As I continue to explore the topics of natural building and ecological design in this ongoing series, I had the pleasure of speaking again with Mark Lakeman. Mark has been a big inspiration to me through the architectural work he’s done at the community level, and in exploring what it takes to design neighborhoods and gathering places that help humans to reconnect to their sense of place and overcome the colonial infrastructure that continues to separate us from each other and from lifestyles th...
Aug 30, 2019•1 hr 30 min
In this continuation of the series of regenerative building and design, I checked in with a good friend of mine and a hero in the rocket stove and masonry heater sphere. Kirk Mobert, more commonly known as Donkey, is the founder of the Sundog school of natural building in northern California and has literally been on, and in, the ground through the development and maturation of rocket stoves and all of the innovations and advances for the last 20 odd years. This session might be a little heady f...
Aug 23, 2019•1 hr 22 min
Continuing with this series of exploring natural building materials, design techniques and traditions, I spoke with my friend Trey Abernethy, a long-time builder and now a bamboo craftsman. For over a decade Trey worked in the industrial building trades before moving to Costa Rica where he took a bamboo building course with Rodolpho Saenz that changed his trajectory. Trey now co-teaches bamboo building techniques with Rodolpho and designs and builds for clients in Costa Rica. In this interview w...
Aug 16, 2019•1 hr 17 min
I’ve been looking forward to speaking with my next guest for a long time now. Chris Magwood is the founder and director of the Endeavour center, which provides experiential education at the intersection of high-performance and natural building. Chris is a self proclaimed building “omnivore” who experiments with any and all materials and techniques he can get his hands on. He has dedicated his career to making the best, most energy efficient, beautiful and inspiring buildings without wrecking the...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr
Today we’re back with Erik Ohlsen, founder of both Permaculture Artisans, one of the preeminent ecological landscaping companies in the US, and the Permaculture Skills center a vocational training school that offers advanced education in ecological design, landscaping, farming, and land stewardship. Erik is also the author of several books including “The Forest of Fire,” Activate Your Joy,” and most recently “The Ecological Landscape Designer” an essential manual for anyone aspiring to make a li...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 17 min
Today’s conversation was recorded back in the last few weeks before I left Guatemala when I had a chance to sit down with my good friend and fellow permaculture educator, Mordur G’ott, but we all call him Moli.Mörður or Moli is a permaculture pioneer in Iceland who has been travelling between countries to learn and share what he knows. In Iceland he has hosted multiple events and PDS's with legendary teachers like Albert Bates and Robyn Francis among others. In this session Moli and I speak abou...
Jul 26, 2019•49 min
In the last few episodes I’ve spoken to a number of designers and business advisors who’ve specialized in regenerative business planning and ecological work, and today’s guest many of you may remember from the very early days of this podcast. In this episode I had the pleasure of talking with my friend Scott Gallant. It's been almost three years since we spoke on this podcast and he was one of the first 20 interviews that I did back in season one. When we spoke last he was just starting out with...
Jul 19, 2019•36 min
As I continue to explore the myriad options that exist for profitable regenerative work, I keep coming back to the business aspects of impact and integrity entrepreneurship. One of the people that I’ve come to rely on for professional perspectives in this sphere is Pete Widin, Founder of the Epic Eco Designer. I had the chance to catch up with him for today’s session where we explore many aspects of the personal and external challenges of finding holistic success in an ecological business. In th...
Jul 05, 2019•59 min
Building on the theme of profitable ecosystem regeneration, I spoke to Gregory Landua, CEO and co-founder of the Regen Network. Gregory has worked in ecosystem regeneration for a while. Formerly working as the CEO of Terra Genesis, nova chocolate, the Regrarian’s platform and Gaia University. He is also the co-author of the groundbreaking book Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-Capital Abundance, and of The Levels of Regenerative Agriculture, In this interview Gregory gives an overvie...
Jun 28, 2019•57 min
One of the most common concerns I hear from the regenerative community is how someone could make a good living while working directly on projects that regenerate our planet. While there are many different ways to do this, it seems that the dominant narrative in business tells us that the most profitable job prospects are those that are destroying our natural world. Exploitative petroleum companies post record profits while unethical banking practices pay out massive bonuses and manufacturing cov...
