Episodes
-
Are bees a mammal in many bodies?
Why do conventional beehives leave bees cold, stressed and defensive?
How can beekeepers deal with varroa mite without any chemicals?
Do European honeybees even belong in Australia?
What is Australia’s best honey and where to get it?
All this and more in today’s GLORIOUS conversation with leading natural beekeeper Adrian Iodice. Such a special one folks 🐝🐝🐝
LINKY POOS 🧙♀️
The Beekeeping Naturally website
Adrian on Insta
Adrian’s courses & workshops
Adrian’s Kenyan Top Bar hives
Adrian’s YouTube channel – so many how-tos
Embody Bee
Save the Bees Australia
Biodynamics – Tobias Mager
Tim Malfroy ~ Malfroy’s Gold
Natural Beekeeping Australia
-
If you prefer nature to people, birdsong to screeching tyres and secretly want to crash the economy via mass workplace dropout due to a bird language contagion, you will go absolutely crackers for this convo.
Andrew Turbill aka. THE BIRD GUY is here to share his epic and somewhat perilous birding quests for 2025, from stalking Logrunners to sidestepping fascists and recording a full blown predator attack in the sky.
F****** fabulous listening for anyone under the spell of birds.
Andrew’s 2025 to-do list
find out where our local superb lyrebirds (well, at least 1 lyrebird anyway) nest and get an audio recording of the young bird begging or alarm calls get a decent photo of a logrunner build an elevated sit spot platform in the forest spend more time in the forest socialising with songbirds and less time doom-scrolling about the callous and cruel manifestations of psychopaths, narcissists and fascists record audio of a full-sequence aerial predator attack keep my bird baths full 365 days of the year devise a way to dissuade catbirds and fairy-wrens from mercilessly pummeling my windows at dawn throughout spring and summer find someone desperate enough to make some walking-around money to enter 30 years of my naturalist seasonal field observations into a data base or excel spreadsheet so i make some effing sense of them take on a bird language apprentice visit my mum more oftenLINKY POOS 🧙♀️
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Andrew Turbill’s online nest
Andrew on ABC Radio National
You were once a Bird Language Samurai, and can be again ~ Andrew Turbill
Megalania goanna!!!
Jon Young
Voices of birds page on Andrew’s website
Upcoming Bird Language events + retreats
****support Reskillience on Patreon****
-
Missing episodes?
-
If you're sick of ham sandwiches and Love Actually, why not bring spear throwing and possum skinning to Chrissy lunch? Eva and Will of Wild Beings have some cracking ideas for rewilding family gatherings -- and every other facet of modern existence, for that matter.
These two intrepid humans lead a radically connected life on/in/with the land, and inspire others to do the same. Tracking, hunting, foraging, tanning, weaving, bush medicine and bird language... this conversation harks back to the OG roots of Reskillience; re-membering that old, wise body of ecological knowledge and running with it... into the shrubbery.
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
Wild Beings’ home on the web
Wild Beings on Instagram
Seasonal Earth Skills Gathering
[book] Wild Food Plants of Australia ~ Tim Lowe
[book] Wondrous World of Weeds – Pat Collins
***Show Reskillience some love on Patreon***
-
Things to know about this episode:
🪶 It was recorded on Lucy's bedroom floor, smushy carpet under-butt and steaming cups of dandy tea in hand.
🪶 It’s a day spa for your weary weary soul, the one who yearns for alignment between what you love and what you earn.
🪶 It includes a grounding practice & ways to attune to your evolutionary purpose.
🪶 It’s kinda like a personal session with a business strategist, social entrepreneur, poet, writer and regenerator… in podcast form.
🪶 It’s a brave and nuanced take on capitalism, less about poisoning it with roundup, more about seeing it as part of the garden we humans have grown and can therefore gently, intentionally supplant.
❤️ Listen right to the end for a poetry reading.
🧙♀️LINKY POOS
🏡 Lucy’s home on the web
🏝️ Lucy’s Instagram
📕 Lucy’s book ~ Divine Postal Service
🌕 Lucy’s full moon Substack
***Support Reskillience on Patreon (but don’t use the Patreon app cos Apple will charge yo ass a fee. GO DESKTOP)***
-
FOR ONCE IT'S NOT A PERMIE 😱
Please enjoy this fun-as-fuck conversation with Blake Boles, who, in an unexpected deviation from regular Reskillience programming, is not a permaculture educator and is in fact a renegade unschooler, vagabonding wordsmith, teen travel leader, bikepacking blogger, tango maestro and passionate spokesperson for the Dirtbag Rich life.
