Episode #034 - Undermined: Award-winning documentary

With young Aboriginal leader from the Kimberley, Albert Wiggan

Listeners last year might remember our series produced on location in the spectacular Kimberley region of Western Australia. This year, the Kimberley is coming to us – through an award-winning documentary film that premiered nationwide in February. It’s called Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley.

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Australia’s vast and unspoiled Kimberley region is under threat, with the ‘old industrial’ model of mining, pastoralism and irrigated agriculture driving an unprecedented land grab. The film investigates the politics of an area now forebodingly branded ‘the future economic powerhouse of Australia’, including what this means for the country’s First People and their unique cultural landscapes.

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The world premiere sold out all screenings at the Melbourne International Film Festival in late 2018, and it’s been cleaning up awards at film festivals around the country since.

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Young Aboriginal leader Albert Wiggan is a key protagonist and co-producer of the film. He’s also an Indigenous Ranger, sits on a number of boards including the Kimberley Land Council, and is a world class musician who has toured with the likes of John Butler. In this watershed moment, he sees opportunity for a ‘meaningful conversation’ about a future that is more fitting for the Kimberley, and beyond.

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Anthony caught up with Albert just after he’d introduced the West Australian premiere to a full house in Perth.

 

Get more:

On the film, Albert, screenings & what to do 
 

 

Episode #034 Extra 

That Common Ground: Q&A after the film with Albert Wiggan & Narelda Jacobs

Feel the energy in the room with this special extra, as we hear Albert in a Q&A session after the West Australian premiere screening of ‘Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley’. The session was hosted by Narelda Jacobs, local Noongar woman and the first Aboriginal female newsreader to anchor a leading commercial station’s news service in Australia.

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Albert talks further here about what the Kimberley means to him, how people can get involved in creating the dialogue he’s inviting, and how he feels about one of the most profoundly moving parts of the film. We hear from a number of elders featured in the film too, who’d also made their way to Perth to be in the audience for the premiere.

 

Get more:

For more, see the links & listen to the main episode #034 - Undermined: Award-winning documentary from the Kimberley, with young Aboriginal leader Albert Wiggan.

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Pic credit: Bodhan Warchomij.

 

Episode #033 - Regenerating Society Soundtrack 2018

A selection of highlights & music as chosen by our wonderful guests this year

We’re signing off for the year with this podcast of highlights and music as chosen by our wonderful array of guests throughout 2018. It’s the year’s Regenerating Society Soundtrack! With sincere thanks for tuning in, continuing to share and rate the podcast, and of course for donating and supporting its production. It couldn’t happen without you.

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Thanks also for getting in touch throughout the year to tell us how much you’ve valued the podcast, and what you’d like to hear in future. It’s been great to see our listener numbers spike this year, and even more fulfilling to hear how the stories are landing and what the podcast means to you. Thank you very much!

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You’ll see the track list for our 2018 Soundtrack wherever you listen to your podcasts. Have a wonderful festive season and we hope to join you again for a regenerative new year!

 

Episode #032 - An Underground Insurgency

Regenerative Agriculture & Human Transformation, with Charles Massy AO

Charles Massy has become an extraordinary hub of knowledge, wisdom and stories of regeneration. Specifically, in regenerative agriculture, and alongside that, the art of human transformation. His latest book 'Call of the Reed Warbler’ continues to make an enormous impact in Australia, and Charles has just embarked on an overseas tour behind the release of an updated international edition. Paul Hawken appears on the inside sleeve, saying this about the book:

 

“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence.” 

 

Charles writes and talks about the growing repertory of stories of what are in some cases extraordinary tales of regeneration – including his own. He also takes a look behind that regeneration, at how change happens not just in the land, but in the landscape of our minds. 

 

Charles and Anthony pulled up a pew at the farm, Severn Park, a few weeks ago, for this conversation. 

 

Get more:

Tune into our Special Extra with Charles, #032 Extra: Cultivating Regeneration from Industrial Wastelands

For more info on Charles & Call of the Reed Warbler, see the original Australian edition & updated Chelsea Green international edition

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Episode #032 Extra 

Cultivating Regeneration from Industrial Wastelands, with Charles Massy AO

In this special extra, Charles Massy lends a little more context to his work, including an exploration of the roots of the industrial agriculture system and its effects on people, land and the rest of the living world. Within that, the conversation pays particular attention to some of the astounding new developments around the notorious glyphosate-based herbicide RoundUp. 

 

It goes on to try to make more sense of why humankind has ended up where we are today, and of course how we can harness this understanding towards most effectively changing this dangerous trajectory. 

 

Get more:

For more, see the links & listen to the main episode #032 - An Underground Insurgency, with Charles Massy.

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Episode #031 - Reimagining Society

A conversation with legendary social researcher, Hugh Mackay

Hugh Mackay is Australia’s preeminent social researcher, and a prolific bestselling author. He has spent sixty years speaking with people in their homes and workplaces, reflecting back to us key insights about who we are – and why we are the way we are. So it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about what we’re like, and by extension how we might best get ourselves through this time of significant transition. 

 

Hugh’s latest book is Australia Reimagined. And while focused on this country, it very much deals with global patterns and concerns. He takes the growing global epidemic of anxiety and depression as the touchstone of what we’re doing to each other, and the rest of the living world. And in turn, the touchstone of what we need to and can change. 

 

The publisher’s blurb on the book states that our ‘unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or harmonious society. Individualism is rampant. Income inequality is growing. Public education is under-resourced. The gender revolution is stalling. We no longer trust our major institutions or our political leaders. We are more socially fragmented, more anxious, more depressed, more overweight, more medicated, deeper in debt and increasingly addicted - whether to our digital devices, drugs, pornography or 'stuff'.’

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But there is another story to tell, one that is responding to that trajectory, and that is powering Hugh’s optimism. It all starts in our streets, he says, and from there to the systems we live by, the stories we’re currently buying, and the ones we can create for ourselves. Hugh spoke with Anthony at his home in Canberra a few weeks ago.

