Reskillience

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.

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