Reskillience

You’ve heard of swales… but what about swales in the brain to slow and deepen our human experience? Join me and Cecilia Macaulay for one of those special convos that gets to the heart of life’s gnarliest struggles; our biggest messes, our greatest failures, our everyday chaos… and uses permaculture design to harness their power.
This episode will particularly chime with “forgetful, distractible” types, clutter accumulators, chaos agents, overwhelm junkies, and anyone with a hunch that a few elegant household systems could MASSIVELY increase their effectiveness in the world.
WE COVER
Insane wisdom from Bill Mollison
Meeting Masanobu Fukuoka
The FIVE RULES OF HARMONIOUS PERMIE SHAREHOUSES
Japanese rules of Non-Complaint and Taking Full Responsibility
Growing an enduring permaculture spirit
How to become a world expert in a tiny little thing
Creating a failure protocol
Upward spirals
Permaculture for heartbreak
Being an effective human later in life
More than medication for neurodiversity
The connection between untidy houses and trauma
Making your kitchen sink a shrine to beauty and goodness
Setting a household culture using mirror neurons
The eco-footprint of university
STOP AWFULISING!
Permaculture zones in the home
Why to share what’s spare
STOP COLONISING CREATIVE VOID!
Expanding the edges of our gifts and talents
Beautiful messcapes
Knolling
What “can’t be bothered” really codes for
How to use imagination to improve your memory
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Cecilia’s home on the web
Cecilia’s nine month home harmonising project
The Edible Balcony Garden ~ Indira Naidoo
Sand Talk ~ Tyson Yunkaporta
Screen Zen App
WWOOF, HelpX & Workaway
Polyvagal theory
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Thanks to kangaroovindaloo for the singing bowls: License: Attribution 4.0

Big personal shares at the top of the ep (preview: podcasting terrifies me) before an utterly delightful conversation with Scots folk singer Josie Vallely aka. Quinie.
Quinie's album Forefowk, Mind Me was named The Guardian's best folk release of 2025, but don't worry if you're not into bagpipes because we mostly chat about:
Not making your art your career
Tips for slow art/seasonal living in a rushing world
The mind bending differences between relating with Country in Australia versus Scotland
Minority languages and evocation of place
The right to roam
Confused white settler syndrome
When you’re a cultural mongrel
Impure ancestry
Place as a surrogate elder
Tradition in motion
Where do songs live?
Journeying on horseback
Horses as bodyguards
Why we all just want to be got
🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS
Quinie’s home on the web
Quinie on Instagram
[album] Forefowk, Mind Me ~ Quinie
Quinie’s seasonal almanac ~ Things that happen every year in a cycle
[film] Forefowk, Mind Me
Guardian review of Quinie’s album
Cover art photo credit: Anthony Rintoul
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A garden drama unfolds during a heatwave, and I share my summer solstice/New Year wishes for you.
Thanks for tuning into another year of Reskillience! We'll be back later in January full of fresh questions and custard.
Shout out to my love Jordan Osmond for helping produce this episode.
Sound credit: BlackbirdFiltered.wav by acclivity
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Cor blimey, we're getting equiney! Cast aside your Saddle Club trauma and learn how horses can help us be better humans and stewards of nature in this rich convo with Lisa Podosin.
Lisa is a horse listener, advocate and author who swapped Hollywood for a tiny home on shared land with a herd of seven horses. We get real deep on topics of:
🐴 not putting off till retirement what you wanna do today
🐴 choosing freedom over security at any age
🐴 land sharing gifts and tips (single women supporting women!)
🐴 how horses as prey animals reveal our inner misalignment
🐴 moving beyond control-based strategies (bridles, saddles, whips) and towards trust
🐴 how to be agents of liberation for both the more-than-human world and our own wild souls
🐴 learning interspecies communication
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Lisa’s home on the web
Pre-order Lisa’s book
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Thanks for the birdsong straget! Blackbird.wav by straget | License: Attribution 4.0

You want it, you got it: an open discussion about the cracks in our civilisation, and how to catch each other when it all falls apart.
Dave Pollard has been writing about culture, complexity, deep ecology and collapse for longer than some of us have been alive. While he continues to cheer on radical ‘deep green’ activists, he no longer believes that that we can change or reform The System. This convo is about what to do instead.
[first aired in 2023]
🧙‍♀️ LINKY POOS 🧙‍♀️
Dave's writings
Dave’s recommended reading list ~ The Books That Have Influenced Me Most
Dave’s article ~ How Do We Teach the Critical Skills Needed to Face Collapse?
Molly Housch Gordon's piece ~ How to Survive the End of The World
[watch] The New Peasants by Happen Films