Futuresteading

Jade Miles

This is a conversation about the future. About creating a culture that values tomorrow. We reckon a slower, simpler, steadier existence is the first step - one that’s healthier for humans and the planet. We call it Futuresteading. Each month we chat to people prominent and humble in food, farming, health and environment, gathering practical advice and epic solidarity - so we can all nut this thing out together. Join our nitty, gritty, honest and hopeful convo every Monday during our 10 episode seasons.Support the pod by shouting us a cuppa >>> buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading

  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Ep 210 The Togetherness Blueprint. Multigenerational life with Jeremy Pryor

    Step into the deeper currents of what it means to build a life that lasts beyond a single generation. Explore multi-generational living not just as a practical arrangement, but as an antidote to the fragmentation of modern society—a way of returning to rootedness, continuity, & shared purpose. Reflect on the power of family rituals, enduring traditions & the slow transmission of wisdom that strengthens the family ecosystem.

    Through personal stories & cultural insight, Jeremy reveals how honouring ancestral lineage has cultivated belonging & identity, and how intentional gatherings have helped reweave the connections frayed by hyper-individualism. Jeremy speaks to the beauty & complexity of holding the responsibility of caring for aging parents, & the steady vision of togetherness that shapes their family’s choices.

    This conversation touches on the importance of building community with both kin & chosen family, redefining success in relational rather than material terms, & rediscovering what “enough” truly means in a world bent toward consumption. It is a conversation about stewardship, resilience, & designing a life that honours both our roots & our future.

    Find Jeremy online

    Loved this? Try another:

    Nat Wilmot - Living her Dream

    Support the Show
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    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Books - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness


    Pod Partners Rock:Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

    Show Notes:

    • Embracing multi-generational living as a resilient response to the rhythms of modern life
    • Rooting the household in foundational rituals &traditions that anchor future generations
    • Honouring ancestral lineage as a compass for long-term stewardship
    • Weaving intergenerational wisdom into daily life to strengthen the family ecosystem
    • Recognizing how hyper-individualism fractures connection & belonging
    • Practising deep long-termism as a cornerstone of sustainable, life-supporting futures
    • Caring for aging parents through intentional, dignity-centred practices
    • Crafting a shared vision of togetherness to guide family decisions across decades
    • Cultivating community that extends beyond bloodlines into chosen kin & local networks
    • Redefining success by elevating relationships, contribution, & coherence over consumption
    • Understanding what “enough” means in a world shaped by excess & scarcity mindsets
    • Preserving generational knowledge as a critical asset for family resilience & adaptability
    • Living intentionally through long-range planning, transparent communication, & shared purpose
    • Designing a lifestyle that prioritizes stewardship, regeneration, & sustainable prosperity


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    14 December 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 53 minutes 30 seconds
    Ep 209 Jamin Heppell - Lessons from the Mountains: Resilience and Leading with Conviction

    In this episode, we sit down with Jamin Heppell to dive into the edges where personal growth, leadership, and nature all meet. We talk about what it means to move through fear, to listen to our intuition, and to find clarity in the moments that challenge us most. Jamin opens up about his own life initiations, the experiences that have shaped who he is and how he leads and shares the practices and rituals that help him stay grounded and resilient. Together, we explore what heart-centered leadership really looks like in today’s world, and how the mountains — both literal and metaphorical — can teach us about courage, authenticity, and alignment.


    We talked about:

    • The mountains are unforgiving, teaching us resilience.
    • Life is a mirror for our personal growth.
    • Clarity, clearing, and creation are essential in leadership.
    • Fear can be a guide if we learn to listen to it.
    • Daily rituals support our resilience and well-being.
    • Leadership starts with self-awareness and authenticity.
    • Nature provides profound lessons for personal development.
    • Initiations in life help us grow and expand.
    • Heart-centered leadership is crucial for community well-being.
    • Mountains symbolise the challenges and triumphs of life.


