Post-Growth Australia Podcast

PGAP recently had the pleasure of travelling to Canberra to record live at the 2023 New Economy Network Australia (NENA) conference: ‘Life after Capitalism’. We recorded a collage of presentions and interviews with conferences attendees into order to showcase nearly two hours of Post-Growth goodness. This episode includes well-known names such as Tom Ballard, Donnie MacLurcan, Anitra Nelson and Gareth Hughes. (graphic courtesy of NENA) PGAP acknowledges the Ngunnawal, First Custodians of the country where the recordings of this conference took place. We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that colonisation continues in the form of growth- based capitalism that privatises, pillages and pours concrete over lands that were never ceded. This is one aspect of an ongoing colonial mindset that pre-dates growth based capitalism. PGAP will never be corporatised, so it relies upon word of mouth to spread the post-growth message. So please, if you get the opportunity, share this and other episodes within your networks. You can rate and review us on Apple Podcast or on your favourite podcast platform. You can also Contact us with your feedback, thoughts, questions as well as ideas for future guests or episode topics. If you choose to subscribe, that helps us a lot and it means that we can better keep you in the loop. (PGAP making a presence at the NENA conference) This is an absolute epic of an episode! It was recorded live across meeting rooms, hallways, scout halls and outdoors, so the quality of the recordings are variable. We would like to thank Andrew Skeoch for his additional editing support for this episode. Attendees at the NENA conference. What a fantastic, game changing group of future leaders, thinkers and healers. Photo courtesy of Rod Taylor We present to you our esteemed presenters and interviewees, in order of appearance (with time stamp): Uncle Wally: ‘Welcome to Country’ ( 00:04:52 to 00: 13: 35) Dr Mary Graham, UQ and Kombu-merri person: ‘Indigenous perspectives and “Relationist Economics” (00: 13: 36 to 00: 25: 59) Tim Hollo, Executive Director of The Green Institute, ‘What’s wrong with capitalism anyway?’ (00: 27: 24 to 00: 34: 11) Gareth Hughes, Wellbeing Economy Alliance NZ: ‘Will “wellbeing economies” save us?’ (00: 34: 27 to 00: 42: 25) (For more on wellbeing economics, you may be interested in PGAP’s interview with Katherine Trebeck, who also spoke at the NENA conference) Janet Salisbury, Women’s Climate Congress: Interview (00: 42: 41 to 00: 50: 51) Donnie MacLurcan, Post-Growth Institute: “What might a degrowth and post-growth future look like?” ( 00: 52: 02 to 00: 57: 28) (PGI’s Robert Wanalo was interviewed by PGAP in season 1) Anitra Nelson, Author of ‘Exploring Degrowth’: “What could our lives look like after capitalism?” ( 00: 57: 44 to 01: 02: 23) (Anitra was a past guest on PGAP which can be listened to here) Anthony Gleeson, ‘The Sustainable Hour’ radio program: Interview ( 01: 02: 24 to 01: 08: 38) Tom Ballard, Comedian and author of ‘I Millennial’: Conference Dinner Speaker ( 01: 10: 58 to 01: 32: 34) Andrew Skeoch, nature sound recordist at 'Listening Earth': Interview followed by session “Deep listening to nature reveals how life cooperates, rather than competes” (01: 34: 15 to end). PGAP would like to give a huge Huzzah to conference and NENA convenor Dr Michelle Maloney. She is so wonderful that she has been interviewed TWICE on PGAP for her work with NENA and AELA. Listen HERE and HERE. Do consider getting involved with NENA, and be part of the grassroots groundswell for systemic change. All opinions recorded at the conference, including any past or future work or legacies of speakers and interviewees, are exclusively theirs and do not always reflect the views of position of PGAP or SPA, who support this podcast. PGAP host Michael Bayliss also presented at the NENA conference, based on a report that he co-wrote for SPA on the housing crisis. The work of Michael Bayliss can be explored at his website here. Until next episode folks, until then....

