Reskillience

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.

1. Lauren + Oberon’s home on the web ~ Spiral Garden
2. Lauren + Oberon’s record store ~ Suffragette Records
3. Spiral Garden’s Substack
4. Suffragette Records on the gram
   Julia Jacklin ~ Don’t Let The Kids Win
5. Joni Mitchell ~ Court + Spark
6. Vandana Shiva
7. ***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!***

Couldn't find your way out of a cardigan? Get into natural navigation with Tristan Gooley, award winning and bestselling author, expedition leader, and nicknamed “The Sherlock Holmes of Nature” by the BBC.

What I love about Tristan is that he is first and foremost a practitioner of fun, about how great it feels to notice nature’s signs and clues, about the fizzy thrill of uncorking our ancestral problem solving skills. 

If you, like me, long to read the landscape and find your way through nature, Tristan’s books and courses will be your faithful guides.

I particularly loved his podcast The Pursuit of Outdoor Clues, which, in just six episodes, soothed my jangled nerves and taught me so much about nature’s whispers. 

I’ll leave you to explore Tristan’s back catalogue if you haven’t already – and maybe we’ll run into each other in his online Natural Navigation course?

Tristan’s home on the web

Tristan’s books

Tristan’s Natural Navigator courses

Tristan’s podcast ~ The Pursuit of Outdoor Clues

Get on Tristan’s mailing list!

Thinking Fast & Slow ~ Daniel Kahnemann

Kathy Holowko ~ Artist + supporter

🎙️Support Reskillience on Patreon!

Elisa Rathje lives on a small farm, on a small island, telling microscopic stories of resilience. 

She's an artist, writer, filmmaker, podcaster, unschooler, grower, permaculturalist,  goatherd and goose mistress whose work has fed me, and so many others, for years.

From Appleturnover Farm on Salt Spring Island (in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Vancouver Island and Canada), Elisa documents slow, simple approaches to skilling up and rooting down, normalising the pursuit of tiny joys.

This conversation roams between life as art, the illusion of security, community sufficiency, how to call on your inner grandma, decolonising the mind and becoming a propagator of small, ancient patterns of regeneration.

I hope you find much to savour in this sweet, soulful audio morsel. Check out + support Elisa's work!

Appleturnover online!

Elisa Rathje/Appleturnover on Instagram

Appleturnover on Patreon

Permaculture Principles

Elisa on The Accidental Gods podcast

Joseph Beauys

The Inner Mentor

Tara Mohr ~ Playing Big

Ken Page on the Simplify Podcast

Su Dennett ~ Do With Su

Joanna Macy

David Holmgren

Jade Miles is a very special mate of mine. I turned up on her doorstep as a WWOOFer in 2018 and we got on like asparagus and eggs, which is what we had for dinner that night if I recall correctly. 

You probs know Jade as the host of the Futuresteading podcast, keeper of Black Barn Farm and writer of the most personal and compelling instagram captions in all the land. 

I love that Jade is consciously bridging the personal/professional schism, exploring ways to bring her whole, complex self to her roles as CEO, farmer, speaker, writer, facilitator, mother, friend and bush rat. 

In this conversation, Jade gets more personal than ever — which is saying something because we love a juicy yarn. From her approach to podcasting, the creation of household rituals, how seasonal imperatives shape her schedule and why she is the way she is, this is one intimate Reskillience experience. 

Jade has a new book on the cook called Huddle, coming next year, and if you don’t already have the Futuresteading handbook in your hot little hands I can highly recommend it.

Black Barn Farm on Insta

Black Barn Farm’s home on the web

The Futuresteading Podcast

The Futuresteading book!

Beau Miles ~ Get Over Yourself

Anthony James ~ The RegenNarration

Tyson Yunkaporta on Futuresteading

Casper ter Kuile
Cecilia Macaulay

Claire Dunn ~ Rewilding the Urban Soul

Richard Powers ~ The Overstory

Indira Naidoo ~ The Space Between the Stars

HUDDLE is out Autumn 2025

I just polished off my last jar of blackberry jam and it’s only April, which is why I need today’s guest to assist me in the finer arts of sustainable homesteading. 

It’s Mara Ripani of Village Dreaming and Orto cooking school, a force of and for nature with a passion for greening cities, growing food, permaculture, preserving food, baking bread and sowing seeds. 

Mara is about as earthed as its possible to be while still having a social media presence, propagating skills of from-scratch cooking, foraging, fermenting, soap making and seasonal attunement from her breathtaking solar passive farmhouse here in Central Victoria. 

In this conversation, you’ll hear Mara’s alarm go off a couple of times telling her she needs to tend the bread, and you might too hear us chewing on dried plums, sipping on fragrant bay leaf tea that Mara poured for me on arrival. 