Jun 21, 2019•1 hr 31 min
We’ve reached the last episode in this month’s focus on fixing the food system. In the last three weeks we’ve talked about how co-op grocery stores offer real hope for transforming the supply and distribution of food by offering an alternative to the monopoly of the grocery giants. We’ve covered the power and importance of indigenous food and land management, and we’ve also explored the joys and realities of growing your own food on a residential scale. To round this all off, I had the pleasure ...
Jun 14, 2019•56 min
Continuing with this month’s focus on fixing the food system, I wanted to go back to basics and discuss the practicalities and challenges of growing your own food with just a modest sized yard. I reached out to Crystal Stevens who is an author, an artist/art teacher, a folk herbalist, a regenerative farmer, and a Permaculturist. She is the author of two award-winning books, Grow Create Inspire, and Worms at Work. And is also releasing a new book with New Society publishers yearly next year calle...
Jun 07, 2019•51 min
In continuing this month’s focus on fixing the food system I had the pleasure of speaking to a personal hero of mine, Sean Sherman, author of the “The Sioux Chef.” Sean has been the recipient of a First Peoples Fund Fellowship, the Bush Foundation Fellowship, National Center’s 2018 First American Entrepreneurship Award, 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook, and a 2019 James Beard Leadership Award. Sean has been cooking around the US and internationally for the last 30 years and his ...
May 31, 2019•35 min
Today I’ll be kicking off another month dedicated to an important topic in regenerative living. For a long time now, our food system has been a primary indicator for so many markers of health in our society, from the way that our food is produced, what kinds of food we eat, how we cook, how it affects our health and even our ethics as consumers. For the next four weeks I’ll be taking a look our food system from a variety of different view-points and analysis in order to shed light on some of the...
May 24, 2019•1 hr 18 min
I’m so excited to share this interview with all of you, not only because I had such a good time speaking with Loxley and Rhapsody from the “Story Connective” but because they impart such incredible insights into story-telling, connecting to community, and a topic which I’m increasingly interested in, which is listening; not only listening as a passive way of absorbing information, but active listening by asking good questions and demonstrating that you’ve heard and understood the other person. N...
May 17, 2019•1 hr 12 min
In our last interview in this month’s focus on regenerative communities, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alan O’Hashi, Alan is a newspaper journalist turned documentary filmmaker and screenwriter who works with groups and organizations to help them tell their stories and is also organizing an intentional creative community in Cheyenne, Wyoming. For the focus of this interview Alan speaks from his experience as a board member of the US Co-Housing Association and his time living in Silver Sage...
May 10, 2019•47 min
Continuing with this month’s focus on regenerative community models I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Wildemann, co-founder of the “Zenith Project” an eco-village/intentional community in the Canadian wilderness. Peter is passionate about supporting people to live their highest purpose in the context of mutually supportive community by creating a new economic paradigm. Peter also aims to focus on connecting people in a small community setting where the most authentic relationships can be ...
May 03, 2019•52 min
Today we’re going to kick off a month-long exploration of various community models that are focused on regenerating environments, communication, and healthy cultures. In the next three weeks we’ll be looking closely into regenerative social networks, ecovillages and cohousing configurations. As the regenerative movement builds momentum around the world, people are rethinking the communities and societies that either promote or disincentivize healthy development. Though I’ve never found a communi...
Apr 26, 2019•1 hr 5 min
To wrap up this month long focus on building soils for market gardens I spoke with three of my favorite collaborators. Neal Hegarty and Jeremy Fellows from Granja Tz’ikin and Shad Qudsi from Atitlan Organics. Each of them share their experiences, trials, and errors from years of intensive soil building methods on rocky marginal land in rural Guatemala and the systems they currently use to build fertility on their farms. In this episode Shad talks about his integrated poultry operation and how hi...
Apr 19, 2019•1 hr 4 min
My guest today, Rhonda Sherman, is the director of the Compost Learning Lab at North Carolina State University and a leading expert on vermicomposting. Rhonda travels extensively to present workshops and to consult with farmers, businesses, and institutions on the development and management of vermicomposting systems. She also organizes the annual North Carolina State Vermiculture Conference, which for nineteen years has drawn participants from across the United States and around the globe. She ...
