Dale Tilbrook is a much-loved native food specialist, educator, and passionate Aboriginal tourism advocate. Like a lot of Australia at the time of this recording, Dale was immersed in a delayed NAIDOC Week , during COVID, celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She also continues to work towards a big vision for First Nations people, and WA as a whole. This vision is reflected in a joint proposal (linked on the episode web page ) made a...
Jan 17, 2025•49 min•Season 9Ep. 241
Today, a brief bonus featuring material from my conversation with Shannon Leigh that never saw the light of day, partly due to the wind that blew in, and partly due to Clean State’s mandate for shorter episodes. But it’s worth the listen, with reference to one of Australia’s much loved satirical shows on ‘nation-building’, Utopia. If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Shannon Leigh, ‘ World’s Best Place for Active Transport, with Streets for People co-founder Shannon Leigh’ ...
Jan 13, 2025•4 min•Season 9Ep. 240
Shannon Leigh is co-founder and Director of Streets for People , and previously an award-winning urban and transport planner at the Department of Transport and later Curtin University. Investment in active transport is one of the most livelihood-rich, climate-friendly measures available. And given cost blow-outs in public health, climate related damage, and car dominated infrastructure, it’s another vital transition more of us are after – especially in the wake of the tripling of cycling in Pert...
Jan 13, 2025•27 min•Season 9Ep. 240
You might recognise Dr Vanessa Rauland from the renowned ABC TV series Fight for Planet A . Vanessa’s the co-founder with Alexander Karan of ClimateClever , one of a growing number of WA social enterprises that have been realising some of the enormous opportunities in our energy transition. When I spoke with Vanessa for this podcast, a few years ago, the ClimateClever team had nearly doubled in the months prior (even during COVID-19), working with an increasing number of schools, their communiti...
Jan 11, 2025•27 min•Season 9Ep. 239
Professor Gary Kendrick’s great love is the WA coastline and its seagrasses. Gary and colleagues have been at the forefront of seagrass restoration and the blue carbon movement more broadly. And with such a massive extent of coastline featuring globally significant carbon stores, world heritage sites, and deep community and cultural knowledge, the potential for WA – and beyond - is enormous. Gary takes us to one of his favourite parts of WA, to share a little of this spectacular story. This epis...
Jan 09, 2025•25 min•Season 9Ep. 238
A brief bonus featuring part of my conversation with Chantal Caruso that never saw the light of day, due to Clean State’s mandate for shorter episodes. A poignant moment occurred at the launch of The Clean State Plan, with a group of First Nations people there expressing concern at the impending renewables revolution. It raised an important question - how do we transition energy systems without repeating colonial extractive patterns? And moreover, without unwittingly hampering the regenerative w...
Jan 06, 2025•7 min•Season 9Ep. 237
As introduced last week, today launches a special festive season series of the Clean State Stories. This was a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here...
Jan 05, 2025•25 min•Season 9Ep. 237
A brief new year's greeting from Guatemala, to herald a special festive season series of short episodes. Around four years ago, some of you might remember I produced a series of nine episodes for an organisation called Clean State WA. That became the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, that organisation is no more, but the series of episodes produced featured such brilliant guests and stories that we resolved to find a way to k...
Jan 03, 2025•4 min•Season 9Ep. 236
Welcome to the customary package of highlights from another brilliant array of guests throughout 2024, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country heard along the way – this time across two continents, 49 episodes and 78 guests, from all walks of life. Listening to it all together in one place last night was just incredible. I hope you enjoy it too. You’ll hear a little from me first, with a short summary of the year in review, along with a snapshot of where we are right now, some int...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 235
A few weeks ago I released a podcast marking the premiere of an episode of Australian Story that featured the incredible story of regeneration at the hands of the Henggeler family at Kachana Station . Many of you already know the story, from its popularity on this podcast . Well, that Australian Story has gone onto well over half a million views already. And no sooner had it gone out than I got the news that fellow legendary regenerative farmers in Western Australia, Dianne and Ian Haggerty, had...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 8Ep. 234
On the morning of Wednesday the 27th of November, I got the news that the legendary Carol Sanford had died . You might remember the conversation I was privileged to share with her at the start of last year, for our 150th episode . Carol knew she was dying, so much was getting difficult or impossible for her, and even speaking was tough, as Motor-Neuron Disease (as we call it in Australia) was taking hold. Yet she was as sharp, generous and forthright as ever. Within minutes she was saying things...
