The RegenNarration

Jane Slattery is the co-founder, with Diane and Ian Haggerty, of natural intelligence farming – underpinning what Charles Massy has called their ‘world breakthrough’ operation. And to hear Di an Ian defer to Jane in many ways, had me so looking forward to meeting her. Then, earlier this year, I happened to be near Jane’s neck of the woods in South Australia, hosting one of the Planet Talks at WOMAD. Thankfully, she was up for coming into Adelaide for a chat. And more by fate than design, she follows the episode with the legend Fred Provenza. In some ways, Jane sings off a similar song sheet. But where Fred was led by science to soul, you could say Jane has come at it from soul first - while still utterly grounded in our embodied experience of a wondrous world. This is a very special and rare conversation. Jane is only now feeling like speaking publicly about her work in media like this. You’ll hear some of why. After running a successful family business around Australia, she gave it all up to follow a compelling sense of what she felt she needed to be doing. And, along with the Haggerty’s, she has gone on to guide and inspire an increasing number of brilliant regenerative outcomes around the country.This conversation was recorded by the River Torrens in Adelaide, on the land of the Kaurna people, on 15 March 2022.Title slide: Jane Slattery (pic: Anthony James).Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.Find more:Jane Slattery.You can meet Jane at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July. And if you’d like to hear from Di and Ian Haggerty out on their farm.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 extra to episode 123, with the legendary Fred Provenza, delves into more of the metaphysical context of everything we spoke about in the main episode. We traverse the spectra of collapse and regeneration, and how we can live well in all that, here and now. There are some profound stories of personal transformation here – and an ultimate convergence of mythology and mysticism with his life’s work on the wisdom body.This part of our conversation led up to the ‘music question’ that closed the main episode, so it’ll also give a bit more context to Fred’s moving response there.Title slide: the cover to Fred’s book Nourishment (linked in the main episode below).Music:Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.Find more:You can hear the rest of my conversation with Fred Provenza in the main episode: ‘The Wisdom Body: Fred Provenza on a paradigm change in animal, human and planetary health’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too.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 Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. This includes the regenerative role of livestock, in all sorts of ways. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.Fred’s published a few books on all this, culminating a few years ago in his master work, ‘Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’. It’s been called a ‘paradigm-changing exploration’ with ‘implications that could vastly improve our health through a simple change in the way we view our relationships with the plants and animals we eat’. Montana Public Radio said: “Nourishment is a conversation between science, culture, and a greater spiritual or cosmological umbrella.” Indeed, you might describe this conversation the same way.More on Fred: As professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University, Provenza directed an award-winning research group focused on how learning influences foraging behavior and how behavior links soils and plants with herbivores and humans. In addition to penning a book, he is one of the founders of BEHAVE, an international network of scientists and land managers.This conversation was recorded online, with Fred at home in Montana USA, on 8 June 2022.Title slide: Fred Provenza (supplied).Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now. Find more:Tune into the special extra to this episode with Fred, ‘A Cosmic Voyager with Amnesia’.Fred’s book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom.The BEHAVE international network Fred co-founded. Fred will be a keynote speaker (online) at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July.A reminder that Regenerating Australia will be screened at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheSend 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!

Damon Gameau, the award-winning director of That Sugar Film and 2040, toured his new film Regenerating Australia around Western Australia’s south a few weeks ago. Joining him on the panel in Leederville, inner-city Perth, was highly regarded First Nations woman Heidi Mippy, Natural Intelligence Farming co-founder Dianne Haggerty, and me. Ballardong Noongar man, Oral McGuire, who you’ll have heard mentioned a bit on this podcast (like in eps 87 and 105), granted us the privilege of his powerful Welcome to Country. And as you’ll hear, in some ways, proceedings on this night presaged the transformative federal election that was to come two days later (see ep 121 for more on that). Incidentally, I’ll release the inspiring panel conversations from Margaret River and Fremantle for subscribers to the podcast on Patreon – so do jump on there if you haven’t yet! And I ended up hosting the Busselton event, where a very distinct conversation took place – I’ll have that out for you all to hear soon. For now, it’s over to the Luna Cinema in Leederville, where 300 people came along for this final west coast screening, the penultimate event of Damon’s national tour, on 19 May 2022. 3.00m - Oral’s Welcome9.00m - Damon’s entry at the end of the film & panel exchange21.45m - Questions from the audienceTitle slide: the Regenerating Australia tour image (supplied).Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now. Find more:Regenerating Australia is available for community screenings now (and grant applications, requests for materials etc.).It’ll also screen at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheatbelt of WA, on 17 June, with panel conversation featuring Oral McGuire, Di Haggerty, Grant Revell & Damon Gameau (online), hosted by Anthony James. And for more on the RCS Australia conference.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 extra to episode 121 follows how election day unfolded with Kate Chaney, in the now independent seat of Curtin. You’ll hear the growing atmosphere on the day, culminating in an extraordinary night, with powerful words from Kate that give great insight into the building of a community, and a campaign. We start at the local polling booth, and hear from Kate early on. Then it’s on to the Claremont Showgrounds for what was certainly our first election night candidate celebration – and we weren’t alone in that. You’ll hear a special Welcome to Country from Carol Innes AO. Then campaign manager, Sarah Silbert, introduces Kate. And if you last through to the end of it, you might hear a certain podcast host rock out a little Ode to Kate to close the evening celebration.Stage host, and another prominent campaign contributor, was James Lush.This was recorded on election day, 21 May 2022.Title slide: the bicycle powered billboards mentioned in the main episode, sitting outside the Scarborough Primary School polling station on election day. Music:Ode to Kate, by Anthony James.Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.Find more:You can hear my conversation with Kate Chaney six days later, after she was confirmed as having won the seat, in the main episode: ‘A Political Paradigm Shift: Kate Chaney on becoming the 7th new female independent MP in Australia’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, and some photos.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!

