Recombination Nation

Dmitry Orlov was a prominent voice in the early 2000s peak oil movement in response to his book "The Five Stages of Collapse", comparing the recent collapse of the USSR with the likely prospects of the USA under similar circumstances. He has since moved from the USA back to Russia, where he continues to monitor history as it unfolds. This conversation was a rare opportunity to delve into the Russi...

Zach Elfers is a superstar in the agroforestry community, helping multiple innovative organisations develop both the crops and their uses. We talk about his work with hickory, honey locust and more, and their processing into value added products through collaborative groups. Read his substack: https://zachelfers.substack.com/profile/posts And his original blog: https://www.nomadseed.com Check out...

Soryu Forall is a meditation teacher and spiritual leader dedicated to bringing all beings to enlightenment. He teaches that ethical behavior is the beginning of the path, and that the first step in ethics is to prevent the destruction of life on Earth. Soryu is the Head Teacher and Founder of the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth (MAPLE) where he guides that community to deve...

Nicholas is a passionate rare tree grower in the blessed lands of California where just about everything seems to grow. He has tapped into the growing diversity in avocado, and gathered up the remnants of legendary crop breeder Luther Burbank in his backyard. If you would like to get in touch with Nicholas reach out to me via my Substack. Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly...

Peter Ward is a palaeontologist and prolific author with books covering a vast range of the deep past and distant future of life on Earth (and beyond it). His book " Future Evolution: An Illuminated History of Life to Come" caught my attention and I was thrilled for the opportunity to drop an avalanche of speculative biology questions his way. You can find his books online and in major book stores...

Edmund Frost founded a collective of seed growers and breeders who sell their selection of seeds suitable for the humid southeast USA as Common Wealth Seed Growers. He lives in Louisa County, Virginia, a center for the intentional communities movement, and spent many years living at Twin Oaks Community. He is passionate about breeding cucurbits for disease resistance, along with many other crops....

Arnold Schroder, from the Fight Like an Animal podcast, is an ecological anarchist who bridges the world between biology and politics across the depths of time. Check out his archive of fascinating articles: https://www.againsttheinternet.com Grab his new book: https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Like-Animal-Revolutionary-Biology/dp/B0GZ1GKCVX/ Listen to his podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/09DTUqz...

Julia Dakin and Anna Mieritz are key members of the "Going to Seed" organisation, which brings adaptation crop breeding to numerous communities in the USA. In this two part interview I learn more about their own vegetable breeding projects, but also take the rare opportunity to learn more about how their organisation got started, how it grew, and plans for the future. A great episode for people ke...

Roger's Bacon is an evolutionary biologist who turned his tool set on the related problem of how cultures mutate, compete, hybridise and evolve. He writes fascinating deep dive articles at Secretorum on substack: https://www.secretorum.life And runs the Seeds of Science blog to give a wider audience to pioneering thinkers: https://www.theseedsofscience.pub Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substa...

Steve is an independent crop breeder in southern Australia breeding a host of uncommon crops from similar climates in the Andes. We dive into his work back crossing maize to its ancestor (teosinte), plus his early work preparing to wide cross mauka and arracacha. Steve is pursuing the true zero input approach to breeding staple crops which can produce on unirrigated soil with minimal nutrient inpu...

Glenn Roberts is the founder of Anson Mills, an extraordinary project to bring traditional landrace staple crops back from the brink of extinction in his part of the humid south eastern USA. This interview digs into how he achieved such an extraordinary feat, looking for clues to how others could follow his example in their own bioregions. Read much more about Anson Mills here: https://ansonmills....

Andiru is a conlang enthusiast who took things the next step and created the auxiliary language Baseyu along with a dedicated community of enthusiasts. Auxiliary languages are designed to be small, simple and accessible enough for anybody to learn them as a new global common tongue- kind of like the Tower of Babel in reverse. You can check out the project here: https://baseyu.com Browse the dictio...

