Reskillience

I share a GRIPPING TALE about a droplet of water before sitting down with Helen Lehndorf , who is a radical forager, author, anarchist, poet and plenty more wonderful things besides. I loved her memoir A Forager's Life so much! Helen and I dive straight into the weeds about permaculture life strategies, unlocking creativity, writing for nature and how to rebel against The Machine by playing the Ho...

We built this city on rock n roll! And cheap oil. And it’s currently running out… so what happens now? This week I chat with Nathan Surendran to get a foothold on the fossil fuel crisis (which is the Everything Crisis) and how we can keep our balance, together. Nathan is a systems thinker, recovering engineer, energy and security analyst, policy advisor, author of the Energy and Resilience substac...

Ever wish you could sit down with permie elders to hear their take on the current chaos; what to do, where to live, and whether it’s really that bad in the grand scheme of things? Well just call me Genie cos this convo with permaculture educators and radical homemakers Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh will deliver. Ian and Marita live in a solar passive straw-bale home on the edge of Castlemaine, Vic...

I tell a story about my grandpa’s deathbed song request before having a heart-to-heart with Emily Coats, a deep nature connection facilitator, ancestral skills practitioner, threshold-crossing guide and dreamworker. In this convo: Shakespearean activism What the world needs right now (hint: not more intellect) Ways to wholeness Does activism have to feel hard and gnarly? Being precise in the rippl...

In 2018 Professor Jem Bendell published an academic paper that went viral; pretty weird for a piece of scholarly writing. The topic? Societal collapse caused by runaway climate change. The timeline? Soon. Deep Adaptation presented a frank, delusion-free framework for facing the end of the world as we know it, sparked a movement, and copped a lot of flack. I wanted to chat with Jem not so much abou...

I tell a story about Jar Power before sitting down with Robin Greenfield, an incredible fella best known for his radical experiments in simple living, food reclamation, waste minimisation and wild foraging. He has been called “the Robin Hood of our times”, “the Forrest Gump of ecology”, and “the best kind of crazy”. To me, Robin is a torch bearer for truth, leading the way towards justice – with a...

Christie Green spends days at a time in the mountains, in the snow, tracking elk, solo. Her hunting journey began at 40 as a practical way to feed herself and her family, and became a fierce and fluid exploration of womanhood, motherhood, stewardship, intuition, listening and kinship. Christie wrote a memoir about her experiences called Moonlight Elk that I rapturously devoured, licking my fingert...

You’ve heard of swales… but what about swales in the brain to slow and deepen our human experience? Join me and Cecilia Macaulay for one of those special convos that gets to the heart of life’s gnarliest struggles; our biggest messes, our greatest failures, our everyday chaos… and uses permaculture design to harness their power. This episode will particularly chime with “forgetful, distractible” t...

Big personal shares at the top of the ep (preview: podcasting terrifies me) before an utterly delightful conversation with Scots folk singer Josie Vallely aka. Quinie . Quinie's album Forefowk, Mind Me was named The Guardian's best folk release of 2025, but don't worry if you're not into bagpipes because we mostly chat about: Not making your art your career Tips for slow art/seasonal living in a r...

A garden drama unfolds during a heatwave, and I share my summer solstice/New Year wishes for you. Thanks for tuning into another year of Reskillience! We'll be back later in January full of fresh questions and custard.  Shout out to my love Jordan Osmond for helping produce this episode. Sound credit: BlackbirdFiltered.wav by acclivity   🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

Cor blimey, we're getting equiney! Cast aside your Saddle Club trauma and learn how horses can help us be better humans and stewards of nature in this rich convo with Lisa Podosin. Lisa is a horse listener, advocate and author who swapped Hollywood for a tiny home on shared land with a herd of seven horses. We get real deep on topics of: 🐴 not putting off till retirement what you wanna do today...

You want it, you got it: an open discussion about the cracks in our civilisation, and how to catch each other when it all falls apart. Dave Pollard has been writing about culture, complexity, deep ecology and collapse for longer than some of us have been alive. While he continues to cheer on radical ‘deep green’ activists, he no longer believes that that we can change or reform The System. This co...

Could you live without money? No support payments, no savings account, no secret benefactors?  Jo Nemeth has been doing so for the past decade, and reckons she is less stressed and more secure in her moneyless life (in which she shares a home with eight other humans and plays the role of house keeper/manager/grower/frugavore).  This is a truly radical tale of a woman who went the whole h...