Kate Chaney has become the first female independent MP from Western Australia to be elected to the Australian parliament – along with a whopping eleven other independents. A year ago to the day on this podcast, Cathy McGowan – Australia’s first female independent MP in 2013 – talked of the potential to transform politics in this country by 2030. Merely a year on, and that transformation is well underway. This story isn’t limited to Australia either. But more on that another day. This Australian story is now global news. The BBC and Time Magazine were among many beaming into Kate Chaney’s election night event. I’ll put out a special extra to this episode next, following how election day unfolded with Kate in the now independent seat of Curtin. For now, join Kate and I the day after her win was confirmed, as the sun set on Cottlesloe Beach.This conversation was recorded among Friday evening revelers at Cottesloe Beach, on the day after the seat of Curtin was won by Kate Chaney, 27 May 2022. Title slide: Kate Chaney speaking at her election night event (pic: #MilesTweediePhotography). You can find more photos on the episode webpage.Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.Find more:Tune into the special extra to this episode, ‘How Election Day Unfolded, with Kate Chaney in the now independent seat of Curtin’. (You'll find more photos of that night on the website too.)You can hear my conversation with Kate at the start of her campaign in February, accompanied by some photos and links (with a link, also, to the episode with Cathy McGowan a year ago).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!

Tony Rinaudo instigated what’s been called “probably the largest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel and perhaps in all of Africa." They call him The Forest Maker, but Tony will tell you the transformation was really in the people, starting with himself. I had this conversation with Tony back in 2020, and have never forgotten it. It’s one of those stories you wish everyone knew. So when Tony reached out to me recently to let me know he’d just finished his autobiography, and given there are so many more of you listening to this podcast now than there were two years ago, it seemed fitting to re-release this excerpt of our conversation.The new book is called The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis. It follows Tony’s journey from Australia to Niger, and tells the miraculous story of how his discovery revolutionised reforestation in Africa, restoring over 18 million hectares of degraded land across 27 countries, without planting trees - and all led by the people who live there. But really, that’s not the half of this story. As a metaphor, it’s a revelation of the sheer scale of possibility if we focus on tending and harvesting what’s already within us, as people and planet.This conversation culminates in some of the most extraordinary, moving and instructive stories I’ve ever heard.“I’m often called The Forest Maker, or Tree Whisperer. Don’t believe a word of it. 95% of my time is spent re-greening mindscapes. If we win that battle, the rest is relatively easy.” – Tony Rinaudo, at his virtual book launch on 22 April 2022.“For years I have longed to see this biography written. And it lives up to my every hope.” - Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia 2004–2016.This conversation was recorded online with Tony at home in Melbourne, in June 2020. Title slide: Tony Rinaudo in the field (supplied).Music:The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.Find more:If you’re in Australia or NZ, you can buy ‘The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis’ on the publisher’s website.Or you can get it on the Book depository, or wherever you get your books. If you’re in or near Melbourne on 31 May 2022, you can register for the book launch at St Paul’s Cathedral (featuring Tony, Tim Costello and others). If you’d like to hear more ofSend 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!

