The New Orchard

Patrick McGregor
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The New Orchard is a place where we explore and investigate pragmatic ideas that help us live informed, healthy, connected and consequently more meaningful and fulfilled lives. Our guests are uniquely insightful people who seek genuine solutions and alternatives in an ever-expanding landscape of globalised complexity and who wish to inspire others to action. If you have any questions or guest recommendations please contact us at: theneworchard@proton.me

  1. Aug 9

    Playing God with Alex Story

    Title: Playing God Subtitle: Fatherhood, Down Syndrome and the New Eugenics Guest: Alex Story Modern medicine has given us extraordinary power. We can detect genetic conditions before birth, edit DNA with increasing precision and make decisions that previous generations could scarcely imagine. Yet every technological advance brings a new moral question. Just because we can, does it mean we should? In this thought-provoking conversation, Olympic rower, businessman and writer Alex Story reflects on the birth of his son with Down syndrome and how fatherhood transformed not only his marriage and family life, but his understanding of what it means to be human. What began as a deeply personal journey led Alex into the forgotten history of eugenics, the life and legacy of Margaret Sanger, prenatal screening, CRISPR gene editing and one of the defining ethical questions of our time: who gets to decide which lives are worth living? In this interview we explore: • How raising a son with Down syndrome reshaped Alex's understanding of love, responsibility and fatherhood. • The forgotten history of the eugenics movement and why its assumptions may not have disappeared. • Margaret Sanger, birth control and the uneasy relationship between compassion, technology and social engineering. • Prenatal screening, embryo selection and the ethical challenges posed by modern genetics. • Whether technological progress has outpaced our moral wisdom. • Why human dignity cannot be reduced to intelligence, productivity or genetic "fitness." As our scientific power continues to grow, perhaps the defining question of the twenty-first century is no longer what we are capable of doing, but whether we possess the wisdom to know what we ought to do. If you enjoy long-form conversations exploring civilisation, philosophy, culture, technology, Christianity and the moral challenges shaping our future, subscribe to The New Orchard and share this episode with someone who enjoys learning and thoughtful discussions. Links and interview references: The Critic - https://thecritic.co.uk/author/alex-story/ GB News - https://www.gbnews.com/authors/alex-story/ Country Squire Magazine - https://countrysquire.co.uk Think Scotland - https://thinkscotland.org/author/alex-story/ The Conservative Woman - https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk Books:  Thomas Sowell - A Conflict of Visions and The Quest forCosmic Justice C.S. Lewis - The Abolition of Man Jacques Ellul - The Technological Society

    Playing God with Alex Story

  2. Jul 13

    Catholic Land Movement with Michael Thomas

    Title: Catholic Land Movement | Building Communities Where Stewardship, Work, Worship & Family Belong Together Guest: Michael Thomas - Executive Director and co-founder of the modern Catholic Land Movement Recorded: April 2026 The New Orchard has always been about more than farming. Across previous episodes I've explored regenerative agriculture, homesteading, rural life and land stewardship through conversations with guests including Mary Berry of The Berry Center, regenerative farmers, agricultural innovators and the founder of Cultivate Farms. Running through each of those conversations has been a deeper question: what kind of way of life enables families, communities and cultures to truly flourish? This episode takes that question back to its oldest source. The opening chapters of Genesis begin not in a city, but in the Garden of Eden. Before there were governments, markets or institutions, there was a family, productive land and a God-given vocation "to work it and keep it." What does that tell us about the relationship between work, worship, family and creation? Is the Garden of Eden simply where the biblical story begins, or does it reveal something enduring about how human beings were created to live? Joining me is Michael Thomas, Executive Director and co-founder of the Catholic Land Movement (CLM). Michael and his family have spent more than a decade homesteading in upstate New York, and today he helps families around the world reconnect with productive land, Catholic social teaching, local community and a life of stewardship. In this conversation we explore: • The origins and modern revival of the Catholic Land Movement • Catholic social teaching, subsidiarity and the family • The biblical vision of stewardship in Genesis and the Garden of Eden • Homesteading, regenerative agriculture and rural community • Wendell Berry, Thomas Jefferson and the case for rooted local communities • Land ownership, distributism, self-sufficiency and human flourishing • Practical pathways for families interested in joining or starting a Catholic Land Movement chapter Whether you're interested in regenerative farming, homesteading, Christian living, Catholicism, rural life, food sovereignty, stewardship, family formation or simply searching for a more grounded way of life, I hope this conversation gives you plenty to reflect on. If you enjoy this episode, you'll also find related conversations in The New Orchard catalogue with Mary Berry (The Berry Center), Sam Marwood (Cultivate Farms), Matt Wong and Jake Wolki on regenerative agriculture, family life and reconnecting people with the land. Links and interview references: Catholic Land Movement - https://catholiclandmovement.info Substack - https://oldhollowtree.substack.com Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michaelthomasofsharon/ Rerum Novarum Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor

