The RegenNarration

In last week’s episode with Dr Jann Hayman, winding up our series from the Osage Nation, I mentioned we’d just been on a tour of their astounding Greenhouse. The woman who kindly gave us that tour, Dawn Wormington, had been recruited for the job by the Osage. And in this brief bonus to the Osage series, we hear from Dawn about the unexpected, unintended gift that keeps on giving, out of the filmin...

Dr. Jann Hayman is Secretary of Natural Resources for the Osage Nation . We’ve just come from a tour of their astounding greenhouse, after having had a powerful conversation with Chief Standing Bear. Jann’s graciously welcomed filmmaker Nicol Ragland and I for a chat at her office, amidst her busy end of the week. Both Chief and Nicol sing Jann’s praises loudly. Nicol calls her a powerhouse. And w...

As introduced last week, we’re about to have a very special meeting with Chief Standing Bear of the Osage Nation . The family and I made our way with friend and filmmaker Nicol Ragland to Osage HQ in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. How the Osage survived being marched to these lands by the US government in the 19th century, and ongoing brutality in the 20th, is a scene set in last week’s episode (if you’re no...

Welcome to the launch of a very special series from a very special visit to the Osage Nation . Some of you might recognise the Osage Nation from the recent Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon (have a look at this awesome live performance at the Oscars). Or from the book that was based on, by David Grann. Or indeed, from the podcast series, In Trust . They’ve all done a heck of a job b...

Christopher Brown is a celebrated science-fiction writer and decorated lawyer (and once co-hosted a punk rock radio show). His newest book, however, is described as a ‘genre-defying work of nature writing, literary nonfiction, and memoir that explores what happens when nature and the city intersect … [challenging] our assumptions of nature itself.’ It’s called A Natural History of Empty Lots : Fie...

It was difficult trying to choose the opening quote for this week's episode. My guest Lorenzo Washington articulated a handful of beautiful passages. So I thought I'd put the 'short list', as it were, together here. Let's call it a preview of ep.259, The Jefferson Street Sound: Preserving Nashville's Soul with Lorenzo Washington . One of my favourites. Title slide: Lo...

Nashville's musical legacy extends far beyond the mainstream country narrative. Tucked away in North Nashville, the Jefferson Street Sound Museum stands as a testament to the rich cultural heritage of jazz, soul, and rhythm and blues that thrived from the 1940s to the 70s. Founded and curated by Lorenzo Washington, this museum isn't just a collection of artifacts – it's a living, br...

Today we continue the new series Vignettes from the Source, featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.  This one is from almost five years ago, with regenerative agriculture legend, the founder of RCS Australia, Dr Terry McCosker. Terry and his family have become dear friends over those five years, but this conversation...

Springhouse Community School has been called ‘the most dynamic and promising experiment in education and community building’. It’s a K12 bilingual school, with adult programs, community networks, and even a print shop (that’s a glorious story in itself). It also works with a participatory budgeting and pricing model, and incorporates things like restorative justice and land regeneration practices....

Last week’s episode on-location with a ‘community juggernaut’ restoration project in South Carolina drew some wonderful responses – like ‘I felt like I was right there’, ‘Giving me goose bumps’, ‘The future retrospective documentary idea is brilliant’, and ‘This kicks ass’! So here’s a 5 minute bonus to lift your spirits a little more.  It starts as we were winding up, but with mic’s left running,...

What to do when your prominent low-lying coastal city starts to go underwater, nigh on weekly on average, already? Charleston, South Carolina, is served by The Post and Courier. It runs a series called the Rising Waters Lab. And a couple of months ago, it featured a story titled, ‘The Southeast’s first urban eco-corridor aims to connect fragmented habitats in Charleston’. Welcome to The MARSH Proj...

Today we continue the new series Vignettes from the Source, featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative moments my guests have shared over the years. This one is from a little over three years ago. It’s the first and last six minutes or so, bridged together, of my very first conversation with Kate Chaney . Kate was to become, just a few months later, the 7th new community independent – and...

In the landscape of Australian politics, something remarkable is brewing from the ground up. The community independents movement has evolved from a rural experiment to a nationwide phenomenon, reinvigorating democracy in my home country. At its heart, this movement isn’t about profile candidates, big funding or big media, but communities deciding they deserve better representation, and doing somet...

A couple of episodes ago, I launched a new series on the podcast, Vignettes from the Source, to feature some of the unforgettable moments my guests have shared over the years. Continuing the series today then, is a passage of 7 or 8 minutes from my conversation with award winning filmmaker and photographer, Nicol Ragland . Longer term listeners might remember, Nicol was behind the very first Farme...

Welcome to the fourth and final part of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway, in Burlington, Vermont. ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in its early days, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way. There have be...

Welcome to part 3 of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway, in Burlington, Vermont. ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in its early days, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way. There have been plenty of takers...

We've forgotten the earth is alive, and it's killing us. That was one of the title prospects my podcast host served up for today's release. Another was 'reimagining our connection to land'. They're fair hints at part 2 of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway.  ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in it...

Last week's episode featured a special on-location recording with the land whisperer, Patrick MacManaway. It has been played more than most in its first week, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way.  Perhaps 40 minutes or so fits into your usual listening window better, or...

Welcome to a very special and unique episode. Previous guest on this podcast, Terry McCosker, co-founded RCS Australia 35 years ago. Fellow Australian legend and podcast guest, Charles Massy , is best-selling author of Call of the Reed Warbler. In that book he wrote, “When I look back over the rise of regenerative agriculture in Australia, I see at the forefront Terry and Pam McCosker and their RC...

The world isn't broken, it's trying to save you. That's where this one starts. But first, a couple of announcements. One, the launch of a new series on the podcast called Vignettes from the Source. And two, 5x New York Times best-selling author and great friend of the podcast, Paul Hawken, has his extraordinary new book, Carbon: The Book of Life , out now on pre-sale (with a few cop...

Welcome to a special 250th episode of the podcast! Are we on the cusp of a revolution in the nutritional content of our food? One that could change everything? Dan Kittredge thinks so. And he’s about to launch his next global effort to that end.  When you get a chance to speak with the man who’s been called the global steward of nutrient density in food, the man who developed the very term ‘nutrie...

‘School of Rock’ meets ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Damon Gameau, director of award-winning, chart-topping documentary films 2040 , and That Sugar Film , takes eight kids on the ultimate school excursion: a road trip across Europe to challenge powerful leaders and find solutions to our greatest challenges. That’s how the bill reads for Damon’s new feature documentary film, Future Council .  The group’...

Last month I had the honour of being a guest on the podcast of the legendary independent US media outlet Mongabay . It was a unique conversation, with US-born host Mike DiGirolamo based in Sydney, and me over here in the Americas, talking about some highlights from the seven months me and the family spent travelling across the USA last year, and relating it back to the seven years we’d travelled a...

Welcome to a new year and new series of The RegenNarration! You might remember me talking last year with prominent author, documentary maker and farmer at Fat Pig Farm , Matthew Evans, in the lead up to the new festival he’s founded back home in Australia, called GROUNDED : the Food and Soil Festival . Well, that festival happened in early December, and a couple of weeks later I got back online wi...

Time to take a punt this year! I've just launched a Substack . Essentially, after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating TheRegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing – the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places. I started to wonder i...