 

Get more:

Australia Reimagined: Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society

 

Episode #030 - 2040 Vision: On climate change, fear & loathing

A conversation with Damon Gameau, award-winning maker of That Sugar Film

Paul Hawken describes Damon Gameau as an ‘extraordinary artist, visionary, storyteller, and craftsman of the future.’ Damon is the creator of That Sugar Film - the record-breaking, award-winning documentary that, through its extraordinary success, became That Sugar Movement. Damon’s now turned his attention to climate change, with his next film 2040 coming out next year. He met up with Anthony a few weeks ago just after the film had been completed.

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2040 is described as an aspirational film about the possibility to make changes that will shift the course for future generations. It is a positive vision for the future, structured as an open letter to his young daughter, and again it is gearing up to be so much more than just a film.

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As with ‘Sugar’, this was a very personal journey - as someone who himself was shutting down on news about climate change. And also like ‘Sugar’, Damon found the appetite for this film was enormous. The money was raised for 2040 in just days. And millions more was raised for the outreach program, in mere minutes.

 

Damon talks with Anthony about the film, how he’s found story-telling can reach people with these sorts of issues, and what that means for the possibility of positive change. He also talks about how his own life has changed, and what he’s learned in the process of creating these documentaries, and subsequently trying to keep up with the response.

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Tellingly, in creating what was nominally to be a film about climate change, he found that emissions reductions are ‘just the bonus, the icing on the cake’. Through years of research and consultation with some of the leading figures and communities grappling with these issues, he found a much richer, promising and universal focus. 

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Get more:
2040 the film
That Sugar Film & Movement 
The Mai Wiru Sugar Challenge Foundation

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Episode #029 - Launching the Wellbeing Economy Alliance

A Conversation with Research Director Dr Katherine Trebeck 

Last month saw the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that triggered the GFC. It was a fitting occasion to launch a new global alliance on the streets of New York City - the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, poetically abbreviated to WEAll. 

 

The Alliance has come about through a collaboration of some of the most influential and inspiring figures in this space. One of them is Dr Katherine Trebeck, the Alliance’s Research Director. She’s also an author, with her new book out next year, ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown-up economy’. 

 

WEAll is set up to help bring about the transformation of the economic system, society and its institutions, so that we prioritise shared wellbeing on a healthy planet. How will it do that? How did it come about? Who’s involved so far, and how do more of us join in?

 

Katherine talks with Anthony about all this, along with some key developments like the new Wellbeing Economy Governments coalition being launched at the OECD’s Wellbeing Forum next month, and some of her instructive personal journey into the very heart of how we organise ourselves. 

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Get more:

Wellbeing Economy Alliance 

Katherine's new book, The Economics of Arrival

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Episode #028 - Transforming Food, Finance & Society

A Conversation with Food Connect's Robert Pekin & Emma-Kate Rose 

Today we feature an Australian first, in an area that is developing fast globally, and potentially helping to redefine how money, business and the economy work. It’s called equity crowdfunding. It’s based on the crowdfunding model most of us are probably familiar with, though here it’s used to raise investment capital. The federal legislation for this is new in Australia, and Food Connect seeks to become the first social enterprise in this country – or as they would say, ‘systems enterprise’ - to successfully use the tool.

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Food Connect is no ordinary enterprise. It’s really a phenomenon in Brisbane, that has germinated other developments in its mould all over the country. It began with the dramatic transformation of farmer Robert Pekin, and a model connecting farmer to eater more directly, fairly, and healthily, called Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA).

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The business has since developed, with the help of his now wife Emma-Kate Rose, into so much more. And most pointedly, in their sights now, are the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now they aim to raise $2-4 million, to enable a transformative vision, beginning with the purchase of the premises they’ve been operating out of for a little over a decade.

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This is the remarkable story of a dairy farmer gone broke and ‘mad’, as he puts it in all sincerity. And a chance meeting with a woman who ended up selling her house to invest in the enterprise, such was her belief in it, while dedicating her life to making it work.

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So how does Food Connect and equity crowdfunding work? What would investing in Food Connect look like with this crowdfund model? And how does it change the systems and stories we live by, from ‘back-end’ food ‘rescue’ operations, to impact investing, to our broader economy and culture?

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Join Rob and Emma-Kate as they chat with Anthony upstairs at the Food Connect warehouse.

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Get more:

Food Connect Shed equity crowdfunder, open till 10 November 2018 

Food Connect Foundation, including a series of events happening throughout the crowdfund

The bio’s of Emma-Kate and Robert 

Food Connect enterprise

 

Episode #027 - Regenerating the Never Never

A conversation with holistic management pioneer Moira Lanzarin 

This unique region of Australia is famous for its ancient land and culture, luminous hot springs, and the best-selling book by Jeannie Gunn We of the Never Never. It’s also developing renown for being an engine room for regenerating land, food and related systems. 

 

Moira Lanzarin is a business woman, an artist, a mother, and a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. She’s been central to the introduction of Holistic Management in the Northern Territory of Australia, as Director of the family station at Coodardie. And her awards tell the tale. They include the Centenary Medal for Services to Regional Australia, NT Young Cattleman award (and no, she doesn’t flinch at being recognised as a Cattleman), NT Rural Woman of the Year Runner Up, and NT Young Australian of the Year. 

 

She has extensive board experience at a local, Territory and national level within industry and Government. From 2012 to 2016 she served as Director of Soils for Life - an Outcomes Australian Project under the Chairmanship of past Governor General, Michael Jefferies. 

Moira is a clear leader, not just in pastoralism, but in the life of this country. Her insights are as relevant to city-dwellers, as they are to those living outside them. On how healthy living as a family can be the backbone of regenerating country, why connection with country is so important, how the current nation-wide water contamination crisis should amplify concern about fracking proposals, and what else is most needed for us to create a regenerative society - particularly in the context of the pace, pressure and mindset of modern life. 

