The RegenNarration

Anthony James
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Stories of the regeneration of the living world, not often on the news, often almost beyond belief. With award-winning host Anthony James. It’s ad-free, freely available and entirely listener-supported. You'll hear from high profile and grass-roots leaders from around Australia and the world, on how they're changing the stories we live by, and the systems we create in their mold. Along with often very personal tales of how they themselves are changing, in the places they call home, and with some of the music they love.

  1. 17h ago

    A Vision, with Wendell & Mary Berry (A Tribute)

    The revered farmer, poet and prophet, Wendell Berry, died a little over a month ago. This special tribute episode, featuring the voices of Wendell himself, his daughter Mary, and friends, is one I feel extremely privileged to make and share with you.  With heart-felt thanks and sympathies to Mary Berry, the broader Berry family and team at The Berry Center, Cole Mannix, with Gillian Kennedy, Lizzy Duffy Anderson and team at Old Salt Co-Op and Festival, Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell at Two Birds Film, and writer and land steward Meriwether Lewis Hardie, for your kind permission and assistance to be able to include the audio you’re about to hear. You can find photos and videos, related to what you’re hearing, in a tribute I wrote last month, that came to inspire this episode. They include the extraordinary opening sequence from the cinematic portrait of Wendell by Two Birds Film, called Look & See (also opening this episode); and Mary Berry in riveting conversation with Meriwether Lewis Hardie at the Old Salt Festival back in June, introduced by Old Salt President, and previous podcast guest, Cole Mannix. If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Title image supplied by Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell at Two Birds Film. To see more photos from Look & See, and to buy or rent the film, head to their website. You can hear more from Di and Ian Haggerty, the 2025 West Australians of the Year, in episode 234.  And from Tanya and Charlie Massy in episodes 115 and 103 respectively. Thank you for listening. Music:  Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist). Regeneration, by Amelia Barden. If this moves you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs steadying words, and leave a review so more people can find these stories of land stewardship, homecoming, and regeneration. Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    A Vision, with Wendell & Mary Berry (A Tribute)

  2. Sep 29 ·  Video

    Fred Provenza with Live Audience: Myth & the Management of Natural Resources

    Welcome to our first online live audience event, featuring the legendary Fred Provenza. It took place on the Solstice in June, with an audience of paid subscribers, and was incredibly special. In another first, too, you can also watch this event in video mode where available, including Apple, Spotify and  YouTube, enabling you to see Fred and the artful visuals in his presentation. If you're not yet aware, Fred is the behavioural ecologist, author and mountain man who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies. Fred was first on the podcast almost four years to the day of this recording, for episode 123: The Wisdom Body: on a paradigm change in animal, human & planetary health. And two years ago, almost to the day, Fred stood on the back of a truck in a field at the Old Salt Festival in Montana, and gave a now famous talk called Cosmic Dreaming. The organiser Cole Mannix said he'd have run the festival for that alone (in an unforgettable end to ep.217).  The talk has been in demand ever since, most recently by Holistic Management International and a holistic medicine group, and it has continued to evolve. In fact, Fred nearly made it to the recent Grounded Festival in Australia to offer the latest version, but not quite. And Fred has since retired from such events.  So I asked him if he'd share a reading with us live online, of the updated never-before heard latest version, with a conversation afterwards, on the 2nd anniversary of its first run.  Fred’s presentation runs for roughly the first half of the episode, and an intimate conversation follows, including some other legendary past guests on this podcast. The exchange between Fred and Terry McCosker at the end is worth the listen in itself. Co-hosted by my friend, previous podcast guest, and co-founder of our Confluence river journeys, Dr Katie Ross.  If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Recorded 20 June 2026. And heads up, the next interactive online live podcast event will be at 6pm Wednesday 4 November 2026 AEDT. With some very special guests. All paid subscribers welcome. Title image: Fred happy at home on the Madison River - even with storm front approaching (pic: Anthony James). Thanks for listening! Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    Fred Provenza with Live Audience: Myth & the Management of Natural Resources

  3. Sep 24 ·  Bonus

    Riverman: On family, heartbreak, change, successful models & what’s possible

    Welcome to a bonus episode bringing home the special series with Michael Gooden, President of the just launched Farmers Helping Farmers.  We’re back by the Murray River, this time featuring Goodo being questioned in depth by his fellow paddlers on the first Confluence river journey back in March. This was recorded riverside at dusk, having just enjoyed an incredible dinner supplied by Goodo from his farm. Now he tells us about it – how it’s farmed, what sets it apart, and how there could be so much more of it.  And throughout, we hear more about Michael’s personal journey; the things I didn’t ask him about in part one of this series, because I knew they were talked about so perfectly here. Like the 8 Families group, upbringing and family, rugby life, mentors, heartbreak, change, creating direct markets outside disastrous commodity markets, virtual fencing in a way I didn’t expect (managed from the river!), and it all culminates with his guiding mantra. If you haven’t yet heard parts 1 and 2 of this series yet, you can find them in episode 320, A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, on that big news, and 321, riverside with me, on what would, could or should be even bigger news, How To Drink From The River Again. They’re at those links on the website (with some photos) or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of this episode, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Recorded 22 March 2026. Title image by Dominique Hes. See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below. Please share this episode where you can. And thanks for listening! Music:  Golden Awakening, by Russo feat. Roy Dotan (from Artlist). Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    Riverman: On family, heartbreak, change, successful models & what’s possible

