Launching this Substack
Why I'm here & hope you'll join me
Pic: Olivia Cheng.
G’day, my name’s Anthony James. I write, podcast and speak about stories of regeneration, of all kinds, everywhere. The stuff that’s working. Going well. That we could do more of, towards a more beneficent human presence in the world.
But after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating The RegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing - the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places.
I started to wonder if writing some of these stories would be fun and useful. Especially given how Rebecca Solnit affirms how vital they continue to be in shaping our sense of reality, agency and possibility.
I used to do some writing a while back, before the podcast took over. And like the podcast, it unexpectedly made its way to audiences around the world. So now feels like a good time for these two flanks to make their way in the world together. With a little latent love of photography added. And as always, some tunes.
In that sense, you could also say I’ve been looking for an outlet that put the social back in media. Substack convinced me when it said it stood for:
‘social media with property rights, traditional media with community.’
So here it is, a way for me to share my photo-journalism and podcasting from around Australia and the world, along with events and gatherings, general musings, and social media discussions, in one relatively safe space (especially compared with what else is out there).
Also like the podcast, the vast majority of the writing here will be free of ads and freely available, with the invitation for you to subscribe financially if you can and would like to.
Paying subscribers will get exclusive access to:
The ability to post comments and engage in conversation here. (Only paying subscribers can comment.)
Access to work-in-progress and other stuff I wouldn’t post publicly.
Free or discounted tickets to public events, including The RegenNarration gatherings (online and in-person).
Behind the scenes videos and photos, access to archives, and other stuff.
The good karma and contentedness of keeping the good stories coming, and their author cared for.
To all you wonderful podcast subscribers on Patreon, you’ll get that exclusive stuff too. And vice versa. Whatever exclusive stuff goes on Patreon, I’ll post here too. So you only need to financially subscribe to one (no double-dipping here).
Essentially, you can consider Patreon remains for podcast subscribers, and Substack for subscribers to these stories. The main difference then? Getting to comment and chat in one platform or the other. So feel free to take your pick!
On both platforms, the minimum subscription amount is just $5/month (or around $1/week), with the option to customise your choice of a higher amount if you can and would like to.
With all my gratitude, I hope you enjoy the read!