    Catholic Land Movement with Michael Thomas

  3. Jun 13

    The Raw Milk Dilemma with Mark McAfee

    Title: The Raw Milk Dilemma: Mark McAfee on Food Safety, Pasteurisation & Raw Milk Guest: Mark McAfee - Founder & CEO, Raw Farm and Founder & Chairman, Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) Recorded: May 2026 For most of human history, milk wasn't a controversial product. It was simply milk—produced locally, consumed fresh, and deeply connected to the communities and farms that sustained it. Today, raw milk sits at the centre of one of the most polarising debates in modern food production. Supporters see it as a nutrient-dense, minimally processed food that reconnects consumers with local agriculture. Critics view it as an unnecessary public health risk that belongs in the past. My guest today is Mark McAfee, founder and CEO of Raw Farm, the largest producer of raw dairy products in the United States, and founder of the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI), a non-profit organisation dedicated to developing science-based standards, testing protocols and farmer training programs for the production of low-risk raw milk. Over the past two decades, Mark has become one of the world's leading voices on raw milk, food safety, milk genomics, the gut microbiome, agricultural regulation and consumer choice. His work has helped shape the modern conversation around raw dairy while challenging long-held assumptions about food production, risk and public health. In this interview we explore: • The history of milk, pasteurisation and industrial agriculture• Why raw milk became controversial• Food safety, pathogen testing and the "RAWMI Effect"• The science of raw milk and the gut microbiome• Government regulation and food freedom• The rise of consumer demand for minimally processed foods• The future of dairy farming and local food systems• How technology is changing the raw milk industry Whether you're curious about raw milk, interested in regenerative agriculture, concerned about food sovereignty, or simply want to understand one of the most contentious debates in modern nutrition, this episode offers a fascinating look at the intersection of science, farming, public health and personal freedom. Links and interview references: Raw Farm - https://rawfarmusa.com/ Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) - https://www.rawmilkinstitute.org/ Feds Shut Down Amish Farm for Selling Raw Milk The protective effect of farm milk consumption on childhood asthma and atopy: The GABRIELA study The Beneficial Effect of Farm Milk Consumption on Asthma, Allergies, and Infections: From Meta-Analysis of Evidence to Clinical Trial - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31770653/ Which aspects of the farming lifestyle explain the inverse association with childhood allergy? - https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)00651-8/fulltexthttps://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)00651-8/fulltext

