The New Orchard

Title: The Raw Milk Dilemma: Mark McAfee on Food Safety, Pasteurisation & Raw Milk Guest: Mark McAfee - Founder & CEO, Raw Farm and Founder & Chairman, Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) Recorded: May 2026 For most of human history, milk wasn't a controversial product. It was simply milk—produced locally, consumed fresh, and deeply connected to the communities and farms that sustained it....

Title: Cultivate Farms - Rebuilding the Pathway to Farm Ownership Guest: Sam Marwood Recorded: April 2026 My guest today is Sam Marwood, founder of Cultivate Farms — an Australian farm transition organisation attempting to solve one of the deepest structural problems in modern agriculture: How do you keep farms alive, productive, and locally stewarded when the traditional pathway into ownership ha...

Title: The War Against the Sun Guest: William B. Grant Recorded: April 2026 For millions of years humans evolved under direct sunlight — skin, hormones, immune systems, and even our DNA all tuned to it. Yet modern dermatology declared the sun public enemy number one. Vitamin D, sunlight, and the hidden “war against the sun” — why avoiding sunlight may double your mortality and cancer risk. For mil...

Title: The Burden of Culture - Why Money Can't Fix Australia's Indigenous Divide Guest: Gary Johns Recorded: January 2026 In this podcast episode, Gary Johns, a former Labor politician and author of The Burden of Culture: How to Dismantle the Aboriginal Industry and Give Hope to Its Victims (published in 2022 by Connor Court Publishing), explores the challenges facing Aboriginal communitie...

Title: Roots Over Screens – Farm Life as The Cure for Urban Nature Deficit Guest: Jake Wolki Recorded: October 2025 "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds." These are the words written by Thomas Jeffer...

Title: After Virtue - Why the West Risks Collapse Without Heeding MacIntyre's Moral Wake-Up Call Guest: Tom Angier Recorded: October 2025 A couple of years ago, an algorithm on a book-selling website recommended a title to me—I can't recall exactly where, but it doesn't matter. It arrived amid 30 other books and sat untouched on my shelf for nearly two years, gathering dust in my ever-...

Title: Moving Towards Wholeness - Holotropic Breathwork®, Shamanism And The Dance Of Healing Guest: Sharanya Naik Recorded: September 2025 Couple of months ago I had the privilege of interviewing Kylea Taylor, A key figure in the ethics of caring within psychedelic and transpersonal therapy realms and an author of books like The Ethics of Caring and Considering Holotropic Breathwork. That intervie...

Title: Jim’s Journey - Startup Struggles, Success Secrets, and Solving Society's Declining Birth Rates Guest: Jim Penman Recorded: September 2025 Imagine a young man in 1980s Australia, fresh from his history PhD, armed with just a beat-up mower, a trailer, and $20 in his pocket. Instead of academia, he dives into lawn mowing—a simple side hustle that explodes into a franchising empire. Throug...

Title: The Great Poisoning - The Hidden Abuses in Queensland's  Fire Ant Eradication Program Guest: Trevor Hold Recorded: September 2025 My guest today is Trevor Hold, a farmer in Queensland and a leading voice in opposition to the NFAEP. Authoring multiple petitions and calling for reform, a shift to suppression, and protection of property rights. Property rights which the government can tram...

Guest: Kylea Taylor Recorded: July 2025 Every moment, without thinking about it, we breathe. But hidden inside this seemingly unconscious rhythm is a mysterious portal, an almost forgotten technology of healing and limitless transformation. Long before we had access to talk therapy, trauma informed coaching or psychedelics, humans knew how to use breath to transition into altered states of conscio...

My guest today is Sofia Karstens and the reason why I wanted to interview her is her editorial titled “Neurodiversity Is a Strawman” published on brownstone.org in April 2025. In the editorial Sofia argues that the concept of neurodiversity has moved well beyond science and into cultural ideology and now appears to be completely divorced from meaningful clinical or neurological distinction. Furthe...

Couple of months ago a book by Frank Furedi titled First World War: Still No End In Sight landed in my lap. An acquaintance of mine recommended it without giving me much detail. He just said that I would have appreciation for its insights and original angle and that was enough for me to put a copy into my basket. The author of the book contends that WW1 was not merely a military conflict but a pro...