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Join Moira, and some of the other Coodardie locals, as she takes time out with Anthony on the powerful country she calls home. 

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Get more:

Coodardie Station

The disastrous water issue Moira mentions, a little north of Coodardie in Katherine, is now the subject of a town-wide class action with possible repercussions around the country

 

Episode #026 - Critical Parametres for the New Economy

Keynotes by Professor Ian Lowe & Dr Mary Graham 

The 2nd National New Economy conference in Australia began with a couple of extremely witty and profound keynote addresses. Together, Professor Ian Lowe and Aboriginal elder Dr Mary Graham craft a deft balance of gravity and levity, authority and guidance, and everyday language with a breadth of insight that genuinely captivates.

 

Ian is an Order of Australia medal winner, former President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and author of over 20 books. He talks of current trajectories and patterns, offering a broad take on what’s required and what has worked for social movements most effectively in the past.

 

Mary is a highly respected Aboriginal elder, Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, and a consultant in Aboriginal community planning and development. She offers a sweeping perspective on ‘First Nations Economics’ and its relevance to our society today. And tellingly, both speakers converge on the moral aspect of achieving the new economy transition.

 

So what are the most important elements – the critical parametres - of the new economy? And how do we go about harnessing them towards making that new economy our reality?

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Get more:

Professor Ian Lowe

Dr Mary Graham

New Economy Network Australia (NENA) (including links to the upcoming conference in Melbourne, October 2018, and to the international movement)

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Episode #025 - The New Megafauna

The key to our future prosperity? With Chris Henggeler from Kachana Station

Can the new mega-fauna regenerate land and water systems, take away the need for systematic fire regimes and culling programs, and ultimately be the key to our future prosperity?

 

Kachana is a remote station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, accessible only by plane or foot. Chris Henggeler and his family have run it for over a generation now. From the early days sleeping in the back of a ute, they set about living a vision for a healthy family life on the land, while regenerating the grasses, forests and wetlands that had largely turned to dust.

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A generation later, Chris is a leading figure in the development of holistic grazing in Australia. He runs cattle as ‘gardeners’, as a non-fossil fuel based means of regenerating land. Chris thinks of these animals as the new mega-fauna, the large herbivores we need to restore to the land – along with others too readily designated as ‘pests’ and culled, like the wild donkeys he’s integrated into his management plans.

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George Monbiot has contested these methods in a high profile ‘debate’ with Allan Savory. But the successes at Kachana are marked - the creek that runs year-round now provides the homestead with its water, the forest now teems with life, and springs and birdlife return to the land.

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Join Chris as he takes Anthony for a look around one of the most spectacular places in the world, that could also be one of the most important to our future prospects as a civilisation.

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This is the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts #021 and #022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.

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Get more:
Kachana Station 
Wild Donkey project

 

Episode #025 Extra - Creating the Kachana Vision

With Jacqueline Henggeler at Kachana Station

The story of Kachana Station and its success is steeped in a family’s adventure. Jacqueline Henggeler is the Swiss paediatric nurse who joined Chris in the remote East Kimberley with their 3 children, to follow a vision for living together as a family on the land.

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It has been rich, and challenging. From sleeping in the back of a ute in the early days, to home schooling, to facing down the deep trials of life, she has ultimately revelled in a path less travelled.

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Jacqui’s insights on the broader project that Chris spearheaded, of regenerating the land, present a fascinating and moving outsider’s view of sorts. Including into how they’ve made it work as a family, financially and socially, how she has sustained a life many couldn’t, and ultimately how her work with the local indigenous folk has taught her the most important thing in life.

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This is a special extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts #021 and #022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.

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Get more:

Kachana Station 

 

Episode #025 Extra 2 - The Kachana Back-Story

With Chris Henggeler at the homestead 

Due to the popularity of podcast #025, and the fact that we hated editing this part out of the main podcast to begin with, here’s Chris talking with Anthony back at the homestead about the back-story to Kachana. 

 

They explore Chris’s formative beginnings in Rhodesia, how the family came to acquire this disused part of the famed El Questro, and the personal changes that were needed for the great successes at Kachana to be realised.

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And just in case the wind played too much havoc with our recording in the field, Chris and Anthony delve a little further here into some of the key issues from the main podcast - the importance of having people on country, along with of course the new megafauna, how holistic grazing works with cattle (and donkeys) as today’s diprotodons, the value of the AWC and its conservation model, and what needs to change to help other pastoralists regenerate the land.

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This is a special extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts #021 and #022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.

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Get more:

Kachana Station 

Australian Wildlife Conservancy

 

Episode #024 - The Wilderness Within

Professor Frank Fisher in conversation with broadcaster Robyn Williams

The late Professor Frank Fisher was a pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. He died 6 years ago today. To celebrate his life and insight, we’ve delved into the archives and found this wonderful conversation Frank had with a man who has been described as a legend of science broadcasting, Robyn Williams. 

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This is no mild walk down memory lane. Their conversation, recorded in 2002, has almost uncanny relevance to so much of what’s happening in the world today. From the fraught terrain of energy transition and human perception, to the enticing prospect of ticketless public transport. And very personal questions of privacy in the context of integrated digital health records, and the broader phenomena of so-called ‘smart’ technologies.

 

During an adult life shaped largely by his experiences with chronic illness, Frank longed for the sort of digital health record being introduced in Australia and elsewhere, but had a very distinct vision in general for the use of ‘smart technologies’. In essence, he preferred the ‘smarts’ be located in our minds, more than our machines. He shares various insights here, on how to do just that – regenerating, as he puts it, the wilderness within.

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Get more:

Podcast #005 – Thinking & Living in Systems, in conversation with Professor Frank Fisher 

Robyn Williams' ABC Radio National profile.

