Ecological Economies and MMT with Steve Williams

May 13th, 2022  |  Season 3  |  48 mins 39 secs

book, degrowth, ecological economics, modern monetary theory, stephen williams

“Sustainability and the New Economics: Synthesising Ecological Economics and Modern Monetary Theory” is a new book fresh off the print and on the shelves. It is an impressive volume containing chapters from a host of Australian game-changers including Michael Kirby, Ian Dunlop Will Steffen and last episode’s guest Ian Lowe. The book details sobering realities regarding business as usual economics, while offering many realistic and applicable solutions based around ecological economics and modern monetary theory.

PGAP spoke with lead editor Stephen Williams to find out more about this impressive book, and why economics is front and foremost of the world’s problems and why things need to change.

A Public Housing Revolution for Degrowth with Dr Alex Baumann

February 1st, 2022  |  Season 3  |  1 hr 5 mins

alex baumann, degrowth, housing affordability, post-growth, public housing, urban planning

Housing is an essential human need, but as the average median house price in Australian capital cities now exceed $1 million, this requires some very significant dropping into the marketplace in order to afford a roof over our heads. According to the research of PGAP’s esteemed guest Dr. Alex Baumann, the act of owning a property of one’s own can place one in that dreaded 1% richest people in the world. Alex discusses why the privatisation of land forces us all into lifestyles that are antithetical to the degrowth movement and why housing needs to be at the core of post-growth activism. Alex also explains why public housing is one overlooked solution and how reinvigorating this asset is part and parcel to a degrowth future. Ready to have your whole perspective on housing turned around? This is the episode for you!

The Politics of Permaculture with Terry Leahy

January 17th, 2022  |  Season 3  |  1 hr 1 min

anitra nelson, degrowth, gift economy, permaculture, post-growth, social movement, steady state, terry leahy

Permaculture is a popular topic on PGAP. Many who practice permaculture tend to also resonate with post-growth ideas. But for those in the post-growth movement who don’t like to garden, are there still things we can learn from permaculture? Can permaculture principles be applied to the wider economic, political and social change movements, or should permaculture keep itself to the garden bed? A new book, ‘The Politics of Permaculture’ endeavours to unpack the theory and practice of this popular and broad social movement. Author Terry Leahy collated many interviews and points of view from permaculture practitioners across the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe and everywhere in-between, to capture the many perspectives of how permaculture is understood. He shares this and more with PGAP, including his own vision for a future gift economy.

Season 3 Premiere - Leadership toward This Sustainable Life with Joshua Spodek

January 2nd, 2022  |  Season 3  |  1 hr 2 mins

degrowth, joshua spodeck, leadership, population, post-growth, sustainability, this sustainable life

“I started bringing leadership into the environment. Because I felt like there’s a lot of people telling other people what to do, spreading facts and figures. But no-one really making it enjoyable. Saying you’re going to like this, you’re going to wish you started earlier, speaking from personal experience.”

Joshua Spodek is a bestseller author, multiple TEDx talker and host of award winning podcast “This Sustainable Life”. Joshua is a huge advocate for the environment and for system change toward a post-growth planet. He takes his politics into his home life and made some incredible life transformations in his mission to living more sustainably. So, how has a move toward a meat-free life of no food packaging and no plane miles played out for our special guest on the Season 3 Premiere of PGAP? Is this a life of wilful deprivation and martyrdom? Or have these personal challenges transformed his life into one of joy and a different kind of abundance? Joshua tells all through amusing personal anecdotes coupled with an incredibly well-read and researched outlook on the world.

PGAP Christmas Special with Michael's Seasonal Manifesto

December 24th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  51 mins 25 secs

counting backwards, degrowth, holistic activism, michael bayliss, population, post-growth, shock octopus, steady state, sustainable population australia, town planning rebellion

The festive season is upon us as we wrap close to another year in the decade of consequence. To ‘celebrate’, PGAP host Michael Bayliss shares his own personal vision for a post-growth future. He looks back nostalgically on his Melbourne years, reflecting on the many successes and challenges from ten years in many various grassroots community initiatives. He also plays a selection of songs, penned by himself or by friends that espouse the Degrowth values of this podcast even if they may not inspire complete festive cheer. Enjoy!

Season 2 Finale with Economic Reform Australia

November 3rd, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 4 mins

adelaide, degrowth, economic reform australia, era, mmt, population, post-growth

In this final episode of season 2, PGAP speaks with Economic Reform Australia (ERA) to find out why fundamental changes to our economic systems are a crucial part of a transition toward degrowth. Why do we have an economic system that prizes money and extraction over the environment and prospects for future generations? What is this ‘MMT’ that everyone is on about these days? Why is economics something that everyone should try to understand and not just leave to the academics and experts? PGAP travels to Adelaide to chat with ERA’s very own Bernard Thomson to find out more.

PGAP also speaks with freelance economic thinker Zoltan Bexley to find out more about why Australia’s current economic system results in many poor outcomes for many of us, such as the favourite bugbear on PGAP – Australia’s housing unaffordability crisis.

Please not that opinions of the Guest’s own and may not necessarily reflect those of the whole ERA organisation.

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!