  4. Sep 22

    How To Drink From The River Again: By the Murray with Michael Gooden

    We Can’t Fix A River with Water Alone. Welcome to part 2 of a special series with the President of the just launched Farmers Helping Farmers, Michael Gooden. Last week’s episode, A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, focused on that launch, along with of course some of Michael’s story, in what was a powerful and emotional conversation about a significant moment here in this country.  I’ve still got Mick’s words in mind from the opening of that episode, on whether we can feed the world with regenerative practices? ‘We’ll do it on our ear’, he said, if we focus on solving the real problems.  So with that in mind, this week, a really special episode sitting on the banks of the Murray River, Australia’s longest, and arguably most mythologised and politicised river. We grabbed this half hour at the end of a day’s paddle back in March, on the first group river journey my friend Katie Ross and I organised, that we called Confluence.  Goodo and I start with how it feels on the river, including why he’s even there. Then we explore the key question arising for him – what would it take to be able to drink from the river again? That’s no abstract question for this irrigator farmer approximate to a region becoming known as ‘MND Alley’ in the Murray Darling Basin. He’s got runs on the board, in terms of successful land and business management, and bringing people together, and has a very clear vision and strategy for how a drinkable river could become a reality once again.  With thanks to Henry Smith for filming this conversation.  More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end too. If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Recorded 26 March 2026. Title image by Henry Smith. See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below. Please share this episode where you can. And thanks for listening! Music:  Down the River, by Ran Raiten (from Artlist). Regeneration, by Amelia Barden. Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    How To Drink From The River Again: By the Murray with Michael Gooden

  5. Sep 15

    A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, with Michael Gooden

    This week kicks off a hybrid episode of sorts. First up today, a big launch as a farmer-led movement goes national here in Australia. Which of course isn’t just news for them, but for all of us who eat food, drink water and generally thrive of healthy living systems.  So I speak with the President of Farmers Helping Farmers, and a farmer himself at Old Man Creek, Michael Gooden, about the bold launch, its daring conference, the big vision, and of course the huge heart behind it all. There’s plenty of emotion and guts in this one, spurring a compelling vision.  I’ve been looking forward to speaking to Goodo on the podcast for ages. He introduced himself to me with a phone call and a paid subscription to the podcast five years ago now. We’ve since become good friends, and our Confluence river journey back in March wouldn’t have been the same without him and his incredible food straight off the farm.  We catch him at home today, on the back of all the recent action. And next week, we catch him on the banks of the Murray River. But more on that then. For now, join us for a cuppa in the kitchen. More shout outs and listener mail feature at the end. If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, essentially viewing a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Recorded 10 September 2026. Title image: Goodo is on the left, with the speakers at the recent launch and conference of Farmers Helping Farmers (supplied). See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below. For the conversation with Jonathan Lundgren, head to last week’s episode 319, You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is (where you’ll also find a highlight excerpt, What If More Life On Farms Solves Everything?). Last week’s latest on the situation at Kachana Station, as a bid is launched to save the donkeys. Thanks to everyone who has responded with your support. Music:  Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist). Regeneration, by Amelia Barden. If this conversation sparks something, share it with a farmer or food-lover in your life, subscribe so you don’t miss the riverside follow-up, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What part of farming’s future do you most want to see changed next? Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    A Farmer-Led Movement Goes National, with Michael Gooden

  6. Sep 8 ·  Bonus

    What If More Life On Farms Solves Everything?

    Soon after last week's special episode dropped, the messages started coming in. One from a paid subscriber (thanks Dominique Hes) commented on how the first 25 minutes or so alone was so impactful, that I needed to write up a summary on Substack. That, I did. And it made me think some of you might appreciate just that part of our conversation carved out on the pod, to share more easily, hear again, or cut to the chase of it if you don’t have an hour to listen to the full episode.  My guest was former star USDA scientist turned whistleblower, now farmer and independent researcher in South Dakota, Dr Jonathan Lundgren. The episode was titled You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is. Today, an excerpt from about 4 minutes in. It leads off with the latest on the Executive Order for regenerative agriculture that Lundgren was pivotal to. We go on to talk about the enormous body of evidence that secured it. Before rounding out here with the beginning of Jon’s incredible, tumultuous personal journey, from the USDA times to the 10th birthday celebrated just last month of his Blue Dasher Farm and independent research foundation, Ecdysis, host of the extraordinary 1,000 Farms Initiative.  “Mr. President, the most striking data we have generated from our work is that row croppers in the U.S. have twice the asthma rates, 3 times the clinical depression, 3 times the cancer rate, and a 2,600 fold increase in Parkinson’s rates compared to the rest of society. We are killing our farmers.” “We've got hard data. This became the largest database of regenerative food systems in existence. It's the third largest bio-inventory ever conducted by humans. And the data is like, what these farmers, I mean what they've developed is real. We're not making this up. It's true, it's scalable, it's transferable. This is the answer that we've been looking for.” To hear the conversation in full, including more of Jon’s story and how this research and community action is developing in Australia right now, head to episode 319 on the website, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, or essentially view a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers and transcript. Recorded 27 August 2026. Title slide: In the Oval Office. That’s Jonathan Lundgren on the right, Will Harris to his right (sourced from Lundgren’s post on his website) Please share this episode and/or the related Substack posts below where you can. And thanks for listening! My Substack post summarising some of the latest research and developments in the US and Australia: We’re Killing Our Farmers: While the evidence for regenerative agriculture is flooding in And the previous one, that led to this podcast: Two 'Regen' Farmers Walk Into An Oval Office Debate Blind-Sided – and exit with the 'most support we’ve ever had Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    What If More Life On Farms Solves Everything?

