The RegenNarration

Imagine transforming a cattle farm and family retreat into a carbon-sequestering biodiversity haven. What would it take? And how and why would you do it if you're a famed actress and filmmaker? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Rachel Ward, who embarked on this journey alongside former industrialised farmer and coal miner Mick Green. Their story is now the first Australian feature fi...

What if you could regenerate farmland and create a sustainable farming lifestyle while also building a strong community? Join Anthony as he visits Tom and Kaycee, an innovative young farming couple from the Nambucca Valley on Gumbaynggirr Country in NSW, who are doing just that. They share their remarkable journey of stewarding 400 acres of forest and grassland into a thriving regenerative farm, a...

Uncannily our first visit to Wooleen Station in three years lands after Wooleen and Yellowstone were both spoken about in last week’s episode with Montanan stars, Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan. And when it comes to shifting the sense of what’s possible, this 375,000 acre property 700 kilometres from Perth WA is taking this to new levels, as the regeneration of country, community and culture con...

You don’t need to have heard last week’s episode with Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan to listen to this one, but they certainly go together. After I was fortunate to have been welcomed in to Nicole’s intensive 4-day course near Orange in Australia last month, I was moved to conduct a kind of exit poll with a half dozen people. It wasn’t planned, so I just pulled out the lapel mic’s I always have...

Nicole Masters is a globally recognised agroecologist, speaker and author of the book ‘For the Love of Soil’. Meagan Lannan is an award-winning rancher at Barney Creek Livestock in Montana, within the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Nicole and Meagan toured two sold out education programs in Australia last month. First up, 126 people convened for 4 days near the town of Orange, and I was fortunate...

Jeff Pow is at the helm of an extraordinary story of regeneration. You might remember Jeff and his wife Michelle McManus from episode 78, when I first visited them at Southampton Homestead back at the end of 2020. (They were also later highlighted among some globally esteemed names in the acknowledgements of Paul Hawken’s book Regeneration.) Since then, I’d been seeing the land there go from stren...

This is a special release episode with Tim Winton, broadly considered the preeminent Australian writer of his generation. And not just in Australia. His books have been translated into 28 languages, sold millions of copies, and resulted in numerous prestigious awards (including another one just this week). He’s also in the Australian Surfing Awards Hall of Fame, and has a species of native Austral...

In last week’s episode, we heard from Dr Katherine Trebeck on the latest significant developments in the domain of wellbeing, regenerative or just plain good economics. You might remember Katherine alluded to a brilliant conversation she had been part of a few days prior, for the launch of a major new report and project by not-for-profit outfit, Sustainable Table. Regenerative farmer and award-win...

Dr Katherine Trebeck helps make sense of the state of our economy, amidst recurrent gloomy global forecasts, and stark reports about what’s really driving such drastic inflation and inequality. All that informs the back half of our chat on some recent significant global shifts towards economies that make more sense here and now, and that are inherently designed to work well for people and planet....

Last week's episode with Dr Alessandro Pelizzon contained a series of global paradigm shifting updates in its last 15 minutes or so. So this week's release is an excerpt of that part of the episode, in case you missed it. We pick up our conversation at the back half of Alessandro's announcement that he is co-founding a new place of education – akin to the Schumacher College in the U...

I met up with Dr Alessandro Pelizzon at his place in Byron Bay, for a long-awaited chat on some of the extraordinary work he’s been doing, outside his day job, on the immense value, almost unbelievable collapse, and opportunity for renewal of the public university as one of our oldest and grandest Western institutions. And there’s been a host of global paradigm shifting developments since we last...

I headed out of Brisbane this week to Camp Mountain, to learn about some of the regenerative work being done around there. One of the outstanding places I visited nearby was where Loop Growers happens. Alice Star and Phil Garozzo, hairdresser and marketing graduate respectively, are its founders. They call it a ‘bio-intensive market garden’, which produces a wide range of chemical free fruit and v...