On this episode of Post-Growth Australia Podcast, we are joined by Jon Doust - professional writer, speaker, comedian, performer, activist and trouble maker. Not only does Jon live in the same town as your PGAP hosts (Albany), he went to the same school as Michael. In this episode, we exchange notes on our formative years, which for Jon are documented in his trilogy of books ‘Boy on a Wire’, ‘Return Ticket’ and ‘To the Highlands.’ This provides a springboard for an in-depth discussion around the role that formative education plays in creating the psychologies of modern society and how addressing many of our existential crises requires some deep unlearning and relearning. This interview was recorded on the eve of Australia’s Voice Referendum, to which Jon worked tirelessly for the Yes campaign. Jon was also running for the Albany council elections as a progressive voice in a typically conservative part of the world. This lead to a sprawling discussion across many topics, issues and amusing anecdotes, where Jon’s mercurial skills as a storyteller truly came to the fore. Also evident throughout the interview is Jon’s love and dedication to the First Nations Noongar Menang community. Further, as fellow activists, we reflect on our losses and how moving ahead requires the art of learning how to be a better loser (and continue on anyway with even more dedication!) You can find out more about Jon at his Blog or at Fremantle Press. Michael Bayliss was joined by co-host Mark Allen for the introduction and outro discussions to this episode, recorded after the results of the Voice referendum. As proud ‘Yes’ supporters, we reflected with sadness at the results. We observed the phenomena of people voting No as a ‘protest’ to the government and reached the conclusion that there are far better ways to ‘voice’ your protest against the government – punching downwards is not the solution. We were pleased to note that the Albany Council now has a progressive councillor following the election, so that is one silver lining. In the outro, we compare notes on our personal education experiences and how these have been an impediment with regards to gaining the wisdom (or even the practical skills) to deal with the multiple human induced crises that lie ahead. We make it very clear that we are knocking THE SYSTEM and the vested interests that lie behind the veil, NOT individual teachers, many of whom are heroes in our eyes and work uphill everyday against the crumbling system. You can find out more about your hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen. All the MANY opinions raised during this episode are individually held by your hosts and our esteemed guest Jon Doust and may not always reflect the opinions of our supporters. Enough about us – what are your thoughts on all the above? Let them be known by contacting PGAP at our Contact Page. If you liked this episode (or even if you didn’t!) rate and review us on Apple Podcast or your favourite platform. Share PGAP with your friends, family and networks and grow the post-growth conversation! This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the Menang Noongar people that were never ceded. We continue to plunder, concrete and colonise their lands, without consultation, in the name of growth. We pay respect to all elders past, present and emerging and hope that we can learn from their wisdom in navigating the turbulent times ahead as we enter deeper intothe decade of consequence.Special Guest: Jon Doust.

We are certainly living in precarious times. We have transgressed six out of nine planetary boundaries (with more to come). The gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is beginning to look less like a gap and more like a chasm. The threat of wide-scale war looms large. How do we get ourselves out of this mess before Mad Max becomes a documentary? Luckily for us, Mark Diesendorf and Rod Taylor have co-authored a new book “The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation: Technological, Socioeconomic and Political Change.” Not only does this book unpack several of the main existential challenges facing humanity, it details many proactive solutions that we can all undertake to create a better future. In this episode of Post-Growth Australia Podcast, Mark Diesendorf kindly steps into the microphone to summarise the key arguments detailed in “The Path of a Sustainable Civilisation.” Dr Mark Diesendorf is Honorary Associate Professor in the Environment & Society Group, School of Humanities & Languages at UNSW Sydney. He is also Senior Editor for Energy of the international journal Global Sustainability. Originally trained as a physicist, he became a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO, and then broadened out into interdisciplinary energy and sustainability research. From 1996 to 2001 he was Professor of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology Sydney. PGAP listeners will be familiar with many of the challenges and solutions raised by Mark, in this interview, that are expanded on within the very concise and easy to read pages of “The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation”. These include the mechanisms of state capture and how they undermine democracy, the critical role that population sustainability contributes toward any planned Degrowth transition and how planned Degrowth may be facilitated with the sensible application of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). MMT is a favourite topic on PGAP and we highly recommend listening to our episode: “MMT