Jessica is a kaupapa Māori researcher, author and advocate as well as being a farmer. She is the director and founding trustee of the Papawhakaritorito Charitable Trust which is all about decolonising our food systems and restoring indigenous food sovereignty. She lives with her wife Jo Smith (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) on twelve acres of beautiful whenua in the foothills of the Tararua with the Remutaka and Orongorongo behind and Pākuratahi Forest Park nearby.   Jessica was involved in...

When Simone Woodland dreamed up the idea of creating a co-housing village, she didn’t imagine she’d have to become a developer to make it happen. Simone moved to Aotearoa from the UK in 2018 as a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow, on a visa programme specifically designed for social entrepreneurs like her. Her initial vision was to build a community that looks after burnt out social entrepreneurs. When Sarrah Jayne heard about Simone’s idea she was captivated. She gave up her job in Pōneke...

Earlier this year I took part in an eight week online course called Gathering at the Gate, created and facilitated by my friend Elli Yates along with her three friends and co-conspirators - Wren (or Tamsin) Blundell, Erin Thomas and Dani Pickering. The aim of the course is to offer a kind and encouraging space for Pākehā or white assimilated folk to come together and explore the difficult questions around our legacy of colonisation and how we show up as responsible treaty partners without...

Charlotte Shade is a friend of mine and I’ve watched with interest and admiration as her group of housemate/friends have bought a house, had babies and brought them up together in a loving non-nuclear family group. In this conversation Charlotte and I explore where the idea of buying a house with friends came from, how her group made it happen and what they’ve learnt in the process. Being a lawyer, Charlotte has a unique perspective and set of skills. She created this legal agreement, which...

This week the tables have turned. Hannah gets to fulfil her dream of being a podcast host and I have a go at answering difficult questions about my childhood, the economics of my life, why I’ve chosen to focus on home and kāinga, what I hope to achieve in this project and why I feel like a piglet suckling an enormous industrial mother pig. It was a treat to explore the ideas and epiphanies this project is bringing me. I feel shocked that it has taken me 41 years to begin to understand the...

I’m very excited to share this conversation with 19 year old activist and student, Anika Green. She grew up in an inner city Christian community called Stillwaters in Te Whanganui a Tara which aims to provide a space of belonging, transformation and faith for anyone who needs it. In her childhood home she was surrounded by all kinds of people who loved and cared for her, including homeless people, gang members, sex workers and refugees. She never learnt to view these people through a lens of...

After interviewing lots of inspiring and knowledgeable experts it was so lovely to sit down with someone I know really well and embark on a journey together. Hanna is such a great storyteller. I was captivated right from the start by her descriptions of her childhood, her uncompromising teenage passion for animals and the environment and the way she veered off her scrupulously developed life-plan (to become a vet like her Dad) into the chaos, beauty and terror of the world. This is a...

I’m really pleased to be able to share this conversation with Max Rashbrooke - journalist, author, academic and expert on economic inequality and democratic renewal. I’ve seen Max around for years in Wellington. I’m pretty sure I remember him at parties a decade ago having rigorous political conversations. I’ve been stoked over the past year to get to know him and bit more. I loved this conversation! We went right back to Max’s childhood in Eastbourne and learned about his teenage love of sci...

This show is the second part of a two-hour conversation I had with Hemi over Zoom. It felt so rich I wanted to share it all with you instead of doing a separate interview. If you missed the first half, you can find it here: Decolonising our imaginations - Part 1 I also recommend reading this article which Hemi recently wrote for the Spin-off: “The Sunday Essay: Two waka, three iwi, three hapū”. It tells a beautifully poetic story of his background and work. Hemi is on a mission to...

This show is going to be a bit different. Instead of interviewing Hemi I decided to share the conversation we had over Zoom when we first met. It felt so rich I wanted to share it all with you. It was also quite long (2 hours) so I’ve broken it up into two parts. I’ll post the second half in a couple of weeks. I met Hemi through Marceline and Tur at the Quatro Trust. As well as supporting The Good Energy Project, Quatro are supporting Hemi to create a book and an online course. Max Harris,...

Last week I was lucky enough to get 2 hours of Natalia Albert’s time to interview her. (It was supposed to be 1 hour but after the first interview I realised I had forgotten to press record!!!! Arghhh!!! Can you believe it!? Fortunately Natalia agreed to stay for a second take. And I think the second was almost as wonderful as the first - perhaps better! This interview has a back story…. I first met Natalia in 2015 when I was part of an event she was leading - TEDx Wellington Women. I often...

I was up in Auckland last week and was lucky enough to catch an hour with this lovely human - Max Harris. The conversation was recorded in his living room with snacks and tea. There's many things I could say to introduce Max. He was born in London and grew up in Wellington. He's a lawyer and an activist. He was a Rhodes Scholar. He almost died once and his brush with death unexpectedly led to him winning a very prestigious fellowship from Oxford University to spend seven years on a research...

In this podcast I gather up my learnings and inspirations from my journey so far. It’s mostly me talking this time, accompanied by two musical instruments. I’ve also included some highlight excerpts from my interviews. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegoodenergyproject.substack.com

It was a real delight to catch the train from Wellington to Carterton to spend the day with Helen Dew last week. I was treated to a full tour of her tiny incredibly abundant garden and given lots of inspiring reading material on the history of money, the rich life inside soil and other topics. This podcast is a small selection of the rich conversation we had. Helen has spent the past 30 years dedicated to promoting local currencies across the country. She’s a passionate advocate for...

(Excuse the sound quality on this interview - the phone line was a bit dodgy!) In this interview with Bryan Innes from Living Economies we explore what’s wrong with the banking system and why there’s never enough money. Bryan shares with me a brilliant idea he developed called “Savings Pools”, which enable small groups of people to pool their resources and make loans to each other. It functions a bit like a very small community bank, but nobody pays interest. Bryan introduced savings pools...

Sometimes, in moments of lazy thinking, I’ve lumped business in with capitalism and assumed they’re both part of the cause of our environmental crisis. But Tur has spent his life working in business and he sees the value good companies can bring to their communities and the planet. He describes a company as “a community of people trying to achieve something together” - not too unlike a sports team trying to win. In this conversation he describes the qualities of a good company (taking...

After an illustrious career dedicated to environmental and social advocacy, Barry Coates has come to believe that directing our money is the greatest power we have as individuals to help the planet and change our economic system. In our conversation, we explore and challenge the role of money in our modern world and break down its power and mystique. Included in the podcast, is a session with Barry’s colleague (and my friend Olive) where she shows me how to redirect the money I have in my...

Kia ora! Here's my first interview for The Good Energy Podcast. It's with my brother Justin about reimagining the food system. His vision is to catalyse networks of small-scale farms that could feed whole communities cheap healthy food while nurturing the soil and reducing climate change impact. Justin introduces us to the amazing work of Vagabond Vege and their regenerative human-scale market garden in the Wairarapa. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other...

To introduce my new podcast, I asked my good friend Mitzi to interview me about where the project came from, why it's so exciting and what I'm hoping to achieve with it. I've also shared a bit about my background so you can get to know me a bit better :) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegoodenergyproject.substack.com