Soon after last week's special episode dropped, the messages started coming in. One from a paid subscriber (thanks Dominique Hes) commented on how the first 25 minutes or so alone was so impactful, that I needed to write up a summary on Substack. That, I did. And it made me think some of you might appreciate just that part of our conversation carved out on the pod, to share more easily, hear again, or cut to the chase of it if you don’t have an hour to listen to the full episode. 

My guest was former star USDA scientist turned whistleblower, now farmer and independent researcher in South Dakota, Dr Jonathan Lundgren. The episode was titled You Want Evidence for Regen Ag? Here It Is.

Today, an excerpt from about 4 minutes in. It leads off with the latest on the Executive Order for regenerative agriculture that Lundgren was pivotal to. We go on to talk about the enormous body of evidence that secured it. Before rounding out here with the beginning of Jon’s incredible, tumultuous personal journey, from the USDA times to the 10th birthday celebrated just last month of his Blue Dasher Farm and independent research foundation, Ecdysis, host of the extraordinary 1,000 Farms Initiative. 

“Mr. President, the most striking data we have generated from our work is that row croppers in the U.S. have twice the asthma rates, 3 times the clinical depression, 3 times the cancer rate, and a 2,600 fold increase in Parkinson’s rates compared to the rest of society. We are killing our farmers.”

“We've got hard data. This became the largest database of regenerative food systems in existence. It's the third largest bio-inventory ever conducted by humans. And the data is like, what these farmers, I mean what they've developed is real. We're not making this up. It's true, it's scalable, it's transferable. This is the answer that we've been looking for.”

To hear the conversation in full, including more of Jon’s story and how this research and community action is developing in Australia right now, head to episode 319 on the website, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, or essentially view a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers and transcript.

Recorded 27 August 2026.

Title slide: In the Oval Office. That’s Jonathan Lundgren on the right, Will Harris to his right (sourced from Lundgren’s post on his website)

Please share this episode and/or the related Substack posts below where you can. And thanks for listening!

My Substack post summarising some of the latest research and developments in the US and Australia: We’re Killing Our Farmers: While the evidence for regenerative agriculture is flooding in

And the previous one, that led to this podcast: Two 'Regen' Farmers Walk Into An Oval Office Debate Blind-Sided – and exit with the 'most support we’ve ever had

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You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Just weeks ago, I published a piece on Substack titled: Two 'Regen' Farmers Walk Into An Oval Office Debate Blind-Sided – and exit with the 'most support we’ve ever had’. Those two farmers are legends. Will Harris from White Oak Pastures in Georgia, and my guest today, former USDA scientist, now farmer and independent researcher in South Dakota, Dr Jonathan Lundgren.

Jon’s story is the stuff of blockbuster films – kind of like the Michael Lewis stories that inspired The Big Short and Moneyball. Jon was a gun researcher with the USDA, but as he came to find deep concerns with chemical use in agriculture, he came to find deeper concerns with the political suppression of that research. 

It was actually while receiving a distinguished award from another President that it hit him, ‘playing by the rules of the game wasn’t going to change how we produce food.’ Profound upheaval ensued. He quit his job and began planning what became a successfully crowdfunded farm and research foundation, propelled by a vision to transform food systems. 

Just the other day, Blue Dasher Farm and Ecdysis Foundation celebrated their 10th birthdays, and a brewing paradigm change in food, farming and the health of people and planet. 

And the Foundation’s 1000 Farms initiative, whose extraordinary findings proved pivotal to the Executive Order that emerged from the Oval Office that day, and now believed to be the largest database of regenerative food systems in the world, is going global, including to Australia, without any cost to farmers, or for that matter, to the rest of us.

Jon joins me at dusk on the farm. 

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, or essentially view a table of contents, you can navigate via the chapter markers and transcript.

Recorded 27 August 2026.

Title image by Katie Bell at the Regenerate Conference 2024 (where ep231 was recorded – A Force for Mending?).

Register your farm via the 1000 Farms link above.

Update on the situation at Kachana Station, as a bid is launched to save the donkeys. Thanks to everyone who has responded with your support.

Music: 

Open Wide, by Russo feat. Roy Dotan (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

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The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Claire Scobie was a successful professional at the top of her game - award-winning author and journalist, and founder of Wordstruck, a narrative-based consultancy working with prominent companies globally – when a single moment cracked something open, and she found herself in a ‘devastated place’. There began the deeply personal odyssey told in her new book Wild Hope: Stories of living and leading in uncertain times.