This chat feels really apt as we move towards the colder months, one last hurrah of abundance and colour and harvest before we drop all our leaves, exposed and ensconced for winter.

Mara’s home on the web ~ Village Dreaming

Mara’s upcoming workshops

Floral syrup recipes (including Mugolio ~ pine cone syrup)

Take a tour of Village Dreaming

Tanya Loos ~ Daylesford Nature Diary

Wintering ~ Katherine May

Mara’s Futuresteading interview

Are you keen to join the dots between parenting and activism? Want to grow a beautiful parallel paradigm in and through and with the yoof? 

I’m not a parent, but I am someone who believes that our “impact” starts at home; that the work of our times begins with ourselves and the beings in our orbit. 

So I reached out to one of the greatest women I know who also happens to be a parenthood black belt. Her name is Devon Harris and she’s here to school us in Aware Parenting, which is a thrillingly disruptive alternative to parenting-as-usual. 

Devon is a parenting coach, consultant and mother who helps just as many kiddos as she does adult people, because the Aware Parenting approach is relevant to everybody – especially, as I discovered, to our petulant civilisation that’s stuck somewhere been the terrible twos and  teenage angst. 

We talk about compassion and non-punitive discipline, power reversal games and listening partners, community childcare and schools as feedlots. 

I loved this conversation and feel great about bringing it to Reskillience – and grateful to Devon for being such a wise and hilarious guest. Syd, Devon’s kid, was also hanging out as we recorded so you’ll have the pleasure of hearing from him too. So, without further ado, here’s Devon Harris to show us just how radically rewarding raising children can be.

Devon’s home on the web

Contact the marvellous Devon

Tyson Yunkaporta

The Continuum Concept ~ Jean Leidloff

Hand in Hand parenting

Daylesford Dharma School

Leaves and loam, feather and bone, it’s Patrick Jones from Artist as Family! 

Patrick is Meg Magpie Ulman’s partner in permaculture neopeasantry, father of Blackwood and Zephyr, creature of Tree Elbow, songsmith, wordsmith, goatherd, grower, speaker, radical homemaker and reverential rubbish collector, most often seen on two wheels towing a load of scrap wood as one might bear a royal being, carried in a scared procession. 

In this conversation Patrick shares a really special story about how he came to be Blue Wren as well as tales of anger, renewal, goddesses and content creation. It’s a gentle and beautiful thing which I’m really excited to share with you.

Artist as Family’s home on the web

Artist as Family’s blog (READ IT)

Artist as Family on YouTube (YOUTUBE SUX)

Happen Films ~ Creatures of Place

Martín Prechtel ~ Long life, honey in the heart

Castlemaine Rites of Passage

Natural Beekeeping with Adrian Iodice

Vandana Shiva

Paul Cudenec on Substack

W.D. James on Substack

G.K Chesterton

It's all very well to forage weeds and track wombats, weave baskets from willow and walk barefoot cross country... but how do you stay wild in the city? With kids? With a face-sucking phone in your pocket?

Claire Dunn is a good person to ask about these things, being a key figure in Australia's rewilding movement and uncommonly balanced advocate for undomestication. 

If you don’t know Claire, she’s a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice -- and, as hands down one of my favourite people, it was a joy to wander with Claire around the conversational compass from her personal mythology, wild motherhood to what's up with introverts? to making peace with the concrete jungle.

Claire’s Books:

My Year Without Matches

Rewilding the Urban Soul

Claire’s home on the web:

Nature’s Apprentice

NBLT ~ Nature Based Leadership Training

Joanna Macy ~ The Work That Reconnects

Jon Young

Paul Hawken ~ Blessed Unrest

The Tourist Test ~ Kamana Wilderness Awareness School

Dr. Yin Paradies is a loving tearer downerer of teetering assumptions, a recalibrator of compasses, an Aboriginal-Asian-Anglo Australian conducting deep research on racism, anti-racism, Indigenous knowledges and decolonisation. 

Despite inhabiting a comfortable burrow in academia as the Chair of Race Relations at Deakin University, he’s also an anarchist, an animist, a trickster, a disruptor and a sage voice on so many topics that Reskillience is interested in. This is one of those convos that creeps up on you, that builds in energy and quietly blows shit apart. 

We discuss the aliveness of everything, the possibility in passivity, the nature of prayer, the perils of intentional communities and how Yin and his kin at Anam Cara are doing things differently. We talk about karma yoga, eldering, sociocracy and little bits of carrot floating in the soup of consciousness. I loved my time with Yin, and welcome you intto this quietly radical conversation.

