Edge Zone Podcast | Permaculture & Beyond

Permaculture teacher and practitioner Susan Cousineau speaks with Mike Wolfert about flows in nature such as human movement, animal movement, genetics, information, and much more.

Mike speaks with Heather Ray of Andromeda Entertainment about the realm of transformative gaming with virtual reality, and how it relates to and enhances contemplative practices.

Mike does an informal consultation with Wes about a new 54 acre homestead he is purchasing, covering things such as grazing patterns, soil types, food forest planning, contour mapping, silvopasture, and more.

Flow states are rare experiences of being “in the zone” and achieving peak performance with single-pointed focus. In this podcast, Mike and Wes explore the elusive and magical flow state: what it is, how to cultivate conditions for it, and the myriad of benefits that flow states offer.

Mike and Wes discuss Climate: A New Story by Charles Eisenstein, a powerful new book that looks at the roots of the looming environmental crises and challenges many of the underpinnings of the environmental movement.

Will Beilharz of ArtisTree and Cypress Valley Canopy Tours talks about the magic and technical challenges of treehouse construction, including tree types, anchoring methods, design tools, and much more.

John Curry and his wife Kendra run Clay Sand Straw, one of the premier natural building companies in Central Texas. In this episode, John and Mike talk about natural building, straw bale, cob, adobe, building codes, energy efficiency, tiny homes and much more.

In this episode Charles Holmes III of Central Texas Solar and Lighting joins us to answer all of Mike’s questions about solar power in Central Texas- how it works, home solar systems, federal rebates, rare earth materials, battery technology, and much more.

It occurred to us that not everybody who listens to this podcast has an understanding of what permaculture is, so we dedicated an episode to describing it in broad strokes. Permaculture is hard to define concisely because of how holistic and multidimensional it is, encompassing ethics, design principles, landscaping, ecology, agriculture, social networks and much more. We do our best to make this episode illuminating for diehard permies and newbies alike.

In this special episode of the Edge Zone Podcast, Mike and Wes share more deeply about their backgrounds, upbringing, and goals. We talk about past jobs, awkward teenage years, how we ended up in Texas, what we do for fun, and much more. If you’re curious who the heck we are, this is a great show to get to know us a bit more.

In this episode we speak with herbalist, educator, permaculture instructor and entrepreneur Caroline Riley of Whole Life Learning Center and 7-Feathers Trading Post. Caroline is a central figure in the Austin permaculture movement, and was instrumental in the formation of Symbiosis Regenerative Systems. 

In this episode we speak with Anthony Parrish with Corridor Biogenics, a company focused on hemp processing in Texas. With food, fibre, CBD products, and more, hemp is poised to become a huge crop in Texas, but the legal landscape is still murky. Anthony helps shed light on the emerging hemp market, legalities, and what opportunities exist for would-be small and large-scale hemp farmers.

In this episode we discuss what it means to be authentic in work, life, and landscapes. From this starting point we go into personal stories of our past jobs, entrepreneurship, play, parenting, meditation, and much more.

In this episode we speak with professional forager Sean Wall about hunting and foraging for food in Central Texas. Sean is the author of The Cycle of Foraging and has a background in habitat management, biology, and sourcing wild ingredients for Texas restaurants and breweries.

What was society like before the dawn of agriculture? Many people idealize a more “tribal” way of living back in hunter-gatherer times, but the world is very different now. How can we learn from our ancient past in a realistic way that takes into account the modern landscape? From this starting point, we touch on addiction, game theory, flow states, polyamory and more.

This episode goes into some far-out topics related to futuristic technologies such as Neuralink and virtual reality, and what the implications are for humanity. We explore what Neuralink and other brain-machine interface devices might lead to, from group telepathy to landscape design to hedonistic dystopias. Going beyond the technology itself, we look at the fundamental human needs, drives, and stories that will ultimately determine whether we go down a dark path or create a new paradigm that is in harmony with nature.

In this episode of the Edge Zone Podcast we delve into the topic of addiction- where it comes from, what can be done about it, and how it appears in individuals and society at large.

In this episode of the Edge Zone Podcast we delve deeper into the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and try to imagine what a revival of that kind of movement would look like today, such as a People’s Permaculture Practice (PPP). Where the CCC was a government funded initiative, how could a new effort like the PPP start from the ground up? How do we cultivate participation in such an endeavor and incentivize individual property owners to work together on large-scale initiatives?

In our inaugural episode of the Edge Zone Podcast, we speak about the looming spectre of mass unemployment due to automation, and look at ways we could turn this problem into a solution by galvanizing a large scale resurgence of environmentalism and small scale farming. As with every Edge Zone Podcast, this is just the launching point of a very broad discussion that touches on many different subjects permaculture-related and otherwise.

Mike Wolfert and Wesley Thoricatha introduce themselves and share their vision for the Edge Zone Podcast.