    Links You'll Love:

    Jamin's offerings: https://linktr.ee/jaminheppell

    Jamin's Website: https://mountainsandmarathons.world/aligneverest26/


    Article on the Patagonia story mentioned in the pod: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/26/australian-hikers-chilean-mountain-blizzard-survival-stories


    Pod Partners Rock:
    Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5


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    Buy Me A Coffee
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    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

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    7 December 2025, 9:00 pm
  • 1 hour 11 minutes
    Ep 208 Manda Scott - Pondering how we became accidental gods of this land & seeking connection to it with humility not control

    Summary
    If we are going to lay the foundations of a world we are proud to leave as a legacy we need to be comfortable to move into elderhood - for Manda Scott this is about getting comfortable with emergence and asking the living web “what is mine to do”.
     We’ve created a world where separation, anxiety & powerlessness have become the underlying defaults instead of a world of security, belonging & agency. We are addicted to dopamine &exist in a world of trauma rather than initiation so how are we to rewrite these patterns?
    By listening to the heart-mind - its very shy & quiet but the head mind will whisper if it needs you to really listen.

    Links You'll Love

    Any Human Power - Manda Scott
    Accidental Gods - Manda Scott program &  podcast
    Right story, Wrong story - Tyson Yunkaporta
    Sand talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
    Mans search for meaning - Victor Frankel
    Francis Weller - The Wild Edge of Sorrow

    Loved this? Try these:
    Tyson Yunkaporta
    Damon Gameau

    Support the Show
    Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

    We talked about:
    Learning to live as functioning members of the earth community
    Why she writes fiction not non fiction
    Receiving shamanic instruction
    How to be in connection with the web of life in all its complexity
    Being born into a trauma culture rather than an initiation culture
    Why seeing truth without self projection is hard.
    Her decades of shamanic teaching - still learning to discern the difference between what her ego is saying and what the energy is saying
    Returning to a sit spot to receive instructions to write a book
    “Skin Listening” - an ability to be felt with all your senses without pre conceived ideas
    Sit spots - what can I see, what can I feel, what does my heart say 
    Why some languages say “I am other” and some say “I am intrinsically part of what is happening.
    Initiation culture is capable of holding contained encounters with death
    We live in a dopamine culture - addicted to turning oil into adrenaline
    Yearning for a serotonin mesh of connection of meaning & purpose
    The four stages of Adulthood
    Undoing our head mind dominance
    Offering yourself in service and waiting for your path.
     The chaos of our culture is that we think we can plan ahead
    We live in an insane world & ourselves its sane
    One of the key measures of adulthood is being prepared to walk against the tide

    Support the show

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    30 November 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 37 minutes 19 seconds
    Ep 207 Tammy Huynh - Plants CAN be Companions and bridge us back to who we are!

    As a new Mum, living in a new home, having just released a new book and fertilising the idea of reconnecting back to her Vietnamese heritage Tammy Huyhn is a light hearted joy.

    This lass knows a thing or two about plants - you may have seen her face on ABC's Gardening Australia and she runs her own hortucultural business Leaf an Impression which delivers garden talks and workshops...she has even been awarded horticulturist of the year! 

    Todays conversation though, mostly asks "how does gardening bridge us back to our ancestral roots and remind us who we are".

    Post recording, Tammy thanked us for the unexpected therapy session - so its a short and sweet ep that still manages to dig beyond the top soil.

    We talked about:

    • How Tammy's Vietnamese heritage influences her gardening practices
    • Initially pursuing a career in agriculture before transitioning to writing
    • Troubleshooting plant care effectively.
    • How Motherhood brings both joy and challenges, impacting identity
    • The crucial role of Community in sharing gardening knowledge
    • The power of gardens to connect people across cultures & generations
    • Starting with one plant can enhance mental well-being.
    • The value of rest and self acceptance

    Loved this? Try another:

    Tim Pilgrim - Creating Wild Spaces; The Art Of Natural Design


    Pod Partners Rock:
    Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5


    Support the Show
    Casual Support -
    Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness




    Support the show

    23 November 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 50 minutes 6 seconds
    Ep 206 James McLennan From Playground to Paddock: Farming the Future of Education by creating 2.2 kms of garden bed in 24 hours

    Come with us for a wander through the fertile grounds of possibility with James McLennon, the visionary behind Farm My School. Todays ep unearths how a patch of school soil can become so much more than a playground—it can nourish bodies, minds, and entire communities. From the thriving farm at Bellarine Secondary College to the ripple effects it’s having on students, neighbours, and local food systems, James shares how education and regeneration can thrive side by side. This is a story about reimagining our schools as living, breathing ecosystems—places where compost becomes curriculum and connection becomes the harvest. Tune in for a hopeful glimpse of a future where every school grows food, community, and a deep sense of belonging. 

