Akiva Silver has been studying and working with nature for the past 20 years. His endeavors have ranged from primitive wilderness survival to planting and maintaining diverse fruit and nut orchards, and to running his nursery business at Twisted Tree Farm. Akiva raises tens of thousands of trees every year, propagating from seeds and cuttings. He i…

Some people do things the way things have always been done. Others develop that curiosity muscle and are able to take in new information, weigh it against experience and, yes, intuition, and ultimately create new systems that work. The first thing Jared teaches a new farmer is “know thyself.” Jared and Selena have been married 26 years and are the …

Amy Dempster helps others understand the healing power of the earth. What began as openly sharing her spiritual journey on her popular blog Following Hawks, has become a resource for others wanting to learn how to communicate with nature and share their own unique healing gifts with the earth. Together with the Spirits of the Land in the mountains …

Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, earth intuitive and ecological philosopher who lives in the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the founder of One Willow Apothecaries, an Appalachian-grown company that offers handcrafted herbal medicines and educational experiences in herbalism, animism, ancestral healing and earth-centered personal growth. …

“Our sense of ‘the individual’, which really began with the rise of capitalism and the forceful severing of people from land and community, led to the concept that there are categories of being that do and do not have consciousness, that are and are not alive, that do and do not have their own right to existence…and when we actually drop into our s…

75% of the world’s human population relies on traditional healing practices, most of which is herbal medicine. Herbs and other plants have shaped human culture and traditions since the beginning of time. The Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe’s Pale of Settlement have a well documented history dating back to the Middle Ages, but until now, accounts of th…

Amy Dempster helps others understand the healing power of the earth. What began as openly sharing her spiritual journey on her popular blog Following Hawks, has become a resource for others wanting to learn how to communicate with nature and share their own unique healing gifts with the earth. Together with the Spirits of the Land in the mountains …

David O’Carroll has been educating growers in the United Kingdom in Korean Natural Farming methods for the last 6 years at Ballagh Micro Farm, based in Devon, where beneficial microbes are being used to create healthy soil through powerful natural fertilizers. Having used Korean Natural Farming for a number of years on a smaller scale, such as esta…

David O’Carroll has been educating growers in the United Kingdom in Korean Natural Farming methods for the last 6 years at Ballagh Micro Farm, based in Devon, where beneficial microbes are being used to create healthy soil through powerful natural fertilizers. Having used Korean Natural Farming for a number of years on a smaller scale, such as esta…

“In order to rise to the challenge of addressing the global emergency known as climate change, we need to access and build a relationship with our higher soul. This connection fosters a life where we truly take stewardship of the planet and our relationship with other beings, and to the best of our ability, manifest love, kindness, and compassion f…

“Your food just feels good when I eat it”…this is the refrain Jennifer Maynard hears again and again from customers eating the meals she produces from her regenerative agriculture farm and assembles through her meal kit business—meals based on the Longevity Diet. Jennifer has done her homework when it comes to food that works with the human body. S…

Microbes make the world go ‘round. In regenerative agriculture, we rely on microbes to supply our crops to with the nutrients they need to flourish. On a larger scale, microbes play the role of the Earth’s immune system, springing into action when disasters such as petroleum spills assault her waters. Today we talk about the magic of microbes in th…

We are wired to perceive information from the natural world around us— it’s how we have survived as a species. The problem is we have shut it off, influenced at an early age by the adults in our lives. We all have the ability to tend our reciprocal relationship with the plants and the Earth. Kami McBride is the author of The Herbal Kitchen and has …

Have you ever tried to experience your yard, a garden, a woodland…the way a child does? Have you ever had a simple experience of a tree or insect without naming it or judging it or creating a narrative around it? Brigit Strawbridge Howard has rediscovered the pure delight and joy of doing just that—tuning in to the frequency of the natural world an…

“Parenthood is EASY!” said no one, ever. Raising children to be conscious, kind, sustainably-minded adults can be extra challenging in an age of global ecological collapse, and in a country characterized by immediate gratification, polarization, and single-use EVERYTHING. Today we talk with Shannon Brescher Shea about how to bridge our desire to be…

If you can commit to serving fresh fruits and vegetables every time you serve food— to yourself, to others, and especially to children, you will feel better, you will look better, and your community and loved ones will thrive. Food security is national security, and supporting the US farmers who grow our produce is a vote for healthy bodies and hea…

Today we have the opportunity to glimpse what it means to stand for community and healing in the midst of the fallout of Western extractive corporate interests. Lexie Gropper is a biologist dedicated to deepening her understanding of the life cycles, with a passion for the processes of decomposition leading to fertile grounds and new opportunities.…

