Shows
Earth MattersThinking Like a MountainJohn Seed and his colleagues are helping people all over this country and overseas find their ecological self.Plus: John gives practical suggestions on how to find direction in life.Music: A new recording of Johns Seed singing his song Expanding Universe.Links:John Seeds Deep Ecology workshop schedule on The Rainforest Information Centre(link is external) website.Falling in Love with the World - Active Hope Spiral - free online, Sundays @5pm AEDT. (link is external) Hosted by Nettie Hulme"Active Hope is a practice that encourages us to find and offer our best response to global issues during this time o...2024-12-2900 min
The Five Minute Advocate PodcastNarara Ecovillage: A Glimpse into a Sustainable Future - With Michael WalkerIn this episode of The Five Minute Advocate, Michael Walker visits the Narara Ecovillage, an intentional community near Gosford focused on sustainable living. He explores its eco-friendly homes, strong sense of community, and innovative practices like sociocratic decision-making and an internal exchange economy. While praising its low-carbon lifestyle, Walker discusses financial sustainability challenges and reflects on whether eco-villages like Narara could represent the future as more people seek alternatives to urban living.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.2024-12-0204 min
Community ResilienceThreads of Sustainability: Weaving an Interconnected Community with Tanya Mottl from Narara EcovillageJoin us in this inspiring conversation with Tanya Mottl, a passionate member of the Ecovillage movement, from Narara Ecovillage in Australia.
In this episode Tanya recounts her inspiring journey with the Resilience Project, the challenges and opportunities she's encountered, and how she's contributing to a global movement for sustainable living. Emphasizing the importance of community, meaningful conversations, and practical solutions for a regenerative future.
Dive deeper by exploring the work and people mentioned in this episode: 2030 SDGs game; Findhorn; Kosha Joubert; map of regeneration; Project Drawdown; David Suzuki; David...2024-06-1255 min
Earth MattersSurging interest in the work that reconnects: Deep Ecology workshops with John Seed happening now. [Transcript included]Reconnecting with nature; the living world, through Deep Ecology workshops is taking off in Australia. John Seed and his colleagues are helping people all over this country and overseas find their ecological self. The Deep Ecology workshops are booked out and participants are much more mainstream than in the past. Plus: John gives practical suggestions on how to find direction in life.Music: A new recording of Johns Seed singing his song Expanding Universe. Links:John Seeds Deep Ecology workshop schedule on The Rainforest Information Centre website. Rising Tide: A national network currently mobilising ten thousand people for ten days of non violent action...2024-05-0500 min
Sense-Making in a Changing WorldDeep Ecology with John Seed and Morag GambleIn this episode I am delighted to be speaking with pivotal figure in the world of deep ecology - a concept I came into contact with at Schumacher College in 1992 when I studied with Arne Naess - the Norwegian mountaineer and philosopher who coined the term Deep Ecology. My guest today is deep ecologist, rainforest activist and author JOHN SEED - a fellow ecovillager. He’s based at Narara Ecovillage in NSW and I'm at Crystal Waters on Gubbi Gubbi Country, QLD.John is the founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia. He...2023-07-111h 01
EcolivingHabitat Restoration and Bush RegenerationSwift Parrot, Courtesy of David Cook (@kookr on Flickr)
Habitat restoration is vital to the survival of many at-risk species, including the critically-endangered Swift Parrot. Here at Narara Ecovillage we've been doing habitat restoration and bush regeneration work for years, and we've just started a grant-funded program to rehabilitate part of our flood plain to provide better support for Swift Parrots in their winter habitat.
Teresa Farrell is a Narara Ecovillage resident helping to run this project, and this interview with her gives an overview of the ABCs of this kind of work in general, and talks about the specific...2023-05-2019 minEcoliving3D Printing Sustainable HomesWhat if you could print a house from local materials instead of building one?
That's the goal of Alexander Tohidi, a University of New South Wales researcher who blends his skills as an electrical engineer, a computer scientist, and an architect to print buildings out of clay.
Listen Here:2023-04-2617 min
The Intelligent RebellionPeace, Love & Mung beans with Ed HughesEd challenges some of Rhea’s biases about ecovillages, and teaches Rhea about the foundations of sociocracy, which is a peer governance system based on consent. Welcome to Episode 22 of The Intelligent Rebellion Podcast. Our guest is Ed Hughes, a dad, husband and rat race escapee. Ever thought about giving up your corporate day job and living a simpler life? Ed did, and Ed - did. Ed chats about his intentional decision to escape the rat race to explore and live a life of purpose, and his plans to live in Narara Ecovillage with his fam...2023-04-2533 minEcolivingRenovating a Heritage Home, with Bellbird HouseThis episode is about giving an older home a sustainable makeover — and it’s not just any home.
