Podcasts

I’m a little bit obsessed with podcasts, mainly the ones to do with natural building. They can’t put them out fast enough for me! I gobble them up. Here are some excellent podcasts to subscribe to along with links to some of my favourite episodes so far.

Abundant Edge – I love this podcast. Oliver Goshey is a fantastic interviewer who really digs down deep with his interviewees on a huge variety of topics. He’s spent a bunch of time travelling around, working on other people’s projects to learn by doing. His focus is on natural building so I really relate to a lot of what he talks about and I like that he gets quite technical on certain topics. The people he speaks with are all fascinating and I feel like he’s pointed me in a lot of interesting directions. I wish the podcasts were organised in a way where you could see them all at once, but dig through them month-by-month and you’re sure to find something amazing. Some of my favourites are the interviews with Atulya Bingham (the first one and then a follow up), Sigi Koko, Liz Johndrow, April Magill (this and this), Chris Magwood, Mark Lakeman, and on and on (and on). Head to the site and have a look around and you’ll find hours of awesome stuff.

Building Sustainably – This podcast is relatively new on the scene but it’s the one that I look forward to the most. At this stage it’s 10 episodes young and they only put them out monthly, so there’s not a huge amount of content to dig into. But what is there is wonderful! The podcast’s episodes, so far, have been more like fun, informal conversations than an interview and I love that format. The hosts Jeffrey Hart and Joe Duirwyn are both experienced natural builders with a company called Hartwyn. They run a free, four-month natural building course and I’m really into the model they use, so they’ve been on my radar for awhile now. I love all of the episodes but I particularly like ‘Building a Tiny House‘, ‘Roundwood Timber Framing‘, and ‘How to Create an Anti-Capitalist Building Site’.

Paul Wheaton Permaculture Podcast – Paul Wheaton is a sort of a larger-than-life character in the permaculture world and he’s not shy about it. He created the excellent website Permies.com which is packed with a huge variety of information on everything to do with permaculture including natural building. He also has a very informative podcast covering a whole range of topics in his (so far) 450+ episodes. He’s quite shouty and abrasive and not everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s incredibly knowledgeable and the podcast is usually very entertaining, no matter the topic covered.

The Permaculture Podcast – This is one of the best podcasts out there on the topic of, you guessed it – permaculture! Scott Mann is soft spoken and humble and sort of the polar opposite of Paul Wheaton so it’s interesting that their podcasts basically share the same name. He has a lot of more philosophical conversations along with plenty of episodes with practical advice and I love the mix. There are so many great episodes to choose from but I particularly loved Natural Building and ThePoosh.org with Eric Puro, Whole System Design and the Resilient Farm with Ben Falk, and more coming soon.

Permaculture Voices – I just discovered this in January 2020 and I’m instantly addicted! I’m very excited to see that there are almost 1,000 episodes to work through on this podcast. The host, Diego Footer, is very good at interviewing and has a lot of interesting things to say. The podcast seems to be mostly about small-scale farming which I’m not super interested in (yet), but there’s a great selection of more general, philosophical topics as well. I really like this guy’s style. I’m new to this podcast but I’ll share some of my favourite episodes as I find them.

Sustainable World Radio – This podcast is a recent discovery for me and I love it! The host, Jill Cloutier, is an excellent interviewer and she gets some great information out of her guests in a really fun an informal way. Jill speaks to experts on a wide variety of topics focusing on the natural world and “practical, earth-friendly, and nature-based solutions that can lead us to a better world.” My favourite episode is Natural Building: Good for People and Planet where she chats with a bunch of different builders, covering a wide variety of topics. I also really love Incredible Edible: A Revolution of Kindness because I’ve met Mary Clear and she’s a glorious person and just listening to her speak puts a bit smile on my face.