How do you feel when you get out in nature? What happens to your mental state when you spend some time in your garden? Today we chat with Heather Kelejian about her role as Executive Director of the Ability Garden, a place where horticulture therapy is available to a number of populations for the purpose of supporting the healing of emotional wound…

In today’s episode, we talk to Coordinator Stephanie Morningstar and John Deloatch (JD) Giraldo of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust. Their vision is to advance land sovereignty in the northeast region through permanent and secure land tenure for Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian farmers and land stewards who will use the land in a sacre…

Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm is a woman-owned, 16-acre, off-grid educational regenerative agriculture farmstead nestled in the mountains of Appalachia. Since 2004, they have welcomed more than 2500 volunteers, held workshop gatherings, provided respite to activists, held healing space for their beloveds, and organized countless parties for work, …

Nature is inherently abundant. No one has to spray the forests or plant the wetlands in order for them to thrive in perfect balance. As such, food gathered from the wild has the highest potential to nourish us on a deep level. When we realize that we have access to this bounty without having to intervene and sweat and toil (the original definition …

How the world would be different if politics were rooted in radical love? This is the question being asked by Heather Mizeur, CEO + Founder of Soul Force Politics, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the cultivation, empowerment, and alignment of inner wisdom and external engagement as a catalyst for individual and community transfor…

If there were one enterprise that addresses environmental degradation, chronic illness, depression, and poverty, would you be willing to learn about it? Today, we speak to someone who seems to have hit the jackpot…he and his family have developed a highly productive, dense nutrient-producing farming style that feeds people like medicine. They have …

What motivates the biodynamic farmer? What perceptions do they hold that are a little bit different than those in the mainstream? So many of us yearn for connection—with Nature, with the Divine, with each other. When you can view each living thing as an expression of its Divine nature, our connections have a different meaning. M Mueller is the Biod…

Just as pests don’t attack healthy crops, disease doesn’t take hold in a human body that is nutritionally balanced. With one foot in the world of agriculture and the other in medicine, Dr. Arden Andersen is in a unique position to observe the connections between soil health, food nutrient density, and human health. Dr. Andersen is a holistic family…

We are living through a time when the entire world is taking a good, hard look at itself. This has given humanity an incredible opportunity to shift focus and choose systems that feed life, that create biological resources, rather than only financial resources. We have a chance to turn away from systems that marginalize, extract, and degrade…and ch…

The Coronavirus pandemic is catalyzing many things…and forcing us to take a good look at the systems we depend on. During this period of isolation, we have the opportunity to disconnect from large systems that do harm, and redesign our lives with the help of systems aligned with life and love. Do our communities have enough resources to support eve…

Today Brooke speaks to the listeners directly about things that have helped ease her transition to the new circumstances in which the global population finds itself... Resources "Blessing for Earth-Healers" from The Earth Path: Grounding your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature by Starhawk How to Grow Vibrant Food and Connect to your Land webinar serie…

"Eating is not simply filling some gustatory hole, eating is knitting yourself into the fabric of life that's going on all the time, all around you...and how you knit yourself in can either make that fabric a beautiful thing, or it can make it tattered. Right now, I think a lot of our eating is creating tatters all across the world. What would be g…

“Creation isn’t something that happened all at once, a long time ago…creation is something that happens every day, and humans are meant to be stewards of this creation instead of dominating it. We are co—creators of this reality every day, and as such, we need to learn to work with natural systems instead of fighting them. The degree of our success…

In today's episode, Stacia Nordin shares her experiences assisting the Malawian government with food insecurity and nutrition through a permaculture lens. The open-door policy at her education center/homestead located in a village near the capital is real-world demonstration of the Garden of Eden Malawi can actually be. Stacia Nordin is a Registere…

In part 2 of this series, Vail opens up about new ways to approach business, our relationship with ourselves, and seeing the world through a holistic lens and how that opens up possibilities unavailable to the linear cause-and-effect thinking of scientific logic. Vail Dixon is a regenerative farmer and holistic grazing mentor. Founder of Simple Soi…

Vail Dixon is a regenerative farmer and holistic grazing mentor. Founder of Simple Soil Solutions, Grazing Power and ABC Beef, Vail grew up working on farms, climbing mountains and enjoying nature. While training to represent her country in the Olympics, a life threatening accident gave Vail an opportunity to experience healing through healthy food…

