Recombination Nation

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...

Stephen Skolnick is a human microbiome researcher exploring the outer fringes of this rapidly expanding field. His theories on the microbiological origins of a host of significant and baffling diseases like schizophrenia and type 1 diabetes can be found on his substack. Stephen's Substack Eat Shit and Prosper: https://stephenskolnick.substack.com Another episode about the power of microbiology wit...

Professor Jiang brought deep historical, economic and cultural analysis to the masses through his popular YouTube lectures. In this interview Shane digs deeper into his perspective on the east/west divide as we navigate the unfolding end of the industrial era. Find all of Professor Jiang's videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@PredictiveHistory And sign up to read his substack articles: https://pr...

Professor David Shields is most often known for his work restoring Carolina Golden Rice to prominence in his native South Carolina, but this conversation goes further to explore parallel projects returning a wide range of preindustrial crops to the local food system. We also explore the culture impact of food, and its essential role as a touchstone for identity and belonging. Read more of David's...

The Honest Sorcerer is an engineer from Eastern Europe with a passion for studying the resource limits squeezing our global industrial economy. We talk about the intersections between advancing technology, eroding resources, deflating demographics and scrambling politics along with many other topics usually considered in isolation. The discussion peaks with a survey of the geopolitics of all the m...

Bruce Steele works with resilient, low input staple crops (including oaks for flour) and breeds heritage mangalitsa pigs in Southern California. Check out Bruce's substack: https://steeleb.substack.com Learn more about Bruce's farm: https://www.winfieldfarm.us Read Shane's weekly blog for free, or support his work with a paid subscription to get access to his audiobook and archive of past posts: h...

John Michael Greer is a historian of religion, the occult, and every aspect of history that typical historians overlook. In this conversation we explore the cultural impact of industrialisation and deindustrialization, and the many ways the future will be weirder and more wonderful than expected. Read John's weekly blog posts: https://www.ecosophia.net John's dreamwidth journal: https://ecosophia....

Mandy operates a fantastic nursery in England specialising in a mind blowing diversity of perennial vegetables. Shane interviews her about her collecting and breeding projects, the challenges of running a commercial nursery, the advantages of buying rural land as a collective and loads of other topics. Learn more about Mandy's nursery : https://incrediblevegetables.co.uk/about-us/ Find more of Sha...

Shane talks to Sebastian Coccioba about his obsession with plant biotechnology, and how his determination to build his own home laboratory (including a gun that shoots genes into plants) paid off. Also includes a survey of all the techniques an independent scientist could consider mastering. Read more of Sebastian's work at his open lab book : https://binomicalabs.notion.site/?v=cc508bd627a64aa7bf...

Shane grills Simon Michaux on the key resource limits preventing the promised renewable energy transition and his comprehensive plans to develop a thorium powered alternative. Read more about Simon's work at: The complex systems limits threatening industrial civilisation: https://www.simonmichaux.com The plan to build an alternative civilisation: https://www.promethean-nexus.com The plan to develo...