    We talked about:

    • School grounds can become fertile community hubs—places that feed both bellies and belonging
    • When locals roll up their sleeves together, school gardens become living lessons in connection
    • Building a farm in a single day can spark a groundswell of hope, pride, and shared purpose
    • Food production isn’t separate from education—it is education in its most delicious form
    • Regenerative farming principles can take root in classrooms, teaching care for soil and soul alike
    • Local food systems are the backbone of resilient communities and thriving futures
    • When students grow food, they also grow confidence, calm, and mental well-being
    • Partnering with local growers deepens food diversity and strengthens community ties
    • The Farm My School model offers a blueprint for rewilding education from the ground up
    • The vision ahead: a network of school farms growing food, connection, and a future of togetherness

    Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

    Links You'll Love
    F
    arm My School online

    Loved this? Try these:

    Jamie Loveday - Sowing Seeds for Food Deserts in the City

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    Buy Me A Coffee
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    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

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    9 November 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 2 hours 7 minutes
    Ep 205 Dalee Ella - Connecting Humanity to the Inward and Outward Energies of Creativity

    Jade and Dalee wander through the tender terrain where creativity, womanhood, and everyday life meet. Speaking openly about the way our inner cycles shape what we make and how we show up in the world — and how hard it can be to hold space for both art and livelihood.

    Together they explore the slow evolution of Dalee’s creative path, the courage it takes to collaborate, and the quiet emotional work of home-schooling while running a small business. Their chat drifts into community — the messy beauty of shared living in an intentional community, the texture that neurodiversity brings to family life, and the lessons learned from leaning into interdependence.

    It’s a conversation about connection — to self, to others, and to place. About boundaries that protect passions, creativity and community so we are reminded of who we each are and what our individual work is to do - within the collective. Today we ask what it means to live a life guided by values — to curate something meaningful, slow, and true.

    Buy their co-created perennial Futuresteading calendar

    Links You'll Love
    Dalee Ella Substack

    Loved this? Try another:

    EP 151, Dani Wolf, Mashing Together Mama Wisdom and Earth Wisdom

    Support the Show
    Casual Support -
    Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

    Pod Partners Rock: Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

    We talked about:

    Creativity rises and falls with our cycles; honouring them deepens the work

    Flat moods are quiet ground where truth takes root

    Art reminds us we belong to something vast

    Balancing commerce and creation asks for courage and clarity

    Our art shifts as we do — mirroring each inner season

    Collaboration thrives on bravery, honesty, and deep listening

    Homeschooling stirs chaos, wonder, and unexpected insight

    When values lead, both life and art hold meaning

    Creativity wanders, retreats, and blooms anew

    Awareness keeps our creative fires tended

    Simplicity and making offer a gentle kind of wealth

    Neurodiversity brings texture, colour, and grace to family life

    Community living teaches patience, humility, and belonging

    Shared spaces grow empathy and reciprocity

    Boundaries make tenderness possible

    Home reveals itself slowly, like a seed choosing where to root

    Living together reminds us how to give and receive with care

    Discomfort is the soil where growth begins

    Intentional living ripples outward in quiet legacy

    A meaningful life is curated through focus and gentle discernment

    Support the show

    2 November 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 1 hour 8 minutes
    EP 204 The Passage of Self: Dance, Grief, and Heart Wisdom with Eclectica (Demi Lee)

    In this episode, Demi Lee takes us deep into the story of Eclectica — a movement, a community, and a living expression of embodiment and transformation. Together, we explore how dance becomes a language for healing, how grief can serve as an elder and sacred teacher, and how true empowerment begins with self-responsibility.

    Demi shares the evolution of Eclectica from a creative experiment into a profound rite of passage — one that invites people to come home to their bodies, their emotions, and their truth. Through honest reflections on community, relationships, and heart-centered living, this conversation reveals how we can turn life’s challenges into initiations that reconnect us with purpose and love.

    It’s an exploration of what it means to live embodied, to honor our inner seasons, and to build communities that hold us through the cycles of becoming.


    Key Takeaways: 

    - Grief is not just loss — it’s an initiation into depth, compassion, and the full spectrum of love.

    - Movement and dance can reconnect us with intuition, release stored emotion, and ground us in presence.

    - The Power of Community: holding people in the dark.

    - Self-Responsibility in Relationships: Owning our patterns and triggers allows for more authentic, heart-based connection.

    - Rites of Passage: rituals that mark transformation. 

