Reskillience

Planting guides and sow-what-when calendars are great and all, but what happens when the seasons don't play nice? When spring arrives earlier, frost hits later, or heatwaves burn your crops to a crisp? There's no controlling the weather, but with tools like phenology, you can make better predictions and grow more food! Duncan Cocking (of Leaf, Root & Fruit ) is an amazing gardener and educator from Kyneton in Southern Australia. He helps people tune into more-than-human patterns and cycles to build their own hyper-local and climate resilient gardening calendars, and has a wealth of wisdom about living more joyfully too. In this convo: Why spring is two weeks earlier this year Duncan's early years immersed in nature and connected to country Why he's not that interested in working hard Mid-30s career change Pattern recognition in the veggie patch How to use phenology Nature based indicators to tell you went to plant The two most critical aspects of gardening!!! Connection through failures Why to RELAXXXXX about how to garden Wood ducks tell you when you plant tomatoes Crazy record keeping How the hell to collate so much data Habits of the highly observant How do nature’s patterns work, NO LIKE, HOW? Being conversant with the land Duncan is an ostrich Disconnecting from the World Wide Web How to preserve your mental health with a hyper-focus on local Getting kids into the garden Give your kids scary tools Garden gimmicks How to grow avos in cold climates Spring gardening to-dos RIGHT NOW 🧙‍♀ LINKY POOS Duncan’s home on the web Leaf, Root & Fruit on Substack Leaf, Root & Fruit on Instagram Andrew Turbill, the bird guy 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡 ☕ Buy Me A Coffee (or an avo or a loaf of bread) ☕ Gratitude to the field recordist Romuald Mikusek, XC935811. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/935811.

NOTE: I’ve done breathwork every day since this interview and – you gaias! – it’s really helping me human. Meet today’s guest Ella Maryska, who is responsible for getting me into this breathwork thing that I am the last person on the planet to know about. Ella is 21 years old, wise as the hills, a certified breathwork instructor, and brings a fresh and youthful perspective to the pod which has been sorely absent to date (sorry sorry sorry). In this sweet convo, you’ll hear about the geeky physiology of breathwork; how it rebalances our nervous system, changes circulation to our brain, oxygenates tissues and connects us to plants, as well as Ella’s own experience as a young person living through the polycrisis, navigating novel life paths as the old routes fall away. I learned so much from Ella. Let me know if you’re on the breathwork bandwagon, a brilliant tool for staying steady in the tumult. 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS Ella’s home on the web Ella/Coming Home Breathwork on IG Tuesday evening group class Guided breathwork sesh on YouTube [book] Atlas of the Heart ~ Brené Brown Catie’s natto Reskillience live recording at Words in Winter The Australasian Permaculture Convergence 🧡🧡🧡 Join the Reskillience community on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡 Catie on Substack

“In a time of fracturing seasons, when everything’s going awry, there are still cycles that we can set our hearts by.” It's Kirsten Bradley of Milkwood ! She's writing a new book about the moon, penning love letters to parsley and currawongs on Substack, and here to share all about her daily rhythms in lutruwita, Tasmania. Oh, what a lovely conversation! Within 🌙 AI or not to AI Morning routines! Morning stargazing! Tea choices Moving to lutruwita/Tassie Fish farm woes and responses How to make decisions about where to move When the body says no Slow activism “You can rest. The problems will be there when you get up again. And the solutions.” Perimenopause rearrangements Coming back to creativity after burnout Wrapping knowledge in story Learning injuries Writing as a welcome Cultural astronomies Should we follow our interests? What does activism look like for Kirsten now? The Common Book of the Moon 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS Kirsten on Substack Kirsten + Milkwood 🧡🧡🧡 Join the Reskillience community on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡

