how will we find our way to the future we want to see? this small work is remix of a piece written in a few years ago in the spring in answer to that question, with the chartreuse zinging outside the writing desk window like it is today. the colour shocks my sleepy winter mind into new possibilities. i wish that the energetic questions it generates in me might be answered in you. to read, watch and listen to more small works, subscribe at appleturnover.substack.com Get full access to appleturnov...
Mar 30, 2025•6 min•Season 4Ep. 12
sometimes the skills we already have just need to be translated into the context of meeting our greater challenges. this small work looks at ways to respond when we feel anxious that we don’t belong, that we don’t have what it takes, that our problems are insoluble. it is an act of reassurance that we are already fluent, and can begin with what we know. thanks for listening, thanks for sharing, thanks for your small works. read the piece here: Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.su...
Mar 16, 2025•3 min•Season 4Ep. 11
we can be gardeners in service of biodiversity, of local food security, of life itself. this small work looks at how we can propagate many new plants quickly, to create food forests that feed us all, right where we live. practicing, in a word, regeneration. find the written piece, with images, right here , and watch the one minute short on propagation over here in the notes feed on substack, where you can subscribe to appleturnover . thanks for reading and listening and watching these small work...
Mar 02, 2025•3 min•Season 4Ep. 10
this small work looks to natural patterns, as illustrated by the geese in the snow, for how to reckon with these times and find a way forward. you might like to see the images included with the written piece on appleturnover . i’d love to hear how you have shifted toward a symbiotic pattern in your days, lately. this small work was originally written in a snowstorm last year, for the founding members of appleturnover, and might like to be part of the next volume of the journal of small work book...
Feb 23, 2025•7 min•Season 4Ep. 9
becoming fluent in interdependence, and the multiple, humble acts that revive the commons that connect us, and move us toward positive futures. this small work* is a piece collected into volume two of the journal of small work book which comes with your paid subscription. subscribe to follow more small works and short films at http://appleturnover.substack.com. Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe...
Feb 16, 2025•7 min•Season 4Ep. 8
the most restorative act of the day – thinks aloud about writing as a tool for orienting ourselves to the future that we are co-creating with our daily actions. clarifying where we have been and preparing for where we may be going, reimagining possible futures while managing all that is within our tending, this is the work of our time. i wanted to send you this, the most restorative act of the day – as a companion to a new short film about my fountain pen and to invite you to ENTER THE DRAW for ...
Feb 09, 2025•8 min•Season 4Ep. 7
in living without owning a car these seven years, what our normal has shifted to, the questions we asked ourselves, and how we think about it all now, running a little subsistence farm, unschooling, living simply in community on a small island. this small work exists thanks to the appleturnover supporters. you smooth the path beneath my bicycle. thank you for taking a chance on another way of being. i’d love to hear how you’re shifting your sense of normal these days. read the whole illustrated ...
Feb 02, 2025•8 min•Season 4Ep. 6
this small work looks at the habits that yield creativity and at accepting that we might need structures to support those habits. "rhythm, ritual, routine and the reinvention of our patterns for living that emerge from its steadiness is both the stuff of the upcoming season of my series, the journal of small work* , and how i find time to make it at all." watch the first season of the films on appleturnover.tv and follow along for more written and audio companion pieces like this one. get the bo...
Jan 26, 2025•3 min•Season 1Ep. 5
this small work looks at what change we really need to make, how change happens, and how we begin right now, to co-create the future we want to see. find it in text and image form over on appleturnover.substack.com. this work might like to play something of an anchoring role in the upcoming fourth volume of the journal of small work , of which volumes i, ii and iii are yours with a paid subscription that keeps me in pen & ink and for which i am deeply grateful. Get full access to appleturnov...
Jan 19, 2025•6 min•Season 4Ep. 4
this small work was written for earth days gone by, but it also feels januaryish so i offer it to you now. look for it in the next volume of the journal of small work . so, so much appreciation for subscribing, listening, sharing and responding. it all means a great deal. to follow the films and writing, visit http://appleturnover.substack.com. Subscribe Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe...