The Everything Seed ~ Carole Matignacco

In the Time of White Raven: Activism and Animism talk ~ March 3rd 2024

Carol Sandford – Indirect Work

NBLT – Nature Based Leadership Training

Anam Cara website

Findhorn Foundation 

Merlin Sheldrake 

David Abram

Karma Yoga

Sophie Strand

Spell of the Sensuous ~ David Abram

The Wild Edge of Sorrow ~ Francis Weller

Trickster Makes This World ~ Lewis Hyde

Have you considered the backstory of your leather shoes? Are you curious about the process that transforms raw hides into luxurious handbags? Do you wonder how tanning relates to personal and collective resilience? Ever thought about nature connection through the lens of Attachment Theory? If so, my guest today is sure to massage your mind. 

It’s Josh McLean, a social worker and Bush Adventure Therapy Facilitator who also happens to be an expert in the lost art of hide tanning. 

You might know him as the guy from The Bush Tannery, but he’s increasingly bringing his wicked set of ancestral skills to bear on modern mental health practice. 

I first met Josh at a rabbit tanning workshop he was leading in the middle of the city, and I was really honoured that he was made the time to reconnect and join me on the podcast to share his fascinating perspective on life, death, the past, the future, changemaking, bridge building and the pale blue dot we call home. So, please enjoy this ye olde skills edition of Reskillience with Josh McLean.

The Bush Tannery

Josh’s tanning workshops at CERES

Outdoor Health Australia

Get in touch with Josh ~ [email protected]

Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

Attachment Theory

Book ~ Attached by Dr. Amir Levine & Rachel S.F. Heller M.A

Screen Based Living

Attention Restoration Theory

David Holmgren is the co-originator of Permaculture, self-aware contrarian and contemplator of everything. 

I’m lucky enough to be part of his extended household, so rather than shooting the breeze about the state of the world while sowing parsnips I figured I better bloody well get him on the podcast. 

We dig into David’s own internal landscape as well as the contours of his life at Melliodora, and I was especially eager to quiz him about land sharing and housing alternatives; prime listening for those in the debt-avoidant club. 

Listen out for our new Reskillience segment: Word Association – which sees me peppering David with all kinds of words and phrases to see what he’ll volley back. Such fun. And David said it’s unlike any interview he’s done before, which I’m taking as a good thing.

Maya Ward

Permaculture principle #8 – Integrate rather than segregate

Bill Mollison

Edges talk given by David in Lisbon

Permaculture principle #11 – Use edges and value the marginal

David Holmgren’s collected essays

Essay ~ Pandemic brooding

Essay ~ Crash on Demand 

Essay ~ The Apology

Book ~ The Golden Calm by M.M. Kaye

Melliodora property

EcoBurbia

Ivan Illich

German Permaculture Academy

Call of the Reed Warbler ~ Charles Massey

RetroSuburbia Chapter #25: Changing Habits for Self-Reliance + Resilience

Book ~ RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future ~ David Holmgren

eBook ~ Trees on the Treeless Plains ~ David Holmgren

Permaculture events + workshops

Today's yakkity yak is with one of the most radical women in permaculture -- and you know how wild those permies can be. It's Su Dennett! Life partner of David Holmgren and unspoken ruler of the roost at Melliodora. Su is a seventy seven year old inspiration, a permaculture matriarch and precious repository of ye old skillz. I sat down with her in the teahouse, a few moons ago now, and record this conversation. (This was actually the first interview I ever recorded for Reskillience, so don’t be alarmed by the references to winter, the bushfire season ahead and fabricated listener questions.) What is totally timeless is Su’s take on food, the gut, kids and parenting, eating animals, talking to animals, household roles, wealth, community, and small town gossip. Get into it.

Online course ~ Do with Su

Cute zine ~ Do with Su

Come to the Do with Su online launch with Costa!

Holmgren Design online

The Holmgren bookshop

The RetroSuburbia community on Facebook

RetroSuburbia ~ The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future

I’m not a doctor – though I wish I was because who wouldn’t want to take their petrified child to see Dr Payne? However, I did study herbal medicine and practice as a naturopath, which could be why so many folks still get in touch with me about plant medicine. 

So! To all those green appreciators out there – wannabe witches, budding shamans, dandelion disciples, mullein maestros, burdock rockers, sage mages… this episode with Taj Scicluna is for you.  

You might know Taj as The Perma Pixie, but she’s currently in a rebranding chrysalis and will be emerging soon as something new and beautiful. She’s a Botanical Educator, Grassroots & Bioregional Herbalist, Writer, Forager, Awe-seeker and Animist – and I’ll add: a clear, calm voice in the wilderness. 

There’s so much to love in this long, awakening convo. May it scratch the botanical itch while soothing the herbal soul.

Taj Scicluna’s home on the web

Taj on Instagram

Taj’s Patreon

Taj’s courses, workshops, retreats and offerings (so many starting in Feb!)

Feb ~ The Herbal Apprentice

Mar ~ Ritual Herbalism (waitlist!)