We romp through topics such as quitting school, defying relocalisation, AI playdates, post-app dating and failure resumes.
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
The Dirtbag Rich podcast!
Blake’s home on the web
Dateblake
Blake on Substack
A bit more about Dirtbag Richness
Couchsurfing.com
Warmshowers.org
Semi-rad.com
Tim Mathis ~ The Dirtbag’s Guide To Life
-
This episode was recorded while sitting on Artist As Family's living room floor, glowing embers in the belly of the fire, cups of hawthorn and artichoke tea on the coffee table, and Meg’s famous ferments watching over us from the shelves. You’ll hear us accidentally knocking the microphones, some quality heavy breathing and Zero the dog dreaming and yipping away on the couch.
And it's our first audio quartet! Meg, Patrick and twelve-year-old Woody offer their list of ten permaculture neopeasant provocations as a whole family; a huge highlight was hearing Woody share wisdoms from his unconventional upbringing complete with knives and chainsaws and flames and the freedom to learn lessons the hard way.
LINKY POOS 🧙♀️
[EVENT] Artist as Family’s all day house + garden tour ~ Sunday November 17 in Central Vic
Artist as Family’s nook on the web
Artist as Family on Substack
[FILM] A Day in the Life of Woody ~ Happen Films
Paul Kingsnorth on Substack
-
You already know today's guest. You’ve admired her art, chortled at her pithy permaculture puns and perhaps even listened to her rhyme along with Formidable Vegetable, those eco-funk, full of beans, electro-radish rockers.
It's the perennially brilliant Brenna Quinlan! Illustrator and educator who brandishes her watercolour brushes at the world’s gnarliest problems, and paints beautiful alternatives.
In this convo:
🪺 All about Brenna & Charlie’s three year build.
🪺 The stories in the walls of their strawbale home.
🪺 Intentional community living.
🪺 Teasing out the finer strands of what brings you joy in groups, work, life.
🪺 What’s next for Brenna?
🪺 Brenna's 10 things! Not gonna tell you what they are.
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
Brenna’s home on the web
Brenna on Instagram
Grow Do It ~ Permaculture + Sustainability Education
Formidable Vegetable ~ Kimchi
[COMING SOON] Costa’s Garden ~ Costa Georgiadis & Brenna Quinlan
Goodies Farm ~ Straw farmer
Brenna on Futuresteadung
Kirsten Dirksen/Sandor Katz
-
🪶 MONDAYS FROM NOVEMBER 4
We’ve got a jazzy new format and just a couple of months till 2025, so let’s set some new years resolutions...Reskillience style!
Over the next ten weeks, ten guests will share lists of ten things that are close to their hearts...
...things to try, or consider, or start...
…that will spark all kinds of inspiration.
Come and hang out with permie legends, renegade unschoolers and regenerative leaders as they talk us through 100 magical prompts for reskillient living.
What'll you take into 2025?
The groovy jingle is thanks to UNIVERSFIELD with their track Positive Energy Groove (30s) License: Attribution 4.0
-
Don’t you love it when science geeks get spiritual? I do, because when highly rational folks admit that the world is far more mysterious than it is predictable, it’s intensely validating for us intuitive hippies who’ve believed in magic all along.
This is one of those beautiful and surprising conversations with one of my farming idols Charlie Showers from Black Barn Farm that’ll have you rethinking everything. And/or thinking you want to get into apple growing. DO IT.
Charlie is a geological engineer, agricultural researcher, bushfire and natural disaster expert, fruit tree grafting jedi, permaculture ninja, dad, husband, unapologetically ritualistic bloke and bloody legend.
We traverse:
🍏 Eldership
🍏 The meaning of life
🍏 Men’s circles + gatherings
🍏 Permaculture farming
🍏 Orchard rituals
🍏 First gen farming
🍏 Losing freedom, gaining depth
🍏 Schooling regrets
🍏 Father/son rites of passage
🍏 Self care for men
🍏 Recharging as an introvert
🍏 Advance sleep phase disorder
🍏 Charlie’s #1 most important skill (surprising)
🍏 Anti-fragility
🧙♀️LINKY POOS
Black Barn Farm’s home on the web
Black Barn Farm on Insta
Black Barn Farm fruit trees
Wendell Berry
Book ~ The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour
Castlemaine Rites of Passage Program
Organisation ~ The Men’s Table
Menergy ~ Men’s Gathering
Non-Violent Communication
Sociocracy
Book ~ AntiFragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Concept ~ Ask vs. Guess Culture
***support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
*Recorded outdoors under a passionfruit vine with wind in the banana leaves*
This is one of those conversations that’ll shake you up, rattle your cage and light a fire under your butt to make change – because today’s guest reckons we need to upskill, now! It might just be the greatest pep talk in Reskillience history, from one of the most passionate permies in the movement. It’s Brett Cooper from Limestone Permaculture.
