Michael Bayliss has been an activist for the past decade within the environmental and post-growth movements. He is the Communications Manager and former Victoria/Tasmanian President at Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). The focus of his work involves advocacy regarding choice for small families and for working cooperatively with our global neighbours to create equitable societies that do not rely on perpetual growth.
Examples of his written work can be found at Independent Australia, where we was awarded the most read article of 2018. He has produced videos detailing the impacts of endless growth in Australia and has been interviewed extensively in the media, e.g. ABC News24, Jon Faine Conversation Hour, SBS radio.
You may also be interested in his videos for World Environment Day, his interview with comedian Rod Quantock and introducing the new documentary film ‘8 Billion Angels’
Previously, he has coordinated various grassroots community groups in Melbourne such as Doing It Ourselves and Gnomes Urban Gardening Network. He is a participant in the international Post Growth Alliance, run by the Post Growth Institute. He co-founded Population Permaculture and Planning (PPP) in 2015 as a means to communicate the critical role that town planning plays in the move towards future sustainable communities. PPP has since delivered workshops to activists and environmentalists across Australia. This year he will be helping to launch the Town Planning Rebellion movement.
Michael takes his policies into his home life, where he lives in an intentional shared-living community based on the Retrosuburbia principles, where he looks after a lush permaculture garden. He writes songs around environmental and climate change grief with his band Shock Octopus.
Michael Bayliss has hosted 57 Episodes.
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Planning for a Just Collapse with Kate Booth
September 1st, 2023 | Season 5 | 55 mins 29 secs
degrowth, insurgent planning, just collapse, sustainable population, town planning rebellion
It is not every day that urban planning and societal collapse are discussed in the same conversation. But for Kate Booth – activist academic and Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania, both are critical and interlinked issues. In this very educational episode, Kate talks us through the Insurgent Planning movement as well as the Just Collapse movement. At a time when Australia’s Federal Government is scrambling to build 1.2 million new homes while the recent climate data suggests that an ecological collapse is imminent, these are difficult but necessary conversations that we need to be having.
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Let’s Get Crazy with Rob Dietz from Crazy Town Podcast
August 15th, 2023 | Season 5 | 1 hr 5 mins
crazy town podcast, post carbon institute, post-growth, resilience.org, rob dietz, shock octopus
Welcome to the season five premiere of Post-Growth Australia Podcast. What better way to launch our new season than with Rob Dietz, co-host of Crazy Town Podcast, perhaps the standard bearer of degrowth themed podcasts.
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Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Population Media Center with Bill Ryerson
June 8th, 2023 | Season 4 | 1 hr 2 mins
bill ryerson, east los high, paul winter, pmc, population media center, spa, sustainable population australia
In 1998 Population Media Center (PMC) was formed to ‘make the stories that remake our world’. 25 years later, radio and TV shows, supported by PMC, have been heard throughout the world, including Ethiopia, Senegal and Papua New Guinea. Produced in collaboration with local communities and local scriptwriters, these shows share a common thread in that the audience are invited to consider positive family planning decisions through the role modelling of engaging and identifiable characters. PGAP was very fortunate to be joined by special guest Bill Ryerson, President and Founder of PMC. He talks us through the ‘stories behind the stories’ of PMC's many award winning and popular projects.
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Housing Crisis?? What Housing Crisis!!
May 26th, 2023 | Season 4 | 1 hr 7 secs
adelaide fringe, boomer and the doomer, counting backwards, housing crisis, shock octopus, sustainable population australia
Fun Fact! When your co-hosts Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen aren’t making brand new episodes of PGAP, they are involved in many other worthy enterprises. Michael has just co-written a brand new report “Population and the Housing Crisis”. Mark performed his debut show at the Adelaide Fringe, “The Boomer and The Doomer.” Like most things we do, this all flew under the blip of the mainstream media radar, so we took the opportunity this episode to interview each other on our respective endeavours.
