Futuresteading Jade Miles

Kirsten Bradley is one half of permacultures favourite educators MILKWOOD and she joins us as our opening night (very early morning actually) star in the spectacular line up of season nine guests.

We've had her in our ears before but not since she crossed Bass Straight to set up home and release her new book. The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook

We delve into how she has built her Huddle in the southern most state and how she contributes to the mycelium  of community that will form what is ultimately needed in the coming 100 years of skilled up, earth connected, community first folk who just keep showing up - which is easier said than done.

She talks about our duty of care to the commons and why we need to be comfortable as the receiver and giver in your local soup kitchen.
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Show Notes:
Building a new life in Tasmania - here we are!
The forest school that runs along democratic lines with kiddos making decisions (but still have to do maths)
Teenagers marinating in different ideas and different thinking
Being confident to let your small human build their own vision and values
Upskilling FAST: Growing food, making bread, sewing, community connections
Rebooting our civic duty to be relational with each other
Changing the world, one habit at a time with her latest book: the Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook
Engaging in the commons - taking responsibility for the things which are held in common-wealth (beaches, waters, parks) scraps of land that are worth taking care of and starting a relationship with. 
Using your privilege for purpose - even if limited - use them to help those who don’t have them
Start by identifying your privileges and call out those who behave in a way that limits rather than supports others
The value of clever, open, respectful communication with those who don't align with your values
“No one is in anybody else's shoes so we don’t have the knowledge or the right to make judgments”
“Whether you’re the soup giver or the soup taker - in times of need, we all need each other and finding the common ground to be on either side of the table is a pillar of how we’ll live in the next 100 years”
Building partnerships in coalitions of the unlikely 
Mutual aid in her backyard, not just in times of crises but a community way of being
Making sure you’ve got some really big pots in your pantry to fire up a huge pot of soup if needed
The million ways to contribute to the community care systems we all need
Sharing your skills far and wide
How she’s made online learning as practical and useful as possible
Do one thing, make it a habit then choose one more thing 
Threading the various communities together to create a dynamic non 9-5 existence
Compassion speaks to creating futures with other people despite the overlapping crises
Holding peoples hopes, fears and making sense of that as a huddle.






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Dr Kate Luckins asks what shade of green are you? The answer is of little consequence and will most certainly ebb with the hokey poke of life - finding your own shade, in your own way is the secret…along with an audit or two of your cupboards, sheds, fridge and mind.  
With a doctorate in sustainability, this Dr knows a thing or two about how we can climb aboard the bandwagon and STAY ON, ultimately resulting in us living "More with Less (which is the name of her new new book) - as our own shade of green.
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Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters
Buy Kates Book - Live more with Less