Nov 29, 2024•55 min•Season 8Ep. 233
This week we’re back with Chloe Maxmin , for a debrief that has been eagerly awaited – by me and many of you, I know – on how the Dirtroad candidates went at the recent US elections, and where to from here. For those who didn’t catch Chloe in episode 225 last month , from up at the farm in Maine, Chloe became the first Democrat ever to represent Maine House District 88, and the youngest member of the 129th Maine Legislature. Two years later, she’d become the youngest female state senator in Main...
Nov 26, 2024•47 min•Season 8Ep. 232
The Regenerate conference in Denver a couple of weeks ago was like no conference I’d experienced in the ‘regen ag’ / food systems space. Such a presence of next generations, women and varied cultures amongst the 500 attendees. And multiple moments of crazy serendipity. It also started the day after the US federal election. So the air was heavy with emotion and uncertainty, when Sarah Wentzel-Fisher, the ED of Quivira Coalition , the primary organising body, opened the conference in tears. It was...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 8Ep. 231
One of the most remarkable stories of regeneration on this podcast – still the second most listened to episode - featured in a landmark ABC TV special back home last week. One of Australia’s best journalists, Walkley-award winner Ben Cheshire, pulled together the story of Kachana Station, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, for one of Australia’s most loved, influential and long-running TV series, Australian Story. Beautifully introduced by another legendary Aussie journo, Lei...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 8Ep. 230
When we were in New York recently, I dropped by to visit Douglas Rushkoff at his Queens College office. For those who don’t recall Douglas from his previous times on this podcast , he’s a media professor, documentary-maker, host of the Team Human podcast, and best-selling author of 20 books - including the updated edition of Program or Be Programmed, out now, with particular additions around AI. There’s a launch party for that tonight if you happen to be in or near NY. Douglas is also one of the...
Nov 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 8Ep. 229
This is a bonus extra to episode 228, featuring the Q&A that took place after the film screening of Rural Runners in the Shepherdstown Opera House , West Virginia. That award-winning film is the story of Chloe Maxmin’s incredible community-based electoral wins in Maine from episode 225 . By Chloe’s side every step of the way was her best mate, and then campaign manager, Canyon Woodward , with Canyon’s parallel rise as a champion ultra-distance runner woven into the story. After this screenin...
Oct 31, 2024•32 min•Season 8Ep. 228
“I've had several folks share with me that they are voting for Trump. But they're also voting for me.” That’s what Lucia Valentine told me when I spoke with her and another first-time candidate for the State of West Virginia at the coming elections, Maria Russo . This seemed to say so much about the coming elections here. For a start, that they’re far from as simplistic, binary and polarised as is often portrayed. And that what these women are up to is important, hopeful and possibly transformat...
Oct 28, 2024•50 min•Season 8Ep. 228
‘The biggest strides in hemp-crete construction are going down on one of the smallest reservations in America.’ That’s how the bill reads on Patagonia Film’s latest production, The Green Buffalo, launching online globally today . It’s referring to the Lower Sioux Indian Community, on the southern bank of the Minnesota River about 100 miles SW of Minneapolis. Turns out we had driven close by after leaving Kelsey Scott’s place on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, where we recor...
Oct 23, 2024•31 min•Season 8Ep. 227
In some ways, the first 150 seconds of this excerpt from episode 226 with Bill Pluecker (alongside partner Chloe Maxmin), say everything that needs to be said about where politics is being done better in the US. They sum with the passage that became the lead-off quote in that episode. And they lead off this powerful last ten minutes or so of my conversation with Bill. Bill, an independent representative from Maine, invites us into a world where the beauty of rural landscapes and the preservation...
Oct 19, 2024•11 min•Season 8Ep. 226
The last 20 minutes or so of my conversation in episode 225 with Maine’s youngest ever female senator, Chloe Maxmin, has stayed with me since its release. And I’ve heard from a few of you saying similar. So in the interest of not letting it be too ephemeral with the passing podcast feed, this excerpt from that episode features that 20 minutes. We unpack the inspiring and transformative journey behind "Dirt Road Revival," a book that has sparked change in rural organising across the U.S. Chloe sh...
