Last month I had the honour of being a guest on the podcast of the legendary independent US media outlet Mongabay. It was a unique conversation, with US-born host Mike DiGirolamo based in Sydney, and me over here in the Americas, talking about some highlights from the seven months me and the family spent travelling across the USA last year, and relating it back to the seven years we’d travelled around Australia with the podcast before that.

Mike produced a unique patch up too, interspersing our conversation with enlightening editorial additions, and some material from a past episode that was wonderful to hear again. Mongabay kindly invited me to release the episode on The RegenNarration too, so here it is, in full - a fascinating 'reverse' cross-continental exchange for the moment at hand.

You’ll hear some highlights from last year’s US journey, including more personal stories behind the journey, more detail on the hope we derived from listening to people on the ground in that election year, and the exchange I had with Allan Savory in Colorado. And all while Mike and I were inspiring thoughts in each other from our respective experiences as we went.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded mid-December 2024.

Title slide: Mike DiGirolamo.

For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.

Music:

Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

Find more:

Hear more on the Haggerty’s early engagement with First Nations & how this is playing out on the farm now.

Ep.102 with Bruno Dann on Nyul Nyul Country.

The new Substack.

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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

• Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
• Donate via PayPal.
• Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
• Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
• Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
• Visit The RegenNarration shop.
• And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.

Thanks for your support!

Welcome to a new year and new series of The RegenNarration! You might remember me talking last year with prominent author, documentary maker and farmer at Fat Pig Farm, Matthew Evans, in the lead up to the new festival he’s founded back home in Australia, called GROUNDED: the Food and Soil Festival. Well, that festival happened in early December, and a couple of weeks later I got back online with Matthew to talk about what happened, how it happened, and if it might happen again.

And hearing how his partner Sadie’s initial reaction to the festival was something like ‘wtf?’ only made me happier that she had accepted my invitation too. Aside from the fact that I’ve wanted to talk to her in her own right on this podcast for ages. (I don’t know that Matthew and Sadie have been on many podcasts together, so maybe I can even claim an exclusive!)

This conversation felt a little different. You'll hear this couple’s customary candour, humour and insight, but also an acute dose of exhaustion and elation. And it ends fittingly, in that sense, with a moving moment and tune from the festival.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 18 December 2024.

Title slide: Sadie & Matthew (sourced here).

See more photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.

Music:

My Mother, The Mountain, by Claire Anne Taylor.

Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.

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

Find more:

The event with Charles Massy & the Pollocks that became ep.16. (Ep.20 features John Hewson with friend, and subscriber, James Tonson hosting.)

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

• Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
• Donate via PayPal.
• Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
• Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
• Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
• Visit The RegenNarration shop.
• And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.

Thanks for your support!

Time to take a punt this year! I've just launched a Substack. Essentially, after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating TheRegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing – the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places.

I started to wonder if writing some of these stories would be fun and useful. All the more after hearing Rebecca Solnit affirm how vital they continue to be in shaping our sense of reality, agency and possibility (out of the LA fires). So here’s a little introduction to the what, why and how of it. Including how subscriptions will work through the Substack, alongside Patreon and Buzzsprout.

You can also read about it on my launch post on Substack. Where you can also find my first article – a sort of foundation piece - out yesterday, from the ancient Mayan cities in northern Guatemala. All will be embedded with a little latent love of photography, and some tunes from time to time. Putting thesocial back in media.

So if you fancy some of that alongside your podcast, you can subscribe on Substack here - free or paid. I hope you’ll join me there!

And standby for the new series of The RegenNarration podcast next week.

For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener or Substack subscriber via the links below.

Recorded 29 January 2025 in Antigua, Guatemala.

Title slide: AJ recording this episode (pic: Olivia Cheng).

With thanks to you early Substack subscribers, and of course you enduring Patreon and Substack subscribers, and other donating supporters. None of this could happen without you.

Music:

By Jeremiah Johnson.

Send us a text

Support the show

The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.

• Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
• Donate via PayPal.
• Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
• Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
• Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
• Visit The RegenNarration shop.
• And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.

Thanks for your support!