The Good Energy Podcast

Today is a full moon and also the third year anniversary of my father’s death. It feels apt and honouring to share this conversation with you today. Like my father, David is a big hearted Pākehā man who believes in breaking through social barriers and is courageous in pursuing his vision. David’s background is in youth work. He started his career working for the Methodist Church as their National...

I’ve been exploring the economic forces that shape our world for a few years now and the more I learn, the clearer it becomes that underneath the many layers of economic and environmental crises is a kind of crisis of spirituality and of how we conceive of ourselves as human. I feel deeply honoured and excited to share this conversation with Pip Ranby, who is, among many other things, one of my fa...

Kia ora friends, I’m delighted to share with you this audio-zine of poems, incantations, prayers and blessings written by participants and conveners of the Gathering at the Gate course. The zine has been lovingly edited and voiced by Sylvie McCreanor. You may remember me interviewing Gathering at the Gate conveners, Elli and Wren , last year. I had just taken part in the course myself and it had a...

I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for ages! I first met Makerita Makapelu at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa conference in 2023. It was the end of a full day when I heard her presentation and I remember feeling instantly captivated by the joy and love which streamed from her as she described her work. Makerita is the Team Leader Innovation and Practice at Te Hiko, a community...

Kia ora! It’s been a while since I’ve shared a podcast - partly because this one has taken ages to make! I’ve been reflecting on my interviews and learnings over the last year as I’ve been exploring the economics of homes and kāinga. I’ve pulled together snippets of interviews, passages from books and my own reflections of the subtle and profound ways this journey has shaped my life. I’m hoping th...

“The economy is too important to leave to the economists!” That’s what Gareth Hughes says. After working for a decade as an MP in parliament he got thoroughly tired of the seesaw of short term policies and the arguments over the type of ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. He’s now grateful to be working on the cause of the problems rather than the symptoms. He leads the small team at WEAll (Well...

This conversation was just what I needed to lift my spirits after a year of overwhelmingly depressing news. Talking to Rebecca felt like meeting a slightly older and more illustrious version of myself. It gave me hope that it’s possible to live in a more intuitive and connected way without disengaging from the institutions and systems of society. Like me, Rebecca found it hard to choose between su...

I’m excited to share this conversation with Paul Tapsell (Te Arawa, Tainui) whose book Kāinga: People, Land, Belonging inspired my focus on homes and kāinga this year. It was very special to be invited to Paul’s ancestral home in Tapsell Road, Rotorua, where we met in the beautiful architecturally designed space shown in the photo above. Paul and his whānau envisioned and built this new home to re...

Jessica is a kaupapa Māori researcher, author and advocate as well as being a farmer. She is the director and founding trustee of the Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust which is all about decolonising our food systems and restoring indigenous food sovereignty. She lives with her wife Jo Smith (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) on twelve acres of beautiful whenua in the foothills of the Tararua with t...

When Simone Woodland dreamed up the idea of creating a co-housing village, she didn’t imagine she’d have to become a developer to make it happen. Simone moved to Aotearoa from the UK in 2018 as a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow , on a visa programme specifically designed for social entrepreneurs like her. Her initial vision was to build a community that looks after burnt out social entrepreneurs. When S...

Earlier this year I took part in an eight week online course called Gathering at the Gate , created and facilitated by my friend Elli Yates along with her three friends and co-conspirators - Wren (or Tamsin) Blundell, Erin Thomas and Dani Pickering. The aim of the course is to offer a kind and encouraging space for Pākehā or white assimilated folk to come together and explore the difficult questio...

Charlotte Shade is a friend of mine and I’ve watched with interest and admiration as her group of housemate/friends have bought a house, had babies and brought them up together in a loving non-nuclear family group. In this conversation Charlotte and I explore where the idea of buying a house with friends came from, how her group made it happen and what they’ve learnt in the process. Being a lawyer...