    The Raw Milk Dilemma with Mark McAfee

  4. May 23

    Cultivate Farms with Sam Marwood

    Title: Cultivate Farms - Rebuilding the Pathway to Farm Ownership Guest: Sam Marwood Recorded: April 2026 What happens when the people who know how to farm can no longer afford to own farmland? Across Australia, the average age of farmers continues to rise while the price of agricultural land climbs ever higher. For many young Australians, entering farming has become financially impossible. At the same time, thousands of family farms face uncertain succession as retiring landholders struggle to find the next generation willing, or able, to continue their life's work. My guest today is Sam Marwood, founder of Cultivate Farms, an Australian organisation working to solve one of agriculture's most important structural challenges: how do we create new pathways into farm ownership when the traditional model is breaking down? Rather than simply encouraging people to "go back to the land," Sam and his team are building entirely new ownership models that connect retiring farmers, aspiring farmers, investors and regional communities. Through succession planning, shared ownership, community investment and innovative financing, Cultivate Farms is attempting to ensure productive farmland remains in the hands of committed stewards instead of becoming another financial asset. Our conversation reaches well beyond agriculture. We explore what it means to belong to a place, why ownership matters, the decline of rural communities, and whether modern societies have become dangerously disconnected from the systems that sustain them. Throughout the interview we also draw on the work of the great American agrarian thinker Wendell Berry, whose writing has profoundly shaped both Sam's work and my own thinking. Berry argued that "eating is an agricultural act," reminding us that however modern our lives become, we remain completely dependent upon healthy land, functioning farms and the people who care for them. This is a conversation about regenerative agriculture, farm succession, rural renewal, land stewardship, community ownership and one of the biggest questions facing Australia's agricultural future: who will own and care for the land in the generations to come? Whether you're a farmer, an investor, a policymaker, or simply someone who dreams of reconnecting with the land, this episode offers a hopeful vision for rebuilding one of the foundations of a healthy civilisation. Links and interview references: Cultivate Farms www.cultivatefarms.com Cultivate Farms Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cultivatefarms/ Cultivate Farms YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CultivateFarms NFSA Film Australia

    Cultivate Farms with Sam Marwood

  5. May 4

    The War Against the Sun with William B. Grant

    Title: The War Against the Sun Subtitle: Sunlight, Vitamin D and the Crisis of Evidence-Based Medicine Guest: William B. Grant Recorded: April 2026 Have we become afraid of one of the very things that made human civilisation possible? For decades, public health campaigns have urged us to avoid the sun. Slip. Slop. Slap. Sunscreen. Shade. Stay indoors. Yet at the same time, vitamin D deficiency has become increasingly common, while rates of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and certain cancers continue to rise. Has modern medicine struck the right balance between protecting us from risk and preserving one of nature's oldest sources of health? My guest today is William B. Grant, an American physicist turned epidemiologist whose research has challenged conventional thinking about sunlight, vitamin D and chronic disease for more than three decades. After beginning his career studying atmospheric physics, Grant became one of the world's most widely published researchers examining the relationship between ultraviolet radiation, vitamin D status and human health. In this conversation we explore the scientific evidence surrounding sunlight exposure, vitamin D, skin cancer, melanoma, cardiovascular disease and immune function. We discuss why observational evidence and randomised clinical trials often produce conflicting conclusions, how nutritional science differs fundamentally from pharmaceutical research, and why some medical ideas take decades to gain acceptance despite mounting evidence. We also examine a broader question that extends well beyond sunlight itself: how scientific consensus is formed, how public health recommendations evolve, and whether modern institutions have become excessively precautionary at the expense of long-term health outcomes. Whether you agree with William's conclusions or remain sceptical, this episode is ultimately an invitation to think more critically about evidence, incentives and one of the oldest relationships in human history: our relationship with the sun. Links and interview references: Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center - https://www.sunarc.org/ William B. Grant - Key Publications: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Grant+WB&cauthor_id=11920550 Dermatology's Disastrous War Against The Sun editorial by A Midwestern Doctor: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/dermatologys-disastrous-war-against-f81 U.S. Dermatological Drugs Market Report: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-dermatological-drugs-market-report https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/dermatological-drugs-market/united-states https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/us-dermatological-drugs-market-analysis Australia Dermatological Drugs Market: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/horizon/outlook/dermatological-drugs-market/australia