for Activism with Gabrielle Bond”. You may also recognise Mark's co-author, Rod Taylor, who also contributed to the book “Sustainability and the New Economics” with Steve Williams, whom PGAP interviewed last year. Rod Taylor was also interviewed on PGAP for his own book “10 Journeys on a Fragile Planet.” We are certainly well read on this podcast! PGAP is supported by Sustainable Population Australia. All views and perspectives from our esteemed guests, including current and past legacies, are their own and do not always reflect the positions held by PGAP or SPA. Your PGAP co-hosts, Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen, have been very impressed by the amount of contact and feedback that we have been receiving from our listeners and supporters. Thank you so much! Let’s build this community. Rate and review this and other episodes of PGAP on Apple Podcast or your favourite platform and feel free to share among your networks. Contact us anytime with your feedback, thoughts and ideas. As Mark Diesendorf is a very industrious generator of wisdom, we are honoured to share a large collection of his work below, followed by the time stamp for this episode. Happy further reading! Mark’s website: https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-mark-diesendorf Mark’s Interview with The Sustainable Hour Podcast. Mark and co-host Rod Taylor spoke at an online Australia Earth Law Alliance online event for Earth Laws month. The presentation may be seen at the AELA YouTube channel here. Yin Paradies and John Seed, who also spoke during Earth Laws month, were discusssed during the introduction of this episode. These talks may be watched here and here. Mark wrote for The Conversation: Saving humanity: here’s a radical approach to building a sustainable and just society New book: Mark Diesendorf & Rod Taylor (2023). The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation: Technological, Socioeconomic and Political Change. Palgrave Macmillan. eBook ISBN 978-981-99-0663-5; print ISBN 978-981-99-0662-8. See https://sustainablecivilisation.com/. Order from https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0663-5 Latest papers Mark Diesendorf & Steven Hail (2022). Funding of the energy transition by monetary sovereign countries. Energies, volume 15, paper number 5908. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15165908 (Can be downloaded free of charge) Mark Diesendorf (2022). Scenarios for the rapid phase-out of fossil fuels in Australia in the absence of CO2 removal. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management https://doi.org/10.1080/14486563.2022.2108514 Mark Diesendorf (2022.) Scenarios for mitigating CO2 emissions from energy supply in the absence of CO2 removal. Climate Policy 22:882-896. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2022.2061407 Mark Diesendorf, David Roser & Haydn Washington (2023). Analyzing the nuclear weapons proliferation risk posed by a mature fusion technology and economy. Energies 16:1123. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16031123 . Time Stamp 0:00:00 - 0:11:18 Introduction 0:11:19 - 1:08:02 Interview with Mark Diesendorf 1:08:03 - 1:16:23 OutroSpecial Guest: Dr Mark Diesendorf.

It is not every day that urban planning and societal collapse are discussed in the same conversation. But for Kate Booth – activist academic and Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, both are critical and interlinked issues. In this very educational episode, Kate talks us through the Insurgent Planning movement as well as the Just Collapse movement. At a time when Australia’s Federal Government is scrambling to build 1.2 million new homes while the recent climate data suggests that an ecological collapse is imminent, these are difficult but necessary conversations that we need to be having. Kate Booth is Associate Professor of Human Geography, and activist academic, in the School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Her teaching and research addresses socio-ecological inequity in the context of rapid and unprecedented global change, and she leads a ‘Critical Collapse Studies’ research program underpinned by her expertise on insurance in a changing climate. She also teaches urban and regional planning. You can read more about Kate here. Just Collapse is an activist platform dedicated to socio-ecological justice in face of inevitable and irreversible global collapse. You can find out more about Just Collapse here. You can also read more about insurgent planning here or watch a video that Kate produced here. An interview with Kate and Tristan Sykes is also available from Collapse Club on YouTube. Kate is a regular contributor on the Town Planning Rebellion (TPR) Facebook Group, which is administered and moderated by your PGAP co-hosts, Mark Allen and Michael Bayliss. Liked this episode and want to hear more? In 2021, PGAP recorded three episodes on the road in Tasmania, with many special guests, which can be listened to here, here and here. You may also like our episode on Retrosuburbia with David Holgren. Help the world to degrow by helping PGAP to grow! Share this episode with your family and friends and rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Contact us with your feedback and suggestions for future topics or guests. PGAP is made possible through the kind support of Sustainable Population Australia. The opinions of PGAP guests, including any legacies past or present, are exclusively theirs and do not always reflect the views of PGAP or SPA.Special Guest: Kate Booth.

