Recombination Nation

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...

Thomas Picard is a landrace cucurbit breeder from France who works with melons, watermelon, pumpkin and kiwano. You can read more about his work at the Going to Seed forum- https://goingtoseed.discourse.group/u/thomaspicard/summary Links to the Going to Seed conference will be added once they are available. Follow Shane's work at his Substack blog: https://recombinationnation.substack.com Read his...

In this final episode of season 1, I outline plans for the podcast, Substack and planned YouTube channel in the coming year, then answer a stack of questions from followers of my work. The podcast will be relaunching in November as Recombination Nation, so stay subscribed while I take a break and prepare for a stellar second season. Find more of Shane’s work at: Zero Input Agriculture blog Taming...

Shane talks with Harriet Mella, an independent soil scientist from Austria about the complexity and resilience of the life beneath our feet and its critical role in supporting crop health (in parallel with crop breeding). Check out Harriet's soil science web course launching soon: http://agricurls.com/ Find more of Shane’s work at: Zero Input Agriculture blog: https://zeroinputagriculture.substack...

Shane and Cimbri resume their conversation, pivoting back to the all too common challenge of young people living in urban or suburban environments who want to escape to less crowded places, plus all the things they can do with their energy in the meantime. Subscribe to Cimbri's substack- https://iwritetoyoufrombabylon.substack.com You can check out Cimbri's activity on Reddit- https://www.reddit.c...

Shane talks to Greg Willkeen about his Bactelium project, aiming to develop a suite of food safe microbial communities that can provide food security from the most basic feedstock resources. We also delve into his crop breeding work developing a starchy storage squash, and discuss the evolving backyard microbiology community thriving across the world. Check out Greg's substack blog - https://bacte...

Shane talks with Brad Neil, an expert in the improved English writing system called Quikscript and all round conscript and conlang enthusiast. We delve into the history of spelling and writing reform, how technology could catalyse a popular English reform in coming years, and Brad evaluates Shane's own ideas about creating a post-industrial writing technology. You can check out Brad's Quikscript p...

Shane talks to his not too distant neighbour Darren, from Herbalistics nursery, about his amazing work crossing Australian crop relatives of citrus, sweet potatoes and a long list of medicinal plants. Check out Darren's online nursery and blog- https://herbalistics.com.au And his beautiful collection on instagram- https://www.instagram.com/herbalistics/?hl=en You can find more of Shane’s work at:...

Shane talks to Dr Eugene McCarthy for a third time, delving into the implications and applications of hybridisation driven change in organisms. You can read more detail about Eugene's theory here: https://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins.html You can find more of Shane’s work at: Zero Input Agriculture blog: https://zeroinputagriculture.substack.com Taming the Apocalypse ebook - https://www.am...

Shane has a deep discussion with Klaus Lotz from PermaDynamics, a syntropic farmer from New Zealand whose origin story traces back to working with the originator of this fascinating method in Brazil. We cover dairy goats, tree crops, and the specifics of living in a broader intentional community founded on permaculture principles. Read more of Klaus' work at his main website: https://www.permadyna...

Shane talks to Dr Philip Bell about his ground breaking theory of viral eukaryogenesis. It is well established that important parts of our cells, the energy producing mitochondria, originated from a free living bacteria that were absorbed and incorporated into every complex living thing on the planet. Dr Bell has looked further back into evolution and discovered that the nucleus at the heart of th...

Shane and Steve have a stimulating chat about his extraordinary life, the seed industry, soil nutrition and health and finding a new community on the bottom of the world. Steve's book "Gardening When it Counts" was one of the most influential books in Shane's life, not because it changed his abstract thoughts. Instead it changed how he acted in the world. This is probably the longest episode recor...

Shane talks with Capello about his experiences establishing diverse hazelnut groves in the Ozarks, integration of sheep grazing, and deeper thoughts about the potential role of animistic/shamanistic world views in response to the unfolding end of industrialisation. Recommended reading Joseph Henrich - "The WEIRDest People in the World" (re: cultural adaptation and knowledge transmission)- https://...

Shane talks with Julian Gough, philosopher turned cosmologist, about his stunning theory extending Smolin's Cosmic Natural Selection. If organisms and ecosystems can evolve, then perhaps entire universes are part of a chain of variation and selection as well. Recent observations from the James Webb space telescope have supported many of Julian's boldest predictions and the scientific establishment...

Shane and long time fan of the show Cimbri talk about reclaiming our ancestral human potential, the past and future of human evolution (both biological and cultural) and the challenges of being a younger person (and parent) working toward escaping industrial civilisation. You can check out Cimbri's activity on Reddit- https://www.reddit.com/user/Cimbri/ Special Price Reduction on Taming the Apocal...

Shane chats with Samuel Lewis, a self described 21st century hoe farmer from Brittany, France, who has been growing his staple calorie crops with zero inputs along with many other rural ventures, plus publishing books and producing art along the way. You can get your own copy of his detailed book and learn more about his work at his website: https://hoe-farming.com Here are two short videos about...

Shane talks with Richard Bartlett about his remarkable passion for decentralised social organisations and the cultures and norms which make them thrive. You can read the book Shane mentions in the episode at: https://betterworktogether.co Richard's personal website links to all his other projects and contacts: https://richdecibels.com And Casa Tilo in Barcelona presents an opportunity to immerse y...