Apr 12, 2019•54 min
Welcome back to the definitive guide to no-till organic gardening. In this session we’ll pick up where we left off with Andrew Mefferd, editor of “Growing for Market Magazine” and the author of “The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution.” In last week’s episode we talked mostly about Andrew’s journey into farming and research of no-till market production methods after identifying the principle problems of tillage and the damaging effects on soil health that it’s had worldwide. In this session we’ll...
Apr 05, 2019•1 hr 6 min
My guest in this session Andrew Mefferd, worked for seven years in the research department of Johnny’s selected seeds and has travelled around the world to connect with farmers and researchers about greenhouse growing and soil conservation. He then started his own farm in Maine to apply all of that knowledge and experience, which he writes about and curates as the editor of “Growing for Market Magazine”. In this episode Andrew and I talk about his new book “The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution...
Mar 29, 2019•56 min
The unsung hero of all that we’ve accomplished here in Guatemala are the local communities and people where we live and work. In this Regenerative Round Table I spoke with Charlie and Gabi, two of my closest friends here at the lake about the challenges and learning experiences over a combined 30 years living and working with the local Mayan communities around Lake Atitlan. We speak at length about the intricacies of running organizations and projects in this area and the challenges of respectfu...
Mar 22, 2019•1 hr 7 min
In keeping with the theme of water regeneration this month I spoke to Rob Avis, the co-author along with Michelle Avis of their book in the New Society Essentials series called Rain Water Harvesting. Rob and Michelle founded Verge Permaculture, an award-winning design, consulting and education company in Calgary, Alberta after years of international training in renewable energy and regenerative design. Since its founding, Verge has helped more than 1000 students and clients to design and create ...
Mar 08, 2019•51 min
In this session I had the pleasure of speaking to the founder of “Elemental Ecosystems” Zach Weiss. Zach earned the distinction of being the first person to earn the Holzer practitioner certification from revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship working alongside Sepp in North America and Europe. Zach created Elemental Ecosystems as a for-benefit social enterprise focused on solving societies growing environmental problems by considering the elemental ...
Mar 01, 2019•39 min
We’ve completed 100 episodes! Thank you to all our listeners and supporters who are part of more than thirty thousand subscribers to this podcast and the growing regenerative community that is taking back our future and helping humanity move into its fullest potential. In this episode Oliver and Neal talk about the new direction that Abundant Edge and Granja Tz’ikin will be taking independently and how the two enterprises will continue to work together and support one another in the years to com...
Feb 22, 2019•59 min
In this interview I had the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Christian Wahl, Daniel is an international consultant and educator specialising in biologically-inspired whole systems design and transformative innovation. By the time he was 28 Daniel had travelled to 35 different countries on six continents and he started his career as a marine biologist and scuba diving instructor, before he decided to focus on sustainability and sustainable communities. Originally trained at the University of Edin...
Feb 15, 2019•1 hr 13 min
My guest today has been a big inspiration to me and has been a leader in regenerative design, pretty much before that was even a term. Bill Reed is an internationally recognized practitioner, lecturer, and authority in sustainability and regenerative planning, design and implementation. He is a principal in both Integrative Design, Inc. and Regenesis – two organizations working to lift green building and community planning into full integration and evolution with living systems. Bill is also the...
Feb 08, 2019•50 min
Welcome to the first episode of season three. I’m so excited for the year to come and all the conversations, interviews, and information that I’ll be sharing with all of you over the year. This season, while I’ll be sticking with the general format of the season prior, I’m also looking to bring more stories into these conversations and cultivate narratives around the incredible work that people around the world are doing in the regenerative fields. Just like last season, once a month the team fr...
Feb 01, 2019•52 min
It’s been a monumental first year for us here at Abundant Edge with the development of the farm “Granja Tz’ikin” and all of the client projects we’ve been juggling at the same time. As we wrap up the second season of the podcast and the first year of me, Neal and Jeremy working as a team we want to mostly take the time to show our gratitude for all the people who’ve been instrumental in the progress we’ve been able to make together in a relatively short period of time. We also discuss the core p...
Dec 28, 2018•1 hr 2 min