I tell a story about becoming a gardening influencer before sharing an animated and long-awaited conversation with David Trood aka. The Weedy Gardener !   Weedy, Jord and I discuss: 🌱 Creative land access 🌱 Body as compost 🌱 Hearing nature's call 🌱 Being an eye cell for humanity 🌱 Showing your failures 🌱 Why to love the small stuff 🌱 The all important nutrient cycle 🌱 Decomposing cane...

I tell a story about the ironic demise of my keepcup, and the difference between light green and deep green choices, before a pot-of-tea-convo with Laura Jean . Laura is a renegade business coach, dietician and permaculturalist who will help you see VALUES in a whole new light, and how to use them to illuminate the life/business/world you really want. Prepare to cry tears of recognition and possib...

Three unbelievable stories about owls, and how to be a myceliating, possibilitarian practivist with the phenomenal Morag Gamble. Morag has cornflower blue eyes and a glorious crop of hair that curls at the ends like pea shoots. She consorts with broad beans and leafy greens in bare feet, and has sent no dig gardening viral on YouTube. This convo was recorded at Crystal Waters Eco Village where Mor...

Can birdsong heal your hearing? Can a rainforest recruit humans to protect it? What is deep ecology, anyway? Of all the approaches to “saving the world”, this one has my heart. Join me in conversation with elder John Seed as we get to the marrow of the environmental crisis, from the illusion of separation between human beings and nature, to the rituals, ceremonies and stories that can heal it. Abo...

Friends! Here’s a D&M (Dharma & Meditation) conversation I recorded with mindfulness meditation teacher and founder of Australian Parents for Climate Action Suzie Brown while visiting Narara Eco Village last week.  If you’ve ever felt anxious, unsure how to process difficult/obstinate emotions, or sad for no reason, this episode will provide ample tools for stilling the mind and relat...

It's the RESKILLIENCE ROADTRIP where I'm intercepting all sorts of good sorts along Australia's east coast! First up is Ceilidh Meo who teaches no less than 80 apocalypse skills (!!!) while also growing olives, shoring up the food system and being casually shamanic. This is a ROMP of a convo that is INSPIRING ME TO USE CAPS. Such fun. Such depth.  I also share about the caravan park we've jus...

It's a Jordan + Catie double bill for the Season Four finale 🎊   Join us for a fireside D&M as two humans just tryna digest the microplastic casserole of modernity… and make something better.  You’ll hear about my secret storytelling anxiety, Jord’s new award nominated film, my other boyfriends, law breaking, roadkill harvesting, why we took the Good Death-i-vore Pledge, sacred hunt...

I share a recipe for de-zombifying your life before chatting with Imogen Ive, Director at Mittagundi – a remote 520 acre farm and off grid education centre built by and for young folks in the high country. This convo is a reminder that sometimes hard is good, together is better and a pack horse, tent and sense of adventure beats air conditioned comfort any day. In the conversational cauldron: 🍯 S...

Shrug off the cloak of secrecy and awkwardness around death with palliative care nurse Pippa White. I’ve been wanting to bring a death convo to the airwaves for ages, because there’s a huge imbalance between light/dark, above/below, waxing/waning, growth/decay, possessing/relinquishing energies in our culture (and I'm the first person to perpetuate it). Shout out to everyone who sent frank and tho...

Do not listen to this unless you want to reawaken your dormant farming desires and throw yourself into a life on the land. I tell a story about being a grub, before having an animated chat with rural woman of the year Katie Finlay about staunching the loss of small farms in Australia and supporting emerging growers to step up – even and especially if they don’t own land. (What even is land ownersh...

It’s colder than a penguin’s big toe here in Djaara Country, so we’re cosying up by the fire for a yarn with Gareth Devenish. I call Gareth the Snoop Dogg of permaculture, he calls himself a sovereign man walking in Country, subject to natural lore, seeking a connection with the cosmos. Call off your obligations for the next hour because Gareth’s crackling mix of irreverence and truth telling is s...

I tell a story about making bugger all money but feeling filthy rich, before being joined by the incredible Linda Cockburn (pronounced “Co’burn” cos it’s Scottish) who explains why Capitalism is a death cult, and ways to crowd it out with reciprocity. Ample brain fodder and fiery inspiration here, folks!  We cover: 🪶 Being unmade by successive tragedies. 🪶 Quitting employment to work in the...