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MMT for Activism with Gabrielle Bond
May 1st, 2023 | Season 4 | 52 mins 19 secs
degrowth, ecological economics, gabrielle bond, mmt, modern money lab
At PGAP, we are huge fans of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). However, the question is often asked, how can an understanding of MMT, or a broader understanding of economics, help the cause when it comes to degrowth advocacy or environmental activism? For this episode, we warmly welcome Gabrielle Bond, CEO of Adelaide based Modern Money Lab and member of Extinction Rebellion, to tell us more about how MMT can inform our activism toward a better, more equitable, post-growth world.
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A Tribute to Community Groups fighting Big Overdevelopment in WA.
April 11th, 2023 | Season 4 | 1 hr 34 mins
bakers hill, friends of yakamia, holistic activism, rethink eastlink, safe and scenic toodjay roads, save perth hills, summer creek, town planning rebellion
In the world of Degrowth, the focus is often centred on the need for broad scale system change. However, it is often at the grassroots community level that real resistance against overdevelopment is truly and tangibly observed. For this very special episode of PGAP, we interview Annabel Paulley (Friends of Yakamia), Chris Poulton (Rethink Eastlink) and Andrew St John (Safe and Scenic Toodyay Roads) to highlight the good work been done by community groups in South-Western Australia to fight the relentless tide of overdevelopment.
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EarthCare Permaculture Ghana
March 29th, 2023 | Season 4 | 39 mins 2 secs
earthcare permaculture ghana, post-growth, regenerative agriculture
For this episode of PGAP, we travel (virtually) to equatorial western Africa to speak with Innocent Kelvin Coffie, youth leader and founder of EarthCare Permaculture Ghana. Kelvin takes us on a verbal tour of the property, the successes the property has had in up skilling new generations in food self-sufficiency, and some recent challenges that the property has endured through. Kelvin also gives some insight into how the permaculture movement is taking root in Ghana, some of the unique environmental and social challenges experienced in his country and how permaculture is one solution to solving these problems.
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Solving climate change through ethical investment - with James Regulinski from Carbon Collective
February 1st, 2023 | Season 4 | 53 mins 18 secs
carbon collective, climate change, degrowth, divestment, green investment, project drawdown
In this episode of Post-Growth Australia, we interview James Regulinski, co-founder of Carbon Collective, a company providing low-fee, diversified investment portfolios built for solving climate change. Inspired by the work of Project Drawdown, James and his business partner Zach Stein tackle climate change by encouraging investors to support environmentally friendly enterprises.
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Women for Conservation with Isabella Cortes Lara
January 23rd, 2023 | Season 4 | 1 hr 3 mins
colombia, environment, family planning, isabella cortes, population, reproductive health care, women for conservation
On November 15 2022 the global population hit 8 billion. Despite the fact that half of all the world’s pregnancies are unplanned, any talk of global approach to family planning and reproductive health care in the global south remains controversial. So often, this is debated across the global north without including stakeholders who live in the global south and work with the issues first hand. PGAP aims to make amends for this oversight by inviting Isabella Cortes Lara to the podcast, Vice President of ‘Women for Conservation’, who work alongside rural communities in Colombia and Nepal. An incredible artist and storyteller, Isabella shares with PGAP how W4C started, the decision to focus on family planning and reproductive healthcare as a solution to the environmental and reproductive issues affecting rural Colombia, and how her artistic and spiritual approach to life intersect and inform her activism.
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Fuzzy Logic on a Fragile Planet with Rod Taylor
December 19th, 2022 | Season 4 | 59 mins 14 secs
degrowth, environment, holistic activism, mmt, post-growth, rod taylor, science, ten journeys
Rod Taylor is a multi-talented broadcaster, videographer and author based in Canberra. In addition to hosting the Fuzzy Logic Science show, he is author of the 2020 book “10 Journeys on A Fragile Planet”. This extraordinary book details the personal journeys of extraordinary environmentalists and game changers. This episode is dedicated the memory of Haydn Washington.