It's a dream farm story...Holly and Andy met on a farm, were married on a farm, started a family on a farm and make their living on a farm. When Holly and Andy purchased land in 2013 to begin their dream farm, they realized that the initial focus was going to be rehabilitating the soil. They decided that biodynamic agriculture would be the way they…

Humans are unique creatures for many reasons. One of those is our long list of disorders, specifically Nature Deficit Disorder. Most of us are so far removed from our original habitat that we are actually suffering from the absence of plant influences in our lives, and it affects our body, mind, and spirit. Today we discuss this and much more with …

Renee Boughman is from Belmont, NC. She earned a Master's degree in history and another degree in Culinary Arts. While working in fine dining establishments in the North Carolina high country, Renee joined with other citizens in a grassroots effort to open a community cafe modeled after S.A.M.E. (So All May Eat) Cafe in Denver, Colorado. F.A.R.M. C…

Imagine your daily grind--your house, your car, your commute, your job....Now imagine what it would be like to spend days camping in the woods, drinking spring water, breathing clean mountain air, eating freshly picked foods, and spending all day in Nature...learning about growing and gathering cultivated and wild food, making tools, tracking, tann…

"It's not about what I do, but how I'm part of what WE do"... Patryk Battle has been farming since the mid 80’s; throughout that time, he has always been inspired to farm as an answer to the problem of human disconnection from Nature. Farming became an extension of his political activism as a way to create a better world. Farming was not only way t…

Meet Sarah. Sarah works with faith-based communities to connect their most sacred teachings to ways to embody those values and incorporate lifestyle changes that promote justice, compassion, and sustainability. A graduate of the Sustainable Development department at Appalachian State University, Sarah recently earned her Master of Divinity, with a …

Can we regard food production with a systematic, science-based approach and still believe in and support the invisible, life-giving forces that govern Nature? Today we speak with Jane Weaver, who has been an enthusiastic student of mathematics, music, and the connections between these two sciences for nearly all of her life. Following her college a…

We are in a unique time in human history. We can order an item from around the world and receive it at our doorstep in a few days. We can live our entire lives indoors. We can exist without interacting with other humans. Unfortunately, this separation from each other and from Nature makes it easier than ever to exploit and destroy nature for our ow…

We are coming to the end of an era that uses fossil calories to power our food production. It's going to take more than technology, more than math and science, to see us out of this predicament; it's going to take collaboration, creativity, and imagination. Born on a North Dakota farm during the Great Depression and in the grips of the worst drough…

In today's episode, we dive into the philosophy of permaculture, activism, and earth-based spirituality with Starhawk, an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author of thirteen books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancien…

One of my guests, Skye Taylor (episode 7), graciously offered to interview me for the show. This is a chance for you to get to know a little bit about me, what my goals are, and where I'm coming from. Hopefully it will put this whole project into context. If you'd like to pitch a guest for this show, email me at info@soulsoilpodcast.com. Thanks for…

What happens when we design from observation of Nature and not for human convenience? What would change in our experience if we decided to simplify our outer lives, while cultivating our inner life? In today's episode, we discuss these and other insights from meditations on the Holy Honey Bee. Skye’s first career was in theatre, and in her mid thir…

When we identify the things in life that we could not live without, the things that create true success, life becomes simple. Learning to deal with our own inner landscape and making our own healing a priority impacts how we treat others and view the world. Today we discuss trauma, sustainable living, and awakening with Morgan Caraway, a natural bu…

With modern conventional agriculture, we have lost the art of connecting with the land and growing food that was handed down by our ancestors. Not only are we left with a fraction of the genetic diversity of our food crops, we have also lost our connection to the land and any mention of the invisible beings who share the land with humans. Theresa C…

Did you know that exposing your body and mind to the life-giving energies of clean food and spending time in nature is not only beneficial for your own body, it also affect the genetic expression of your descendants? Today we take it outdoors to chat with Jasmine Shoshanna, owner and operator of Jasmine's Gardens. A long-time environmental activist…

We can design sustainable agricultural systems all day long, but if we don't also have sustainable social systems to support them, they are far more likely to fail. Today we cover this and many other topics with Dave Jacke. Dave Jacke, primary author of the award winning two-volume book Edible Forest Gardens, has studied ecology and design since th…

The humble honeybee does so much more than pollinate and produce honey. She is far more evolved than humans give her credit for. Join us as we discuss bees and biodynamic with Gunther Hauk. Gunther has four decades of experience as a biodynamic beekeeper, gardener, and farmer. In 1996 he co-founded the Pfeiffer Center – one of the first biodynamic …