 

Episode #023 - Renewable Energy & Beyond

How to transition to a renewable society? Featuring Heinberg, Floyd & Bunting

The Economist reports that despite increasing public concern, and renewable power now costing less than coal in some places, rising energy demand means our use of fossil fuels is heading in the wrong direction. While climate calamities, once considered freakish, are now commonplace. All this emphasises the value and importance of this panel conversation that helped launch The Rescope Project last year. 

 

Globally renowned energy expert, Richard Heinberg, joined us online from the USA, with one of Australia’s most incisive minds in energy systems and societal futures, Josh Floyd, energy and psychology researcher Dr Andrea Bunting, our host Anthony James, and another full house of 200 people, to explore why the transition to renewable energy is essential, though not enough in itself to create a sustainable, fair & flourishing society. And what we need to do, individually and collectively, to create such a society.

                                                                                             

Energy is a rapidly changing space, technologically, financially and in some ways politically, but the equally vital broader terrain of recalibrating society, our cultural norms, and how we think about and understand energy remains as important as ever. How much energy do we need? What happens to sectors like transport, agriculture and manufacturing? And what’s the best and most plausible proposal we’ve got for actually making the transition?

 

This event was the 3rd and final forum of our Regenerating Society Series, which launched The Rescope Project in 2017. Recorded at the National Sustainable Living Festival in the heart of Melbourne. And introduced by Professor Brendan Gleeson, Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, valued partner in the Regenerating Society Series. 

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Get more:

Josh Floyd’s writing, including a transcript of his 5 minute initial presentation in this forum 

Our Renewable Future, by Richard Heinberg & David Fridley (freely available online) 

Post-Carbon Institute 

 

Episode #022 - After James Price Point

History Repeating or Watershed? With Environs Kimberley Director, Martin Pritchard

Martin and his team were central to the successful campaign to prevent what could have been the largest LNG plant in the world, at James Price Point (Walmadan) just north of Broome. It was a celebrated outcome around the country, but in many ways was just the tip of the iceberg of ‘old industry’ plans for the region.

 

With 40,000+ fracking wells slated for the area, is the future to be an endless succession of ‘James Price Points’? Or are we headed for a watershed moment that sees a shift to a new, non-extractive, regenerative economy?

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Martin sees the possibilities for the latter in numerous nascent industries, burgeoning Aboriginal enterprise, and a different way of looking at life, country and economy that the Kimberley and its inhabitants inspire. This unique region has massive swathes of country that haven’t experienced a single extinction since colonisation. In so many ways, what happens next here really matters.

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So what’s the vision for the future? What’s working now? How are the various powerful – at times opposing - interests engaged? And what is needed to develop the new economy for this unique region and beyond?

 

Get more on Martin & Environs Kimberley. 

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Episode #021 - Waking Up The Snake

A New Economy, Country & Consciousness, with Indigenous leader Dr Anne Poelina

This week we present a very special podcast celebrating NAIDOC Week 2018. 

 

Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Lower Fitzroy River, in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. And if anywhere epitomizes the critical time we’re in, it’s in the spectacular cultural and natural landscapes of her homeland.

 

Almost incredibly, there are 40,000+ fracking wells slated for this area, along with the damming of the Fitzroy River, and more ‘old-model’ industrial agriculture. Yet the new economy is also in tow here, and this is where Anne is currently focusing her extraordinary breadth of cross-cultural knowledge and experience. 

 

Anne is an international award winner, Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, Councillor at the Australian Conservation Foundation, a qualified nurse, traditional midwife, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development.

 

Anthony James caught up with her at her home in Broome recently, to talk about what shape the new economy might take in the Kimberley and beyond, how we can make it happen, and the enormous opportunity in treaty, recognition and connection with Australia’s First Nations.

 

Get more on Anne, NAIDOC Week & its celebration of Indigenous women this year, the New Economy Network Australia, and the film clip for the Song for the Mardoowarra. 

 

 

Episode #020 - Regenerating Democracy

An interactive panel with Dr John Hewson, Mary Crooks AO & Chloe Aldenhoven

An audience of over 200 people joined former federal opposition leader Dr John Hewson, Executive Director of the Victorian Women’s Trust Mary Crooks, and Chloe Aldenhoven, Co-convenor of the Lock The Gate Alliance - which Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews recently called "the greatest political coalition we have seen in public policy for a very long time."

 

The panel explores some of the ideas and spectacular success stories of communities coming together to regenerate our democracy, across generations, gender and geography. And yet how the potential still seems barely realised. So in the context of dramatically decaying trust in politics, and with multiple transitions to navigate, how do we turn this into a thriving democracy for the 21st century?

 

Get more on our guests, their organisations & this event. 

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Episode #019 - A Global Movement Sweeping the Plains

A conversation with Evan Pensini, regenerative pastoralist from the Pilbara

Evan Pensini is a pastoralist from the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, on Cheela Plains Station. He and his wife Robin are pulling off some remarkable regeneration of country there, significantly defying official expectations of just how far and fast this land could recover its health and productivity. 

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So how does the system work, particularly in Australia where hooved animals weren't part of its pre-colonial history? Why don't more pastoralists adopt these methods? What's the value of carbon farming? And is it really inevitable that mining will wipe out everything being achieved here?

 

Get more on Cheela Plains Station.​

 

And listen to podcast #016, Grassroots Revolution, with Charles Massy and David and Frances from Wooleen Station.

 

Episode #018 - Protecting Ningaloo

A conversation with marine scientist, mother & unlikely campaigner, Denise Fitch

Denise Fitch is a nurse, mum, marine scientist & unlikely leader of the Protect Ningaloo campaign – possibly the next big flashpoint in Australia, as we continue to grapple with transitioning from the dominant extractive, fossil fuel driven model of development, to the next ‘regenerative’ one. 