Welcome to the season five premiere of Post-Growth Australia Podcast. What better way to launch our new season than with Rob Dietz, co-host of Crazy Town Podcast, perhaps the standard bearer of degrowth themed podcasts. (Rob Dietz). Rob is the Programs Director of Post Carbon Institute (PCI). A brilliant public speaker and story teller, Rob talks us through the journey of Crazy Town Podcast, which he co-hosts with colleagues Asher Miller and Jason Bradford. He also discusses the other initiatives and campaigns run by PCI, in addition to his unique vision of a Post-Growth future. (Crazy Town's Logo). We asked Rob to share two of his favourite Crazy Town Podcast Episodes that are linked below. We do warn you, that once you start listening to Crazy Town, you might not be able to stop! Episode 34. Fear of Death and Climate Denial, or… the Story of Wolverine and the Screaming Mole of Doom Episode 60. Chillin' and Killin': How Air Conditioning Has Altered Human Behavior and the Environment Rob would also like us to share PCI’s report: “Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown.” It is quality reading and we are pleased that it is making ripples. The song of choice for this episode is ‘Safe Room’ from host Michael Bayliss’ band ‘Shock Octopus.’ First released in 2011, its apocalyptic tale – of a world that has become so impacted that even the billionaires who created the mess in the first place have no safe place to hide – is becoming all the more prophetic a decade later. Michael and co-host Mark have had our music recently played on the Freedom of Species radio show, here and here respectively. (The iconic cover of the 'Safe Room' single). We are also excited by the fact that Rob presented at an online Degrowth conference run by New Economy Network Australia (NENA). PGAP has interviewed NENA’s convenor Michelle Maloney twice. The video of Rob’s talk can be watched here. Your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen are pleased to be back for season five of Post-Growth Australia Podcast. We hope you like the cosmetic changes of this episode (graphics courtesy of Squeaky Pea Designs with photos from Photographica). We are looking forward to another season of quality guests and topics. We have not been idle during our break. You may, for example wish to have a gander at two of our recent published articles, including: “Economic reform vital to solving housing crisis” - Mark Allen for Independent Australia “POPULATION GROWTH AND WEALTH INEQUALITY ARE MORE ENTWINED THAN WE THOUGHT: HERE’S WHY” – Michael Bayliss for Population Media Center blog. We hit our record monthly listens twice in season four and with your word of mouth we can extend our outreach even further for season five. Share this and other episodes of PGAP with your friends, family and networks. Rate and review us on Apple podcast or your favourite platform. Don’t hesitate to contact us anytime with your feedback, thoughts or suggestions. Post-Growth Australia Podcast is made possible from the support of Sustainable Population Australia. Any opinions, views and legacies past and present from our guests are theirs only and may not always reflect that of PGAP or SPA. Episode Timestamp: 0:00:00 to 0:09:31 - Interview sound bye and introduction with Mark Allen 0:09:31 to 0:56:31 - Interview with Rob Dietz, hosted by Michael Bayliss 0:56:32 to 0:59:41 - Music, ‘Safe Room’ by ‘Shock Octopus’. 0:59:42 to 1:05:02 – Outro with Mark AllenSpecial Guest: Rob Dietz.

In 1998 Population Media Center (PMC) was formed to ‘make the stories that remake our world’. 25 years later, radio and TV shows, supported by PMC, have been heard throughout the world, including Ethiopia, Senegal and Papua New Guinea. Produced in collaboration with local communities and local scriptwriters, these shows share a common thread in that the audience are invited to consider positive family planning decisions through the role modelling of engaging and identifiable characters. PGAP was very fortunate to be joined by special guest Bill Ryerson, President and Founder of PMC. He talks us through the ‘stories behind the stories’ of PMC's many award winning and popular projects. PGAP would like to give a shout out to Paul Winter, who is not only on the program advisory board at PMC, but is also a Grammy winning saxophonist, whose music is inspired by the cultures and creatures of planet Earth. He kindly shared the track ‘Talkabout’ for this episode of PGAP, which we played an extract from after Bill’s interview. We would also like to give a shout-out to Cody Peluso, Digital Advocacy & Mobilization Manager at PMC, without whom this episode would not have been possible. PGAP co-host Michael Bayliss interviewed Cody for a recent edition of the Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) newsletter. SPA kindly supports PGAP and we encourage you to consider giving SPA a donation for their end of financial year donation appeal. PMC kindly provided an excerpt from the Hulu series ‘East Los High’, courtesy of Hulu, that we played at the start of this episode. A trailer for the series can be viewed on YouTube here. We hope you will join PMC in celebrating their 25th anniversary. There are many events lined up, including their Zoom birthday party, held on Zoom on the 15th of June, which you can RSVP here. Unfortunately for Australian listeners, this is well after