The blurb reads:

As old certainties fall away, Claire and her husband move to Gumbaynggirr Country on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, where he is from. From there she meets filmmakers, farmers, CEOs, Elders and shopkeepers everywhere who are asking, what now? 

From the push to make rivers swimmable again, to people-owned power, and children speaking Gumbaynggirr in a Coffs Harbour school hall as if the language never left, she learns what happens when people stop waiting for perfect solutions. Together, they are living proof that, beneath the radar, thousands of people and communities are changing things from the ground up.

And that’s not the half of what Claire found along the way, as she and her husband, prominent Gumbaynggirr man and former Australian Senator, Aden Ridgeway, unexpectedly found themselves entwined in this journey together, back on Aden’s Country, striving to understand what lies at the heart of regeneration. 

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 19 August 2026.

You can pre-order the book now, with a 20% discount direct from NewSouth books.

Launch events and other info.

Claire’s Substack. Including a piece she wrote about our conversation.

Music: 

Desert Horizon, by Nolan Nova (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

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Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

‘Dr. Bronner’s Has a Plan to Change Capitalism as We Know It.’ That’s the headline that Inc. Magazine ran with on the recent launch of the Purpose Pledge. Describing it as ‘a new gold standard of social entrepreneurship,’ the article led off with this: ‘The B Corp and the billionaires’ Giving Pledge are broken—so says the team at Dr. Bronner’s.’ Well, it might be a bit more nuanced than that, but Bronner’s has discontinued its B-Corp certification. 

I spoke with CEO, David Bronner, at the company’s HQ in California a couple of years ago, for episode 207, about the incredible story of this top-selling brand of natural soaps, body care and food products. Since David became CEO in 1998, the company has grown from $4 million in revenue to $250 million, and all while continuing to change so much about the systems and stories we live by.

Back then, this podcast happened to be the first to feature the breaking news that the Purpose Pledge was readying for launch. That launch happened earlier this year. And today, more breaking news, as another four companies have just signed on.

The key architect behind the Pledge, and its Executive Director, is Les Szabo. He’s the quietly spoken Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner's, described to me as having flown under the radar for a long time. Part of the family behind the family in a way, as his wife is also a senior long-term executive at the company. And how they met and came to be where they are at Bronner’s, and with Les now launching the Pledge (and related Fund), is one enormous, heart-rending, death-defying, instructive, hopeful and crazily serendipitous story, that in large parts I sense hasn’t been shared before. 

If you’d like to go straight to a particular part of our conversation, you can navigate via the chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 13 August 2026.

Les’s blog on the Dr Bronner’s site. 

My conversation with David Bronner back in episode 207, from May 2024. 

And with the couple behind Food Connect in Brisbane, who have used the term ‘careholder’ since their successful crowd-funded equity raise, which we first talked about for episode 28, Transforming Food, Finance & Society.

Episode 227 featured Joel Caldwell talking about his award-winning short film The Green Buffalo.

For a short story about the uncanny moment that took place after this conversation, that's in my latest Substack piece.  

Music: 

Honey Mustard, by Randy Sharp (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

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Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

André Leu is co-founder and Director of Regeneration International. That’s the world's largest network geared towards the transition to regenerative food, farming and land management, for the purpose of restoring climate stability, ending world hunger and rebuilding social, ecological and economic systems. It includes over 740 organisations across more than 80 countries, and humble individual members like your host, and is in the midst of exponential growth in interest. 

I catch up with André as he sits on the deck at his pioneering tropical fruit farm in the Daintree of far north Queensland. I’m eager to chat about his 50 years as a farmer, educator, author, rock musician and movement builder.

We start with the regenerated farm, now lush, green and productive, and he says, ‘just getting better and better’. How’s that for a narrative we could do with hearing more of right now? We go on to chat about his coming of age in the heart of the Aboriginal land rights movement, and the dawn of rock’n’roll.

We hear stories of legends, and a love story too, with his wife of almost 50 years. More well-known than him too, he says. And why did this pioneering organic farmer who’s led a movement for organics and regeneration for decades ditch his organic certification? And is Gina Rinehart really the world’s biggest organic farmer? 

So much to talk about. So settle in with us, on André’s veranda, with the sound of the trees in the tropical breeze. 

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 6 August 2026.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Music: 

Rowdy, by The Lonely Ramblers (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Welcome to the new trailer for the podcast! Hit play, share it with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

This is The RegenNarration podcast — conversations with the people changing the systems and stories we live by, enabling the regeneration of life on this planet.