Okan learnt two of the most successful constructed languages- the sprawling, romantic Esperanto and cute minimalist Toki Pona. After covering the history of these languages we delve deeper into the dynamics of experimental language communities, the psychology of conlangers, and the potential interplay of culture, technology and experimental languages in the near future. Drop me a message on substa...

Malcolm Collins is an unclassifiable frontiersman for the coming century of chaos, a hardened fighter from the trenches of the culture wars, and a pronatalist who put his own blood line on the line by having a gaggle of embryo selected children with his lovely wife Simone, who cohosts their Based Camp podcast. You can watch their diverse discussions at Based Camp: https://www.youtube.com/@Simonean...

Chuck Chan is an accomplished amateur crop breeder from the humid cloud forests of California, adapting plants to his little pocket of Andean climate. He has made the most of his challenges by breeding a host of rare crops which struggle in other places, particularly the root crop Mashua, and papaya relative Vasconcellea along with numerous other projects. We also delve into how he manages his div...

Gail Tverberg was a star during the 2000s oil crisis, producing data rich reports on the TheOilDrum.com in a way that only a trained actuary could pull off. She has continued to impress me in subsequent years with her uncommon knack for digging into the numbers beneath the stories that others are trying to spin. In this interview we discuss the current state of the energy crisis, why a handful of...

From razor tongued darling of the peak oil movement to bette noire of the culture wars, James Howard Kunstler simply cannot keep from running his mouth, rustling feathers and shining a spot light on the absurdity and obscenity of modern civilised life as it staggers toward the dust bin of history. You can read his weekly blog here: https://www.kunstler.com His latest fiction book, following a 12 y...

Sean Dembrosky runs Edible Acres, a permaculture nursery in New York. We explore his recent successes with edible Canna, and his appreciation for persimmons, plus all the ins and outs of managing a huge range of plants for sale. Check out the nursery: https://www.edibleacres.org Take a tour of his gardens on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/EdibleAcres Sign up to Recombination Nat...

Fred Pearce is a prolific author and environmental journalist with fifteen extraordinary books under his belt, including the one which transformed my own perspective on invasive species "The New Wild". In this conversation we discuss the numerous topics he has investigated, and probe the state of science journalism today. Check out Fred's latest book "Despite it All" that finds hope among the chor...

Bunya Halasz is a permaculturalist and syntropic practitioner from the lush hinterland of northern New South Wales. This in depth conversation explores his winding journey through the roots of permaculture in Australia, his experience in reuniting the ongoing selection of crops in the context of spaces that produce an economic yield. You can sign up for Bunya's course on Dynamic Agroforestry begin...

Sam runs the brilliant Youtube channel, documenting his adventures exploring the traditional agriculture of the Andes, Papua New Guinea and the natural world in his own back yard in the chilly plains of North America. You can watch Sam's many wonderful videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@AmblingwithSam/featured I recommend starting with this impressive documentary about Andean agriculture: https...

Stetson is a medical geneticist who writes about his extensive interests on Substack, dipping into a wide range of topics including genetics, neuroscience, human behaviour, psychology, history, literature, culture, politics, and much more. Check out his writing: https://stetson.substack.com Sign up to Shane's Substack: https://recombinationnation.substack.com Read his book, Taming the Apocalypse,...

Nate is a long term experimental crop breeder who has also invested heavily in building community to bring other growers together, most notably with the Experimental Farm Network which is developing a wide range of perennial crops. You can follow Nate on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/experimentalfarmnetwork/ Join the Experimental Farm Network: https://citsci.org/organizations/experimental-f...

Jonathan Harris is the spark behind the Church of Burn, a UK group which burn money to reimagine our relationship to this mysterious substance which follows us everywhere. In this conversation we talk about money, sex, privacy and death along with countless other aspects of society which are up for renegotiation during these turbulent times. Read more about the Church of Burn: https://churchofburn...

Mark Christensen transitioned from a career in accounting to a passion for quantifying the astonishing health benefits of select heritage crops through the power of modern chemistry. He founded the Heritage Foods Crops Research Trust in New Zealand and created a potent organisation to spread his work into the wider community. Check out his organisation: https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz Their F...