midnight for us so perhaps one for the night owls. Otherwise you can keep track of PMC's activities on their website here. Otherwise, please check out PMC’s award winning podcast, Crossing the Line. Excellent stuff. While PMC celebrate their 25th anniversary, PGAP will be taking a very short break. This is the last episode of season 4 of Post-Growth Australia Podcast. We made some changes to the format of this podcast, including welcoming co-host Mark Allen. The experiment has worked in our favour, with record number of listens in April and May. While our PGAP community continues to build, we strongly encourage our listeners to reach out and contact us with your feedback, suggestions and thoughts while we are on break. What were the episodes you loved, or not so much? What guests or topics would you like to see in season 5? We would love to hear from you, so don’t be shy in hitting the contact button. All opinions of PGAP guests, including any past, present and future legacies, are exclusively their own and may not always reflect the views and objectives of Post-Growth Australia Podcast or Sustainable Population Australia. CLICK HERE to find out more about Sustainable Population Australia. You can find out more about the work of co-hosts Michael Bayliss HERE or Mark Allen HERE. We look forward to gracing the airwaves in a month or two. Until then folks, until then!Special Guest: Bill Ryerson.

Fun Fact! When your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen aren’t making brand new episodes of PGAP, they are involved in many other worthy enterprises. Michael has just co-written a brand new report “Population and the Housing Crisis”. Mark performed his debut show at the Adelaide Fringe, “The Boomer and The Doomer.” Like most things we do, this all flew under the blip of the mainstream media radar, so we took the opportunity this episode to interview each other on our respective endeavours. It is not a secret to anyone now that Australia is going through a housing emergency. With Australia one of the most unaffordable countries in the world and with many of us in severe housing stress, this reality is very tangible. As housing stress is reaching its peak, our federal government is committing to one of the largest population growth policies in recent decades. The ‘official’ stance is that the housing crisis is a supply based issue – just keep building more! There has been very little written on the ‘demand’ side of the housing equation. Michael found himself one of the few who were brave or foolhardy enough to tackle this issue alongside co-author Dr. Jane O’Sullivan, with whom Sustainable Population Australia commissioned to write the report ‘The Housing Crisis is a Population Growth Crisis.’ For this episode, Mark interviews Michael on the story behind the report and some of its key findings. (Boomer and the Doomer artwork by Mathisha Wahikala, Mick Thompson and Mark Allen). The housing emergency is just another in long line of emergencies – take your pick! Climate change, boiling oceans, ecological collapse, resource depletion and other fun things. It can be hard to maintain a poker face through this incessant din of human induced calamities, let alone find time to laugh. Michael interviews Mark’s recent experiences in combining political satire with stand- up comedy in his debut show at the Adelaide fringe with comedian Eric Tinker. Combined, they performed the duo show ‘The Boomer and The Doomer’ across three sold out nights in March. We muse on bringing humour into Degrowth conversations, which has been one of PGAP’s key objectives since day one. Eric Tinker's 'MC Boomer rap' can be viewed here on YouTube. (Ice cover artwork by Robert Smith and Mark Allen). We also take time in the episode to play a some choice tracks, 'Ice' and 'A Deer Caught In The Highlights' from Mark and Michael's respective music projects, 'Counting Backwards' and 'Shock Octopus'. PGAP will soon be winding down for a short break between our fourth and fifth seasons. This is a perfect time to contact PGAP to let us know your feedback and what themes or guests you would like us to explore next time around. Our recent upswing in downloads continues - be part of this movement! Share this and other episodes to your family, friends and networks. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or your favourite platform. A big thanks to Sustainable Population Australia for supporting this podcast. You can find out more about your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen at their websites. Episode time stamp: 0:00:00 - 0:03:09 Introduction 0:03:00 - 0:05:07 'Ice' by Counting Backwards 0:05:08 - 0:38:05 Housing Crisis? What Housing Crisis! 0:38:06 - 0:42:10 'A Deer Caught In The Headlights' by Shock Octopus 0:42:11 - End The Boomer and the Doomer + Outro Mark referred to several articles during this show. These include: "Threat to Albanese Government" - Crispin Hull "Millions living on city fringes at higher risk of climate disasters as federal government warned of 'national crisis" - ABC "There is a perfect storm brewing for the housing market and it could make buying your own home a pipedream" - ABC Mark's article for Independent Australia, "Why the housing crisis is here to stay" can now be read here. A second article, "Economic reform vital to solving housing crisis", has also been published by IA.