Pod References:
War on Waste
Urban Nanna
Well Nourished Georgia Harding naturopath
ST ethical eating guides
Show Notes
Even when you mean well - life is very busy so its really hard to bring this way of life to the front line
Crisis fatigue - why the looming Armageddon can cripple us.
Empathy for our parents managing teenagers who want to create the landfill of tomorrow
Experimenting with a clothing exchange 
Awakening the consumer in her with the birth of her baby
Bring unapologetically medium green
Not doing all the things at once
A medium, life friendly shade of green which maintains momentum
Building new habits that are awkward and unfamiliar slowly becoming part of your flow.
Smug stock stash being built in the freezer
1 in every 5 bags of shopping is incidentally wasted
Getting sucked into every foodie, fashion and fun fad
Life audits - fridge, wardrobe, third drawer down, 
Filling the gap between our concerns and our reality. 
Our cultural issue isn’t what to do its about how we make decisions in the weeds - what should our self expectation be.
Keeping the paralysis of eco fear at bay
Finding the times in your life that are well suited to bringing in more change
Treat yourself like you would a friend who is doing their best
Its not the people in govt who feel the most powerful its the every day eco heroes who feel enthusiastic and the actions they are taking.  Unofficial authorities in their own communities 
Leading by example is the most powerful way to bring systems change 
Diagnosing our reality and changing our language because of it.
Why the sustainability movement needs a theme song
More connection, more time, more community, less, consumption, less waste,
Finding your on ramp to get into this way of being
Start where your interests lie and don't worry about it being perfect or big”
The value of the imperfect
We often buy because we are compensating or obliged to buy…
Seeding the idea of ‘buying less and valuing it well’
Why its so bloody hard to raise kids today to be mini ecowarriors 
Buy less and live more in a society that is structurally designed to create waste and 
Find your door in - start with the things that interest you and your energy will be infectious - don't underestimate the ripple effect of 
Rewrite the normal - to include lifestyle upgrades like showering in dams
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Join Jade and the tall, smiling pink haired  gem as she ponders the many right ways of doing things - when care, intellect & heart goes into the building of skills, earth care & people care we need to honour the effort which is more important than the approach taken. 
Learn why she actively puts herself in front of opportunities & why she uses her platform as an extension to her duty of care  - "Its not about me its about the issue”  
"While I have sadness in me about the heartbreaks happening across the world I choose to actively come back to radical hope. If you care for each other and the world we live in there’s no other option but to weave love and joy into life and weave hope into every single day"
References in the convo
ABC Gardening Australia
Gardening Australia Junior program
The Good Life - Hannahs first book
Good Life Growing - how to grow fruit and veg in any climate in Australia
Dan Palmer futuresteading conversation
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Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters
Show Notes:
The juggle is real - relying on friends to help us
Not doing all the things all the time
Why it’s harder to ask than it is to help
Take time to build deep relationships. Communities hold us through good & not so good
Finding people with common interests as the starting place to build a huddle
Building people care into property design - human behaviours & human nature 
Good permaculture design based on the individuals who are living & stewarding the landscape
Dan Palmer transformative for the Australian Permaculture community. He challenged & elevated it.
Bringing people along in challenging conversations at challenging times
Conversations which build community - “I don’t see the difference between hardened farmers and inner city hipsters” all I see is people who are enthusiastically food growing
The elusive ‘balance’ - “its doesn’t exist but she is getting better at scheduling so actively builds slots of quiet time to counter balance the external
The power of a routine
Putting yourself in the way of opportunities so you can deepen your impact
Every type of activism is needed but Hannah is best suited to solution orientated activism.
Don't underestimate the feeling inside you as your accurate guide
Ikigai formula
Creating a goat share  
We don’t have to be self sufficient but doing things with intention & love - living towards your values 
Seed saving magnificence - I’ve got the power
Energetically connecting to people
Life in front of the camera for ABC gardening Australia
Ulitising the tools & opportunities available to us in our modern world
Sometimes it’s about doing the things that are unnecessary (like dying your hair pink) to nurture our psyche
Learning in public - transparency about openly making mistakes to avoid being pigeonholed
I hope that in a decade I can publicly admit that I've been wrong about things.
She is happiest when she is IN the work - not about her but about the shining of light on things that matter to her…it’s just a tool to open a door to talk to people 
Her singular word - LOVE and ACTION






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 Maria Konecsky refers  often to her ancestral memory.  For her the way back to those who came before her has been through food. She says “Our food lines, hold our story, no matter what it is, whether its pretty or ugly, grand or humble it holds richness and grit and love and loss” It’s such a beautiful way to unpack our heritage - through food, in her case it’s sometimes ugly food made with love by her OMA who instilled equal part ritual and boredom into her childhood in just the right doses.  
Wherever you are right now, I encourage you to find the thread that links you to your own heritage and give it a tug - dive deeply  to understand how the patterns of the past are influencing the behaviours of today to form our own individual stories as part of the collective.
Referenced in our chat
Kindred - the book she wrote with her sister
Gewuzhaus - their shared spice store
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Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters
Show Notes
Food is an alternative language to the written or spoken word. Care love and power flows through our hands and into our creation
Food as opposed to ingredients are special 
We have to keep showing up to cook - especially as mothers - even when its hard
The magnificence of sharing a business with family - always a process, it takes 
To the nurturers, mothers, keepers of ritual
Her one word: HOME - connects her to her grandmothers.
Her kin: why writing a book was an opportunity to delve deeper into her ancestral lines, from all over Europe to ultimately coalesce in Germany
The importance of ritual, rhythm and routine in a life with young families - ritual helps to ground us and find commonality that we all understand.
The rituals of her childhood (Christmas in Germany) 
Out of boredom came an ingrained and repetitious focus and love on food. Embedded in their DNA
A 12 layered Dobosh - spectacular creation to mark special times across the year “more than just making a cake, it was a channelling of my ancestors into the cake to be there for those who need them”
Mushrooming in Autumn, Winter citrus - balls of colour during the wet grey months, Rituals remind us that life is full of cycles
Opening Gewurzhaus as a nod to her love of food
How a can do attitude has been foundational to their willingness to get stuck in and have a go at things that might fill others with fear
Letting your taste and senses take over to lead you on your next adventure
Spending 6 months cooking to really learn how spices work
K***t holds her story - a much loved ritual that she only does alone - grounds and connects her to her food lines
Getting her 3 year old to drink k***t juice
Embracing ugly meat - frugal, hardworking, industrious individuals, 
Chicken broth as an analogy 
How grandmas habits which used to gross her out as a child now form tha backbone of her adult rituals.
Coming back to getting squeamish and getting past the complex to better understand each other, our food and how we eat it. 
Overcoming the disconnect of where our food comes from  - the value of tending life and then taking life.
Nurturing a shrooming culture via an annual mushroom hunt for mothers day
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Summary
We know that Western culture lives excessively, endlessly seeking the newest and shiniest new thing.  Its shocking that 40% of our food goes to waste, one third of our building materials are never even used. But this way of life will be short lived and thankfully being wasteful is now  on the nose and cool cats like Joost are making waves by making junk UBER COOL. What can we do to create a new way forward in what he describes as the most exciting time in human history?

