Reskillience

NOTE: I’ve done breathwork every day since this interview and – you gaias! – it’s really helping me human.
Meet today’s guest Ella Maryska, who is responsible for getting me into this breathwork thing that I am the last person on the planet to know about.
Ella is 21 years old, wise as the hills, a certified breathwork instructor, and brings a fresh and youthful perspective to the pod which has been sorely absent to date (sorry sorry sorry).
In this sweet convo, you’ll hear about the geeky physiology of breathwork; how it rebalances our nervous system, changes circulation to our brain, oxygenates tissues and connects us to plants, as well as Ella’s own experience as a young person living through the polycrisis, navigating novel life paths as the old routes fall away.
I learned so much from Ella. Let me know if you’re on the breathwork bandwagon, a brilliant tool for staying steady in the tumult.
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS
Ella’s home on the web
Ella/Coming Home Breathwork on IG
Tuesday evening group class
Guided breathwork sesh on YouTube
[book] Atlas of the Heart ~ Brené Brown
Catie’s natto
Reskillience live recording at Words in Winter
The Australasian Permaculture Convergence
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Catie on Substack

“In a time of fracturing seasons, when everything’s going awry, there are still cycles that we can set our hearts by.”
It's Kirsten Bradley of Milkwood! She's writing a new book about the moon, penning love letters to parsley and currawongs on Substack, and here to share all about her daily rhythms in lutruwita, Tasmania. Oh, what a lovely conversation!
Within 🌙
AI or not to AI
Morning routines! Morning stargazing!
Tea choices
Moving to lutruwita/Tassie
Fish farm woes and responses
How to make decisions about where to move
When the body says no
Slow activism
“You can rest. The problems will be there when you get up again. And the solutions.”
Perimenopause rearrangements
Coming back to creativity after burnout
Wrapping knowledge in story
Learning injuries
Writing as a welcome
Cultural astronomies
Should we follow our interests?
What does activism look like for Kirsten now?
The Common Book of the Moon
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS
Kirsten on Substack
Kirsten + Milkwood
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BYO wheelbarrow to load up on Solomon’s wisdom, cos today we’re chatting with the grandaddy of beyond-organic gardening himself, Steve Solomon! If you don’t know Steve, he’s a bit of cult hero in food growing circles thanks to his deep research into soil remineralisation and why it is absolutely critical for human health.
In this convo:
How pre-industrial communities ate 4 x more nutrient-dense food
Why MINERALS are the key to healthy soil and healthy humans
Better nutrition… lower libido?
Why compost is really bloody complicated
…and how compost can ruin your soil if you’re not careful
How to calculate how much organic matter your soil actually needs
The ugly truth about commercial compost
COF ~ Complete Organic Fertiliser
Why Steve doesn’t recommend soil testing for everyone
EVIL GOVERNMENT EDICTS
Steve’s pact to intentionally follow his interests 100%
“THE PURPOSE OF MY LIFE IS TO DO WHATEVER IT IS I’M INTERESTED IN”
LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Steve’s homepage
The Soil & Health Library
[book] The Intelligent Gardener ~ Steve Solomon
[just released!] Growing Nutrient-Dense Vegetables: A Cool Climate Guide~ Steve Solomon
Google: Steve Solomon gardening books
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration ~ Weston A. Price
Soil fertility and Animal Health ~ William Albrecht
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Words in Winter ~ Live podcast with Mara Ripani & Natasha Morgan
Return to the Village ~ Australasian Permaculture Convergence.

I share a GRIPPING TALE about a droplet of water before sitting down with Helen Lehndorf, who is a radical forager, author, anarchist, poet and plenty more wonderful things besides. I loved her memoir A Forager's Life so much! Helen and I dive straight into the weeds about permaculture life strategies, unlocking creativity, writing for nature and how to rebel against The Machine by playing the Holy Fool. Medicine for muddled, blocked or chronically shy creatives.
IN THIS CONVO
Swimming upstream of the over culture
Undoing cultural entrainment
Social permaculture
Permaculture design web
Establishing a daily writing habit
The world isn’t saying PLEASE ARTIST MAKE MORE ART but you should anyway
Anarchism
The YES, AND rule
The Holy Fool archetype
AI? *shrugs*
Enspiriting your art
ECOPOETICS
Getting past sharing insecurity
Writing for nature
Why little lives are worth sharing
Invisible care work
Journalling versus publishing
Blackberry medicine
What is it to relate with plants?
PUNK GRANDDAD DANDY
Synesthesia
The future has an ancient heart
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Helen’s home on the web
A Forager’s Life ~ Helen Lehndorf
The Bruise Palette ~ Helen Lehndorf
Social permaculture ~ Looby Macnamara
Kirsty Porter
Wild ~ Cheryl Strayed
E.M Forster ~ Howard’s End
Annie Dillard
Sound credit: Morepork / Ruru (Owl) - Auckland, New Zealand by tdes -- https://freesound.org/s/319539/ -- License: Attribution 3.0

We built this city on rock n roll! And cheap oil. And it’s currently running out… so what happens now? This week I chat with Nathan Surendran to get a foothold on the fossil fuel crisis (which is the Everything Crisis) and how we can keep our balance, together. Nathan is a systems thinker, recovering engineer, energy and security analyst, policy advisor, author of the Energy and Resilience substack and chair of the Wise Response society. He is also seriously kind, and provides so much practical, empowering advice in this convo, including:
Moving far far away from civilisation
The unsustainability of cities
Neurodivergence leading to deep research
The Energy Elephant in the room: WHAT AREN’T WE SEEING
Why oil (diesel) is the lifeblood of industrial society
Drawing down ancient sunlight 1 million times faster than it’s being recharged
Every calorie of food takes 10 calories of fossil fuels, oof
The Iran War
Why we can’t just switch to renewables
Right relationship with renewables
What are baseline standards of living?
Household appliance heroes for the energy descent
What is Energy Blindness?
Emotionally processing peak oil
One barrel of oil = 5 years of human labour (!)
Are we being gaslit about the situation in the strait?
The industrial system schools us to comply, not think
Why the rich aren’t as protected as they might think
Less affluent people are ahead of the game
What is mutual aid?
Un-pathologising co-dependence
Maori concepts of community care
Why we need danger from a mental health perspective
🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Nathan on Substack ~ Energy and Resilience
Nathan’s home on the web
[doc] When The Trucks Stop ~ mutual aid guidelines
Wise Response on Substack
Jason Bradford ~ The Future Is Rural
Steve Keene
Ian McGilchrist
Charlie Hoyle
Nate Hagens
Steve Keen
Howard T Odum
📸 Photo credit: Jason Hosking
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