BYO wheelbarrow to load up on Solomon’s wisdom, cos today we’re chatting with the grandaddy of beyond-organic gardening himself, Steve Solomon! If you don’t know Steve, he’s a bit of cult hero in food growing circles thanks to his deep research into soil remineralisation and why it is absolutely critical for human health. In this convo: How pre-industrial communities ate 4 x more nutrient-dense food Why MINERALS are the key to healthy soil and healthy humans Better nutrition… lower libido? Why compost is really bloody complicated …and how compost can ruin your soil if you’re not careful How to calculate how much organic matter your soil actually needs The ugly truth about commercial compost COF ~ Complete Organic Fertiliser Why Steve doesn’t recommend soil testing for everyone EVIL GOVERNMENT EDICTS Steve’s pact to intentionally follow his interests 100% “THE PURPOSE OF MY LIFE IS TO DO WHATEVER IT IS I’M INTERESTED IN” LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Steve’s homepage The Soil & Health Library [book] The Intelligent Gardener ~ Steve Solomon [just released!] Growing Nutrient-Dense Vegetables: A Cool Climate Guide~ Steve Solomon Google: Steve Solomon gardening books Nutrition and Physical Degeneration ~ Weston A. Price Soil fertility and Animal Health ~ William Albrecht 🧡🧡🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡 Words in Winter ~ Live podcast with Mara Ripani & Natasha Morgan Return to the Village ~ Australasian Permaculture Convergence.

I share a GRIPPING TALE about a droplet of water before sitting down with Helen Lehndorf , who is a radical forager, author, anarchist, poet and plenty more wonderful things besides. I loved her memoir A Forager's Life so much! Helen and I dive straight into the weeds about permaculture life strategies, unlocking creativity, writing for nature and how to rebel against The Machine by playing the Holy Fool. Medicine for muddled, blocked or chronically shy creatives. IN THIS CONVO Swimming upstream of the over culture Undoing cultural entrainment Social permaculture Permaculture design web Establishing a daily writing habit The world isn’t saying PLEASE ARTIST MAKE MORE ART but you should anyway Anarchism The YES, AND rule The Holy Fool archetype AI? *shrugs* Enspiriting your art ECOPOETICS Getting past sharing insecurity Writing for nature Why little lives are worth sharing Invisible care work Journalling versus publishing Blackberry medicine What is it to relate with plants? PUNK GRANDDAD DANDY Synesthesia The future has an ancient heart 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Helen’s home on the web A Forager’s Life ~ Helen Lehndorf The Bruise Palette ~ Helen Lehndorf Social permaculture ~ Looby Macnamara Kirsty Porter Wild ~ Cheryl Strayed E.M Forster ~ Howard’s End Annie Dillard Sound credit: Morepork / Ruru (Owl) - Auckland, New Zealand by tdes -- https://freesound.org/s/319539/ -- License: Attribution 3.0

We built this city on rock n roll! And cheap oil. And it’s currently running out… so what happens now? This week I chat with Nathan Surendran to get a foothold on the fossil fuel crisis (which is the Everything Crisis) and how we can keep our balance, together. Nathan is a systems thinker, recovering engineer, energy and security analyst, policy advisor, author of the Energy and Resilience substack and chair of the Wise Response society. He is also seriously kind, and provides so much practical, empowering advice in this convo, including: Moving far far away from civilisation The unsustainability of cities Neurodivergence leading to deep research The Energy Elephant in the room: WHAT AREN’T WE SEEING Why oil (diesel) is the lifeblood of industrial society Drawing down ancient sunlight 1 million times faster than it’s being recharged Every calorie of food takes 10 calories of fossil fuels, oof The Iran War Why we can’t just switch to renewables Right relationship with renewables What are baseline standards of living? Household appliance heroes for the energy descent What is Energy Blindness? Emotionally processing peak oil One barrel of oil = 5 years of human labour (!) Are we being gaslit about the situation in the strait? The industrial system schools us to comply, not think Why the rich aren’t as protected as they might think Less affluent people are ahead of the game What is mutual aid? Un-pathologising co-dependence Maori concepts of community care Why we need danger from a mental health perspective 🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Nathan on Substack ~ Energy and Resilience Nathan’s home on the web [doc] When The Trucks Stop ~ mutual aid guidelines Wise Response on Substack Jason Bradford ~ The Future Is Rural Steve Keene Ian McGilchrist Charlie Hoyle Nate Hagens Steve Keen Howard T Odum 📸 Photo credit: Jason Hosking 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