  7. Sep 1

    You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is, with Jonathan Lundgren

    Just weeks ago, I published a piece on Substack titled: Two 'Regen' Farmers Walk Into An Oval Office Debate Blind-Sided – and exit with the 'most support we’ve ever had’. Those two farmers are legends. Will Harris from White Oak Pastures in Georgia, and my guest today, former USDA scientist, now farmer and independent researcher in South Dakota, Dr Jonathan Lundgren. Jon’s story is the stuff of blockbuster films – kind of like the Michael Lewis stories that inspired The Big Short and Moneyball. Jon was a gun researcher with the USDA, but as he came to find deep concerns with chemical use in agriculture, he came to find deeper concerns with the political suppression of that research.  It was actually while receiving a distinguished award from another President that it hit him, ‘playing by the rules of the game wasn’t going to change how we produce food.’ Profound upheaval ensued. He quit his job and began planning what became a successfully crowdfunded farm and research foundation, propelled by a vision to transform food systems.  Just the other day, Blue Dasher Farm and Ecdysis Foundation celebrated their 10th birthdays, and a brewing paradigm change in food, farming and the health of people and planet.  And the Foundation’s 1000 Farms initiative, whose extraordinary findings proved pivotal to the Executive Order that emerged from the Oval Office that day, and now believed to be the largest database of regenerative food systems in the world, is going global, including to Australia, without any cost to farmers, or for that matter, to the rest of us. Jon joins me at dusk on the farm.  If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, or essentially view a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers and transcript. Recorded 27 August 2026. Title image by Katie Bell at the Regenerate Conference 2024 (where ep231 was recorded – A Force for Mending?). Register your farm via the 1000 Farms link above. Update on the situation at Kachana Station, as a bid is launched to save the donkeys. Thanks to everyone who has responded with your support. Music:  Open Wide, by Russo feat. Roy Dotan (from Artlist). Regeneration, by Amelia Barden. Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is, with Jonathan Lundgren

  8. Aug 25

    Wild Hope: An Unexpected Odyssey, with Claire Scobie

    Claire Scobie was a successful professional at the top of her game - award-winning author and journalist, and founder of Wordstruck, a narrative-based consultancy working with prominent companies globally – when a single moment cracked something open, and she found herself in a ‘devastated place’. There began the deeply personal odyssey told in her new book Wild Hope: Stories of living and leading in uncertain times. The blurb reads: As old certainties fall away, Claire and her husband move to Gumbaynggirr Country on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, where he is from. From there she meets filmmakers, farmers, CEOs, Elders and shopkeepers everywhere who are asking, what now?  From the push to make rivers swimmable again, to people-owned power, and children speaking Gumbaynggirr in a Coffs Harbour school hall as if the language never left, she learns what happens when people stop waiting for perfect solutions. Together, they are living proof that, beneath the radar, thousands of people and communities are changing things from the ground up. And that’s not the half of what Claire found along the way, as she and her husband, prominent Gumbaynggirr man and former Australian Senator, Aden Ridgeway, unexpectedly found themselves entwined in this journey together, back on Aden’s Country, striving to understand what lies at the heart of regeneration.  If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript. Recorded 19 August 2026. You can pre-order the book now, with a 20% discount direct from NewSouth books. Launch events and other info. Claire’s Substack. Including a piece she wrote about our conversation. Music:  Desert Horizon, by Nolan Nova (from Artlist). Regeneration, by Amelia Barden. Send us a voicemail Support the show Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can. The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too). You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal. I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

    Wild Hope: An Unexpected Odyssey, with Claire Scobie
See All (470)

Trailers

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Stories of the regeneration of the living world, not often on the news, often almost beyond belief. With award-winning host Anthony James. It’s ad-free, freely available and entirely listener-supported. You'll hear from high profile and grass-roots leaders from around Australia and the world, on how they're changing the stories we live by, and the systems we create in their mold. Along with often very personal tales of how they themselves are changing, in the places they call home, and with some of the music they love.

Information

  • Creator
    Anthony James
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    470
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The RegenNarration
  • Show Website
    The RegenNarration

You Might Also Like