The RegenNarration

Welcome to a new year and new series of The RegenNarration! You might remember me talking last year with prominent author, documentary maker and farmer at Fat Pig Farm, Matthew Evans, in the lead up to the new festival he’s founded back home in Australia, called GROUNDED: the Food and Soil Festival. Well, that festival happened in early December, and a couple of weeks later I got back online with Matthew to talk about what happened, how it happened, and if it might happen again.And hearing how his partner Sadie’s initial reaction to the festival was something like ‘wtf?’ only made me happier that she had accepted my invitation too. Aside from the fact that I’ve wanted to talk to her in her own right on this podcast for ages. (I don’t know that Matthew and Sadie have been on many podcasts together, so maybe I can even claim an exclusive!) This conversation felt a little different. You'll hear this couple’s customary candour, humour and insight, but also an acute dose of exhaustion and elation. And it ends fittingly, in that sense, with a moving moment and tune from the festival.Chapter markers & transcript.Recorded 18 December 2024.Title slide: Sadie & Matthew (sourced here).See more photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Music:My Mother, The Mountain, by Claire Anne Taylor.Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).Find more:The event with Charles Massy & the Pollocks that became ep.16. (Ep.20 features John Hewson with friend, and subscriber, James Tonson hosting.) 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!

Time to take a punt this year! I've just launched a Substack. Essentially, after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating TheRegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing – the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places.I started to wonder if writing some of these stories would be fun and useful. All the more after hearing Rebecca Solnit affirm how vital they continue to be in shaping our sense of reality, agency and possibility (out of the LA fires). So here’s a little introduction to the what, why and how of it. Including how subscriptions will work through the Substack, alongside Patreon and Buzzsprout. You can also read about it on my launch post on Substack. Where you can also find my first article – a sort of foundation piece - out yesterday, from the ancient Mayan cities in northern Guatemala. All will be embedded with a little latent love of photography, and some tunes from time to time. Putting thesocial back in media. So if you fancy some of that alongside your podcast, you can subscribe on Substack here - free or paid. I hope you’ll join me there!And standby for the new series of The RegenNarration podcast next week.For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener or Substack subscriber via the links below.Recorded 29 January 2025 in Antigua, Guatemala. Title slide: AJ recording this episode (pic: Olivia Cheng).With thanks to you early Substack subscribers, and of course you enduring Patreon and Substack subscribers, and other donating supporters. None of this could happen without you. Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.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!

Clinton Walker is a Ngarluma/Yindjibarndi man and Traditional Custodian of Murujuga (or Burrup Peninsula), on the north-west coast of Australia. You might recall my conversations with archaeologist Peter Veth and the co-authors of Songlines, Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale. They all related back to this place – where the Songlines start, as Clinton puts it. So as my family and I headed south from the Kimberley at the end of 2021, Clinton and I met up to record a yarn for the Clean State podcast. That was a shorter snappier format. But on this particular hot summer morning, with so much at stake here right now, and so much to appreciate about what he’s up to, Clinton and I settled in for an extended chat. Most of it became ep.109, still in the top 20 most listened to on this podcast. But today, for the first time, is our conversation in full.Murujuga houses the largest rock art collection in the world – around one million petroglyphs, some dating back about 40,000 years. The World Heritage nomination for this place is a shoe-in, unless it’s jeopardised by current industry expansion plans. All this remains in play today, including the alternate vision Clinton puts forward, as a former technician with a mining company here, who now runs a highly successful business called Ngurrangga Tours. Part of this episode was originally released as the last of the Clean State podcast. You can access the old Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (below).For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Recorded 13 December 2021. Title slide: Clinton Walker (from his website). For more photos by AJ, head here.With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series. Music:Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden.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!

Jess Beckerling was Campaign Director of the WA Forest Alliance (WAFA) when we had this conversation (she’s currently put all aside to stand at the 2025 WA state election). Jess is a highly respected figure in the southern reaches of Western Australia, by both those who would traditionally have prioritised conservation, and those who might not have. I spoke with Jess back in July 2021 for the Clean State podcast. At the time, WAFA was seizing the opportunity it sensed to finally end native forest logging in WA. With the comprehensive and poetically conceived Forests for Life Plan in hand, WAFA had been showing how we can stop bleeding finances, forests, farmlands and communities, and back in the growing suite of ecologically and economically beneficial industries. Come September, just two months after our conversation, the WA government agreed – and in an Australian first announced the end of native forest logging in WA. That end arrived at the start of 2024.This is our conversation in full for the first time (previously having been restricted to a shorter episode on Clean State, and an excerpt of that on The RegenNarration). Then I’ve patched in Jess’s media statement from Parliament House on the dramatic day of the government’s announcement (a few minutes long), along with some of her comments.Part of this episode was originally released as episode 8 of a series of 9 episodes for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.The Clean State Plan is on the episode web page below.For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Recorded 13.7.2021 & outside WA Parliament on 8.9.2021.Title slide: Jess Beckerling (supplied).With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series. Music: A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper, sourced from the Free Music Archive.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!