Brett, his wife Nici and fam live on Worimi Country, mid-coast NSW. Not too long ago their one acre block was just grass and hoofprints in a sleepy little rural town. Now there are over 550 fruit and nut trees, 80-140 chooks, ducks and turkeys, veggies galore, herbs, medicines, outdoor classrooms, 4.4 million litres of stored water and one legendary pizza oven. Oh, and some bangin’ community resilience.
Over three million viewers have devoured Brett + Nici’s farm tours on YouTube, pointing to more than just a fetish for gardening content but a deep yearning for the health, abundance and connection that overflows at Limestone Permaculture.
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙
Visit Limestone Permaculture
Or peruse their upcoming events
The Limestone PDC+HC!
Central Vic permie calendar
4 Day Residential Permaculture Retreat with David Holmgren, Beck Loew + Su Dennett ~ November 1 - 5
The Rocklyn Ashram PDC ~ Feb 2025
Good stuff we mentioned
Book: Roots Demystified ~ Robert Kourik
Book: Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture ~ Rosemary Morrow (currently on sale at Permaculture Principles!)
Book: Permaculture A Designer’s Manual ~ Bill Mollison
Book: Permaculture One ~ Bill Mollison + David Holmgren
Eastern NSW
***join the Reskillience fam on Patreon***
-
🌼 A spring equinox special 🌼
Meet Amelie Vanderstock – science communicator, artist, musician, native bee pHD and total ray of sunshine.
Amelie has a passion for pollinator-friendly cities, and raises awareness through workshops, collaborative art and obscenely catchy songs that celebrate weeds, bees and bin chickens.
This ain’t just an interview about invertebrates – though, there’s plenty of insectivorous inspiration to be had – nay, it has a solid backbone of advice and solidarity for all those trying to merge their strange passions and professional skills, who are yearning for greater alignment and intentionality in everything, from study to travel to morning routines.
Amelie also has a crowdfunding campaign to support the release of her debut album Let’s Bee Scientists and the resource kit that goes with it, turning ecological knowledge into ear worms for the next generation of earth lovers. It’s extremely close to reaching its target! You can pre-buy the album which will expedite its release and help Amelie do more of her sweet work.
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
Pre-buy Amelie Ecology’s album
Amelie’s home on the web
Amelie on Instagram
Amelie on Spotify
Church Street Studios
Blinky Bill nostalgia
Australian Student Environment Network
***support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
The first time I saw Anisa Rogers (who was basking on the grass reading a book) I thought: this person looks hekkin relaxed, has a tan consistent with living in reality, and the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
We got talking and I learned that Anisa is involved in all kinds of system-disrupting mischief in Naarm, Melbourne, as part of the Degrowth Network – and so many social justice, environmental, guerrilla gardening and new economy groups.
The reason Anisa can lead a rich life in community is that they’ve whittled their living costs down to such an extent that they’re free to be of service to their passions and values. Kudos!
🌟 Other stuff we cover
Quick & dirty capitalism explainer
Quick & lovely degrowth definition
Where activism falls short
Leaning into hard sharehouse conversations
Living on one day’s work per week
Mutual aid funds
Getting paid to process your shit
Friends sharing money
🧙♀️ LINKY POOS
Degrowth festival. November 30th in Coburg (Melbourne). Follow DNA Facebook or email [email protected] if you want to be involved
Degrowth Network Australia
Degrowth Central Victoria
Four Day Residential Permaculture Retreat with David Holmgren + Beck Lowe at Larnook Community Farm
***Support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
My guest today is Joel Meadows, a phenomenal human who happens to be a permaculture teacher, rocket oven engineer, energy geek, green tech sceptic, sculptor, illustrator, musician and composting ninja.
This is one epic episode that encompasses:
🌟Are renewables really all that?
🌟Why we’re using more fossil fuels than ever *cry*.
🌟Smart phone free life.
🌟Being deliberately abnormal.
🌟ROCKET OVENS.
🌟Why everyone is practical + can learn shit.
🌟Three steps to household energy resilience.
We recorded this convo at Joel’s kitchen table, in his majestic solar passive strawbale home after gorging ourselves on a garden omelette and roasted wattleseeds.