Ever wish you could sit down with permie elders to hear their take on the current chaos; what to do, where to live, and whether it’s really that bad in the grand scheme of things? Well just call me Genie cos this convo with permaculture educators and radical homemakers Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh will deliver. Ian and Marita live in a solar passive straw-bale home on the edge of Castlemaine, Victoria, surrounded by fruit and nut trees and veggie gardens, where students come to see – and feel – what it is to be wrapped in abundance. And this is where I found them, on a sunny autumn morning, in the cosy warmth of their kitchen, dealing with masses of peaches, pistachios and zucchini. And we all sat down and chopped and chatted, eventually remembering to turn on the mics. In this convo: Pursuing a hybrid model of permaculture Rat poison sandwich Renting till your 40s What is good debt? Where is even affordable anymore? How to deal with gluts Giving to community Small garden farming Being strategically connected to the grid Diverse household energy systems Scales of usage An elder’s perspective on current affairs Sharing permaculture as a political act Permaculture priorities Gratitude vs. fear Impermaculture 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Send Ian an email ~ Ian.lillington@protonmail.com Or keep it old school with a text ~ 0478 297 057 The Castlemaine Permaculture Hub PDC (for locals) Castlemaine Permaculture FB group (national) Permaculture Australia FB group

I tell a story about my grandpa’s deathbed song request before having a heart-to-heart with Emily Coats, a deep nature connection facilitator, ancestral skills practitioner, threshold-crossing guide and dreamworker. In this convo: Shakespearean activism What the world needs right now (hint: not more intellect) Ways to wholeness Does activism have to feel hard and gnarly? Being precise in the ripples we cast What happens at Tracker School Ancient skills… for survival? Why to prioritise spiritual preparedness How we live and how we die Losing her dad; the gifts and lessons Intentions vs. realities of living in a handmade black wattle shelter offline, offgrid and alone for 7.5 months How to use spirit tracking to find lost stuff 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ [starts soon in Naarm] Earth Time: The Lost Art of Being Human Emily’s home on the web Emily on Instagram Nature's Apprentice Nature Based Leadership Training Bill Plotkin & Animas Valley Institute Jon Young The Animal Communicator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBpG1nkM5jc Jon Young Australia workshop 🧡🧡🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡

In 2018 Professor Jem Bendell published an academic paper that went viral; pretty weird for a piece of scholarly writing. The topic? Societal collapse caused by runaway climate change. The timeline? Soon. Deep Adaptation presented a frank, delusion-free framework for facing the end of the world as we know it, sparked a movement, and copped a lot of flack. I wanted to chat with Jem not so much about the grim facts but about how, “as that collapse guy”*, he is filling his life with meaning at the eleventh hour. And it turns out, that includes becoming a farmer, writing folk songs and considering having kids. *Jem happily identifies as a doomster 🎙️ In this convo Experiencing climate change first hand as a farmer in Bali How to act on knowledge about collapse and climate? Making the leap towards your values (with the help of a global pandemic) Why the wellness community is full of shit Farming fails Picking up music at 48 and writing comedy rock Faulty beliefs we have about our creative gifts Living fully at the eleventh hour Letting go of status and security Why it’s all ok when everything’s not ok Kirtan and ecospirituality practices Jem’s evolving views about how collapse will unfold Bringing kids into this world, yay or nay? The Deep Adaptation framework Becoming NURTURANT How to help others through the grief Jem’s simple pleasures Oracle cards for cynics 🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS Jem’s home on the web [paper] Deep Adaptation ~ Jem Bendell [book] Breaking Together ~ Jem Bendell The Metacrisis Initiative Jem’s collapse-aware oracle cards Jem’s music Songbird credit: Australia Outback Birds by EduFigueres License: Attribution 4.0 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

