Ben Falk chats with Skipper on this episode of How This Works from his farm/home/homstead in Vermont about permaculture and sustainability. We start with Ben in utero at the base of El Capitan in California, visiting national parks with his family (instead of going to Disneyland), rock climbing, and then doing backcountry trips which formed his foundational relationship with his work now.

We also talk about the difference between design being focused on sustainability and regeneration, how important context is to solving design problems, about the importance of a designer living with or inside their work, the fact that people move 11.7 times in their life (as written in his book "The Resilient Farm and Homestead"), and how Ben's able to grow rice on terraced flats in the Northwestern U.S.

We chat about the wood stove that provides heat for Ben and his family versus a thermostat-driven heat system or even a voice user interface like Alexa and how manual a process it is.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a clip and flubbed first take of the show's intro.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Ben Falk.

Links:

• Todd Ecological - Dr. John Todd from University of Vermont
• Whole Systems Design
• An example of a client's passive house project — From Whole System Designs site: We've master-planned the Landau's site for the past two years and consulted on this passive house project, advising on ways for the home to not only be a mechanically high-performance shell but a functional house integrated within a permaculture working landscape. This includes root cellar design and other house-interior microclimate considerations for drying the harvest, keeping it cool, and for extended season use via a greenhouse addition on the main passive house which we have designed. We've also planted a small orchard for the Landaus in this developing post-peak oil homestead including peach, pear, apple, plum, cherry, hazelnut, walnuts, oaks, edible hickory, and other species including many berries.
• Bill Mollison
• David Holmgren
• Rock formations in Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan
• "The Resilient Farm and Homestead" by Ben Falk
• Wendell Berry
• Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Whole Systems Design YouTube channel
• Ben Falk's TEDx talk on homestead resiliency and food systems regeneration
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso