the Tura Music kids12. María Inés Cuj & Rony Lec (ep 113)13. To Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae – Cathy McGowan (ep 114), Tanya Massy (ep 115)14. Louise O’Neill (ep 116)15. Eugene Eades including his song – Looking Back to Yesterday Again, performed with Bruce Anthony (ep 117)16. Agostino Petroni (ep 118)17. To Temporary, by Yen Nguyen – Kim Paul Nguyen (ep 119)18. Tony Rinaudo (ep 120)19. Kate Chaney MP (ep 121)20. Ode to Kate, by your podcast host (ep 121 Extra)21. Damon Gameau, at a screening of Regenerating Australia (ep 122)22. Fred Provenza (ep 123)23. To Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp – Jane Slattery (ep 124), Paul Cleary (ep 125)24. Serenity Hill with Kirsten Larsen (ep 126)25. To a tune by Jeremiah Johnson – Ian Congdon & Courtney Young (ep 127), Jade Miles (ep 128)26. To Cycles, by Simon Edwards – the late Hazel Henderson (ep 129), Valerie Brown (ep 130)27. Kate Fenech at a screening of Regenerating Australia (ep 131)28. Kristy Stewart (ep 132)29. Jodie Jackson (ep 133)30. Amanda Cahill (ep 134)31. Ross O’Reilly (ep 135)32. Terry & Pam McCosker (ep 136)33. Robert Pekin (ep 137)34. Matthew Evans (ep 138)35. Douglas Rushkoff (ep 139)36. Bruce Pascoe (ep 140)37. Oral McGuire, Greg Mullins & Lesley Head (ep 141)38. Ian & Di Haggerty (ep 142)39. Heidi Mippy (ep 143)40. To The Deep Ocean is Calling, composed by Eva Holm Foosnæs with lyrics by T Aarskog & Karen O'Brien – Karen O’Brien (ep 144)43. To Wildflower Meadow, by The Eternal Page (featuring Karen O’Brien’s son Jens Stokke) – Paul Hawken (ep 145), the late Frank Fisher (ep 145 Extra)44. To Regeneration - best wishes for the new year!45. Closing the year with the end of our old theme song, The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.Title image: the Martuwarra / Fitzroy River, 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 a short tribute episode marking the 10th anniversary of the passing of my old mate and mentor, Professor Frank Fisher. He’d be 79 today. The honours list of guests on these anniversary editions now includes Hazel Henderson, Allan Savory and Charlie Massy. This year, it’s Paul Hawken, the multiple best-selling author of Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation. This is the rest of the conversation Paul and I shared last week – featuring some fun personal exchanges, and even some out-takes, to close out the year. We start with Paul’s take on the US mid-terms. Then we get the early running on what’s coming down the line with Project Regeneration. And there is plenty, including a global launch of a short film with an all-star cast, now on December 7 / 8 (details below). After that, we got talking about some of Paul’s favourite episodes on The RegenNarration. I have a brief update on the podcast on the other side of this conversation too. Including ... I’m shifting host platform for the podcast. It’s been a long time coming really. SoundCloud has been my host platform till now, and it really isn’t set up for podcasts anymore. The change shouldn’t affect your listening in any way. It’ll still be available where you listen to podcasts, and on The RegenNarration website. But if you do experience any glitches, this might be why, and will hopefully be short lived. If you’re following the podcast on SoundCloud, it’ll still be available there too I believe, just not hosted there. Again, just let me know if you notice anything go wrong. And otherwise, I hope you find a better experience in the change too – with clearer show notes, website player and other benefits.Title slide image: from the Project Regeneration website portal Nexus.Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.Find more:Tune into the main episode, ‘Paul Hawken on Regeneration – A Year On (there are a few links in the show notes there too).And join the global live stream launch of the 'What is Regeneration?' short film - now on Dec 8, 2022 at 1:00 to 2:00 AM, GMT.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!