I tell a story about Jar Power before sitting down with Robin Greenfield, an incredible fella best known for his radical experiments in simple living, food reclamation, waste minimisation and wild foraging. He has been called “the Robin Hood of our times”, “the Forrest Gump of ecology”, and “the best kind of crazy”. To me, Robin is a torch bearer for truth, leading the way towards justice – with a whole lotta joy and integrity. This year he is eating 100% foraged foods – unreal! – so we chat about that, as well as: Why Robin is so gassy How it feels to break free from the global industrial food system Why Robin is not into human optimisation Practicing non-attachment and impermanence Freedom in community What gives Robin the power to do crazy stuff? Non-delusionalism How to identify your purpose and niche The most limiting factor in figuring out who you really are Pursuing radical honesty Robin’s simple finances Skills + relationships = freedom Transition ethics Compassionate communication What IS foraging, really? All the foraging nuances you never thought about! How our language is built around disconnection What would happen if everyone foraged? Joy as resistance 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS Robin’s website Robin’s books Robin on Instagram [book] Mark Boyle ~ The Moneyless Man 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

Christie Green spends days at a time in the mountains, in the snow, tracking elk, solo. Her hunting journey began at 40 as a practical way to feed herself and her family, and became a fierce and fluid exploration of womanhood, motherhood, stewardship, intuition, listening and kinship. Christie wrote a memoir about her experiences called Moonlight Elk that I rapturously devoured, licking my fingertips with every turn of the page, it is that delicious. 🦌 Terrain covered: Life in Sante Fe, New Mexico Hunting as a deep and embodied exploration of just about everything. Listening to other than human perspectives as a landscape architect Designing for soil, water, animal, pollination; landscapes in service of wild nature Learning to hunt at 40 Weaving values into business How to catch dreams Why would you want to hunt alone? Being an “other-centred” person Following desire and intuition The extreme paradox of loving and killing Defying categories and boxes Are there better and worse ways to hunt? Could and should everyone hunt? Communal local food relationships Walking in fear as a woman, as prey Dreams as soul expression Writing sex scenes that feature yourself The choiceless choice of creativity 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS Christie’s home on the web Christie on Instagram Get your mitts on Moonlight Elk (note: you can buy it anywhere, or ask your library for copies) Moonlight Elk audiobook Selected essays by Christie Green 🧡 Join the Reskillience community on Patreon 🧡 Outro birdsong credit: Afro408 - License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0

You’ve heard of swales… but what about swales in the brain to slow and deepen our human experience? Join me and Cecilia Macaulay for one of those special convos that gets to the heart of life’s gnarliest struggles; our biggest messes, our greatest failures, our everyday chaos… and uses permaculture design to harness their power. This episode will particularly chime with “forgetful, distractible” types, clutter accumulators, chaos agents, overwhelm junkies, and anyone with a hunch that a few elegant household systems could MASSIVELY increase their effectiveness in the world. WE COVER Insane wisdom from Bill Mollison Meeting Masanobu Fukuoka The FIVE RULES OF HARMONIOUS PERMIE SHAREHOUSES Japanese rules of Non-Complaint and Taking Full Responsibility Growing an enduring permaculture spirit How to become a world expert in a tiny little thing Creating a failure protocol Upward spirals Permaculture for heartbreak Being an effective human later in life More than medication for neurodiversity The connection between untidy houses and trauma Making your kitchen sink a shrine to beauty and goodness Setting a household culture using mirror neurons The eco-footprint of university STOP AWFULISING! Permaculture zones in the home Why to share what’s spare STOP COLONISING CREATIVE VOID! Expanding the edges of our gifts and talents Beautiful messcapes Knolling What “can’t be bothered” really codes for How to use imagination to improve your memory 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Cecilia’s home on the web Cecilia’s nine month home harmonising project The Edible Balcony Garden ~ Indira Naidoo Sand Talk ~ Tyson Yunkaporta Screen Zen App WWOOF, HelpX & Workaway Polyvagal theory 🧡 Join the Reskillience community on Patreon 🧡 Thanks to kangaroovindaloo for the singing bowls : License: Attribution 4.0