    - Choosing love, responsibility, boundaries, and honesty as guiding principles transforms how we show up in the world.

    - A journey into remembering who you are beneath the noise — embodied, empowered, and whole.


    Show Notes 

    Eclectica - https://www.eclecticahub.com/

    Passage of Self Online Course - https://www.eclecticahub.com/passage-of-self


    Support the Show
    Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Books - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness


    Support the show

    26 October 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 1 hour 9 minutes
    Ep 203 Meg Ulman - The Beautiful Weight Of Living a Neo Peasant Life

    In this conversation, Jade sits down with Meg Ulman (sadly not in person) — heart led writer, mother, educator, maker & one part of Artists as Family — to unpick what it really means to live on your own terms.

    They trace the winding road toward a neo-peasant life — one defined less by nostalgia & more by intention. They talk about living with a fundamental trust in yourself to make decisions, parenting within community & the grit & grace of staying true to your values.

    Meg describes herself as cash poor but time rich, together they explore what that trade-off really feels like.

    They talk about the ache of impermanence — how everything we love we will lose —  what it means to become good at grief rather than trying to outrun it. What it feels like to feel alive, trusting your instinct to survive & holding a desire to be part of that holding — the invisible web that keeps us tethered to one another & to the earth itself.

    Meg shares her reflections on solitude, on listening deeply to the land beneath her feet & on the quiet privileges of aging — not as decline, but as initiation. There’s talk of ritual, of story & of the small daily acts that remind us who we are.

    It’s a conversation that doesn’t romanticise simplicity but celebrates the beauty & honesty of a life well noticed.

    Links You'll Love

    Artist As Family You Tube

    Loved this? Want More of Meg: Artist as family - rites of passage and grief

    Pod Partners Rock:Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

    Show notes:

    • The path to a neo-peasant life begins with tiny, conscious seeds — small shifts that grow into whole new ways of being
    • To live authentically is to let your values lead, even when the world is shouting for you to do otherwise
    • Raising kids in a web of real connection builds belonging that no algorithm can match
    • To feel the full weight of love, we have to make peace with loss — grief is proof that we’ve lived deeply
    • Parenting (and life) gets easier when we trust the quiet tug of intuition more than the noise of advice
    • Simple living isn’t always easy — the work is real, but so is the satisfaction
    • None of us are meant to do this alone; community is the net that catches us 
    • Feeling the whole spectrum — joy, ache, awe — is what it means to be truly alive
    • Sometimes self-discovery starts with walking away from the script you were handed.
    • Rites of passage & initiations remind us where we’ve been, and mark who we’re becoming
    • Listening with your body — not just your head — tunes you into the language of the earth
    • Solitude isn’t loneliness; it’s the quiet space where truth grows roots
    • Moving from maiden to elder 
    • Aging is a privilege — each wrinkle a story of survival & grace
    • Being time-rich beats being time-poor every single day

    Support the Show
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    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Books - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

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    19 October 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 1 hour 5 minutes
    Ep 202 Navigating community - Life in an eco village with Suzie Brown

    What does it really look like to live inside the dream of community? To share walls & gardens, decision-making & dinner tables — & to raise children in a village that actually lives its values?

    In this conversation, we sit down with Suzie Brown, long-time advocate for sustainable living & proud resident of the Narara Eco-Village. Suzie opens the gate & lets us wander through the realities of intentional community life — from the joy of shared purpose & spontaneous connection, to the inevitable challenges of governance, regulation & difference.

    She shares how Narara’s unique decision-making structures help navigate conflict, why research & planning matter long before the first foundation is laid & what it takes to keep a community diverse, accessible, & truly alive.

    This chat is as much about belonging as it is about building — about the quiet power of volunteering, the laughter that spills from community events & the deep satisfaction of knowing you’re part of something larger than yourself.

    So settle in & join us as we explore what happens when a group of humans decides to live more lightly — & more together.