Simon Wallwork and Cindy Stevens live with their three kids on a farm in Corrigin, in WA’s wheatbelt. In 2019 they joined a group of other producers to found AgZero2030, an agriculture-led movement progressing positive action on climate. Their goal? That agriculture achieves net zero emissions by 2030, and the drawdown of emissions after that. In other words, that agriculture go from being a key contributor to global warming and its increasingly catastrophic effects, to being a key contributor to reversing it, and regenerating ecosystems and economies everywhere. And they’re finding a way to connect with people and politics across the board, including First Nations knowledge and enterprise, to achieve it.There was a bit of wind about on this day, but we took cover among the trees, grappled with mic changes, and got through mostly unscathed! Which was just as well, as this turned out to be a very personal conversation about the origins of AgZero2030, and a prescient one through to the present day, with an uncanny exchange on the trajectory of insurance in a warming world.This episode was originally released as episode seven of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page below.And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Recorded at Kings Park, Perth / Boorloo on 11 March 2021.Title slide: Simon & Cindy (supplied).With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series. Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.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 brief but profoundly beautiful bonus episode of previously unreleased material with Maria Novac. Maria was a single mum with a family who had unexpectedly found herself in need of social housing, and landed in a neglected hot box. A chance encounter resulted in her becoming one of the social housing recipients whose life was transformed by Stephen King and the Australian Insulation Foundation. If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode 242 with Stephen King: ‘The Insulation Revolution: The ‘simple’ social enterprise model that inspired a state’.To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.Title slide: Stephen King and Maria Novak as they appeared in an article on this story (pic: Steve Grant, supplied).And for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below. Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.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!

Stephen King is the founder, CEO and Head Installer of the Australian Insulation Foundation of WA (AIFWA). While working in his insulation business, Stephen found social housing tenants were desperately in need of insulation, but had no means of getting it. So he set up a charity, added a little premium to his main service, and provided housing insulation for social housing tenants free of charge. One such resident is Maria Novac – a single mum with a family who unexpectedly found herself in need of social housing, and landed in a neglected hot box. Maria can’t thank Stephen enough for the difference it’s made to their lives. And they’re not alone. And while the flow on benefits are enormous, from health to climate to education and more, perhaps the greatest benefit is what it shows is possible if government were to back in a plan to retrofit all 45,000 social houses in WA in this way. Maria was kind enough to host Stephen and I at her place for this conversation.Note: the last reference to AIFWA online that I can find is in 2023, and the website is currently not live. This episode is still aired here due the value of this particular story, the at least seven years of work the non-profit did, and the successful model it demonstrates.This episode was originally released as the sixth of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to WA, so we resolved to re-release them here.To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page below (where you can also find a five-minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Recorded November 2020.Title slide: Stephen King (supplied).With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.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!

Dale Tilbrook is a much-loved native food specialist, educator, and passionate Aboriginal tourism advocate. Like a lot of Australia at the time of this recording, Dale was immersed in a delayed NAIDOC Week, during COVID, celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She also continues to work towards a big vision for First Nations people, and WA as a whole. This vision is reflected in a joint proposal (linked on the episode web page) made at the time by Clean State WA and the influential WAITOC – the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council. Dale’s seen WAITOC generate a litany of outstanding success stories in Aboriginal tourism, and at times with very few resources. The potential is huge, she says, with the right support and investment, to empower Aboriginal communities with all sorts of flow-on benefits - and at a time when WA, and the rest of the world – need it most. Today, a special extended edition of the episode that originally aired on the Clean State podcast. I was limited to 30 minutes back then. Today, the full 45 minutes I couldn’t help but let play out when I visited Dale at her Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery.This episode was originally released as part of a series I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page.And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.Recorded November 2020.Title slide: Dale Tilbrook (supplied).With thanks to CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series. Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.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, a brief bonus featuring material from my conversation with Shannon Leigh that never saw the light of day, partly due to the wind that blew in, and partly due to Clean State’s mandate for shorter episodes. But it’s worth the listen, with reference to one of Australia’s much loved satirical shows on ‘nation-building’, Utopia.If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Shannon Leigh, ‘World’s Best Place for Active Transport, with Streets for People co-founder Shannon Leigh’. To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.Title slide: The shared path with the First Nations stone figure talked about in the main episode by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan (pic: Anthony James).And for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below. Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.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!

Shannon Leigh is co-founder and Director of Streets for People, and previously an award-winning urban and transport planner at the Department of Transport and later Curtin University. Investment in active transport is one of the most livelihood-rich, climate-friendly measures available. And given cost blow-outs in public health, climate related damage, and car dominated infrastructure, it’s another vital transition more of us are after – especially in the wake of the tripling of cycling in Perth since COVID-19. On that alone, WA’s former Auditor General, Colin Murphy, said that “It is hard to think of an activity with more benefits than cycling, for cyclists and for the wider community.” So to talk more about an active transport vision for WA, Shannon takes us to one of her favourite shared pathways by the Swan River.This episode was originally released as part of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (where you can also find a four minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below. Recorded in October 2020.Title slide: Shannon Leigh by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan for this conversation (pic: Anthony James).With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series. Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.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!