I wrote about the experience in neurotic detail over on Substack and included masses of photos of Joel’s home + garden for your voyeuristic needs. Here it is.
🧙♀️LINKY POOS
[video] Joel’s intro to hot composting
[video] A little explanatory video about YIMBY
[website] YIMBY (note all the tasty resources including the 'Compost Conversation' articles published each week in the Midland Express)
[video] Joe’s Permaqueer talk on appropriate technology
[video] Take a virtual tour of Joel’s house
[eBook] Joel + Tim Barker’s Rocket Oven how-to book
***Join the not-culty-at-all Reskillience community on Patreon***
-
An interview with the intrepid author of my favourite book in recent years, Robyn Mundy!
(Word nerds, snow bunnies, penguin enthusiasts and fans of the freezing cold, this one’s for you.)
Robyn is a Tasmanian author and adventurer, Arctic guide, Antarctic research assistant, and lifelong lover of snow and ice.
I picked up her book Cold Coast in the library on a whim, because it had a cute Arctic fox on the cover and came recommended by library staff.
It tells the true story of Vanny Voldstad, the first female trapper in Svalbard, who defied 1930s gender norms to claim her place in the perilous and male dominated world of polar bear and fox hunting.
Robyn’s sensitivity, intelligence, and reverence for wild nature shines on the page — and I suspected she’d be a wealth of Reskillient wisdom. (Correct.)
Even if you haven’t heard of Robyn or read her books, there are so many gems in this conversation — strong rewilding themes, advice for aspiring storytellers and the unmistakable call to adventure that might just have you booking a ticket on the next ship to Antarctica.
Robyn Mundy ~ Cold Coast
Robyn Mundy ~ Wild Light
Robyn Mundy ~ The Nature of Ice
Robyn on Instagram
Robbie Arnott ~ Flames
Favel Parret ~ Past the Shallows
Maatsuyker island
The mighty Osprey
Arctic fox
Sound credit: klankbeeld on Freesound.org
***Join the not-culty-at-all Reskillience community on Patreon***
-
Sit down and whip out your preferred pen* because Dylan Graves is doing back-of-the-envelope calculations to show you how to access land within three to five years.
I know, sounds weirdly left-brained for our whimsical podcast, but fear not, this conversation with an inspiring and intensely honest permaculture teacher will have you dreaming and doing in tandem.
In the deep south of Aotearoa New Zealand, Dylan and his partner Evita are living and breathing Reskillience. Dylan is a permaculture teacher, biochar educator, farmer and frank-as-anything about financial pathways that lead to both personal freedom and a low-resource lifestyle that respects nature’s limits. He also covers these tantalising topics:
Should permaculture courses be cheaper?
Should we all earn radically less?
Jobs no-one is doing in permaculture.
So many options for low-cost living.
Insights as a Workaway host.
Total weekly income.
Living on 10k per year.
Educational holidays.
Accepting financial gifts from friends.
Money taboos.
Small livelihoods.
Anger as a driver.
Forced to farm!
Permaculture sheep farming.
Introverted permaculture teacher lyfe.
Biochar conspiracies.
*The hierarchy of pens is: Quill + ink > any Japanese pen > old school fountain pen > Artline 220 Series Superfine Point Black 0.2mm > all other pens.
LINKY POOS 🧙♀️
The wise Australian Darter
Dylan’s home on the web
Biochar resource #1
Biochar resource #2
A great chat with Dylan on the Quorum Sense podcast
Robin Clayfield
Rosemary Morrow
The Great Simplification Podcast
Daniel Schmachtenberger on AI + The Superorganism
***support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
What's the story with free birthing, wild birthing, orgasmic births and births that don't go to plan?
Here to deliver answers to all our laborious questions is the wise and erudite Eleanor Young, researcher, permaculturalist, writer and midwife.
Even if you're not some born-again birthing evangelist, you'll find lots to love in this gentle and soulful exploration of human propagation. Because there is so much overlap between how we treat birth and how we treat the earth; between reclaiming our mammalian birthing blueprint and remembering how to live within nature’s lore and loamy bosom.
I love that Eleanor integrates permaculture principles and midwifery. I love that she walks between worlds, the clinical and the feral. And you’ll love this episode if you’re yearning to learn about undisturbed birth, the current state of midwifery, polyvagal theory, healing birth trauma and why permaculture principles and birthing are natural bedfellows.
LINKY POOS 🧙🏼♀️
Eleanor’s substack ~ Inhabiting the Edge
Eleanor on Instagram
Suzy Muir ~ Deer Medicine
Donut Economics ~ Kate Raworth
Eleanor + Patrick Jones in conversation
Beck Lowe
Permaculture Principles
***Support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
Would you pick up a schoolkid’s half eaten apple and eat it?
