With new year cheer to you, and heart-felt wishes to those suffering over east and elsewhere right now, I wanted to start 2026 here with a word of thanks. For backing in the nascent months of this column, especially for the skin some have put in the game already. And all the more, for backing in 10 years of The RegenNarration podcast. Well, that’s to say this is its 10th year. The photo from Wooleen Station above was from its first.
That was back in 2017. Amidst a stop-start series of experiments, the idea began to take root to get on-location with people who were enabling the regeneration of life in some significant way. That photo with Frances was taken while recording what became episode 9.
Then in early 2018, Frances and husband David joined me on stage alongside Charles Massy at the Sustainable Living Festival by the Yarra River in Melbourne (later becoming episode 16). Charles had just published Call of the Reed Warbler through UQP, which was to become a major best-seller. It was standing room only. Hundreds of people swarmed the large marquee tent riverside.
I remember festival organisers being concerned about these livestock farmers getting harassed, potentially physically, by activist vegans (think blood thrown in your face). I had to argue the case that it’d be our great collective loss if these stories weren’t talked about. And I hoped I’d be able to broker a decent conversation if emotions fired.
I duly pre-warned our guests, all the same. They didn’t flinch at the prospect, festival organisers were convinced, there was no trouble, the conversation was brilliant, and included a wonderful audience.
It was also the first time I met this bloke …
Paul Hawken was the festival’s keynote that year, soon after his NYT best-seller Drawdown was published. From memory, our panel was in the slot before Paul. So Charlie and I took up the front row seats I’d secured for us, and after Paul’s presentation I took it upon myself to introduce us both. I had a copy of Charles’ book in hand from the publisher to gift to Paul too.
That humble moment led to episodes 13 through 15 with Paul on the podcast the following month (and more later). And more humbly still, the global publication of Reed Warbler through Chelsea Green later that year.
That ended up being the last of 10 years of public conversation events I’d been organising (save for one in Perth for Katherine Trebeck’s book launch in 2019), because that seed of an idea to get on-location with people sprouted.
We couldn’t just do big events once or twice a year - too fleeting, so much work - much less expect these guests from around the country to come to us all the time. And as a family, we’d come to feel we had to get out and learn about our country properly, and what better way than through the eyes of the people caring for it, and Country itself?
So after running an outpost of the Transitions Film Festival in Perth (that’s another story), we bought a 4WD van, equipped it with second battery, solar panels, fridge and the like, committed to a consistent fortnightly release of the podcast, and headed round Australia.
First stop, back to our new friends at Wooleen (David’s excellent book The Wooleen Way was to come out the following year, so we circled back to the Station to talk about that for episode 44; some of my favourite photos are on that web page too btw).
And one of our last stops? Full circle to the Massy farm, Severn Park, in the Monaro region of NSW (realising episode 32, and later, part of the Australian Story TV show about Charlie watched more than a quarter of a million times).
Half way through that journey, to my alarm, people started to listen in some numbers. And the rest, as they say, is history. 289 episodes to date. An additional 128 releases of various kinds (previews, excerpts, re-releases, bonus extras etc.). Approaching three-quarters of a million plays. Which are dwarfed, in turn, by the countless mycelial offshoots and interplays like those above.
And like Kachana Station. Almost everyone who’s listened to the podcast knows about Kachana now, if they didn’t before, situated in the far north Kimberley region of WA. 2024’s Australian Story TV show that spawned from the podcast now has upwards of 1.5 million views. All that support and interest will be needed this year too, incidentally, with the Station under threat. More on that soon.
And like the Haggerty family, farmers in the wheatbelt of WA, who we actually didn’t meet till we got home from that journey around Australia. Last year, after 30+ years of pioneering work, very often out on a limb, they were declared the Australians of the Year for WA.
And like Dr Anne Poelina, increasingly globally recognised Nyikkina Warrwa elder in the Kimberley (some amazing pics and music by Anne’s son accompany episode 98).
And like so many others across every field and landscape, regenerating (ancient and modern) cultures, food systems, economies, politics, law, arts, sports, media, oceans, rivers, communities, health, languages, knowledge systems, and care for Country (all life) generally.
Including those on-location throughout the Americas over the last 18 months or so. So much more to share on that front this year too.
This past decade has been transformative, uplifting and humbling in the extreme. Well beyond what we could possibly have planned, or even imagined. It has that in common, too, with many of the remarkable people, places and stories we’ve visited.
I look forward to sharing so much more here and on the podcast this year. Right now, I have little clips of highlights from last year playing daily through the rest of January. New episodes kick off in February, starting with a bang too. No spoilers, but let’s just say there’s a major launch happening at Parliament House in Canberra then.
And this column kicks off 2026 with this. With enormous thanks, once again, for sharing in it all with me, from connecting on a nascent sense of possibility at the beginning, notwithstanding my ignorance on how to do any of this, to a persistent sense, nearly a decade on, there is more worth sharing.
Thank you so very much for your support, moral, technical, emotional, artistic, nutritional, accommodating, financial. I wouldn’t be here, and couldn’t keep doing this, without you. Let’s see where it leads us this year.
I’ve updated the most popular 10 episodes of all time list on the website, and uploaded the most popular episodes from last year too, if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Certainly, if you’re new to the pod, you could start there.
All my best to you for ‘26!
Wow wow wow!! Congratulations Anthony - thank you for doing this great work, educating us and turning regen into our great passion! Making us very boring at parties 😂
Wow! I’ll always remember chatting on the verandah, and then the request to chat on the podcast. ‘Why not’, I thought! You’re amazing AJ, never stop sharing the passion and stories you believe in. It’s a great privilege to call you, Olivia and Yeshe my friends ✨