Oct 17, 2024•26 min•Season 8Ep. 225
After recording with Bill and Chloe at Begin Again Farm for last week’s episode , Bill happened to drop word of an upcoming festival. And not just any festival, but the 48th annual running of the Common Ground Country Fair . It happened on 20-22 September this year, in the aptly named Unity, Maine, about 40 miles north of Bill and Chloe’s place. The Fair draws 60,000 people, features all kinds of programs, food and arts, and even makes money for its host the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners A...
Oct 15, 2024•5 min•Season 8Ep. 226
There’s a ‘so-called’ battle for rural America at the heart of the coming federal election. But what if it needn’t be a battle? And in fact, what if heart is what’s really at stake? People who love their places – places, by the way, that constitute 20% of the vote, and 97% of the land in this country. After the recent Vice-Presidential debate here in the US, featuring two men speaking to their roots in rural America, it is still reported that people are not seeing themselves well represented in ...
Oct 08, 2024•48 min•Season 8Ep. 226
This is one of my favourite conversations, and it starts a mini-series of sorts. I’ve had many listeners ask how things feel in this US election year. So, after months speaking with all kinds of people as we travelled through half the states of this country, throughout October, as the election approaches, I’ll offer what we’ve observed, in conversation with people doing some of the more outstanding things we’ve learned about along the way. Today, meet Chloe Maxmin . Chloe left the farm she grew ...
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 8Ep. 225
This mid-week mail run comes to you from Savannah Georgia, as a hurricane nears the Florida coast and the storms begin here in advance of it. As usual with these brief episodes, I reply to text messages from listeners through the new link in our show notes. And this time I also announce the recent winners of the book giveaway. That’s before sharing some concerning news for independent podcast creators like me, as Apple announces a controversial 30% premium on Patreon subscriptions made through t...
Sep 26, 2024•10 min•Season 8Ep. 224
A new holistic farming festival is about to launch back home in Australia. Inspired by the famed Groundswell in the UK, GROUNDED! lands in beautiful southern Tasmania on the 4th and 5th of December - with a pre-festival event on the 3rd of December too. It’s billed as a cross between a world class conference, an informative field day and a cracking food festival. This is big news, and a huge undertaking by some great folk. So with the draft program released, it was time to chat about it with fou...
Sep 24, 2024•41 min•Season 8Ep. 223
After recording the main episode with Kelsey, we headed out for a very special tour through regenerating cultural and natural grasslands. We pick it up amongst the layered stories around the nearby Missouri River / Lake Oahe. That sets up a sense of the power in arriving at the family’s re-introduced Sundance grounds. Soon after, we witness Kelsey finding Indian grass back on the ranch for the first time, and achieving a long-held dream to see native grasses once again taller than she is. Found ...
Sep 19, 2024•47 min•Season 8Ep. 222
Kelsey Scott is a 4th generation cow producer and 125th generation land steward at DX Ranch , on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Kelsey is a Lakota woman, citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, Chief Strategy Officer for the Intertribal Agriculture Council , owner of a direct-to-consumer regenerative beef operation DX Beef , part of the education programs her family runs, a featured presence in the documentary film Common Ground , the first Native American student to gi...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 8Ep. 222
The extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York is restoring dairy farming in a context where such farms are still closing around them. They are doing it with nature, family, food and festival at its heart. With organic and biodynamic methods, they are keeping cattle together in their families to amazing benefit, cultivating myriad farm products including medicinal plants, restoring a diverse landscape, designing beautiful buildings including a store onsite, and hosting an extensive set of gather...
Sep 10, 2024•28 min•Season 8Ep. 221
The evening before we recorded the main episode with Pedro, we went out on the Plains to shepherd the buffalo to their next patch. This is a rare chance to hear one of the world’s most respected bison wranglers – and the animals themselves – at work. And there were some very special moments too, in this condensed 20-minute special extra to episode 220. The wind can be mighty on the Plains, and as we went further towards the buffalo it did push the microphone I had on me at times. But given how r...
Sep 05, 2024•20 min•Season 8Ep. 220
Pedro Calderon-Dominguez is regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Though as fate would have it, his life took a series of unexpected turns, through wildlife ecology as the first to further Aldo’s Leopold’s work with black bears, into holistic management with some of the legends in Mexico and beyond, and ultimately into working with buffalo. Now he’s regarded by some as the world’s top bison wrangler. Pedro is currently based at an ambitious project called American Prairie , in the north of Mont...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 8Ep. 220
