Tech Innovator to Mystic Farmer: Andrew Stone's Path

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Andrew Stone has been dubbed the ‘solar mystic farmer’, as a pioneering solar passive designer/builder, former software developer of some of the commonplace apps today working alongside luminaries like Steve Jobs, regenerative farmer with treasured links to Wendell Berry and his family, key presence in the psychedelics resurgence, and a generally fascinating guy.
That was as much illustrated by the fact that when we met to record this episode, he was dressed to the nines as Robert Oppenheimer. You’ll hear why – and you can see him in that splendour on the title slide for this episode. We sat down amidst cottonwood seed falling like sun-drenched snow, magic adobe structures that appear to have spontaneously sprung out of the earth, and regenerating farmland his family has progressively acquired over the last 40 years, right in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I caught up with Andrew the day after he’d been helping others with adobe building and design, part of a power of work he does with community collectives like the People’s Energy Coop. There was much to talk about – about the past and future of all these technologies and techniques. All of which summed to an extremely entertaining and insightful conversation.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).
Recorded 16 June 2024.
Title slide: Andrew Stone (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more become a member via the Patreon page.
With thanks to Laura & Ben at Grosz Co Lab, for the Americas tour insignia.
Music:
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find More:
A bonus episode with 15 fascinating minutes off-record with Andrew here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For more on the Puebloan peoples Andrew mentions, listen to the 6-part series on the history of the American south-west that Andrew’s wife Katie produced on The Children’s Hour, featured in episode 212.
And to hear James and Joyce Skeet, tune into Spirit Farm, on episode

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Chapters

1. Music, Preview, Introduction & Supporter Thanks (00:00:00)

2. Reprising Robert Oppenheimer, & the roots of his work on ancient lands (00:04:00)

3. The solar mystic farmer? (00:07:00)

4. What led to his formative teenage expedition to South America? (00:09:30)

5. Off to South America (00:17:20)

6. Formative time with Steve Jobs (00:20:45)

7. The modern & ancient pioneers in New Mexico (00:23:50)

8. Birthing the internet for these transformations - & the psychedelic resurgence now (00:27:20)

9. Steve Jobs not letting his kids touch electronic devices (00:29:40)

10. Redeeming Oppenheimer (and Jobs?) (00:33:00)

11. Strides in renewables in the US thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (00:34:50)

12. Connections with Wendell Berry’s family & a pioneering Kentucky coop (00:40:00)

13. Growing a regenerative farm in the heart of Albuquerque (00:43:40)

14. Honoring sovereignty (& returning to the notion of ‘appropriate technology’) (00:47:10)

15. Music & closing words (00:48:00)