Weed witch ~ Susun Weed

Local herb nerd ~ Willow Herb Nerd

Foraging aficionado ~ The Urban Nanna

An excellent field guide ~ The Weed Forager’s Handbook

Nature’s Apprentice ~ Claire Dunn

Imaginary tee-shirts:

Capitalism: I didn’t consent to this

Interrogate Capitalism!

Obliterate Capitalism!

Be the weeds!

You don’t have to fight for rebellion.

Throw a chicken bone in the cogs of the never-say-die machine with this week’s convo about DEATHHHHH. 

Not going to coat this one in plum sauce and call it “spare ribs” – today Beck Lowe and I go the whole hog on keeping animals, killing animals, and why to hone that skill if you LOVE animals. Get around it.

Beck Lowe’s home on the web

Book ~ Our Street by Beck Lowe + David Holmgren

Podcast ~ Poetry Unbound

Podcast ~ Big Things. Little Things.

Podcast ~ Ologies

Book ~ RetroSuburbia

For the seekers ~ Do a Permaculture Design Certificate!

Live Online PDC with Beck + David ~ February

Rocklyn Ashram PDC with Beck + David ~ March

Permaculture property ~ Melliodora

Little known gardening program ~ Gardening Australia

Oh happy day, it’s Jordan Osmond from Happen Films! 

Happen Films is one of the most powerful portals of inspiration in the sustainability space; not just trotting out the same old green living tropes but laying new turf, sharing fringe ideas about how to care for land, be in community, and live the change. 

I was stoked to sit down with Jordan now that he’s back in Australia and quiz him about filmmaking, changemaking and finances – and like good little optimists, we only mentioned civilisational collapse once.

Visit Happen Films on the web

Follow Happen Films on YouTube

Support Happen Films on Patreon

Podcast ~ Accidental Gods

Documentary ~ Fahrenheit 9/11

Documentary ~ Food Inc.

Professor dude ~ Samuel Alexander 

Podcast ~ Possibility Now! with Ethan Hughes

Namaste Foundation/Biome Trust

Permie Neopeasants ~ Artist as Family

Book ~ Artist as Family’s The Art of Free Travel

Permie place ~ Melliodora

Alain de Botton

David Holmgren

Nicole Foss

Helena Norberg-Hodge

Podcast ~ The Great Simplification

Charles Eisenstein ~ The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible

Happen Films referenced

A Simpler Way

Fools & Dreamers

Ben & bEartha

Living the Change

Living Simply in an Off Grid Tiny House

Creatures of Place 

An Invitation for Wildness

Can rocks be your besties? Are the shadows safer? How does Deer Medicine help women avoid becoming prey? 

Get into this conversation with adventurer, wilderness guide and creature of place Suzy Muir – who, alongside her intrepid husband Jon Muir – live a radically simple off grid existence in the Grampians. 

I was lucky enough to meet Suzy in her natural habitat, purely by chance, and have considered her a friend and mentor ever since. Her stories and wisdom and wildness may just have the same effect on you; something to hear with your bones as well as your ears, singing to ancient and latent parts of the soul. Enjoy this whole conversation.

Suzy + Jon’s home on the web ~ Grampians Nature Programs

Suzy + Jon’s accommodation ~ A Boat in the Grampians

Suzy + Jon’s books + DVDs

Watch Alone Across Australia

Watch Suzy & The Simple Man

Mary Oliver’s poem ~ Wild Geese

Can we tempt you sell your car, compost your shit and embrace a life of joyful frugality? 

You don't have to answer right away. Listen to this conversation with Meg Ulman of Artist as Family to hear what a radically connected lifeway is all about. 

We cover a lot of ground in this episode from growing up Jewish and getting intentional about time, to forest names, bush kids, menopause and grief. 

GOOD LINKS

Meg + Artist as Family’s home on the web

Artist as Family’s YouTube

Artist as Family’s humanure compost workshop

The Humanure Handbook ~ Joseph Jenkins

New Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way ~ Susan S. Weed

Beyond Bitchy ~ Mastering the Art of Boundaries podcast

Dr. Mindy Pelz on YouTube

The Wild Edge of Sorrow ~ Francis Weller

A convo about the collapse of civilization may not be everyone’s cuppa tea, but a spoonful of Dave Pollard makes the medicine go down! And today Dave is bringing the sweetness to episode one of Reskillience for a Big Hairy Chat about the End Times – that ain’t so scary after all. 

We discuss what “collapse” means, skills that can help us cope and adapt, why communitarianism is where it’s at, and how to catch each other when The Shit Hits The Fan. 

Dave is a writer and longtime student of culture, systems theory, complexity, history, human nature, non-duality and how the world really works. He describes himself as a dechooled non-spiritual vegan and joyful pessimist – and after this surprisingly uplifting conversation, I’m sure you’ll agree.

CONNECT WITH DAVE

Dave’s home on the web ~ How To Save The World

LINKS TO STUFF

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