 

Denise is Chair of the Cape Conservation Group – the local group at the heart of the Protect Ningaloo campaign. She sat under a tree by Exmouth Gulf with host Anthony James to talk about the meaning of place, the latest with the Protect Ningaloo campaign, the great opportunity in it, and what it means to the movement for change more broadly.

 

Get more:

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Get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo.

 

And be sure to listen to podcast #017 with Tim Winton.

 

Episode #017 - Putting It All On The Line

A conversation with Tim Winton, National Living Treasure, writer & reluctant activist

This special podcast features one of Australia’s great writers, National Living Treasure, and reluctant activist, Tim Winton, direct from the World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.

 

Tim has again donated his prize money from a recent literature award to help launch a campaign to protect this area, called Protect Ningaloo. He has also been touring the country extensively with the publication of his brilliant new novel, The Shepherd’s Hut.

 

Along the way, he’s been talking a lot about manhood and masculinity, and the problem with our narrow – even toxic - view of it. This wide-ranging conversation with host Anthony James explores why that matters, along with fiction and the arts generally, and what it's all got to do with Ningaloo and the state of the world more broadly.

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Get more on The Shepherd's Hut and Simon Baker's film adaptation of another of Tim's award-winning novels Breath (which premiered in Sydney the night before this conversation), and get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo. 

 

Episode #016 - Grassroots Revolution

Radical experiments regenerating land & life - a rare panel event

Over 250 people filled The Dome at the recent National Sustainable Living Festival for this feature forum hosted by Anthony James, with special guests Frances Jones & David Pollock from Wooleen Station, and regenerative farmer Charles Massy AO.

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Frances Jones and David Pollock’s radical project to remove income-earning livestock from their historic property, in remote Western Australia, shocked their entire district, and has gone on to produce remarkable results.

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Charles Massy's ground-breaking new book features a range of similar experiments. It is a comprehensive account of how a grassroots revolution can save the planet, help turn climate change around, and build healthy people and healthy communities.

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Get more on our Past Events page, and at Wooleen Station & Charles Massy's Call of the Reed Warbler (and 

(and tune into podcast #009 for an in-depth conversation with Frances Jones)

 

Episode #015 - Paul Hawken keynote on Project Drawdown

At the 2018 National Sustainable Living Festival in Australia

Following on from our 2-part series in conversation with Paul Hawken, here is his sold out keynote address and Q&A from the recent National Sustainable Living Festival.

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It's hard to overstate the significance of Project Drawdown. There hasn't previously been anything like it. So this keynote packed a real punch.

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It builds on a scathing critique of science communication, 'big agriculture', and the limitations of the Al Gore and Elon Musk phenomena, to present a comprehensive, holistic and uplifting outline of the 'top 100 solutions to reverse global warming' that feature in his new best-seller 'Drawdown'.

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Get more at Project Drawdown and on Paul's website.

 

And join in The Drawdown EcoChallenge - individuals and teams from around the world taking part in simple daily activities to reduce their carbon footprints and delve into the world’s most substantive solutions to global warming, from 4-25 April 2018. 

 

 

Ep's #013 & #014 - A special 2-part podcast with Paul Hawken

An in-depth conversation on his life, the growing movement & Drawdown

To kick off 2018, we have a special 2-part podcast with Paul Hawken. Paul continues to influence heads of state, CEOs, activists & people from all walks right around the world. He was in Australia for a few weeks in February touring new best-seller 'Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming' & was kind enough to spend some time with us.

 

This resulted in a special opportunity to explore his highly influential life & thinking (Part 1) and then engage in a broad sweeping exchange on Drawdown (Part 2). We'll also podcast his keynote from the National Sustainable Living Festival. And a special extra.

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So stay tuned!

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Get more at Project Drawdown & on Paul's website.

 

 

Episode #012 - Regenerating Society Soundtrack 2017

The music chosen by our guests on Rescope Radio this year

Here's a little something to spur your mood for change through the festive season - a soulful and eclectic mix of music chosen by our brilliant guests this year. We've put the lot together for our 12th and final podcast for 2017. You could think of it as our Regenerating Society Soundtrack!

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With thanks for tuning in this year, and for helping The Rescope Project get up and running. Have a wonderful festive season and we look forward to joining you in many more inspiring transitions in 2018.

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Episode #010 - Rescoping Progress & the Good Life

A conversation with Anthony James & Keith Badger, hosted by Cynthia Lim

We’ve had a few people ask to hear more about us, so today we’re turning the tables. This time, we’re the guests - in conversation with radio show host, regenerative farmer & good food advocate, Cynthia Lim.

 

Cynthia and her partner Nick have left the ‘rat race’ and set up a regenerative farm & stay operation together in Seymour - about 100 kilometres north of Melbourne. When Cynthia got wind we were coming through her neck of the woods on our way to the New Economy Conference recently, she kindly asked us to drop in for a chat for her local Seymour FM radio show – The Food Exchange.

 

We talked about the new economy & The Rescope Project, our experiences of living more meaningful lives with less, and just how a former corporate executive (Keith), and a former corporate-backed scholar (Anthony), came to ‘see the light’ and join the movement for change to the systems in which we live.

 

As the afternoon shadows stretched across the hillside, we headed into the studio at the Blue Tongue Berries farm in Seymour, for this chat with Cynthia Lim. 

 

Get more at:

http://www.bluetongueberries.com.au - the farm’s website

http://www.exchangefood.org - Passionate community food group with a radio show, promoting local, ethical food. Their by-line? We don't buy food from strangers!

https://exchangefood.podbean.com/e/the-rescope-project-interview/ - our conversation as it aired on Seymour FM, with additional commentary from Cynthia and co-host Nicky McKweon.

 

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #009 - Regenerating Land & Food Systems

A conversation with Frances Jones from the remote Wooleen Station

“Cattle, sheep, prosperity, first Australians, land on a knife edge, the politics of food and a struggle for future sustainability. An outback eco-tourism experiment that challenges a hundred years of European orthodoxy.”