Starting a school from the ground up in Australia requires navigating an extremely strict regulatory framework, securing serious funding, convincing parents, meeting accreditation standards, which may explain why fewer entrepreneurs attempt starting physical schools compared to entrepreneurs who dedicate their focus to so called edtech (education technology) or educational services. The high capit...

The New Orchard Essay Series Today we’re publishing an essay from an emerging thought leader in the realm of motherhood, culture, family life, and how our culture is often getting it wrong. It’s a slightly different format compared to our standard long form episodes but is something you’ll be seeing more of going forward. At The New Orchard we are always looking for inspiring and original thinkers...

Guest: Cheree Harvey classicalconversations.com.au Let’s be honest—something’s not working in mainstream education. Despite this show being quite new I’ve already published a couple of interviews probing this subject matter. Notably Classical Education with Jonathan Hili and Kon Bouzikos published in October 2024 and more recently Diagnosing The Educational System with wonderfully erudite Kevin Do...

Parenting in the modern world can feel overwhelming—so much so that many parents find themselves simply trying to survive rather than thrive. But why is that? What societal pressures, personal histories, and unresolved traumas shape the way we raise our children? In this episode of The New Orchard, I sit down with Sam Jockel, award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of ParentTV, to discuss he...

Matt Wong, founder of Discernable, joins The New Orchard Show to share his original insights on his remarkable transition from a media entrepreneur to a regenerative farmer. What began as a quiet contemplation on benefits and upsides on sustainable living evolved quite rapidly into a mortgage-free collective, driven by a commitment to clean, nutrient-rich food and land stewardship. In this episode...

Education shapes the next generation, but are we setting students up for success? In this thought-provoking conversation, Kevin Donnelly, a veteran educator and policy expert, dissects the current state of education in Australia—its challenges, its ideological shifts, and its future. We explore the erosion of academic standards, the impact of shifting cultural narratives, and the increasing trend...

In this episode I’m interviewing sculptor Sabin Howard. We’re discussing dire state and proliferation of modern and post-modern art and its impacts on culture and politics as well as his majestic 58-foot-long bronze artwork called "A Soldier's Journey" he recently delivered for the WW1 Memorial site in Washington D.C. We also dive into Sabin’s journey – from his early influences and...

In this episode, I'm interviewing Danny Goler, who has made an extraordinary discovery using a high dose of DMT and a laser made in China. He found a mysterious code that appears at the intersection of laser light and matter. Could this be a bridge between consciousness and the physical world? Perhaps a portal to another dimension or reality? Or is it just another psychedelic-induced illusion...

Our guest today is Alexander Voltz, an Australian composer whose work embodies both originality and reverence for tradition. Voltz’s music has been performed, recorded, and celebrated both in Australia and internationally, earning him accolades and cementing his reputation as a significant voice in contemporary classical music. In 2022, he conceived and directed The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Co...

Our guest in this episode is Tania de Jong, co-Founder and Executive Director of Mind Medicine Australia. Tania is one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs and innovators developing 6 businesses and 4 charities including Creative Universe, Creativity Australia and With One Voice, Umbrella Foundation, Creative Innovation Global, Pot-Pourri and The Song Room. She was named in the 100...

In this episode I’m interviewing Executive Director of The Berry Center Mary Berry. Mary is the daughter of famous American farmer, poet and philosopher Wendell Berry who wrote the iconic The Unsettling of America in 1977. We’re discussing Mary’s commitment to her mission to revitalize rural America by supporting small farmers and advocating for responsible, sustainable agricultural practices. We’...

In this episode I’m interviewing Kon Bouzikos, one of the co-founders of ACES (Australian Classical Education Society) and the current President of ACES as well as ACES secretary Jonathan Hili. The interview is split into two parts. In the first part Jonathan and Kon explain the foundations of Classical Education and discuss how classical curriculum is structured. In the second part we are talking...

In this episode I’m interviewing Laura Reeves who is a UK based facilitator and a medicine woman who organises retreats at sacred sites in both the UK and Peruvian Amazon. We are discussing Laura’s unique journey that led her to become the person she is today. The healing potential of sacred plant medicine like Ayahuasca as an alternative trauma healing modality, craniosacral therapy, somatic expe...