    The War Against the Sun with William B. Grant

  6. Mar 9

    The Burden of Culture with Gary Johns

    Title: The Burden of Culture Subtitle: Why Money Can't Fix Australia's Indigenous Divide Guest: Gary Johns Recorded: January 2026 In this podcast episode, Gary Johns, a former Labor politician and author of The Burden of Culture: How to Dismantle the Aboriginal Industry and Give Hope to Its Victims (published in 2022 by Connor Court Publishing), explores the challenges facing Aboriginal communities in Australia. Drawing from his book's central thesis, Johns critiques initiatives that aim to preserve Indigenous cultures but often perpetuate dependency and societal division. He argues that the dominant push for collective self-determination among Indigenous groups contrasts sharply with the individual freedoms available to non-Indigenous Australians, raising questions about whether such models truly serve personal circumstances or hinder growth. Johns highlights the financial realities, noting an estimated $5.3 billion spent annually on Indigenous programs amid patterns of corruption and mismanagement. He emphasizes the presumption that Aboriginal-run organizations inherently perform better, which he believes leads to a lack of accountability and systemic failures. Reflecting on societal apathy, Johns points to the 2023 Voice referendum as an example where the public rejected proposals that could create divisions, allowing ineffective policies to persist. He advocates for recognizing the achievements of Indigenous individuals who succeed outside collective frameworks, urging a re-evaluation of reconciliation efforts to prioritize empowerment over patronage. The Burden of Culture serves as the foundation for this interview, offering a provocative examination of how well-intentioned policies can trap generations in cycles of dependency. Johns draws on his political experience to propose dismantling the 'Aboriginal industry'—a network of programs and organizations that, in his view, prioritize institutional growth over genuine progress. The book challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about funding inefficiencies, cultural romanticism, and the need for policies that foster self-reliance and socioeconomic mobility. Listen for a detailed discussion on rethinking self-determination, the impact of government spending, and pathways to real change in Indigenous affairs. Links and interview references: The Burden of Culture by Gary Johns - https://quadrant.org.au/product/the-burden-of-culture/ Close the Gap Research (CtGR), is a not-for-profit organistion dedicated to making a positive impact on the lives of Aboriginal people facing adversity. https://closethegapresearch.org.au/ Ending the Civil War on Race and Culture https://democracyfirst.org.au/civilwar/ IPA Research Confirms $40 Billion Indigenous Spend Claim Correct https://ipa.org.au/read/ipa-research-confirms-40-billion-indigenous-spend-claim-correct Commonwealth employee among three people charged over alleged multi-million-dollar fraud scheme. https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2025-11-15/commonwealth-employee-among-three-people-charged-over-alleged-multi-million-dollar-fraud-scheme

    The Burden of Culture with Gary Johns

  7. Jan 17

    Roots Over Screens with Jake Wolki

    Title: Roots Over Screens Subtitle: Farm Life as The Cure for Urban Nature Deficit Guest: Jake Wolki Recorded: October 2025 "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds." These are the words written by Thomas Jefferson an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States. Jefferson throughout his life remained a strong advocate for agrarian life, viewing it as the foundation of a virtuous and more importantly independent society. He believed that farming fostered moral character, self-reliance as well as positive societal outcomes, such as stronger communities and reduced corruption compared to urban or manufacturing lifestyles. What I like about his philosophy is he saw farming not just as an economic activity, not just as a mechanical process but as a path to ethical living, contentment, better family dynamics and personal fulfilment. The body of literature exploring the benefits of raising children in farm or rural settings is growing. There’s a lot of young farmers, homesteaders sharing their experiences online transparently where you can see how different young kids are when given the opportunity to engage in real life, in real work, letting their human instincts express themselves to their full potential. A cornerstone of this discussion is Richard Louv's concept of "nature-deficit disorder," introduced in his 2005 book titled Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. In this book the author argues that this disconnection from nature is resulting in diminished sensory experiences leading to attention difficulties, increased obesity rates and emotional issues like anxiety or even depression. In contrast he argues that farm settings offer real and deeply immersive exposure to nature through daily interactions with animals, soil, weather and cycles of growth and harvest which subsequent research links to improved physical health, emotional resilience and different cognitive benefits like enhanced focus and creativity. Studies building on Louv’s work demonstrate that children with regular outdoor time in natural environments exhibit fewer ADHD symptoms, better mood regulation and stronger problem-solving skills positioning farm life and farm work as an antidote to urban “nature depravation”. Simply put farm-raised kids, by engaging in authentic tasks like tending livestock, planting crops, collecting eggs and so on, develop a deeper sense of connection to the real world, which supports their long-term well-being. In modern sustainable farming families, children are absolutely central, gaining socialization and ethical values from community involvement, which counters urban fragmentation and promotes a deep sense of belonging. To talk about all this and give us a perspective from the ground level as somebody who is in the thick of it, running a big farming operation and being quite successful at it I have invited somebody who I personally find quite inspirational. My guest today is Jake Wolki. Jake runs a beautiful regenerative farm near Albury on the New South Wales and Victorian border. Over the last few years Jake and his family have been on an incredible journey of transformation, learning and growth. A father of 3, soon to be 4 children, a dedicated husband, an innovator and all-round super interesting guy I think Jake the perfect person to tell us why raising kids in a real farm setting at least for some is far superior to mainstream urban model. Wolki Farm Store - https://wolkifarm.com.au/ Jacob Wolki’s X - https://x.com/JakeWolki Wolki Farm YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@wolkifarm Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America - https://kyl.neocities.org/books/[SOC%20BER]%20the%20unsettling%20of%20america.pdf Richard Louv - https://richardlouv.com/

