The Permaculture Podcast

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is John Kempf, the author of the recently released Quality Agriculture.  A farmer, teacher, and entrepreneur from Northeast, Ohio, John has spent more than 15 years developing a nutrition and farm management program that quickly restores soil health and maximizes plant resistance to disease and insects, while reducing costs and increasing profits for farmers who adopt these methods. Already applying these processes to millions of acres of farmland, his current mission is for these regenerative models to become adopted globally by 2040.     Along the way, John shares the history of how he came to and developed these methods, as well as how existing food policies and intellectual property systems hamper farmers' ability to steward the land and increase the health and resilience of our communities. By holistically meeting the needs of farmers and focusing on the results, rather

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Laura Oldanie, a permaculture practitioner and the author behind the website Rich and Resilient Living, which focuses on how we can live a life and make financial decisions that lead to a regenerative future.   Laura joins me as a sort of continuation of the conversation with Erin Axelrod, but focusing on the individual rather than the organization. During our time together Laura shares how we can make a difference by considering where our money sleeps. The ways to guide our finances towards banking and investment so our surplus provides benefits for our local communities. How non-financial capital can create an abundance. Throughout it all, we also remember, that the world we live in, and our lives right now, are in a period of transition so we can be gentle on ourselves and our decisions. Find out more about Laura and her work at richandresilientliving.com. Join The Pe

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Owen Wormser. Owen is a sustainable landscape designer from Western Massachusetts and author of Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape, from Stonepier Press. This specialty in landscapes forms our conversation today as we discuss his design process of creating meadows. This includes: Using nurse crops for establishing a meadow. Designing with a variety of plant heights, bloom colors, and a resilient mix of species in mind. How to make meadows appear intentional as well as appealing to neighbors. Using grasses as the framework that ties a meadow together. The role of a meadow in an ecological landscape. Workhorse plants for our designs. Getting started with our own meadow. Find out more about him and his work at AboundDesign.com, and his book, Lawns into Meadows, at stonepierpress.org. Become a Patreon Supporter Make a One-Time Donation to the Podcast Schedule a Call with Scott Follow the show

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Jeff Speck. Jeff is the author of Walkable City and Walkable City Rules. As an urban planner and city designer he specializes in, and advocates for, human modes of transportation: first and foremost walking, but also biking. Become a Patreon Supporter Using years of research and action, Jeff shows how cities become better places when we move away from an automobile-focused life. As I spend a lot of my time walking through cities whenever I get a chance, preferring to travel on foot when possible, I knew there were some places that felt safer as a pedestrian and were generally more enjoyable to walk through. Jeff lays out exactly why that is, and what each of us can do to advocate for these changes in our local towns and cities. In the process we can limit gentrification, which Jeff expands on during the interview, mak

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Rony Lec of the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura – IMAP) in Guatemala.   I first became aware of Rony years ago through my friends at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, but what I knew up until he and I sat down barely revealed the depth and breadth of his exploration and implementation permaculture. He leverages decades of experience applying permaculture to indigenous agricultural methods, and combines work, outreach, and activism into a cohesive approach to teaching and design. The conversation which follows progresses from his early days of discovering permaculture through Ali Sharif and studying with Geoff Lawton, to his current work building networks and native food products. He also shares his concerns about land access, food sovereignty, and political will in Mesoamerica. Find out more about Rony and his work at i

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Over the last two decades, my guest Delvin Solkinson studied permaculture education all over the world by taking numerous permaculture design courses and teacher trainings, as well as completing multiple diplomas, with various teachers. Some of his mentors include Bill Mollison, April Sampson-Kelly, and Rosemary Morrow. From those years of experience, he works to make this knowledge more accessible for students, easier to teach for instructors, and empowering for everyone, by sharing his notes in an open-source approach to permaculture.     Find out more about Delvin and his work, including his Permaculture Design Notes Book and the Permaculture Design Deck, at visionarypermaculture.com. Become a Patreon patreon of The Permaculture Podcast Buy the show a cup of coffee Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter. I’m a long-standing advocate of open-sourced ideas and technology, using them