At PGAP, we are huge fans of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). However, the question is often asked, how can an understanding of MMT, or a broader understanding of economics, help the cause when it comes to degrowth advocacy or environmental activism? For this episode, we warmly welcome Gabrielle Bond, CEO of Adelaide based Modern Money Lab and member of Extinction Rebellion, to tell us more about how MMT can inform our activism toward a better, more equitable, post-growth world. For further reading, Gabrielle recommends the short article from Jason Hickel: “DEGROWTH AND MMT: A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT.” You can find out more about Modern Money Lab here. Gabrielle also recommends the YouTube Video: “A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”. Modern Money Lab have just opened the first two subjects of the masters degree as stand alone subjects that anyone can take: 'Foundations of Real-World Economics' and 'Foundations of Modern Money, Institutions and Markets'. Find out more here. PGAP has touched on MMT and ecological economics several times throughout our run. We recommend checking out the Season 3 episode “Ecological Economies and MMT with Steve Williams.” You may be also interested in the Season 2 interview with Economic Reform Australia, who are also based in Adelaide and whose Patrons, Prof Stephanie Kelton and Prof Phil Lawn, are also actively involved with Modern Money Lab. Our co-host, Mark Allen, first worked with Gabrielle through Sustainable Prosperity, where he delivered a zoom presentation on behalf of Town Planning Rebellion. The video of the presentation may be seen here. In April 2023, PGAP enjoyed its highest ever monthly downloads to date, doubling its average monthly downloads. This is very encouraging considering the fact that PGAP covers critical issues that are widely ignored or suppressed by mainstream media and the mainstream political landscape. Let’s work together to build on this momentum. Subscribe to PGAP and rate/review us on your favourite platform, such as Apple Podcasts. Share this and other episodes widely among your networks. Contact PGAP to give us feedback and your ideas for future episodes and guests. Want to find out more about your PGAP co-hosts? You can find out more about Michael Bayliss at his website here. You can find out more about Mark Allen’s other work at the Holistic Activism website.Special Guest: Gabrielle Bond.

In the world of degrowth, the focus is often centred on the need for broad scale system change. However, it is often at the grassroots community level that real resistance against overdevelopment is truly and tangibly observed. For this very special episode of PGAP, we interview Annabel Paulley (Friends of Yakamia), Chris Poulton (Rethink Eastlink) and Andrew St John (Safe and Scenic Toodyay Roads) to highlight the good work been done by community groups in South-Western Australia to fight the relentless tide of overdevelopment. Our first guest Annabel Paulley (interviewed 00:08:19 to 00:37:09) is a coordinator and key member of the Albany based Friends of Yakamia Forest. The Friends of Yakamia have been working tirelessly to protect the titular rate payer land from being rezoned for housing and road development. The land is a fragment of the forest that once covered the northern suburbs of Albany and is home to a host of endemic and threatened plants, bird and animal species. You can find out more about Friends of Yakamia at their Facebook page here. (Friends of Yakamia visiting state MP for Albany, Rebecca Stephens) Our second guest Chris Poulton ( interviewed 00:37:23 to 01:09:16) runs Summer Creek Restaurant and Brewery with his family Bakers Hill, nestled in eastern side of the Perth Hills. The property and nearby Kep track have significant historical importance to Western Australia’s formative history, that will be undermined if the Eastlink highway project is passed. Find out more about Rethink Eastlink here. You may also wish to check out the great work from the Save Perth Hills Action Group. (Chris Poulton) Our third guest Dr Andrew St John (interviewed 01:09:32 to 01:23:54) is convenor of Safe and Scenic Toodyay Roads. Toodyay lies on the transition between the Perth Hills and the Wheatbelt. The impact to lifestyle, legacy and the natural environment of the local scarp ecosystem is threatened by Main Roads WA and other developments (including mining and housing development). (Andrew St John) One major focus of this episode is to explore the interrelationship between the great work done at the grassroots by community action groups and the broader issue of wider system change being championed by many activists including degrowth advocates. The South-West of Western Australia is not the