Jan 12, 2025•3 min•Season 4Ep. 3
when the world seems lost in darkness , i turn my attention to the life-affirming actions within my grasp. thankfully, these are numberless. and after all, winter’s darkness yields the finest moment for regeneration. life is only dormant, and it is in this window that we can propagate more life. welcome to episode two of season four of the journal of small work podcast. read the full text here. this small work exists thanks to patrons of appleturnover, it was released in written form a year ago ...
Jan 05, 2025•4 min•Season 4Ep. 2
the state of the world is unnerving , but it’s no accident that what actually nourishes and restores our nervous systems are the same practices that restore the state of the world. welcome to season four of the journal of small work. this small work was released in written form to patrons (thank you!) a year ago, though that first line has been hovering in the background for some time, things being really rather spectacularly unnerving. it is under consideration for the upcoming fourth volume of...
Jan 05, 2025•7 min•Season 4Ep. 1
this small work looks at the fundamental patterns that need to shift within so that a world in crisis can regenerate. this piece was also filmed, right here. read the whole piece on appleturniver.substack.com Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 16, 2023•11 min•Season 4Ep. 14
this small work looks at how we might overcome the obstacles to taking small steps that reverberate out into big, lasting, profound and urgently needed change. this episode is from season three of the readings from the journal of small work*. this small work was originally released in 2023 and is collected into the journal of small work *. thank you to the founding patrons who first supported this work into being. thank you for listening to my small writings and, for those of you with the capaci...
Jul 04, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 1
picturing possible, compelling futures. this small work is a moment spent in seeing where we are now, how we are transfigured by recent years, acknowledging the profound change that is happening and connecting to each other and the greater world to begin to live in a way that is remarkably different. ‘it’s as if we all have culture shock – ‘ is a friend and relation of the journal of small work films . if these small works resonate with you, please consider leaving five stars and speeding its qu...
Oct 09, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 5
finding our way into good-enough action, this small work* looks at some ways that we can counter, within ourselves, the pattern of perfectionism that shows up in a world stuck in procrastination on the kind of cultural transformation that can move us into ecological, economic balance. it's a companion piece to the journal of small work* film, ' coldframe '. if you find these ideas useful, you might like to join the paid subscribers in supporting more of these small works. the serial book-in-the-...
Oct 02, 2022•5 min•Season 2Ep. 4
on habitat as a pattern for possible futures. this small work* is a companion piece to our first film, ' deep litter ' which looked at the practices we follow to create a safe, healthy habitat for our food-forest-ranging flocks, that is in every aspect mutually supportive. designing to meet our intrinsic needs, with contentment and flourishing as its priority, is a way forward that we can draw on to create a future all of us want to live in. if you're fond of ' deep litter ', ' broody hen ' and ...
Sep 25, 2022•5 min•Season 2Ep. 3
on what is necessary, what is sufficient. this small work* is a friend and relation of my short film, *pulley airer*, which looks at appropriate technology and downshifting. in a word, simplicity. what if the future was not deprived, but simply reduced to the essentials? what of community-sufficiency for altering our requirements? micropodcasts like this one are small works of community-supported activism. if this work sustains you, consider becoming a paid subscriber, support and contribute to ...
Sep 18, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 2
this micro-episode looks at how we see the earth in crisis and how we might culture a way of living that collaborates with the healing-responses of life itself. like season one before it, this new season of companion pieces to the journal of small work* film series seeks answers to the question, how can we transform how we live, so that the way we live regenerates life? this audience-supported project exists thanks to the generosity of our patrons . i hope you will love this small work. if you d...
Sep 11, 2022•4 min•Season 2Ep. 1
this small work* is a radio companion to my film ' coldframe ', which looks at adaptation and relocalisation as frameworks for a future we want to live in. living on a smallholding like this one - paints a picture of some of the old fashioned, even quaint skills and practices that step into their own when an energy-hungry, climate-damaging existence begins to collapse. how can we adapt? here are some possibilities we might imagine. find the film series over the appleturnover channel or on applet...