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Erin Axelrod, partner and worker/owner at LIFT Economy. She joins me to discuss how LIFT Economy is working to repatriate land, resolve housing issues, and create socially responsible businesses by investing in and providing support to women, indigenous, and people of color lead organizations. Using her years of experience as a framework, Erin provides multiple specific examples of what this work looks like in practice, what we can do to steer our economy towards regenerative businesses, and to heal our relationship with money.     Find more about Erin and her work at LIFTeconomy.com 21 Choice Perennial Vegetables for 4-Season Climates Schedule with Scott UTOPIA: a permaculture vision     This conversation with Erin touches on something I’ve been working on and speaking to other folks in the community, including Karryn Olsen and Dan Palmer, about over the last few m

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Image: Kai Sawyer at the Peace and Permaculture Dojo. (Source:YouTube: Peace and Permaculture Dojo Tour) “The more generous we are, the more relaxed we’ll be, the more wealthy we’ll feel, and the more gifts these will cycle.” – Kai Sawyer   As we embody our values and live ever differently, how do we change the communities we are a part of as we become ever more apart from them? This is one of many thoughts I have as we enter this conversation with Kai Sawyer, as we look at his life as a practitioner embracing peace, permaculture, and the gift economy to bring about social and cultural change in Japan. Find out more about Kai Sawyer and his work at: Tokyo Urban Permaculture Living Permaculture Something Kai wanted me to mention, that didn’t make it into our conversation is the ongoing impact and questions as a result of the Fukushima

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Nathan Carlos Rupley. A member of my local permaculture community, he spends his time as a stay at home dad, self employed-artist, and aspiring hunter-gatherer. When not hanging out with his family or walking in the woods, you can find him reading about a wide range of subjects including simple living, foraging, native agriculture, natural building, “primitive” technology, philosophy, applied ecology, theology, and much more. He brings this knowledge to the table today as we discuss what he’s learning from the native plants of his ancestors. The exploration of these plants and the related cultures provide insights into his place in the world and where he comes from. This leads to a conversation that ranges around a variety of thoughts including how we can learn more about plants and their uses by studying folk and Lat

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest for this episode is Rob Hopkins the creator of the idea of Transition Towns, a way for us to move from oil dependency to local resilience. That lead to his writing The Transition Handbook, something every permaculture practitioner should have in their library and which serves as a good introduction, along with Toby Hemenway’s The Permaculture City, to look at how we can move from the landscape to the people space.   Find out more about Rob and his work at TransitionNetwork.org and the other resources below.   If you are interested in starting your own transition town or want more information on the movement, let me know. Email: The Permaculture Podcast Until the next time, spend each day eating wild and creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. Resources Transition Network Rob H

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast In today’s episode, David Bilbrey returns to the host seat with Fred Kirschenmann. Fred joins us again to share more about his work at the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and how those two places are working to allow us to plan not only for the world we have now but also for our descendants. The solutions come in multiple forms, from the ways we can use plants in our fields to increase yields while regenerating soil, and the cultural changes that are coming as the children and grandchildren of the Baby Boomer generation reject consumerism and focus on a more community-centered life.     What do you think of what Fred shared with David today? Are there places where you can favor biology over technology in your design? Do you make lifestyle decisio

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast After spending more than a year and a half balancing family; a day job; and the work of permaculture education, I’m returning to teaching and producing The Permaculture Podcast full-time as of the release of this episode. With this announcement comes a number of updates on what’s happening with the show and behind the scenes.     First, there are a bevy of new interviews to look forward to. Some of those include a conversation with Nathan Carlos Rupley on the role of plants in understanding and healing our past trauma, both personal and systemic. Laura Oldanie of Rich and Resilient Living shares her expertise in creating a regenerative lifestyle, and Erin Axelrod of LIFT Economy focuses on the intersection of permaculture and economics. I’ll release the interviews as they come together in the weeks ahead while continuing to intermix

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Can you live an enjoyable, self-indulgent life while remaining thrifty and at the same time not overtaxing Earth’s resources? To have all of that sounds too good to be true.   If you follow what Annie Raser-Rowland suggested in her book The Art of Frugal Hedonism, however, the answer rings out as a resounding Yes! There is a process to all of this, but we can achieve this goal by making choices that lead to more of what we desire, as we discover what holds us in rapt attention: the true pleasures of our lives. During our conversation, Annie uses her own life, as a artist, long-distance hiker, and forager, to model what we can expect by embracing frugal hedonism. The results lead to a life rich in time with those we care about and full of opportunities, for concerts, education, and the occasional luxurious restaurant meal. You might say