Show notes
Keeping family as number one 
Keeping it real with family to ensure they are present
His journey through waste which began using other peoples junk
Spending his spare time in junkyards collecting and using other peoples waste
Even the poster boy doesn't get everything right - examples of things that haven't worked
For every project that gets up there are 3 or 4 which didn't - that’s having a go! And through the Process we discover a new way forward
Attracting like minded people to build a community and deliver amazing projects
Showcasing the innovation and vast knowledge that exists in this country
Creating binless hospitality businesses
Curating the message for living waste free so that people understand it.
Considering materials based on their ability to be recycled
Living in the most exciting time in human history
Getting creative to find solutions that allow us to continue our existing lives with minimal compromise
There's something mentally wrong with us when we endlessly chase the next, new, shiny, big thing. 
Being properly nourished and connected to the outdoors satiated our desires and replace our desire for STUFF.
Using plants to support our sleep
Reverting to primitive practices to reconnect to ourselves
Starting our day with simple, natural world practices
If we’ve got 3 hours to be on social media, surely we’ve got time to make our everyday actions more intentional.
We feel great after gardening not just because its sensorially beautiful but because you are breathing in microbiomes
Observation is a lost trait we need to rebuild
His fascination with the perfect sized branch for birds
All his buildings are covered in 8 mil rio mesh because it's perfect for the birds
If you really want to understand why he makes the decisions he does then check out his instagram pages
References
The Greenhouse film - 
Future Food System Instagram
Podcast partners ROCK!
Nutrisoil 
Wwoof Australia 

Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters
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What if all the memories you made as a kid had been replaced by screens? When an aha moment makes you realise that its time to reframe childhood and embrace an analogue life - one that stimulates creativity, imagination and experiences that instill a need to fight for the natural world over technification.   With a biological need for at least 3 hours outside every day...the time to replace screen time with green time is now.

Show notes
Feeling like she was failing as a mum
Breaking the cycle of raising children on full schedules
“Kids are supposed to be outside for 4-6 hours a day when the weather is good” - Charlotte Mason
Her first good day as a mum was spent outside as part of a challenge in order to make friends.
How outdoor play enhances every development for children which gives lifelong benefits
Setting our kids up for success simply by spending time outside
Busting screen time statistics
On average kids are on screens for 7 hours a day but only outside for 7 minutes
1200 hours a year outside creating  rather than on screen 
3 hours of outdoor play for kids of all ages 
Keeping children balanced
Rescheduling early childhood
Raising kids who were ruddy, tough, sleeping better
Outdoor play enhances childhood developing in every sense = cognitive, sensorial, emotional
Laying the groundwork so they keep it up
Play that stretches their body and teaches them to trust their bodies and builds endurance, stamina, alertness
Filling our life with the important things first and push out the time that's left over for screens
It’s never easy to make this your committed approach but it’s worth it
Creating rituals that are intentional
The benefits of being uncomfortable
Why time slows down when you are doing something new and your senses wake up
Building identity via time in the outdoors
If they don’t love an analogue life, they won’t fight for it
Building a foundation in kids that they can resist the tech pull
Success is living a fulfilling life that is balanced, connected, maintained ground on values and illusions but grounded and taken day by day
If we live well today then tomorrow will take care of itself
Clothes for the season: Wonders of wool to enable the kids to play for so much longer
Passing down the things = less stuff
Imagination over screens
Nature is enough - it meets us all at the stage we are at 
Start right now and be happy to bloom at your own pace which follows your instinct
Trust your kids to create their own path
References
1000 hours outside- book, podcast
Charlotte Mason - Childhood educator
Balanced and barefoot - Angela Hanson
Rewilding the urban soul - Claire Dunn
The Comfort Crisis - Michael Easter
The singularity is near - Ray Curswhile
Podcast partners ROCK!
Nutrisoil 
Wwoof Aus
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