Music (sourced from Artlist):

The Lonely Ramblers - Rowdy - Instrumental version 

Mark Grundhoefer - Barefoot 

Yarin Primak - Galaxy Groove 

Yehezkel Raz - Flight of the Inner Bird 

Patrick Sebag - Hours - Instrumental version

And Regeneration, by friend of the podcast, Amelia Barden.

Thanks for listening!

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

How does a fashion editor cotton onto regenerative agriculture, and then find that thread leads her back to the witch hunts? Lucianne Tonti is a prominent journalist, author and consultant specialising in regenerative fashion systems. Her first book was duly called Sundressed: Natural fibres and the future of fashion. That’s now being developed into a docuseries.

Lucianne’s subsequent epic tale is told in her new book, Good Witch: In Search of Our Lost Feminine Power, published by Summit Books. It’s described as ‘A paradigm-shifting book that asks what the world might be like if divine feminine power had never been devalued. And shows us how it is being reclaimed.’

This is the book I wish I read as a young bloke in my teens. I hope both women and men get hold of it in numbers. Lucianne has been on some incredible journeys in the last half dozen years, including visiting many guests on this podcast. But her last couple of years have really dug back into the roots of our struggles, and possibilities. And it makes sense of so much. From gender relations, to health epidemics, to land, politics, economies and so much more.

More on the book:

Today, we can still feel the legacy of the witch hunts: In the way the natural world has been degraded. In the way humans have become disengaged from the things that make us truly happy. A campaign of disenchantment has sought to disconnect us from the earth – and from each other.

But enchantment was never truly lost. Here, Tonti shows us how a return to feminine power is what the world desperately needs now, more than ever.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 30 July 2026.

Title image of Lucianne by Anne Peeters.

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Lucianne’s Substack, including dispatches from her journeys accompanied by photos.

Her series of book launch events. 

Her write up of her visit to the Haggerty farm last year for Elle Australia, Follow the Flock.

Music: 

Silhouettes, by Muted (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Easkey Britton is a pioneering marine sociologist, writer and surfer. She has continued her family legacy in Ireland, becoming a legendary surfer in her own right – from being the only kid surfing in her area, to later becoming a 5x national champion and the first woman to surf the huge wave near Mullaghmore, to inspiring and guiding more women and girls into the sport, even where you might least expect it (think Iran - where it was her life that was transformed). 

For her, though, it’s always been much more than a sport. Her PhD, best-selling books and immersive ocean retreats are all about our deeper connections with water, and its power to revive old stories, places and kinships, that heal and inspire. 

And for Easkey, it all turned on a decision her grandmother made. And an impromptu moment of crazy, or brave, or maybe flow state. With some key mentor presences along the way, including one we share. So that's where we start.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 17 July 2026.

Easkey riding a giant wave in her 2014 Ride of the Year Entry.

You can listen to my conversation with the late Manchán Magan (that I still hear from listeners about) in episode 173 (or the tribute from the start of this year, which includes the last 25 minutes or so from that original episode, in episode 290). And with Tyson Yunkaporta in episode 70.

Music: 

Ocean sounds by Charles Rose.

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

If this conversation sparks something, subscribe, share it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Thanks for listening!

See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Mara Tasker is the director of the new award-winning documentary The River. It follows the people living inside the Colorado River Basin, from farmers and ranchers to suburban families, tribal communities, and the seven state negotiators trying to rewrite the rules of a river that no longer matches the paperwork. What starts as a personal admission of “I didn’t really know the river I depended on” becomes a map for charting how we might be able to breathe life back into the Colorado, and really, rivers everywhere.  

Mara’s story, too, is worth the telling – with no straight lines, from rabble rousing school girl, to gutsy cold calling young creative, with a passion for engaging with all kinds of people, and a river running through it all. Plenty of uncanny laughs run through this conversation too.

I was introduced to Mara by Melissa Grumhaus, who was an Executive Producer on the incredible documentary film Bring Them Home, about the Blackfeet Nation's effort to restore wild buffalo herds. You might remember her from episode 278 in Denver last year. And this time, she’s part of the production team alongside Aussie company Songbird Studios. I noted recent popular podcast guest, Pete McBride, was also in the credits. So it was clear how good and meaningful this film was going to be. 

If you value what you hear, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and of course head to the film’s website. Please share this podcast too.

Featuring music from the film’s soundtrack: The Story of a River, and Eric’s Grasses, by Mark Crawford.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 26 June 2026.