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Organic, Regenerative & Carbon Negative: Oranje Tractor Winery with Murray Gomm
December 1st, 2022 | Season 4 | 1 hr 8 mins
albany, carbon negative, degrowth, murrary gomm, oranje tractor, post-growth, regenerative farming, wa great southern
For season 4 of Post-Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP), we will be highlighting some extraordinary work being done by extraordinary Western Australians, who are bucking the dominant narrative of exploitation on scale on an ecologically unique yet fragile part of the world. In this episode, we speak to Murray Gomm from Oranje Tractor, award winning organic, regenerative and carbon neagtive winery/small farm holding near Albany.
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Welcome to Asbestosville! Season 4 Premiere with Michael Bayliss and Mark Allen
November 7th, 2022 | Season 4 | 1 hr 12 mins
8 billion, asbestos, degrowth, holistic activism, post-growth, sustainable population australia, town planning rebellion, urban planning
We can’t believe that PGAP is into its fourth season already! So, to shake things up, Michael is being joined by Mark Allen from Town Planning Rebellion and Holistic Activism as the co-host for this season. This first episode of the season is the culmination of a personal journey for them both. These experiences have also been written down in the form of a blog: “A Year in Asbestosville: A Farcical Tale of Systemic Failure.” In addition to our personal journeys, we also discuss some Degrowth related current affairs. These include 8 billion day on November 15 and Liz Truss and her unintentional launching of the Anti-Growth Coalition.
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Season 3 Finale with Charlie Mgee from Formidable Vegetable
September 3rd, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 6 mins
charlie mgee, degrowth, formidable vegetable, music as activism, permaculture, post-growth
From the very beginning, PGAP has delighted in playing music from Formidable Vegetable on our permaculture themed episodes. So, for the final episode of Season 3, host Michael Bayliss is especially thrilled to meet with Formidable Vegetable mastermind Charlie Mgee at his new eco village home at Living Waters, Denmark WA. An engaging storyteller as well as musician and performer, Charlie shares the incredible history of forming the permaculture themed band and their mission statement from the get go. We also explore the role that music place in activism and societal change and we cap it off with Charlie’s vision for a Post-Growth future.
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Greenprints with Dr Michelle Maloney
August 23rd, 2022 | Season 3 | 44 mins 20 secs
aela, degrowth, greenprints, michelle maloney, nedna, post-growth
In this episode of Post-Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP), we welcome back Dr Michelle Maloney, National Convenor of Australia Earth Law Alliance (AELA), to discuss the exciting new Greenprints initiative.
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Earth Overshoot Day 2022 with CASSE's Brian Czech
July 27th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
#movethedate, brain czech, casse, earth overshoot day 2022, steady state economy
For the 2022 Earth Overshoot Day special of PGAP, we observe the occasion by welcoming Brian Czech, founder of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE). As a figurehead of the Degrowth movement, Brian makes a perfect voice of reason for this year’s Earth Overshoot Day, which falls on July 28th. In this episode, Brian reflects on the formation and history of CASSE with host Michael Bayliss and how the Steady State and Degrowth movements intersect. He shares his decades of experience and fascinating anecdotes to draw the point home that a steady state revolution is necessary to stop the endless growth paradigm from bringing earth overshoot day all the way to January 01st.
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3 Women 2 Countries 1 Message: World Population Day 2022
July 4th, 2022 | Season 3 | 1 hr 17 mins
canada, degrowth, karen shragg, madeline weld, moving upstream, population institute canada, sustainable population australia, usa, valorie allen, world population day 2022
World Population Day is approaching on July 11. According to the United Nations Population Fund, ‘8 billion people means 8 billion opportunities’, however many population sustainability advocates are not quite so optimistic. For this episode, PGAP welcome back Karen Shragg, American and Degrowth activist, along with two new guests, Madeline Weld and Valorie Allen from Canada. In this special four way discussion, we explore the similarities and contrasts of the population movement in across our respective countries and unite to shred the myths and misconceptions around population sustainability.