 

That’s from the flyer at the remote Wooleen Station, where David Pollock and Frances Jones have radically destocked the land to regenerate it, after more than a century of degradation. Despite a moving story of nearly going broke, dealing with out-dated laws, and the politics around re-introducing a natural predator, they’re finding ways to continue their vital project, and producing some truly incredible outcomes. 

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So it was great to visit them, learn more about what they’re up to, and what it means not just for them, but for the broader transition to sustainable, flourishing societies. 

 

Joining Anthony for a chat in the garden of the beautiful Wooleen Homestead, is Station Co-Manager, Frances Jones.

 

Get more at:

Wooleen Station website

Wooleen Station Facebook page, including recent posts on the Native Title determination, the remarkable return of kangaroo grass, and links to the Australian Story programs on Wooleen by ABC TV.

Article on the Auditor General’s report released this month – ‘Control of pastoral leases ‘bigger than Western Europe’ failing’

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #008 - A Greater Purpose

A conversation with former Australian Federal Liberal Party leader, John Hewson

Today we’re featuring a conversation with one of the world’s most prominent political elders - former Australian Federal Liberal Party leader, and now Professorial Fellow at the Australian National University, John Hewson.

 

In recent years, John has become an increasingly admired figure across the political spectrum, as a powerful advocate for more leadership, transparency, responsible investment, and evidence-based policy. This is particularly in the context of the inter-related global challenges of climate change, a possible further financial crisis, and so-called ‘post-truth’ politics.

 

So it was a real pleasure to receive a call from John upon our arrival in Canberra recently, welcoming a conversation. It became an even greater pleasure as John’s level of candour, depth, insight, humour and care became more apparent. 

Most Australians probably still recall John from his contesting of the 1993 federal election for the Prime Ministership. But he’s a bit like the life-long musician who had a few years in a famous pop band. The rest of his life has featured an extensive array of studies, achievements and experience, across a range of sectors and senior positions globally.

 

We talk about his frustrations and great concerns – the precariousness of our financial and ecological systems, the hollowness of money and economic growth for their own sake, and the difficultly current systems are having grappling with all this. And we talk about his proposals for change, his experiences of dealing with vested interests, the great potential of the youth vote in particular, but also of a broad movement based on a greater sense of national purpose.

 

We also gain more of a sense of the deeply felt purpose driving John; a purpose that sees corporate responsibility as about culture rather than charity, acting beyond our own immediate interests for the good of the whole, and an openness to learn from each other.

 

Anthony' co-host for this conversation is former senior corporate executive, Keith Badger. And kind enough to join us in a cosy corner downstairs from his ANU office in Canberra, here’s John Hewson.

 

Get more at:

Dr John Hewson AM, ANU biography - https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/john-hewson

And for a little more about John - https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-hewson-16192 & http://www.celebrityspeakers.com.au/dr-john-hewson/

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #007 - Ecological Economics

A conversation with world-renowned systems thinker, Professor Robert Costanza

We've been on the road for a bit, speaking to people around the country on our way to and from the National New Economy Conference in Brisbane recently. We’re looking forward to sharing many of those conversations with you here, starting with this one.

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Robert Costanza is one of the world's most accomplished and decorated systems thinkers & ‘ecological economists’. Having moved to Australia five years ago, he’s now a Professor and Vice Chancellor’s Chair at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy. So it was great to have an opportunity to meet Bob in person and hear some of his fascinating story, recent work, sense of hope, and what he thinks we still need to do to set ourselves towards a sustainable and desirable future.

Bob has an extraordinary back-story, list of credentials, and the company he has kept over the years reads like a who’s who of the systems thinking and ecological economics fields. This is a guy who has given his all to this work over several decades. And when Anthony spoke with our first guest for this podcast, former Wall Street executive John Fullerton, Bob was the first name he mentioned when talking about the work being done in Australia to regenerate the systems and stories we live by.

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This is a powerfully concise explainer of where our economy and related systems and cultural narratives need to go – along with the why and how.

 

We spoke about public surveys that consistently affirm most people would prefer to live in sustainable and equitable societies, as well as genuine progress indicators that show the last ‘genuine progress’ in countries like Australia occurred decades ago. We also talk about the Sustainable Development Goals, the need for more systems-based education, and to recreate language as we ultimately develop a more inter-connected and holistic worldview.

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Putting on a fine cup of tea at his ANU office in Canberra, here’s Bob Costanza.

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Get more:

crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic…robert-costanza - Bob’s detailed ANU profile with an extensive list of publications
www.thesolutionsjournal.com - the hybrid peer-reviewed journal and popular magazine (think Nature meets the New Yorker). It is on the web, on news-stands, and in libraries.
neweconomy.org.au - Bob was a keynote speaker at the 2nd National New Economy Conference in Brisbane recently (along with our guest on Rescope Radio Ep.3, best-selling author of ‘Doughnut Economics’, Kate Raworth).

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Today we’re featuring not one, but a number of special guests from a public conversation Anthony hosted earlier this year, on how we go about the much-needed tasks of redefining our notion of progress - and developing new ways to measure it. The panel was joined by a full house of around 300 people, together generating one of our most compelling public forums to date.

 

Tim Costello AO is Chief Advocate for World Vision and one of Australia’s most recognised voices on social justice, leadership and ethics. Dr Melissa Weinberg is a TEDx Speaker and well-known wellbeing researcher, who led the research for the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. And Dr Mike Salvaris is co-founder of the OECD Global Progress Research Network, and a driving force behind the development of the Australian National Development Index.

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It has long been recognised that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an inadequate measure of society’s success and development. Yet it and our focus on economic growth driven by wasteful consumerism persist, despite the range of crises they cause and the growing recognition that limitless consumption doesn’t make for healthy, meaningful human life.

