Feeling the Future through Fiction with Sharon Ede

October 15th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 10 secs

adelaide, christie walk, degrowth, mage, novel, post-growth, sharon ede, storytelling

“What we feel shapes what we believe. What if we could feel the future before it arrives?”

So reads the back cover of new fiction book ‘Mage’ written by sustainability professional, post-growth advocate and Adelaide local Sharon Ede. In this penultimate episode of the second season of PGAP, Sharon tells us why fiction, story-telling and emotional resonance are essential communications tools for the environmental movement to engage with the broader community. Providing facts and figures to rally the troops over large-scale existential crises has so far failed to work. Engaging people emotionally through storytelling and providing a ripping yarn just might be the missing link. Mage is definitely this kind of book and hopefully this interview will convince you to add 'Mage' to your post-growth library.

Exploring Christie Walk EcoHousing with Adelaide Chronicles and Town Planning Rebellion

September 28th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 3 mins

bremem peace award, christie walk, co-housing, degrowth, mark allen, post-growth, sue gilbey, town planning rebellion

This special and unorthodox episode of PGAP was recorded on-site the Christie Walk ecological co-housing development in central Adelaide to speak to not one, but TWO very special guests. Sue Gilbey is a resident of Christie Walk, host of the Adelaide Chronicles podcast series, an environmental activist, and an advocate for social justice causes. She is the only Australian (so far) to receive the internationally acclaimed Bremen Peace Award. Mark Allen is the founder of Town Planning Rebellion and Holistic Activism. He is a former town planner and former co-host of the City Limits program on Melbourne’s 3CR radio station. In this episode, Sue takes us on a virtual tour of Christie Walk as an example of sustainable inner city community development. Mark provides insight and clarity as to why places like Christie Walk are the exception and not the rule -and why we need to fight back at Australia’s broken property and housing sector (and those who profit most from this status quo).

On The Road with Doone Wyborn and Bindarrabi Intentional Community

August 16th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  54 mins 14 secs

bindarrabi, collapse, degrowth, doone wyborn, intentional community, ipcc, post-growth, shock octopus, sustainable population australia

Doone Wyborn is the founder of the Bindarrabi intentional community, inland and uphill of the northern rivers. A former geologist, he worked on the potential of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) geothermal energy from 1992 to retirement in 2013 and is recognised as a leading Australian authority on this subject. With his finger definitely on the pulse on environmental science and limits to growth, Doone started an intentional community based around community sufficiency, frugal abundance and low carbon living. On a very rainy summer afternoon, Doone shares with PGAP the ins and outs of Bindarrabi community, why societal collapse is a very real and current threat, and why intentional living away from the big capital cities is a very legitimate thing to do!

S2 Ep10: Living Simply with Ted Trainer

June 24th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  53 mins 31 secs

degrowth, limits to growth, paul ehrlich, post-growth, simplicity institute, ted trainer, the simpler way, transition towns

In this episode of PGAP, host Michael Bayliss talks to Dr. Ted Trainer from The Simpler Way. And what is the simpler way? Is it a descent into sacrifice, frugality and deprivation? Or is it a systemic change away from a wasteful, globalised growth based economic system towards localised self-sufficiency, self-governance, lives of leisure and reconnection with the natural world? Ted reassures us to much relief that it is definitely the latter!

Tassie Perspectives 2: Damning the Matrix with Mike Stasse

May 25th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  50 mins 51 secs

damn the matrix, degrowth, ian lowe, limits to growth, mike stasse, post-growth, spa, sustainable population australia

"Degrowth is happening whether we like it or not" - Michel Stasse

In the 'Tasmanian Perspectives’ series, PGAP host Michael Bayliss travels around the Apple Isle to interview Post-Growth mainlanders who have resettled in Tasmania and to discuss their reasons why.
In this episode, I travel to the Huon Valley to meet with Michel Stasse, long-time Degrowth advocate, founder of the 'Damn The Matrix' blog and DIO superhero who self-built an impressive self-sufficient, off-grid eco home in the Huon Valley.

S2 Episode 5: Changing our Story on Population with Karen Shragg

March 31st, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 33 secs

author, degrowth, karen shragg, moving upstream, overpopulation, post-growth

Why does modern society persist in pursuing its endless growth experiment when it is so obvious that this is unsustainable? Why is modern neo-liberalism so resistant to change even when the writing is so clearly on the wall? PGAP talks to environmentalist, naturalist, educator, poet and author of new book “Change Our Stories, Change Our World” – Karen Shragg. Karen, who lives in the USA, discusses several of the modern myths and stories detailed in her new book from greed, inequality, religion, anthropocentrism, and the all to misunderstood topic to which she focuses the majority of her activism and advocacy – overpopulation.

Season 2 - Episode 3: Saving the Martuwarra-Fitzroy river with Professor Anne Poelina

March 6th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  59 mins 26 secs

anne poelina, degrowth, first law, first nations, martuwarra, post-growth

Martuwarra, the Fitzroy River, is located in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia – renowned and cherished for being one of the last of the world’s isolated, vast and by global standards – relatively untouched by Western development. Of course, like all places that haven’t yet been concreted over by a dominant culture that demands to grow infinitely on a finite planet, Martuwarra, the Fitzroy River, is under threat to be next on the chopping block. But not without a fight! PGAP talks to Professor Anne Poelina, Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council and a Nyikina Warrwa Traditional Owner, is a custodian of her family’s connection to Mardoowarra, at the lower end of the Fitzroy River. Through observation and practice of Indigenous ‘First Law’ - the first Australian law embodied the rules for living in coexistence with nature – Anne believes it is possible to transition from a culture of invasive development and exploitation to an entrepreneurial culture of care and custodianship.

Smaller Families for People and Planet - With Florence Blondel, Maxine Trump and Tanya Williams

February 17th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 23 mins

childfree, degrowth, family planning, florence blondel, global south, maxine trump, population, post-growth, tanya williams, to kid or not to kid

Three inspiring women. Three powerful arguments why empowered women who choose smaller or childfree families are good for individuals, good for communities and arguably better for the planet. This is the case regardless of where in the world you happen to live - global north OR global south. Population is a contentious conversation starter - in large part because it is a very personal issue for all of us. Yet it is a conversation that we must have if we are to envision a future with less, rather than more, human impact. This incredibly special episode goes hand in hand with Sustainable Population Australia's 'Stop at 2' campaign as they launch Maxine Trump's documentary 'To Kid or Not to Kid' in Theatres across Australia in late February.

Season 2 - Episode 1: Degrowth in Action with Artists as Family

February 1st, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 9 mins

artist as family, community sufficiency, degrowth, neo-peasantry, permaculture

Episode 12: Retrosuburbia with David Holmgren

November 20th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  1 hr 12 mins

david holmgren, degrowth, formidable vegetable, holistic activism, mark allen, permaculture, post-growth, retrosuburbia, town planning rebellion

Are you keen on the idea of permaculture but find the idea of starting an acreage in the country a bit much? Do your cortisone levels go through the roof whenever you see productive farmland being torn down for more cookie cutter suburbia? Are you balking at the thought of perfectly good houses on your street being pulled down for battleship grey pre-fab concrete apartments? Would you prefer that you could do more things for yourself and with others at home rather than having everything outsourced for you at a price from the not-so-free market? According to David Holmgren, co-founder of permaculture, ‘Retrosuburbia’ can make all of this and more, a possibility.