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast This weekend I was talking with a friend in the permaculture community when we realized we'd had the same experience.   When we completed our Permaculture Design Course we were excited and enthusiastic but weren't sure what to do next. We had a certificate, but the only paths presented were to design or teach. We were full of possibilities, but few practical next steps. We found ourselves in The Permaculture Pit. I’m trying to understand how many others felt this during their permaculture education. Is this something you experienced? If so, what was missing for you? Let me know. Leave a comment below in the show notes or send me an email: The Permaculture Podcast Until the next time, spend each day practicing permaculture while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Eloisa Lewis. Eloisa is an American permaculture consultant, community building artist, activist, and healer. With her work as a project manager and educator, she helps guide communities of individuals into holistically regenerative paradigms and specializes in communal practices of decolonization.   Eloisa joins me today to talk about her experiences in radical spaces, particularly Rainbow Gatherings but also in intentional community and activist camps, to put the principles of social permaculture into action. Throughout the conversation, she shares the ways those manifest in the acts of nonviolence, communication, and community justice. She also shares how she began down this road, where she studied permaculture, and some of her mentors for others who would like to journey down this path. Find out more about Eloisa

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast Rhonda Baird, the editor of Permaculture Design Magazine and teacher and designer at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC., joins me to continue our conversation about creating change. In our first interview, we spoke about the way that we can work on ourselves as individuals. Today we move from the inside to the out with how we can organize and support others and our community.     Visit Our Partner: Food Forest Card Game In that frame, we look at the tools you can add to your toolkit to do this work and build your, and other’s, competencies. Some of those include Theory U, nonviolent communication, and dynamic governance (sociocracy). We also look at facilitation and what it means to step into a role of leadership. Find Rhonda at https://www.shelteringhills.net/ and Permaculture Design Magazine, which she edits, at https://www.permaculturede

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is Rob Avis, a permaculture practitioner from Calgary, Canada, and one of the founders of Verge Permaculture. He joined me during the Covid-19 pandemic to discuss what we can do to creatively respond to this and other crises. This includes our role as teachers and leaders while others are struggling for security, and how we can build resilience in our homes and our communities. He shares how together we can soften the blow to ourselves and others by preparing for the economic changes possible in the scenarios of hyperinflation, deflationary contraction, and hyper-stagflation, the latter of which he sees as the most likely outcome of those three at this time.  A past guest of the show we get rolling with his thoughts on how to handle what we’re currently facing, so I’ve linked to Rob’s earlier interviews in the show notes

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest for today is Rhonda Baird, editor of Permaculture Design Magazine, and designer and educator at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC.   We talk about the social side of permaculture and what we can do, as individuals and a community, to create boundaries that lead to deeper respect for ourselves and each other. To fight for something — rather than against — through small and slow solutions. The power we have as minority voices to create social change. The impact that being face-to-face with others can have in engaging with and resolving the issues facing our community and the broader world. This is a conversation about sitting with things that are often uncomfortable, but necessary for transforming the world we have into the one we want to see. Find out more about Rhonda and her work at permaculturedesignmagazine.com and shelteringhil

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast In this episode co-host David Bilbrey sits down with the teacher, activist, and permaculture practitioner Kanyon Sayers-Roods, also known as Coyote Woman, to talk about her work on the land at Indian Canyon, California to educate and inspire others in their understanding of the natural world, the connections between individuals and communities, and what we can do to approach our interactions with humility. Support the Podcast on Patreon During their conversation Kanyon and David also touch on the history of Indian Canyon and the role this location had for native peoples of California, being thoughtful with our words and actions, and to consider the impacts our choices have on ourselves, our descendants, and the land. Find out more about Kanyon’s work at indiancanyonlife.org. There is a lot to unpack from this conversation, with mo

Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Online: via PayPal Venmo: @permaculturepodcast My guest today is William Padilla-Brown, a mycologist, teacher, and social permaculture practitioner. I’ve known William for a long time and as you’ll hear us mention, we’ve wanted to do this interview for years. I’m thankful that we finally had the opportunity. He has a unique background as a citizen scientist and educator working to propagate mushrooms, study them using molecular biology, and to share what he learns with the world through classes and an annual mushroom and arts festival, Mycofest. Visit our Partner: Food Forest Card Game During the conversation today, William shares how we can get involved as citizen scientists to explore the genetic makeup of mushrooms, as well as plants and insects, with readily available supplies and skills we can learn with less study than you might expect. We also dig into his work on bree