This conversation explores how we can change these flawed narratives, systems and measures, to guide us to a sustainable economy geared towards quality of life, rather than quantity of stuff. Along the way, we learn (or re-learn) plenty about Australia, the world, deeper human nature, and each other. And the sort of probing questions, fascinating findings, and inspiring projects covered here, all offer great grist for the mill for those of us looking to reset our guiding stars of happiness, success and progress.

 

Is happiness the goal? Does it even work to try to increase our happiness? What makes for a meaningful life, and how do we institute that as the basis of our national accounts? What kind of leadership can we develop to this end? And how do we juggle the need to campaign on specific urgent issues, with the overarching need to address the common source of those issues? The ideas, stories and projects shared in this conversation offer plenty to guide and inspire.

 

We adopted a fairly snappy format for this forum. After brief introductions you’ll hear each speaker offer a 5-minute ‘fire-starter’. Then we launch into extensive dialogue with the audience.

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Get more: 
www.rescopeproject.org.au/past-events - for film of the event and a link to further details 
www.andi.org.au - Australian National Development Index
www.drmelweinberg.com - Dr Melissa Weinberg’s website
www.worldvision.com.au - World Vision
sustainable.unimelb.edu.au - Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne

www.slf.org.au - National Sustainable Living Festival, where this forum took place in February 2017
neweconomy.org.au - the developing New Economy Network of Australia (listen to national convenor Dr Michelle Maloney on episode 4 below)

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #005 - Thinking & Living in Systems

A conversation with pioneering systems thinker, the late Professor Frank Fisher

The late Professor Frank Fisher was a pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. A couple of months ago, Anthony received a copy of an interview with Frank that was originally broadcast on SBS Radio here in Australia back in 1999. Perhaps some of you heard it at the time. For those who didn't (like Anthony, who was to meet Frank the following year), this was a great surprise – one we are keen to share in turn.

 

Captured in this short interview is a sense of what made Frank such a highly respected figure. There’s a sense of grounded humanity and possibility in how he talks, and how he lived. The title of his anthology, ‘Response Ability’, conveys this message succinctly - that the changes we need are within our reach. Regenerating systems and stories isn’t the domain of remote experts. It is the subject of everyday life, and ultimately who we want to become.

This is especially so given the ‘wicked’ nature of our major crises. “They’re called wicked problems”, Frank explains, “because anything that you do to try to mechanically ‘attack’ them produces a whole range of new problems”. Given these inevitable side-effects, “We have to look at other ways of doing things. And the primary way of dealing with these problems is to take the cause away [through social change].”

 

Frank was no technophobe, mind you. An electrical engineer who’d spent a decade in industry working in major energy projects, he went on to initiate what was Australia’s largest wind farm when completed, just a few years after this interview. But it’s the social context of this technology that counts most. And the way Frank describes how we can think differently, and more holistically, about the world and how we live in it, is thoroughly illuminating.

 

Svetimir Ristic, a graduate of the Masters program Frank led for a generation at Monash University, was the original producer of this interview for his Serbian radio program nearly 20 years ago. The quality of the recording and some of the particulars of what Frank talks about may have dated a little, but the general content and approach is as relevant as ever.

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Get more:

http://www.barakasamsara.com/baraka/about - the film Frank used to screen for his postgraduate students, from which the music at the end of this podcast is chosen

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #004 - Building the New Economy

A conversation with national convenor Dr Michelle Maloney

Dr Michelle Maloney is the national convenor and co-founder of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, and the developing New Economy Network Australia. Both are strongly connected with fast-growing global movements, and a burgeoning mix of initiatives on the ground.

 

All this has inspired a rapidly growing convergence on the 2nd New Economy conference coming up in Brisbane in September, to formalise the network and its strategies for regenerating the systems and stories we live by. Hear Michelle talk about who's involved, what it's aiming to achieve, how you can get involved, and why it matters.

It’s no secret that there is mass disenchantment with our economic and governance systems. And there is an extraordinary range and number of people and organisations around the world working to harness this towards positive change. Michelle explains that Australia is no exception. “At its nub, what [we’re] talking about is shifting the underpinning structures that support industrial society away from destruction, and towards sustaining, nurturing and restoring life.”

Thousands of people and groups are working at the new economy in one form or another in Australia. But unlike a lot of other places around the world, there has been no over-arching means of connecting and developing the movement. There have been pockets of work on the new economy everywhere, but nothing to stitch them together. “We’ve got all the pockets, we’ve got pockets galore. And we want to grow that, and amplify that …. But at the macro level, the systems change … perhaps [that’s where] this network will have an opportunity to really break some new ground…. [To shift] not just pockets of activity in a local area but the systems that connect them.”

 

Michelle emphasises that this isn’t just for people working in this space already. This is for anyone who wants to be part of the network’s important work. And the music she chooses for us to end this podcast will leave you in no doubt that when she describes the upcoming conference as a ‘grass roots economics fiesta’, she means it!

 

In light of all this, it was great to have an opportunity to speak with Michelle about some of her personal journey, these networks she’s convening, and how they can help us rethink and regenerate our society’s systems, for the interdependent aims of good human living and a flourishing planet.

 

Joining Anthony online from her home in Brisbane, here's Michelle Maloney.

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Get more:

https://neweconomy.org.au - the developing website of the New Economy Network Australia

https://neweconomy.org.au/2017-conference/registration/ - to register for the New Economy Conference in Brisbane 1-3 September 2017

https://www.earthlaws.org.au - the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA)

https://www.earthlaws.org.au/?page_id=2854 - for more on Dr Michelle Maloney

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #003 - Doughnut Economics

A conversation with systems thinker & new best-selling author Kate Raworth

Kate Raworth is one of the world's most brilliant and needed systems thinkers. Her new book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist' is already a best-seller and has been described by George Monbiot as 'brilliant, thrilling and revolutionary'. 

