The Urban Exodus Podcast

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Alyson Morgan, the photographer, artist, environmentalist and herbalist behind @alysonsimplygrows and Earth Star Herbals, based in Viroqua, Wisconsin.  Alyson grew up in the Bay Area of California and met her partner while attending college at UC Davis. After studying international relations, she took a job into the nonprofit world and became incre...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Helena Sylvester, the farmer and creative force behind Happy Acre Farm and Harvest Queen .  Happy Acre farm is located in the rolling hills of Sunol, California. Helena and her partner Matthew started farming after binge watching a bunch of eye opening documentaries about our food system. They wanted to know where their food came from and wanted to...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Clara Coleman, the farmer and farm activist behind Real Farmer Care and Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine. Clara is the next generation, carrying on the farming and farm activism legacy created by her parents.   Clara was a child of back-to-the-landers and was raised running wild on her parents homestead in rural Maine. Her father, Eliot Colema...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Jonna Lagunas, the Minnesotan homesteader behind J and L Coop . Jonna is a first generation Mexican American immigrant, her parents and elder siblings immigrated to the United States before she was born. Jonna grew up in the city Minneapolis in a tight-knit immigrant community. She spoke Spanish at home and English in school.  Battling prejudice in...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Franchesca Duval, the environmentalist and backyard poultry farmer behind Alchemist Farm. Franchesca’s love of chickens began at a young age. After planting roots on three acres of land, she realized her dream of having her own backyard flock. When she started researching the best hatcheries to get chicks from she was horrified to learn the standar...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Matthew Ross, the community activist, minister, musician, father and homesteader behind Blackhaven Ranch . Matthew grew up on the south side of Chicago. His father a Baptist minister, Matthew was raised in the church and being of service to his community was instilled in him at a young age. A desire to be more self-sufficient inspired Matthew and h...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Sara Buscaglia, the textile artist and quilt-maker behind Farm & Folk in La Plata County, Colorado. Sara and her partner both grew up in the suburbs - Sara in Detroit and her husband in Chicago. They met in Durango, Colorado when she was twenty years old. Sara had just dropped out of college and was trying to figure out what path in life felt r...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Christi Johnson, the textile artist, designer and educator behind Mixed Color and Stitch Wish in Sullivan County, New York. Christi left Los Angeles and a career in fashion design to learn the art of plant dyes at the Textile Arts Center in New York City. While she loved the community she found in New York, she yearned to reconnect with the natural...

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Katrina Harvey, the passionate driving force behind of Soul Botanical Farms in Mulberry, Florida. Katrina became interested in plants after the devastating loss of her father and only sister. Following their deaths Katrina became overwhelmed by depression and anxiety. She realized that she just existed and wasn't leading a happy or fulfilling...

Food justice is at the core of Bing D. Turner, MPH, and his wife Myisha Turner’s, entrepreneurial efforts. After a long career in public health, it was impossible to ignore the gross inequities when it came to having access to fresh, healthy food in underserved communities all over the United States. In 2009, the couple established Heritage Farmers Markets, a non-profit that hosts weekly markets i...

Join me for my conversation with Sherri Powell, of the mission-driven gift box company Yours Rurally. Sherri grew up in the small town of Alamo, Georgia - in the third poorest county in the United States. After college, she left Georgia for DC and worked on Capitol Hill for twelve years. From DC, she moved to New York City where she began working in the corporate world. After her daughter was born...

Hanna Crabtree and Jesse Frost run a small organic farm in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. In their previous city professions, Jesse was a sommelier at a wine store in New York City and Hannah was an artist in Chicago. The couple met after they both relocated to Kentucky to learn to farm. When we featured them back in 2015, they were living in their off-grid cabin. With no running water or electricity, th...

Is it even possible in our age of convenience to give it all up and work towards living off the land? Homesteader, a term used nowadays to define anyone on a greater quest for self-sufficiency. Like our ancestors before us, returning to a way of life where most of what you consume you make, grow, raise, and hunt yourself. A child of original bank-to-the-landers, Kirsten Lie-Nielsen was raised on a...

How do you face financial uncertainty when making the move rurally? James Ray is someone who would describe himself as extremely cautious. In the city, he worked as  a financial analyst on Wall Street, and was well-aware of the risks associated with leaving steady employment. He saved nearly everything he made for years. When James and his wife Eileen finally made the move and purchased land, Jame...

Richard Blanco’s poem One Today, inspired the nation at Obama’s 2013 inauguration. Richard is the first one to tell you that he is unsure if he would’ve even been able to write the poem had he not been confined to his writing desk, surrounded by pine forests, piled high with snow, up on a hill in the ski town of Bethel, Maine. He even famously practiced his poem to a snowman audience in his front...

How far would you go to take control of your health? A battle with cancer was the catalyst that propelled Jason and Lorraine Contreras to overhaul their lives and hone in on what would truly make them happy and healthy. They quickly recognized that long commutes, little access to fresh food, and their inability to spend more time together as a family were standing in the way of living a better lif...

Join me in my conversation with Thomas McCurdy and Bailey Hale of Ardelia farms. For them, the journey from urban to farm life began the day the city of Philadelphia came to confiscate their chickens from the mini-farm they had built in a small green space next to their house. While living in the city, like many of us, they had grown alarmed at the state of our food system, and decided to take ini...

I’m excited to invite you to an insightful conversation with Stephen Carter. Stephen is a farmer at Scribe Winery, and grows the delicious farm-to-table fare for Scribe’s tasting room in the Sonoma Valley.  Stephen became interested in growing while employed at the famed restaurant Chez Panisse. Working in the farm-to-table fine-dining world, Stephen discovered how high-quality ingredients transfo...

Join us for my conversation with Mary Heffernan, a serial entrepreneur and owner of Five Marys Farms. Building a successful life in Silicon Valley might sound like a dream come true, but for Mary she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.  Before moving to the country, Mary and her husband Brian owned and operated 11 small businesses in Menlo Park. But when they struggled to source...

Join us for my conversation with Sara and Rich Combs, owners and operators of the Joshua Tree House properties, about their experience starting their business after moving away from the graphic design world in San Francisco.  Their love affair with the desert began in 2011, when the couple began escaping to the Mojave on the weekends. Sara and Rich found the desert landscape so surreal, that it br...