Paul Hawken won’t need an introduction for many of you. But for those unfamiliar, Paul is a multiple best-selling author, entrepreneur, and advisor to heads of state and CEOs on climatic, economic and ecological regeneration. Paul and I last spoke for the podcast a bit over a year ago, on release of his latest best-selling book, Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation. That’s now the most listened to episode on this podcast. It also marked the launch of Project Regeneration, what’s billed as the world’s largest, most complete listing and network of solutions to the climate crisis. This week, we got together again, to talk about some of the big shifts underway, and some acute edges at play right now – both on a very personal level, and globally.We start in a very personal mode, on matters of living in the world today (including Paul’s next book!). Then we move through the extractive paradigm’s inevitable slide towards ever greater geo-engineering, on to more extraordinary stories of regeneration. This includes a focus on gender, place, healing from trauma, and other keystone aspects of regeneration. Along with examining contentious areas like offsets, carbon, methane, so-called green ammonia and the like, and how we might turn those into more holistic win-win-win approaches. This conversation was recorded online with Paul at home in California on 15 November 2022, Australian time.Title slide image: Paul Hawken (supplied).Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.Find more:Stay tuned for a special extra to this episode, out next week.Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page. Project Regeneration. More on Paul Hawken, including his full catalogue of books, on his personal website. Tune into last year’s conversation with Paul on episode 96, ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation.'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!

Professor Karen O’Brien is a globally renowned thought leader on climate change impacts and social transformation. She has been heavily involved in the work of the IPCC, and shared in its 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. She’s also been on the scientific advisory board for Project Drawdown, and is the co-founder of cCHANGE, an Oslo-based company that has become a beacon in the space of social transformation. And a few months ago, cCHANGE launched Karen’s new book, called You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum social change for a thriving world.The by-line reads: have we been underestimating our collective capacity for social change? Spoiler alert – big time! Friend and best-selling author of Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, Paul Hawken, says: “You Matter More Than You Think is more than just a book. It is an awakening, a how-to manual showing a new path to social and ecological regeneration.” It feels like we hear the themes of this conversation in so many other conversations on this podcast, right up to the last couple of weeks. This also feels like chapter 2 to the previous conversation Karen and I shared a few years ago. That’s where you’ll hear more about her fascinating background, and what led to her current passions - along with early ruminations on what’s become the new book. Here, we pick up the thread.This conversation was recorded online with Karen at home is Oslo, Norway, on 7 November 2022.Title slide image: Karen O’Brien (pic: from the book).Music: Wildflower Meadow, by The Eternal Page (featuring Karen’s son Jens Stokke)The Deep Ocean is Calling, composed by Eva Holm Foosnæs with lyrics by T Aarskog and Karen O'BrienFind more:Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page.On Karen and her book ‘You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum social change for a thriving world'.A 6-minute film of the book launch. Transformative leadership course.Tune into our previous conversation on episode 42, ‘The Most Powerful Solution to Climate Change: Karen O'Brien on how people, systems and consciousness transform’.Artist Tone Bjordam.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 week’s episode is something extraordinary. Last week featured a conversation with Di and Ian Haggerty, in a shearing shed filled by 170 people from right around the country. You might remember it ended with Di’s passing reference to some amazing insight that Noongar woman Heidi Mippy had shared. Heidi is an author, senior staffer with the Noongar Land Enterprise Group, and so much more. She had been personally invited to this event by Di, in anticipation of further growing the relationships they’d been treasuring with First Nations people. But no one could have anticipated what ended up unfolding while this event was taking place.Ian and I were told of what Di already knew at that point, after the conversation between Di, Ian and I ended. Later in the day, after a farm tour, there was to be a panel conversation. It was to bring Di and Ian together with co-founder of natural intelligence farming, Jane Slattery, and long-time collaborator and organiser of this event, the CEO of Nutrisoil Nakala Maddock. Given the amazing story unfolding in the background, and that we’d ended the morning session talking about the richness on offer for landholders in inviting First Nations people in, I suggested acting on that here and now. Heidi was subsequently invited to join that afternoon dialogue, and thankfully accepted the invitation. This is part of what ensued.This conversation was recorded live at the Haggerty farm in the WA wheatbelt on 24 October 2022.Title slide image: an aerial image of Wagyl (SmartSoil Media). Music:Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.Find more:Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page. Tune in to last week’s episode 142: ‘Dianne & Ian Haggerty on Tapping into Natural Intelligence, with live audience on the farm’ (you’ll find more links, some photos and transcript on the episode web page too). Heidi Mippy on LinkedIn. And Heidi speaking with Di, Damon Gameau and Anthony at the premiere screening of Regenerating Australia at Leederville for ep 122. 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!