The RegenNarration Podcast Anthony James

Lamine Sonko is an acclaimed composer, artistic director, performer and multi-instrumentalist continuing his family line of Guéwels. That’s a role inherited by certain members of traditional communities in Senegal who are tasked with communicating ancient storytelling and ‘songlines’ through dance, rhythms and song. And earlier this year, that converged with his role in Melbourne-based afro-beat band, the Afrobiotics, when he was joined by his five bandmates back in Senegal on a landmark tour. And one of those five blokes is an old mate I played in a rock band with in the ‘90s. Simon Edwards is an incredible guitarist, teacher, and soulful traveller. I’ve been wanting to speak with these guys for years, and when they happened to return from the tour while I was in Melbourne, it finally happened.

Connected to the band's journey, in 2018 Lamine embarked on a search for a deeper understanding of how ancient musical traditions are embodied by the Guéwel elders of Dakar, Senegal. The project, called 13:12, has culminated so far in a film, guided by Lamine’s mother, and a live theatre production that previewed at The National Theatre Sorano in Dakar on this tour. It was said to be ‘an unforgettable blend of joy, emotion, and ancestral presence’. And when the band converged on Dakar at the same time, there was profound revelation, connection and healing for visitors and locals alike.

The word Guewel means 'to bring people together in a circle', and that’s what we did a few weeks ago at Simon’s place. In the still of a late evening, a certain stillness enveloped this conversation too, through to a very special live rendition at the end.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded 14 March 2024. Dedicated to Lamine's mother & Guewel elder, Oumy Sene.

Title slide: Lamine & Simon on stage with the Afrobiotics.

See more photos on the website, and for more behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Disco Dakar, by the Afrobiotics.

Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).

Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

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Welcome to the bicentennial episode. And who better to mark the occasion than this legend of regenerative agriculture, David Marsh. To visit Allendale Farm is like stepping into an incredible rewilding of country – as a livestock farm! David’s been here for nearly 60 years, the first half of which he ran industrialised cropping and livestock farming, which continued to devastate the land, his bank account, his family’s health, and increasingly, his conscience. The second half, he ditched the cropping and started to run livestock regeneratively, letting the land do more of what it wanted to do. Now he sees birdlife akin to RAMSAR listed wetlands, 1500 new trees that seeded themselves, and myriad other extraordinary changes. And powering this enormous legacy, a family tragedy that continues to shape their lives in profound ways.

A long-held hope, my family visited David and his wife Mary near Boorowa in NSW a few weeks ago. I only half-jokingly wanted to call this episode ‘the do-nothing farmer’ – and even the ‘do-nothing and pay-nothing farmer’ - with reference to the deft, laid-back, ‘hands off’ approach David applies to the land, its self-organising regeneration so evident. But he thought that sounded a bit less than glorious, and insisted it’s more complex than that. I’ll let David explain, in a treasured exchange, in suitably golden twilight.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded at Allendale Farm on 10 March 2024.

Title slide: David & AJ ahead of this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).


Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

Thanks for your support!

This podcast has been increasingly hearing about the extraordinary outcomes that can stem from deliberative democratic processes. I still hear from listeners about past episodes with people like Jeff Goebel and Amanda Cahill.

So this week, we head to the nation’s capital to speak with someone I’ve been looking forward to meeting for years. Professor Nicole Curato is with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She’s also a prominent journalist, particularly in her former home country of the Philippines. She’s written op-eds for the New York Times, The Guardian & Al Jazeera. And she regularly collaborates with CNN Philippines, occasionally serving as a television presenter, and has hosted documentaries and produced podcasts.

Nicole explores how democratic innovations unfold in the aftermath of tragedies, including disasters, armed conflict, and urban crime. To that we might add increasing stresses like climate change, housing and political polarisation. Nicole is the author of Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action. Which might just as well have been sub-titled, from spectacular tragedy to spectacular deliberative action, such is the nature of some of the stories she has to share - in terms of their outcomes in the world, and their life-changing effects on those involved. And in a context right now where democracy itself is on the line, and with it the possibility of coming together to produce more of the extraordinary outcomes we know we can, Nicole was the person I needed to speak with.

I suggested to Nicole that we meet in her favourite part of Canberra. She took us to Tilley’s. And what a place. No surprises then, that we wind up talking about how all this relates to social media, karaoke and Taylor Swift. 