This week the tables have turned. Hannah gets to fulfil her dream of being a podcast host and I have a go at answering difficult questions about my childhood, the economics of my life, why I’ve chosen to focus on home and kāinga, what I hope to achieve in this project and why I feel like a piglet suckling an enormous industrial mother pig. It was a treat to explore the ideas and epiphanies this pr...

I’m very excited to share this conversation with 19 year old activist and student, Anika Green. She grew up in an inner city Christian community called Stillwaters in Te Whanganui a Tara which aims to provide a space of belonging, transformation and faith for anyone who needs it. In her childhood home she was surrounded by all kinds of people who loved and cared for her, including homeless people,...

After interviewing lots of inspiring and knowledgeable experts it was so lovely to sit down with someone I know really well and embark on a journey together. Hannah is such a great storyteller. I was captivated right from the start by her descriptions of her childhood, her uncompromising teenage passion for animals and the environment and the way she veered off her scrupulously developed life-plan...

I’m really pleased to be able to share this conversation with Max Rashbrooke - journalist, author, academic and expert on economic inequality and democratic renewal. I’ve seen Max around for years in Wellington. I’m pretty sure I remember him at parties a decade ago having rigorous political conversations. I’ve been stoked over the past year to get to know him and bit more. I loved this conversati...

This show is the second part of a two-hour conversation I had with Hemi over Zoom. It felt so rich I wanted to share it all with you instead of doing a separate interview. If you missed the first half, you can find it here: Decolonising our imaginations - Part 1 I also recommend reading this article which Hemi recently wrote for the Spin-off: “The Sunday Essay: Two waka, three iwi, three hapū” . I...

This show is going to be a bit different. Instead of interviewing Hemi I decided to share the conversation we had over Zoom when we first met. It felt so rich I wanted to share it all with you. It was also quite long (2 hours) so I’ve broken it up into two parts. I’ll post the second half in a couple of weeks. I met Hemi through Marceline and Tur at the Quatro Trust. As well as supporting The Good...

Last week I was lucky enough to get 2 hours of Natalia Albert’s time to interview her. (It was supposed to be 1 hour but after the first interview I realised I had forgotten to press record!!!! Arghhh!!! Can you believe it!? Fortunately Natalia agreed to stay for a second take. And I think the second was almost as wonderful as the first - perhaps better! This interview has a back story…. I first m...

I was up in Auckland last week and was lucky enough to catch an hour with this lovely human - Max Harris. The conversation was recorded in his living room with snacks and tea. There's many things I could say to introduce Max. He was born in London and grew up in Wellington. He's a lawyer and an activist. He was a Rhodes Scholar. He almost died once and his brush with death unexpectedly led to him...

In this podcast I gather up my learnings and inspirations from my journey so far. It’s mostly me talking this time, accompanied by two musical instruments. I’ve also included some highlight excerpts from my interviews. Get full access to The Good Energy Project at thegoodenergyproject.substack.com/subscribe

It was a real delight to catch the train from Wellington to Carterton to spend the day with Helen Dew last week. I was treated to a full tour of her tiny incredibly abundant garden and given lots of inspiring reading material on the history of money, the rich life inside soil and other topics. This podcast is a small selection of the rich conversation we had. Helen has spent the past 30 years dedi...

(Excuse the sound quality on this interview - the phone line was a bit dodgy!) In this interview with Bryan Innes from Living Economies we explore what’s wrong with the banking system and why there’s never enough money. Bryan shares with me a brilliant idea he developed called “Savings Pools”, which enable small groups of people to pool their resources and make loans to each other. It functions a...

Sometimes, in moments of lazy thinking, I’ve lumped business in with capitalism and assumed they’re both part of the cause of our environmental crisis. But Tur has spent his life working in business and he sees the value good companies can bring to their communities and the planet. He describes a company as “a community of people trying to achieve something together” - not too unlike a sports team...

After an illustrious career dedicated to environmental and social advocacy, Barry Coates has come to believe that directing our money is the greatest power we have as individuals to help the planet and change our economic system. In our conversation, we explore and challenge the role of money in our modern world and break down its power and mystique. Included in the podcast, is a session with Barr...