only region in the world in which brave citizens are defending their natural and cultural environments from the march of development, progress and concrete. Similar fights are occurring everywhere, globally, all the time. All three guests share a unique vision of their solutions to this worldwide predicament, although all are united with the view that there needs to be fundamental end to the current growth based system. Otherwise, it will be up to community groups to be perpetually putting out the spot fires. Host Michael Bayliss is joined by Mark Allen, co-host and founder of Town Planning Rebellion, during the intro and outro. We gain his perspective on how TPR can work with local action groups to bring critical change to Australia’s broken urban planning sector. We also discuss how to have a nuanced debate on some of the thornier issues such as urban consolidation vs. urban sprawl, and visible (but seldom discussed) impacts of population growth. You can find out more about host Michael Bayliss at his website here and more about Mark Allen at the Holistic Activism website. Please support PGAP by sharing this and other episodes with your networks. Do you have feedback or suggestions for future episodes? You can contact us here. We'd like to leave you with some images of Chris Poulton's property at Bakers Hill, WA, followed by a timestamp of the episode. Old winery established in 1884 by Edward Keane with 3x 136 year old Moreton bay fig trees on the right. Looking up from the restaurant at the hill that would be turned in to a freeway (top 3rd of the picture). White tailed Black Cockatoos spend over 3 months of the year feeding and socialising in area deemed for eastlink freeway. Community building and socialising areas are important for Black cockatoos and not something mainroads is acknowledging in their environmental assessment / report. Episode time stamp Introduction with Mark Allen: 00:00:00 to 00:08:04 Annabel Paully (Friends of Yakamia): 00:08:19 to 00:37:09 Chris Poulton (Summer Creek Brewery, Rethink Eastlink): 00:37:23 to 01:09:16 Andrew St John (Safe and Scenic Toodyay Roads): 01:09:32 to 01:23:54 Outro with Mark Allen (Town Planning Rebellion): 01:24:10 to 01:34:20 All expressed views and legacies - past and present - of PGAP guests are their own and do not necesarilly reflect the views and legacies of Post-Growth Australia Podcast, or Sustainable Population Podcast, who support this podcast.Special Guests: Andrew St John, Annabel Paulley, and Chris Poulton.

For this episode of PGAP, we travel (virtually) to equatorial western Africa to speak with Innocent Kelvin Coffie, youth leader and founder of EarthCare Permaculture Ghana. Kelvin takes us on a verbal tour of the property, the successes the property has had in up skilling new generations in food self-sufficiency, and some recent challenges that the property has endured through. Kelvin also gives some insight into how the permaculture movement is taking root in Ghana, some of the unique environmental and social challenges experienced in his country and how permaculture is one solution to solving these problems. EarthCare Permaculture Foundation needs your support. For example, a donation will help the centre invest in some much needed gardening tools and building structures. The centre is looking for volunteers and other enthusiastic people to help on site or to exchange knowledge and ideas. Follow EarthCare Permaculture Ghana on Facebook to find out more about how you can help. If you would like to make a donation over paypal, the email address is coffieinnocent8@gmail.com PGAP also needs your support! Rate and review us on Apple Podcast or your favourite podcast platform. Share this and other episodes of PGAP among your friends and networks. Contact us to let us know how we’re going, where we can improve, and what topics or guests you would like to see in future episodes. Host Michael Bayliss feels a deep connection with the African continent and the many great thinkers and amazing grassroots community movements that are making waves. PGAP has previously interviewed Kenyan resident Robert Wanalo in season 1 and Ugandan born Florence Blondel in Season 2. We highly recommend listening to those episodes. PGAP has also not shied away from covering permaculture and regenerative farming. We have interviewed some big names like David Holmgren and Charles Massy. You may also be interested in our interview with Shane Simonsen, who grows unconventionally in subtropical Queensland, or Murray Gomm, who grows locally to PGAP in our new home town of Albany. All views, opinions, historical and present legacies of PGAP guests are exclusively theirs and may not necessarily reflect the opinions, views and legacies held by PGAP.Special Guest: Innocent Kelvin Coffie.