Big personal shares at the top of the ep (preview: podcasting terrifies me) before an utterly delightful conversation with Scots folk singer Josie Vallely aka. Quinie . Quinie's album Forefowk, Mind Me was named The Guardian's best folk release of 2025, but don't worry if you're not into bagpipes because we mostly chat about: Not making your art your career Tips for slow art/seasonal living in a rushing world The mind bending differences between relating with Country in Australia versus Scotland Minority languages and evocation of place The right to roam Confused white settler syndrome When you’re a cultural mongrel Impure ancestry Place as a surrogate elder Tradition in motion Where do songs live? Journeying on horseback Horses as bodyguards Why we all just want to be got 🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS Quinie’s home on the web Quinie on Instagram [album] Forefowk, Mind Me ~ Quinie Quinie’s seasonal almanac ~ Things that happen every year in a cycle [film] Forefowk, Mind Me Guardian review of Quinie’s album Cover art photo credit: Anthony Rintoul 🧡🧡🧡 Join the Reskillience community on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡

A garden drama unfolds during a heatwave, and I share my summer solstice/New Year wishes for you. Thanks for tuning into another year of Reskillience! We'll be back later in January full of fresh questions and custard. Shout out to my love Jordan Osmond for helping produce this episode. Sound credit: BlackbirdFiltered.wav by acclivity 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

Cor blimey, we're getting equiney! Cast aside your Saddle Club trauma and learn how horses can help us be better humans and stewards of nature in this rich convo with Lisa Podosin. Lisa is a horse listener, advocate and author who swapped Hollywood for a tiny home on shared land with a herd of seven horses. We get real deep on topics of: 🐴 not putting off till retirement what you wanna do today 🐴 choosing freedom over security at any age 🐴 land sharing gifts and tips (single women supporting women!) 🐴 how horses as prey animals reveal our inner misalignment 🐴 moving beyond control-based strategies (bridles, saddles, whips) and towards trust 🐴 how to be agents of liberation for both the more-than-human world and our own wild souls 🐴 learning interspecies communication 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Lisa’s home on the web Pre-order Lisa’s book 🧡🧡🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon (and join our December meetup) 🧡🧡🧡 Thanks for the birdsong straget ! Blackbird.wav by straget | License: Attribution 4.0

You want it, you got it: an open discussion about the cracks in our civilisation, and how to catch each other when it all falls apart. Dave Pollard has been writing about culture, complexity, deep ecology and collapse for longer than some of us have been alive. While he continues to cheer on radical ‘deep green’ activists, he no longer believes that that we can change or reform The System. This convo is about what to do instead. [first aired in 2023] 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Dave's writings Dave’s recommended reading list ~ The Books That Have Influenced Me Most Dave’s article ~ How Do We Teach the Critical Skills Needed to Face Collapse? Molly Housch Gordon's piece ~ How to Survive the End of The World [watch] The New Peasants by Happen Films

Could you live without money? No support payments, no savings account, no secret benefactors? Jo Nemeth has been doing so for the past decade, and reckons she is less stressed and more secure in her moneyless life (in which she shares a home with eight other humans and plays the role of house keeper/manager/grower/frugavore). This is a truly radical tale of a woman who went the whole hog and gave up the bacon 💰 to invest in relationships and reciprocity. We cover: What is poverty/wealth? Why live without money? Jo has no hope! Less money = more freedom Why to be a home economist Issues in a nine person household The deliciousness of aligning your actions with your values Moneyless gift giving, cravings, medical and more Waste food seagull mode Receiving is harrrrd Kids + collapse On taking care of things Collapse priorities Growing locally adapted food 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Jo’s home on the web Jo on Instagram ~ @jolowimpact Jo in the Guardian Mark Boyle ~ The Moneyless Man + The Way Home Eaarth ~ Bill McKibben Luke Kemp ~ Goliath’s Curse Artist As Family The Art of Frugal Hedonism ~ Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb The really really free market Just Collapse Sound credits: first raven , flock of ravens . 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