Annie Raser-Rowland would, while shining a lopsided smile to passersby.
Annie is the radical wordsmith behind the bestselling The Art Of Frugal Hedonism and The Weed Forager’s Handbook, co-authored with the equally-and-proudly-as-stingy Adam Grubb.
This is one helluva conversation that covers:
🌟Why to be even weirder
🌟Rubbing frugality pheromones on your significant other
🌟Starting work at 3am
🌟Engaging teenage goth mode to deal with chronic health challenges
🌟Embracing voluntary extinction
🌟Leaving room for the more-than-human
🌟The plight of a brushtail possum in our wall.
Lap it up!
🧙♀️LINKY POOS
The Art of Frugal Hedonism (revised edition!)
The Weed Forager’s Handbook
Permaculture Principles ~ who sell ethically published books and have a wealth of free educational materials.
Melliodora Publishing
*** Support the show on Patreon***
(I’m loving this 🌟emoji which makes me feel like I’m doing a great job. You’re doing a great job too 🌟🌟🌟)
-
Many of you have requested interviews with folks who are making beautiful nests in less-than-perfect contexts, like the city. Who haven’t flown off to Planet Permaculture but are sticking with modern civilisation. You’ve asked to explore the personal terrain of chronic pain, limited energy and neurodivergence; highlighting radical self compassion as the necessary first step in the radical reimagining of everything.
And so I reached out to Koren Helbig, a restful role model for our times.
If you don’t know Koren, she’s a digital marketing strategist and journalist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide. She shares stories of gardening and climate positive futures for publications like the ABC and the guardian, and top quality fluffy poultry content over on instagram.
I’ve been watching Koren’s work from afar for ages, half envious and wholly admiring of her ability to weave permaculture principles throughout her entire life, from how she grows food, connects with neighbours, pays the mortgage and runs her business to — as I discovered in this conversation — deliberately building rest and reflection and fallowing into her schedule. Best of all, Koren is a real and warm human who exudes a quiet brilliance. I loved spending time with her, and know you will too.
Koren’s home on the web
Koren on Instagram
The Art of Frugal Hedonism ~ Annie Raser-Rowland & Adam Grubb
She Makes Magic podcast
The Food Forest
Holistic Decision Making with Dan Palmer
Kirstin Neff ~ Self Compassion
Beyond Climate Grief ~ Jonica Newby
***Support Reskillience on Patreon***
-
Did you know that women represent less than one third of artists in the music industry? And just 12.6% of songwriters? I’m quoting my guests here, Lauren and Oberon Carter of Spiral Garden and, lately, Suffragette Records in Hobart, Lutruwita.
Suffragette Records stocks music made by women only, not for the sake of exclusion but to rebalance the scales. Because who and what we listen to patterns our thinking, beliefs, communities and civilization. When women aren’t part of our cultural soundscape, we miss out on stories and messages and melodic teachings from a whole portion of the population.
I was delighted to unpack Lauren + Oberon’s new-ish adventures in vinyl, how the’ve embedded permaculture ethics into their business, the day to day experience of running a record shop as a family of five, and the heartfelt chats they’re having with old dudes about music, climate change, the matriarchy and everything in between.
Lauren + Oberon’s home on the web ~ Spiral Garden Lauren + Oberon’s record store ~ Suffragette Records Spiral Garden’s Substack Suffragette Records on the gram
Julia Jacklin ~ Don’t Let The Kids Win Joni Mitchell ~ Court + Spark Vandana Shiva ***Support Reskillience on Patreon*** -
Scarcity mindsets + scrofulous zombies are no match for nature’s weedy abundance! So says Diego Bonetto, wild food advocate and forager with a heart of greenish-gold.
Diego calls Wiradjuri Country, NSW, home and leads foraging workshops, seasonal edible adventures, community art projects, wild storytelling events, makes more weedy media appearances than I can list here and is the author of the excellent Eat Weeds: A Field Guide to Foraging.
I’m utterly enamoured of Diego’s teachings and this conversation, filled with the language of plants, the wisdom of place, forest communions, not-quite-closed loops, ecological hypocrisy and pretty good reasons to never ever ever mow your lawn.
Find links to Diego’s wonderful work listed below.
Diego’s home on the web
Diego’s book ~ Eat Weeds
Diego on Instagram
Diego on the Futuresteading podcast
Marnee Fox
***Support Reskillience on Patreon!***
- Show more