    Pod Partners Rock:  Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5


    Support the Show
    Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon

    Buy the Books:

     Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters 

    Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

    We talked about:

    • How children benefit from growing up in a supportive environment
    • Sociocracy allows for effective decision-making in communities
    • Conflict resolution is crucial for the success of eco-villages
    • Research into successful eco-villages informs best practices
    • Accessibility and affordability are challenges for eco-village living
    • Community events help integrate new members into the village
    • Pets can be a contentious issue in community living
    •  Participating in an eco-village requires active engagement
    • Community members are joint owners of the cooperative
    • Building a sustainable community involves significant effort & collaboration
    • The concept of 'pulsing' allows for shared leadership & energy levels
    • Joy & fun are essential for community cohesion.
    • Governance models like sociocracy help manage community dynamics
    • Financial planning is crucial for the sustainability of eco-villages
    • Regulatory challenges can hinder the building process in eco-villages
    • Volunteering is a key aspect of community involvement
    • Living in an eco-village fosters a deep sense of belonging


    Support the show

    12 October 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 59 minutes
    Ep 201 Tim Pilgrim - Creating Wild Spaces: The Art of Natural Design & The Interplay of Landscape & Storytelling

    Today we wander into the layered world of Tim Pilgrim—a landscape architect and gardener who sees soil, water, and wildness as teachers. Tim invites us to connect with the land rather than control it, to design gardens that honour both human need and ecological integrity.

    Together we explore the art of observation and the quiet discipline of water management, learning how these practices build truly sustainable landscapes. Tim shares how gardens evolve over time, shaped by climate change and by the gentle hands—and sometimes heavy footprints—of people. We tackle the prickly debates too: lawns that demand more than they give, the dance between native and non-native plants, and the cultural stories that every planting choice can tell.

    Tim also speaks to the community side of gardening: how diversity—of species, of people, of ideas—creates resilience; how food can slip seamlessly into ornamental spaces; how the rhythm of a gardener’s life becomes a legacy of naturalistic design.

    This is a conversation for anyone ready to see gardens not just as pretty spaces but as living narratives—places where history, ecology, and our shared future root down together.

    We chatted about:

    • Landscapes shape the stories we tell & vice versa
    • A holistic approach to gardening fosters biodiversity
    • Designing for wildness requires sensitivity & observation.
    • Gardens should evolve with the needs of their inhabitants
    • Climate change necessitates adaptable gardening practices
    • Water management is crucial for sustainable gardening
    • Human influence can coexist with natural ecosystems
    • Saying phooey to lawns
    •  "I'm not a purist; I embrace all plants that look good"
    • Gardens as spaces for community connection 
    • Gardening to build a rhythm that aligns with nature's cycles
    • Gardens as places that reflect personal & cultural histories
    • Gardens as inclusive spaces for all living things

    Links You'll Love
    Find Tim online including his book "Wild By Design"

    Loved this? Try another

    Shane Simonsen - Taming the apocalypse, exploring a post industrial world & maize making people mad


    Pod Partners Rock:
    Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5


    Support the Show
    Casual Support
    - Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness

    Support the show

    5 October 2025, 6:00 pm
  • 1 hour 9 minutes
    Ep 200 Sarah Firth - The Polyhuman Experience: Embracing Complex Curiosity as a Catalyst for Connection

    Today we wander into the wild tangle that is Sarah Firth’s world—a place where curiosity is currency and difference is pure gold. Sarah calls herself a polyhuman, and you’ll feel why as she opens up about neurodivergence, the grit and grace of making art, and the small, daily rituals that stitch meaning into our messy lives.

    This is a conversation about courage and kindness, about owning our impact while staying tender enough to connect. It’s an invitation to question the systems around us, take responsibility for the ripples we make, and revel in the glorious complexity of being human.

    We talked about:

    • Being a polyhuman & adapting identity based on context
    • How curiosity drives her interactions, leading to meaningful connections
    • Neurodivergence has shaped her understanding of herself & her creativity
    • Why art in all its forms serve as a medium for exploration & expression of complex emotions
    • Courage is found in embracing differences & challenging mainstream narratives
    • The creative process is iterative, involving learning from peers & experiences
    • Humanity is complex,  understanding this complexity fosters empathy
    • Rituals in daily life can create meaning & connection to the world
    • Finding 'enoughness' involves balancing personal joy with systemic responsibilities.

    Pod Partners Rock: 

    Australian Medicinal Herbs    Code: Future5

    Links You'll Love
    Eventually Everything Connects - by Sarah Firth
    Sarah Firth Instagram

    Loved this ep? Try another
    Emily Ehlers - Hope is a Verb

    Support the Show
    Casual Support -
    Buy Me A Coffee
    Regular Support - Patreon
    Buy the Book - Futuresteading - live like tomorrow matters, Huddle - creating a tomorrow of togetherness


    Support the show

    28 September 2025, 7:00 pm
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