    Roots Over Screens with Jake Wolki

  8. 12/30/2025

    After Virtue with Tom Angier

    Title: After Virtue - Why the West Risks Collapse Without Heeding MacIntyre's Moral Wake-Up Call Guest: Tom Angier Recorded: October 2025 A couple of years ago, an algorithm recommended a title to me. It arrived among another 30 books and sat untouched on my shelf for almost two years. When I finally opened it, I felt as though I had discovered a map of the modern world. The book was After Virtue, written by Scottish-American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre in 1981. His central argument is startlingly relevant today: Western society has lost the shared moral framework that once made meaningful disagreement possible. We still use words like justice, freedom, equality, good and evil, but increasingly disagree about what those words actually mean. MacIntyre called this condition "emotivism": the reduction of moral judgments to expressions of personal preference, where arguments about right and wrong become competing assertions of what we happen to feel. MacIntyre believed the Enlightenment's attempt to construct morality through abstract reason severed ethics from the traditions, communities and conception of human flourishing that had given moral life its foundations. His answer was a recovery of virtue ethics, drawing on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and a return to the practices, traditions and communities through which human beings learn how to live well. He famously warned that Western civilisation could be entering a new dark age, with the collapse of moral coherence producing a society governed less by genuine moral reasoning than by bureaucracy, managerial power and competing wills. My guest is Tom Angier, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. Tom specialises in Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian ethics and politics and is the author of Natural Law Theory. In this conversation, we explore why MacIntyre believed modern moral discourse had become fragmented, what we lost when Western culture abandoned a shared conception of human purpose, and why virtues such as courage, justice and honesty cannot simply be legislated into existence. We discuss practices, traditions and communities in forming human character, the narrative unity of a human life, MacIntyre's critique of individualism and bureaucracy, and his belief that human flourishing depends on communities that share meaningful goods and traditions. We then bring After Virtue into the present. What would MacIntyre make of today's polarisation? Why do moral arguments seem incapable of reaching common ground? What has happened to our communities and institutions? Can we still speak meaningfully about patriotism, human nature and the good life? And where might we find the communities capable of rebuilding what has been lost? More than forty years after its publication, After Virtue reads less like an academic work about the past and more like a warning about the present. Perhaps MacIntyre was right. Perhaps we need to recover the moral foundations necessary to sustain a civilisation. Links and interview references: After Virtue https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/after-virtue-9781780936253/ Whose Justice? Which Rationality? https://www.amazon.com.au/Whose-Justice-Rationality-Alasdair-MacIntyre/dp/0268019444 Human Nature, Human Goods, A Theory of Natural Perfectionism - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/human-nature-human%20goods/CA87A9BFF30D8516D271DF5D7C08CAD4 The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-natural-law-ethics/066446693DDE09647A73FA19FEF2142F The Cambridge Handbook to Natural Law and Human - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-natural-law-and-human-rights/B1E1CEC2C502A8CA72DBB9F33FE29D90

    After Virtue with Tom Angier
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About

The New Orchard is a place where we explore and investigate pragmatic ideas that help us live informed, healthy, connected and consequently more meaningful and fulfilled lives. Our guests are uniquely insightful people who seek genuine solutions and alternatives in an ever-expanding landscape of globalised complexity and who wish to inspire others to action. If you have any questions or guest recommendations please contact us at: theneworchard@proton.me

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick McGregor
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    34
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Patrick McGregor
  • Show Website
    The New Orchard