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded in Canberra on 7 March 2024.

Title slide: Nicole Curato at Tilley’s, just before this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).

To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

Thanks for your support!

Sam Vincent grew up on the farm where Charles Massy famously heard the call of the reed warbler for the first time in 150 years or so. But, like most millennials in his position, he wasn’t going to stay there. Until his old man now famously put his hand in a woodchipper. That’s when Sam left his inner-city life as a writer to help out, and unexpectedly found himself thinking differently about the farm, and his old man. Sam now runs Gollion Farm, with a suite of thriving enterprises, profound new connections with First Nations, and ongoing regeneration of country. And when he wrote a book about it all, called ‘My Father and Other Animals: How I took on the family farm’, it won the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

The book is billed as a ‘memoir about belonging, humility and regeneration – of land, family and culture’. Charles Massy calls it a delightful ‘must-read’, Anna Krien calls it ‘one of the most hopeful stories today’, and Billy Griffiths calls it a ‘rollicking comic memoir’.

A few weeks ago, we visited Sam at the family farm, just outside Canberra in the Yass Valley of NSW to chat about it.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded on 4 March 2024.

Title slide: Sam Vincent, under the crab apple tree (pic: Olivia Cheng).

See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).


Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

Thanks for your support!

Late last year, I arrived at a quandary. I’d been hearing about how inaccessible land ownership is for younger folk, and how investment capital is still relatively slow to come on board the incredible broad scale potential of regenerative agriculture (notwithstanding often great intent). And I’d been hearing how even long-term legends in regen ag are still expected to be saddled with enormous debt and rates of return (to say nothing of squeezed prices), while they also regenerate the majority of the national and global estate on our behalf. Clearly all untenable. So I began to wonder out loud, what if there’s something fundamentally misplaced with the current approach to attracting investment in regeneration?

When thinking this aloud, I got some nodding heads and an introduction to Jim Phillipson, former pro-cycling champ, businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Rendere Trust and Biodiversity Legacy. Join us as at Jim’s place as we delve into the transformative concept of stewardship over traditional land ownership. Jim's been helping people transition land and capital into stewardship models of ownership for a while now, having started with his own. And yep, he was advised this would never work. Here he shares his story and insights on how reshaping land titles to reflect stewardship can align investments with regenerative agriculture, potentially tapping all sorts of potential quickly, and how a related ethos is manifesting across media, politics, and reconciliation with First Nations.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded at Jim’s place, on regenerating land in Gippsland, Victoria (as a dust storm blew up from surrounding vegetable farms), 3 March 2024.

Title slide: Jim & Heather Phillipson with AJ.

See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).


Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

Thanks for your support!

Zach Bush MD has become an internationally recognised educator on the microbiome, as it relates to human health, soil health, food systems, water systems, and regenerative living as a whole. The touchstone insight of Zach’s initial transformation was that we don’t need to solve each of our many increasingly prevalent diseases – we need to regenerate the source of our health and vitality. And he’s been startled by our regenerative capacity since embarking on a film project called Farmer’s Footprint back in 2018. It became a global phenomenon, prompting the creation of Farmer’s Footprint USA, Australia, UK, South Africa and New Zealand, so far, alongside a broader project called Project Biome.

Amongst all this, the transformations have continued for Zach. So this time, ahead of the Farmer’s Footprint Festival in NSW, I hoped to get to know more of the person behind the star. The feeling behind the public accolades and judgements. Along with what this doctor does when he tends intrinsic health, why farmers continue to be at the heart of his life calling, Zach’s intentions to run for President, his vision of a regenerative economy, his response to a charge of talking psychobabble, new films and courses, all culminating in the spiritual roots of it all, and a world first - Zach’s first live musical performance on a podcast.

Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)

Recorded in the northern rivers of NSW on 10 November 2023.

In case you're noting the bird sounds in my intro and outro, they were recorded on the Mornington Peninsula back in Victoria (visiting my brother's family).

Title slide: AJ and Zach on stage at the Farmer’s Footprint Australia Festival (pic: Olivia Katz).

To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.

Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.

The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).

Find more:
Nutrisoil’s WormFest on this week, 21-22 March.


Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.

Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.

Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.

Thanks for your support!