I tell a story about becoming a gardening influencer before sharing an animated and long-awaited conversation with David Trood aka. The Weedy Gardener ! Weedy, Jord and I discuss: 🌱 Creative land access 🌱 Body as compost 🌱 Hearing nature's call 🌱 Being an eye cell for humanity 🌱 Showing your failures 🌱 Why to love the small stuff 🌱 The all important nutrient cycle 🌱 Decomposing cane toad 🌱 Pest management, the Viking way 🌱 Rhizophagy 🌱 Nitty gritty on why organic produce is healthier 🌱 From grandpa bod to garden god 🌱 Weedy Garden Makeovers 🌱 Sacred social media spaces 🌱 Why garden? 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ The Weedy Garden on YouTube The Weedy Garden online 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡

I tell a story about the ironic demise of my keepcup, and the difference between light green and deep green choices, before a pot-of-tea-convo with Laura Jean . Laura is a renegade business coach, dietician and permaculturalist who will help you see VALUES in a whole new light, and how to use them to illuminate the life/business/world you really want. Prepare to cry tears of recognition and possibility. 🐝 Building trust in yourself for changes that take courage 🐝 Eating disorder shares and healing strategies 🐝 The very worst thing that can possibly happen 🐝 Body check for making decisions 🐝 Do we change, or choose? 🐝 Laura’s values 🐝 Why we recreate the same old shit even when living “alternatively” 🐝 Figuring out your Bare Ass Minimum 🐝 The felt sense of success 🐝 Money as a tool to enact your values 🐝 Three steps towards a regenerative business 🐝 Commerce vs. capitalism 🐝 Activities for clarifying your values 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️ Laura on Instagram Laura’s podcast Dietician Values Gundaroo Growers Canberra Environment Center 🙏 Yellow-tailed black cockatoo sound credit 🙏 🧡🧡🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡🧡🧡

Three unbelievable stories about owls, and how to be a myceliating, possibilitarian practivist with the phenomenal Morag Gamble. Morag has cornflower blue eyes and a glorious crop of hair that curls at the ends like pea shoots. She consorts with broad beans and leafy greens in bare feet, and has sent no dig gardening viral on YouTube. This convo was recorded at Crystal Waters Eco Village where Morag lives with her family and 200+ other humans on 640 acres shared with a teeming assortment of subtropical wildlife. 📝 SHOW NOTES Building your livelihood around the seasons of your life How to find your flow and live with intention More than human helpers and teachers “I am the garden gardening” Ways to access land when accessing land is insane Myceliating ideas around the world Why aren’t permaculture villages everywhere? Possibilitarianism Nourish threads of connection rather than fighting the fight How the new unfolds through collapse of the old The vital role of the arts How are we to live? What is enough in these times? Why permaculture is everything Gift economy how-to Do you have what it takes to be a permaculture teacher? Integrating permaculture with your profession Morag is a beloved permaculture teacher and designer, founder of The Permaculture Education Institute, pioneer of urban permaculture projects like Northey Street City Farm, and an international changemaker who has led changemaking programs in 22 countries. 🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS Morag’s home on the web Morag’s podcast ~ Sense-making in a changing world Morag on YouTube Become a permaculture teacher ~ The Permaculture Education Institute Rob Hopkins Jeremy Lent Schumacher College Vandana Shiva Arne Ness Helena Norberg-Hodge Fritjof Capra 🧡 Support Reskillience on Patreon 🧡