Jul 10, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 12
essential tools in the farmhouse kitchen, essential tools in the community for a homebased, needs-based, just economy of good, relocalised, food for all. these are the concerns of this small work. find appleturnover films like 'grain mill' and the journal of small work ‘pulley airer’ on appropriate technology + downshifting, over at appleturnover , and you can follow this work and if you like, support its creation, on substack . thanks for listening. Get full access to appleturnover at appleturn...
Jun 19, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 11
this small work* is a radio companion to the fourth of the journal of small work* films . it concerns itself with the aspects of living that have not connected me to life, and what an embodied connection could be like. paid subscribers receive the collected writings in the journal of small work book-in-progress . thanks for listening. follow appleturnover on substack for more. Get full access to appleturnover at appleturnover.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 12, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 10
this small work, becoming fixated on the weather is perhaps inevitable - is a radio companion to the journal of small work* films . it looks at the pendulum of extreme weather that is palpably moving us through the stages of grief to a place of radical acceptance of responsibility. it asks, as do the films, what it could be like to move into acceptance, and through it, into action. come over to substack to join in conversation with elisa rathje on these small works; get the first volumes of the ...
Jun 05, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 9
a radio companion to the second journal of small work* film, pattern language + permeability , the concerns of beauty, on the face of it - are with what lies beneath dominant culture, and how shifting our relationships to ourselves into unconditional acceptance of radical diversity might help us to move toward a world where all diversity is regarded as the foundation of the strength and resilience we need to regenerate ecological stability. with deepest gratitude to the community supporting this...
May 29, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 8
your sunday read-aloud, ‘ there is pleasure in economy – on redesigning for pleasing sufficiency ’ is both a friend of our little film 'bicycle life' as well as a cousin of the third journal of small work* ’ appropriate technology ’. it turns the story of a future of deprivation on its head, and sees abundance and pure joy in living sufficiently. i would love to know your thoughts on it. as ever, deepest gratitude for the community support at appleturnover.substack.com that enables this work. be...
May 22, 2022•4 min•Season 1Ep. 7
this sunday radio companion is a cousin of the second film in the journal of small work*, pattern language + permeability . these are uneasy times even without personal sorrows, but i take solace in knowing that our troubles stem from a pattern that collectively, we have the power to change. these small works are made possible by community-supported-activism. thanks to our paid subscribers appleturnover substack! you make it happen. get the journal of small work with your upgrade. follow appletu...
May 15, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 6
this sunday read-aloud is a child of the second episode of the journal of small work*, pattern language + permeability . it is concerned particularly with our permeable selves, and our bigger selves, the one that encompasses a whole earth system in perpetual exchange. this tiny piece touches on the exchanging of the possibly toxic for the definitely edible, accepting our microbial-ness, looking to the cycling of this living being we are living within for patterns that lead us to better decisions...
May 08, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 5
if what you really have been longing for is an essay on homemade yogurt, hayboxing, and the critical technique of pushing on with imperfect, partial, good-enough action, then this sunday companion is for you. this small work* is another relation of the first episode in the journal of small work*, continuous improvement + stacking functions before we turn to some collected works expanding on the other films. watch all the episodes on appleturnover.tv . paid subscribers can look out for these piec...
May 01, 2022•4 min•Season 1Ep. 4
this small work* is another radio companion to the first episode in the journal of small work*, continuous improvement + stacking functions . watch them all on appleturnover.tv . it harks back to autumn when, here, we are now in full spring, but we shall soon catch up, and i trust those of you in the global south will appreciate it. paid subscribers receive these pieces in the form of the journal of small work book. as ever, deep gratitude to the appleturnover supporters. i'm in production on th...
Apr 24, 2022•4 min•Season 3Ep. 1
this small work* is a radio companion to the first episode in the journal of small work* films, continuous improvement + stacking functions . watch them all on appleturnover.tv . subscribers receive the printable transcripts of these writings to collect, original pieces that lay the groundwork for a possible future. subscribe to expand and contribute to this work. as ever, deepest gratitude to the appleturnover supporters. you keep me going. do let me know your thoughts on this second very, very...
Apr 17, 2022•4 min