Host a community screening of The River.

And a community screening of Bring Them Home.

You can hear the podcasts with Liz Carlisle for ep309 (with her beautiful music), Pete McBride for ep305 (with his live mandolin), Jeff Goebel for, most recently on-location in New Mexico, ep211, and Judith Schwartz for ep175, all among my very favourites. 

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Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

Linley Dixon is co-host of The Real Organic Podcast, the weekly Anthem Award-winning ‘Best Sustainability, Environment and Climate Podcast’, recently also named one of the ‘best climate podcasts’ by Earth.org. That pod is produced by The Real Organic Project, that Linley co-directs with Vermont organic farmer Dave Chapman, a farmer-led movement, and add-on food label, dedicated to preserving the integrity of organic food. 

Right now, Linley sees the same patterns that have beset organics, coming for the regenerative movement. And in response to a challenge from Paul Hawken, and inspiration from so many pioneers, including some Aussies, Linley argues it’s time to join forces. 

Linley is a power of knowledge and experience in all this, with an incredible story to tell. Having started with nothing, her family did the hard yards and made a go of farming, but in the face of industrialised headwinds almost had to give it up, before a legacy moment occurred. But then, a horror contamination event. It was gutting. And it transformed Linley’s life. Along with so many others now, in turn.

Perhaps inevitably, as a fellow podcaster, Linley interviews me at times here too! So it’s a kind of 2-in-1. We compare all sorts of notes, including of our respective journeys across the States and Australia, speaking to people of all kinds, politics and other beliefs. Again, you guessed it, painting a picture you don’t commonly see on the TV, and mapping out the successful stuff we can build on. And again, it all culminates in an incredible exchange stemming from the music question! Before we go out with a subscriber voicemail.

This conversation was recorded just before the article I published on Substack last week on Trump’s Executive Order apparently advancing regenerative farming, said to be in part some MAHA triage. But we explore all its contexts here, including MAHA, its promise, and signs of divergence from Trump. 

We also look for what actually works: alliances across labels, cooperative models, food-as-medicine programs, directories and online marketplaces that connect eaters directly to trustworthy farms, and the cultural fuel it takes to keep pushing when the system is designed for consolidation. 

So ultimately, this episode feels perfectly timed this week. It really felt like we’d settled in on the porch at the farm too. I hope you enjoy the Summer evening hang with us.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 2 July 2026.

If you care about regenerative farming, organic integrity, soil biodiversity, pesticide contamination, and building a food system that earns trust, this one is for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who buys groceries, and leave a review with the most important standard you think “regenerative” should require.

You can hear our visit to Churchtown Dairy, with Judith Schwartz and company, in episode 221: Restoring Dairy Farming with Family, Food & Festival. And the first listener mailbag went out from there too, in ep 219.

And the Grounded Festival podcast that features the session on Food as Medicine, with Steven Chen MD, and me hosting, is here.

Music: 

Organic Reflections, by Roie Shpigler (sourced from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!

‘A brilliant exploration of wildness in both nature and humankind.’ That's what Alice Winn said about the new book by Cal Flyn. Cal is an award-winning writer from the Highlands of Scotland, and the book is called The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness. 

A five-year odyssey she sometimes thought would kill her, Cal travelled the world exploring the concept of wilderness as it ‘shifted from a spiritual notion to an aesthetic and later to an (increasingly controversial) conservation ideal.’ Which led to a critical question, as we go about things like rewilding and the 30 by 30 conservation target, how do we decolonise that ideal, while not losing all it has gained? 

Then, having been introduced to the new book, I got even more excited looking over Cal’s back catalogue. Her previous book was the award-winning best-seller, Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. What a collection of stories that was too. And out of both books, Cal says ‘coming out hopeful was a surprise to me.’

But we start with her first book, being on her harrowing connection with Australia. Thicker Than Water emerged as she traced the path of a distant relative who became fêted as a pioneer hero in Australia, but has more recently been implicated as ringleader of a number of brutal massacres of the Gunai Aboriginal people.

We talk about all this, the telling connections across some of her most extraordinary encounters, and what Cal’s found in herself, the rest of us, and the rest of nature, that continues to surprise and inspire.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Recorded 4 June 2026.

Title image of Cal sourced from The Guardian.

Music: 

Scotland Mountains, by Angel Salazar (from Artlist).

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

Subscribe for more conversations on rethinking conservation, decolonising wilderness, and building a future where nature and culture can both thrive, and share the episode and leave a review so more people can find it.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available. 

The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!