Kim Paul Nguyen is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker. He recently produced a documentary film called ‘Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change’, funded by the Walkley Foundation and distributed by VICE. And what a film. Damon Gameau, the award-winning filmmaker of 2040, That Sugar Film, and most recently Regenerating Australia, calls it a ‘must-watch’. In many ways, there is no more important a story. And Kim navigates it beautifully. Though not without hitting up against the challenges that make this work so vital. Out of the story’s dramatic and moving turns so much is revealed, including how coal miners, and the rest of us, are too often used as political pawns. And how we can get out of that trap, to have a chance at achieving more of the bigger picture outcomes just about all of us want.Kim’s is a heck of a life story to date, and this provides the backdrop to the film. As a young person deeply concerned about climate change, he became a committed activist. In 2009 he cycled from Australia to Denmark to promote action on climate change, and was nominated for Young Australian of the Year. But it started to dawn on him that what he was doing wasn’t working. It wasn’t changing things the way he’d hoped. So he headed north, camera in hand, to dig deeper into what might.Kim has also written for The Guardian, Al Jazeera, VICE and the Big Issue.This conversation was recorded online with Kim at home in Sydney, on 11 May 2022. Title slide: Kim setting up in Clermont, Queensland (supplied).Music:Temporary, by Yen Nguyen. Find more of Yen’s tunes. Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, on tour around Western Australia this week.Find more:Kim’s website.Kim’s film ‘Conversations With Coal Miners About Climate Change’ (37 minutes, freely available).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!

Agostino Petroni is a journalist, author, economist, gastronome, and 2021 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow. His work appears in National Geographic, BBC, The Atlantic and many more. I first came across it in Reasons to be Cheerful, the terrific news outlet founded by one of my all-time favourite musicians and producers, David Byrne. That outlet is part of a growing movement sometimes called ‘solutions journalism’. Though you might just call it good journalism. And Agostino’s article that first caught my eye is a great example of that – outlining a terrific success story so relevant to some of the pioneering efforts – and vital needs - we’ve heard about in this podcast.One of the most fascinating and popular stories on the podcast was featured in the 100th episode under the title Wanted Land Doctors. I’ve had many interesting exchanges in the wake of that episode, including with a listener in the eastern states who shared stories of goats being used by public agencies to reduce fire fuel loads after the horrific Black Summer fires here in Australia. It turns out that the Mediterranean region has created some great models in this mould, that are successfully getting people back on Country, with communities and their livelihoods reinvigorated, and trajectories of mega-fire, extinction and polarised politics reversed.In the first half of this episode, we talk about Agostino’s unexpected personal journey into the work he does, his formative film-making journey to Latin America, and this phenomenon of so-called ‘solutions journalism’. In the back half, we delve into some of the incredible stories he’s found, principally that piece from Reasons to be Cheerful, and the patterns we’ve observed.This conversation was recorded online with Agostino at home in Puglia, Italy, on 3 May 2022.Title slide: Agostino Petroni at TEDx Barletta.Music:Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now. Find more:The article from Reasons to be Cheerful ‘Grazing Livestock Among the Trees Is Helping to Prevent Wildfires’. Some of Agostino’s broader work. Including ‘How to Save the Sea: Lessons from an Italian Fishing Community’ in the legendary Yes Magazine.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 lost and angry childhood spawned a champion boxer, and out of this, a community leader. And fifteen years ago, Eugene Eades became the backbone of the incredible restoration of Country at Nowanup - inland of Bremer Bay in the south of Western Australia. This is a particularly privileged conversation on Country at Nowanup, with this legendary Aboriginal elder. Eugene might move a little slower than those championship days, but his sharp eyes, wry humour, and rock solid presence resonate as powerfully as ever. Nowanup is a 750ha property that is part of the broader 1,000km stretch of restoration happening through the Gondwana Link network (featured on episode 79). The Healing People/Healing Country initiative at Nowanup has been unique and transformative for both People and Country for since 2006. Eugene has led cultural and educational camps for communities, schools and universities, youth at risk and justice intervention programs, eco-art projects, music festivals, cultural heritage assessments and much more. Importantly, Nowanup has formed an important place of respite for local Noongar people to recharge and continue to care for each other. The more than 16,000 visitors to Nowanup have also included other Indigenous people from all over Australia, and non-indigenous people from all over the world. And since the Nowanup ranger programs were established, a string of Ranger groups has been formed across the region. Join us with a little audience around the fire in one of the thatched meeting places at Nowanup, for a treasured yarn, and a special tune from Eugene.This conversation was recorded on Country at Nowanup on 24 January 2022. Title slide: Eugene Eades showing us around Nowanup (pic: Anthony James).You can see a few other photos of the beautiful Country at Nowanup on the episode web page.Music:Looking Back To Yesterday Again, by Eugene Eades, performed with Bruce Anthony.Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now. Find more:Nowanup website.A direct link to the beautiful 10 minute short film mentioned.You can donate or get involved to support the work at Nowanup via Gondwana Link.Hear Gondwana Link’s CEO Keith Bradby talk about the Nowanup story and what it means to him on episode 79.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!