 

Tim Jackson, the author of Prosperity Without Growth, says it ‘reclaims economics from the dust of academia.’ Indeed, Kate initially walked away from economics due to the disconnect between how it was being taught, and today’s ‘real world’ concerns. This book is the synthesis of her work since she felt compelled to return to the field, having recognised it as the ‘mother tongue’ of modern society.

 

Her experience mirrors that of an increasing number of people in this regard, including myself. So it was great to have an opportunity to speak with her about how her doughnut – yes, of all things - can help us rethink and recreate our economic system for today’s world – to leave no one languishing in the hole, while keeping planetary boundaries safely intact.

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This isn’t just for economists. It’s for all of us. It’s about how we live and organise ourselves – and ultimately how we get to the heart of creating the world we’d rather see. And Kate’s art is not just how to think about this stuff, it’s how to communicate it.

 

In literally re-drawing economics for the 21st century, Kate is asking us to engage with how people make sense of things, and by extension how we can make new sense of things. “I realised, when it comes to mindset, how powerful pictures are…. Far more than we give them credit for, they shape the way we think.”

 

All this gets to the heart of system change - shifting the mindset and the very goals of the system. Though in this case, we’re not so much charged with shifting goals as, tellingly, creating one – to go beyond growth and GDP as proxies for society’s progress, to tracking what’s actually important to us. “We have an economy that needs to grow, whether or not it makes us thrive. We need an economy that makes us thrive, whether or not it grows.”

 

So if the doughnut is the goal, how do we get there? Kate offers a kind of map, where the obstacles are undeniable, but not inherently insurmountable. And hearing about her interactions with mainstream institutions, and the many ways people of all walks can and are driving this change, feeds a sense of something significant happening here.

 

Joining Anthony online from her home in Oxford, here's Kate Raworth.

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Get more:

https://www.kateraworth.com - Kate’s website (including how to buy her book)

https://www.rethinkeconomics.org - the movement that began with a global student revolt against how economics is being taught in universities

https://neweconomy.org.au - Kate will be speaking online at the 2nd New Economy Conference in Brisbane 1-3 September 2017 

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #002 - A New Economy 

A conversation with award-winning documentary film-maker Trevor Meier

Meet Trevor Meier, award-winning documentary film-maker, photographer, and story-teller. His latest film, ‘A New Economy’, has been a popular feature on the global festival circuit, including nationally in Australia as part of the Transitions Film Festival.

 

It’s a terrific documentary - much-needed, beautifully produced, and featuring a range of insightful people and projects to fire our imaginations, open our view of the world, and sure up our courage to experiment with new ways of doing things.

 

As Trevor explains, this isn’t a movie about the economic crisis we’re in – it’s about going beyond the crisis. It’s about what comes next, or perhaps better said, what is currently coming next.

 

Our first guest on this podcast, Capital Institute founder John Fullerton, features in the film. And like John, Trevor has observed hundreds of projects happening on the ground to build a new economy – they considered 600 for this film alone!

 

His observations of these projects, and of the influential people featured in the movie, are as insightful as his films. He reserves particular mention for John Fullerton. But it’s his comment on his biggest regret of the film that is just as important in this light, raising probing insights into the nature of diversity and power in this space.

He also talks tellingly about the sense of privilege he feels, and accompanying responsibility, to do what he does with his contribution to the world. And tellingly, again echoing John Fullerton, he talks of the liberating nature of living in this way, with this purpose, this sense of being alive, and connecting with the best of what makes us human – notwithstanding, or even because of, the challenges involved. “I don’t see it as a fight”, he says, “I see it as life, this process of creation.”

 

Music is central to ‘A New Economy’, and to Trevor’s background, so we were looking forward to what he would choose for us to end this program with. And in many ways, his choice of music and how he describes what it means to him says everything you need to know about him, and the potential of the new economy we might create together.

 

We found speaking with Trevor to affirm a sense of possibility in the world, one grounded in the reality we might not commonly see unfolding on daily media, but we can see it in his films, and hear it in this conversation. Joining Anthony online from his home in Vancouver, here's Trevor Meier.

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Get more:

http://trevormeier.com - Trevor’s website

http://www.aneweconomy.ca - the website of the film, A New Economy

http://www.transitionsfilmfestival.com/event/a-new-economy-adelaide/ - A New Economy most recently opened the Adelaide Transitions Film Festival on Friday 19 May 2017. 

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!

Episode #001 - Regenerative Economics 

A conversation with former Wall Street executive John Fullerton

Welcome to our first episode, featuring an extensive and inspiring conversation between Anthony James and John Fullerton, the former Wall Street executive who became the founding President of the Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation working to change our economic and financial systems. 

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John is a former Managing Director of 'the old' JP Morgan, as he puts it, and now founding President of the Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation in the US dedicated to bringing about new, regenerative economic and financial systems.

 

Given these systems are fundamental to the civilisational crisis we find ourselves in, and therefore how we need to deal with it, this is vital work, and a revealing conversation.

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John draws deeply on systems thinking, a broad range of other contemporary and ancient schools of thought, and a range of ‘real world’ case studies, impact investing and other experiments on the ground. All this features in his extensive speaking and writing, including in his white paper, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy.

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Get more:

Capital Institute - capitalinstitute.org

John's White Paper, 'Regenerative Capitalism: How universal principles and patterns will shape our new economy' - capitalinstitute.org/wp-content/upl…0-15-final.pdf

The film 'A New Economy', featuring John Fullerton, opens the Adelaide Transitions Film Festival on Friday 19 May 2017 - www.transitionsfilmfestival.com/event/a-n…adelaide/

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Note: Bendigo Bank CEO, Mike Hirst, tells us the $40m John makes mention of in this podcast, that the bank has returned to communities, is actually $165m (at the time of this program), not including shareholder returns and the spend of branches on wages and so on.

Listen to the conversation & subscribe to Rescope Radio on SoundCloud, Stitcher or iTunes.

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And don't forget to comment, rate, review and share!