We’ll be talking about: it’s Bellbird House, a Heritage-listed home and B&B here at Narara Ecovillage that’s over 100 years old. Owner Mark O’Brien talked about what it takes to bring a classic Australian home into the 21st century without risking its original charm.
Listen Here:2023-03-2517 minEcolivingStraw Bale and Straw Panel Homes, with Viva HomesWith Sustainable House Day happening here at the ecovillage and across Australia in March, we wanted to focus this episode on one type of sustainable house that we have several of here at the ecovillage: a strawbale-insulated home.
Straw has been used for insulation for all of human history, but that doesn’t mean that a straw-insulated house has to look or feel like it was made using old technology. The guest for this episode has been involved in building dozens of straw-insulated homes, including a number here at the ecovillage.
Sam Vivers is the founder of Viva Homes, and Vi...2023-02-2422 minEcolivingMushrooms and Mushroom GrowingPink Oyster Mushrooms from Shed 30 Mushrooms (photo courtesy of Lincoln DeKalb)
Want to move beyond fruit and vegetables in your garden? How about mushrooms?
Lincoln DeKalb
This episode features Lincoln DeKalb, a Narara Ecovillage resident who runs Shed 30 Mushrooms, a small mushroom-growing business based at the ecovillage. Lincoln started cultivating mushrooms at home (and in the forest that surrounds the village), then relatively recently started growing and selling gourmet mushrooms at a larger scale — currently to ecovillage residents, but hopefully one day to the general public.
If you're interested in getting started with mushroom-growing yourself, check out these links to th...2023-01-1617 minEcolivingCommunity Batteries, Smartgrids, and MicrogridsFederal MP Gordon Reid and NEV Power member Dave Parris cut the "ribbon" to celebrate the battery launch
We just celebrated the official launch of our Narara Ecovillage community battery and microgrid, and Toby Roxburgh came up from Canberra to launch the system, which he helped design.
Toby is the founder and executive director of Carbon Neutral Delivery Partners, and he joined Adam to talk about the differences between smartgrids and microgrids, and the benefits of batteries for local energy storage.
Here are some links related to the episode:
NEV Power, our village-owned energy providerNEV Smartgrid: a page about the...2022-10-2518 min
EcolivingPassive House (Passivhaus) and EnvirotectureAn Envirotecture-Designed Passive House
After a bit of a hiatus, our second podcast episode is ready – we'll be more consistent in the future.
This episode features Andy Marlow from Envirotecture, a Sydney sustainable design firm. Andy is also involved in Passivhaus Design & Construct, and joins Adam for a conversation about the Passive House (also known as Passivhaus) concept, how it works, and what it means.
Links from this episode:
EnvirotecturePassivhaus Design & ConstructAustralian Passive House Association (APHA)The International Passive House Open Days
Listen Here:2022-06-1523 minEcolivingTiny House LivingWe've launched a podcast!
Ecoliving will look at ways to reduce your impact on the earth, from cutting your greenhouse gas emissions to minimizing land and water use. Our first episode features Narara Ecovillage resident Chris Wenban, who lives full time in her tiny house on wheels.
Listen Here:2021-10-0519 min
Align in the Sound - New Economy Network / Radio BTL / CoCanberraDemocracy Participation And Enterprise - Liz Basset - Sonia Randhawa - Sara Motta NENA20 3.1The Democracy, Participation and Enterprise session from the New Economy Network's online 2020 conference.
Talks include:
• Sociocracy in action at Narara Ecovillage, Liz BASSETT
• Democracy Reimagined: Experiments in deliberation around the world, Sonia RANDHAWA
• Democracy (M)otherwise, Sara MOTTA
The theme of NENA’s 2020 Conference is “New Economy—Work in Progress” and the intention is to share the amazing work being done by individuals and organisations across Australia, to build a new economy, focused on ecological health & social and economic justice.
This year’s conference will bring people together (online) from around Australia, to discuss topics as diverse as food, energy, housing, health...2021-08-261h 15Align in the Sound - New Economy Network / Radio BTL / CoCanberraDemocracy Participation And Enterprise - Liz Basset - Sonia Randhawa - Sara Motta NENA20 3.1In this session from the New Economy Network of Australia's 2020 online conference, we hear:
Liz Bassett - Sociocracy in action at Narara Ecovillage
Sonia Randhawa - Democracy Reimagined: Experiments in deliberation around the world
Sara Motta - Democracy (M)otherwise2021-03-241h 13
Think: Sustainability#113 - Starting from ScratchIf you could start our society again from scratch, how sustainable would you make it? Would you build a new city at sea? Or develop a village in a valley? In this episode we look at two different ways some people are trying to start again. And how starting afresh doesn't always mean leaving old problems behind.Featuring:Matthew Daly - Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyJohn Talbott, - Project Director, Narara EcovillageJazz Mozzi - Admin Officer, Narara EcovillageKarina...2019-07-1923 min