Yesterday I hosted a yarn with two brilliant First Nations guests at the World Science Festival in Brisbane, to discuss 'the rise of regenerative agriculture, the intersection with First Nations Knowledges, and the synergies for a harmonious and sustainable future on earth'. Barkandji woman Zena Cumpston (aka Zena Sky Ranger) is a writer, researcher and story-teller who has also curated...

Daniel Christian Wahl is the world-renowned author of Designing Regenerative Cultures, still being translated into various languages years after release. Daniel’s also called himself a consultant, educator, activist, speaker, blogger, weaver, catalyst - he’s also become a farmer of sorts, which you’ll hear more about today, along with some other very interesting and entirely relevant parts of his...

Mid-last year I accompanied film-maker Damon Gameau as he toured his film Regenerating Australia around WA. We were with Di Haggerty and Heidi Mippy which became ep122 from the Leederville screening, and in ep131 I hosted student Kate Fenech in Busselton. Well, there were two other event conversations on that tour that Damon hosted with other local guests, and they were exceptional. And as I liste...

For over 40 years, Rosemary Morrow has travelled the world, blazing a pioneering trail teaching permaculture as a tool for restoration. From Vietnam and Cambodia, to Greece, West Africa, and Australia, her at times death-defying journey has helped countless communities in all sorts of situations restore healthy living systems. And it was arguably all set in tow when, at the age of 15, she ventured...

Neeve Blackham-Jennings is a school student who wrote and illustrated what ‘accidentally’ became an award-winning book when she was fifteen. It’s a story that hoped to change a story – the story of Australia’s most endangered reptile, the Western Swamp Tortoise. But that’s not the half of it. Last September’s Quantum Words Festival in Perth opened with Schools Day. I was fortunate to host Bruce Pa...

Zach Bush toured in Australia in December last year. This event, in Byron Bay, sold out in a matter of hours. So a humming full house of 250+ people filled the local theatre for Zach’s rousing keynote, and this subsequent panel conversation. The two women joining Zach and myself for this were Bundjalung woman and founder of The Returning, Ella Noah Bancroft, and regenerative farmer and award-winni...

Over the last couple of years Damon Gameau, the brilliant Aussie film-maker behind Regenerating Australia, 2040, That Sugar Film and Animal Beatbox, has joined me at this time to take a look at the year ahead. Last year happened to land on Valentine’s Day. So while Damon’s giving himself and his family some well-earned dedicated time right now, it gives me the chance to share this unique event wit...

Starting the year with Carol Sanford feels incredibly special. She’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. Friends and colleagues have spoken about her with me for years, right up until the end of last year. And last month, a previous guest and author of Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta, featured Carol on his podcast. That’s when I learned the sad news that sh...

Our last summer flashback ‘episode that people still talk to me about’ is episode 9, with Frances Pollock (nee Jones). Frances and David Pollock became nationally famous about a decade ago now, for ‘destocking’ the 375,000-acre Wooleen Station in the Murchison region of Western Australia. That was step one in what has become an extraordinary story of regeneration, increasingly reverberating far be...

Our next episode from the archives that people still talk to me about is episode 3, with Kate Raworth. She’s the best-selling author of Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist. And the instigator of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), helping put it into practice in communities everywhere. This is an excerpt of the first 20 minutes or so our conversation just a...

A warm welcome to the new year. We’ll resume normal transmission of the podcast in February. But to gear us up, I thought to release a summer flashback or two, delving way back in the archives to episodes that people still speak to me about today.  First up is an excerpt from the very first episode I recorded, with John Fullerton. He’s the former Wall Street executive who left that life, and throu...

This is our customary sign-off episode for the year – a package of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2022, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country you heard along the way. Here's the ‘track list’:   1. Jess Beckerling (ep 105) 2. To A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper (from the Free Music Archive) – intro 3. To The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra...

This is a short tribute episode marking the 10th anniversary of the passing of my old mate and mentor, Professor Frank Fisher. He’d be 79 today. The honours list of guests on these anniversary editions now includes Hazel Henderson, Allan Savory and Charlie Massy. This year, it’s Paul Hawken, the multiple best-selling author of Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation. This is the...