Eco-Enthusiast?
Welcome aboard!
Escaping the rat race to live a grounded and sustainable life in the country isn't a crazy daydream anymore. Sharing Insights Podcast helps you shorten the learning curve and gain confidence to move forward. Learn best practices from veterans living the dream full-time, without spending your time and money reinventing the wheel.
Exploring Sustainability & Advice from Intentional Communities, Retreat Centers, and Permaculture Projects throughout Costa Rica.
To share stories, strategies, and insights from ecologically & socially beneficial projects, in Costa Rica. These stories provide landowners everywhere access to unique ideas for how they, too, might design their own business models for greater success and impact.
In the end, we hope to see more people succeed in their dreams to live off the land, make it sustainable, and share it with others.
It's great to have you along!
Whether you're planning to steward land soon, or a veteran who wants to broaden their perspectives. Tune in! We have some captivating guests and insightful conversations lined up for you.
Join us as we explore an array of permaculture farms, retreat centers, homesteads, eco-lodges, and international communities that are all pursuing one common, golden thread – a lifestyle and culture that is in harmony with nature and to do business in an ecologically beneficial way.
To let this culture spread and grow, these unique places have opened their doors for ambitious eco-enthusiasts to learn and co-create with them. Numundo.org calls these places Impact Centers
Back-To-The-Landers Unite!
There are thousands of people around the globe who are passionate about living a sustainable lifestyle, and who either have or want to start an eco-friendly land-based project. At the same time, there are many more who prefer to dip their toes in and explore already established projects to find solutions, experience, adventure, or even refuge.
For most, operating a project like this is no small feat, especially if budgets are tight. My motive behind this podcast is to offer people a place to find inspiration, ideas, solutions, and get to know some of the veterans in the game.
By sharing insights among owners of these unique places, it’s our goal to expand perspectives of how sustainability can be practiced, not only through responsible land management, also through to social dynamics, cultural exchange, and finances as well. I like to believe that beneficial relationships are likely to grow here.
Join us as we:
- Discover exciting and appropriate technologies,
- Explore advice for interacting with students, guests, and volunteers,
- Highlight and support this new generation of leaders,
- And dig deeper into what it really takes to keep the doors open for the millions of people who are searching for a place where they too can learn, change, and grow.
TITLE TEST
Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada. Curabitur aliquet quam id dui posuere blandit. Mauris blandit aliquet elit, eget tincidunt nibh pulvinar a. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia.
Follow Us On:
Don’t Envy The Change Makers – Be One!
I’ve laid out a long list of options for how one might choose to apply the Permaculture Principles to their home life, relationships, business, and lifestyle. You may very well be practicing some of these things, already. Congratulations! The Principles, themselves,...
Creatively Use and Respond to Change
Change happens. It’s up to us to decide how we’re going to respond to it. To remain firmly fixed, in the face of change, can be difficult and ultimately lead to stress and a breakdown of vitality and effectiveness. To be flexible in life and business is considered...
Use Edges and Value the Marginal
The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse, and productive elements in the system. As someone who enjoys dreaming up systems composed of systems connected in synergistic ways, this...
Use and Value Diversity
Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides. Look, we’re all different. Our physical characteristics, preferences, habits, and cultural norms differ, as do our economic...
Use Small and Slow Solutions
Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes. One can easily argue that large and fast solutions are sometimes needed. Emergencies happen, and we should contemplate...
#017 Building Resilient Communities (Season 1 Recap, Part 3)
Welcome to the third installment of our Season 1 Recap series, where I’ve been reviewing what we’ve learned from a dozen interviews with veteran landowners throughout Costa Rica. In today’s episode, we’re going to take a dive into the concept of ‘Community’, our place in it, and how we can be more harmonious members and effective contributors to our communities, both within a project and amongst our neighbors. In my...
Don’t Envy The Change Makers – Be One!
I’ve laid out a long list of options for how one might choose to apply the Permaculture Principles to their home life, relationships, business, and lifestyle. You may very well be practicing some...
Creatively Use and Respond to Change
Change happens. It’s up to us to decide how we’re going to respond to it. To remain firmly fixed, in the face of change, can be difficult and ultimately lead to stress and a breakdown of vitality...
Use Edges and Value the Marginal
The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse, and productive elements in the system. As someone who enjoys dreaming up...
Renewable-Fuel Cargo Ships, Permaculture Food Forests, & Community
In episode #012 of the podcast, we spoke to visionary Lynx Guimond of Sailcargo Inc. He tells us about his journey from bee-keeping and building tree platforms in the mountains, to help tackle the massive environmental challenges the modern maritime industry poses. In this video, we explore the homestead that's been growing from within the Sailcargo shipyard, built by a team of ‘happy and healthy’ expert shipbuilders from around the globe. Lynx has assembled this crew to help create a...
#017 Building Resilient Communities (Season 1 Recap, Part 3)
Welcome to the...
#016 Hosting Guests, Volunteers, and Students (Season 1 Recap, Part 2)
[smart_track_player url="https://adbarker.com/stream/5krjuRKit4W3v5mHiG8FRyC8/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sharinginsights/Episode_16.mp3" title="Season 1 Recap on Hosting Guests & Volunteers" color="#00AFB9" social="true" social_twitter="true"...
#015 Enhance Your Project's Financial Sustainability (Season 1 Recap, Part 1)
[smart_track_player url="https://adbarker.com/stream/5krjuRKit4W3v5mHiG8FRyC8/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sharinginsights/Ep15_Financial_Sustainability.mp3" title="Season 1 Recap on Financial Sustainability" color="#00AFB9" social="true" social_twitter="true"...
#014 Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster (Part 2 – “For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss)
[smart_track_player url="https://adbarker.com/stream/5krjuRKit4W3v5mHiG8FRyC8/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sharinginsights/Eps_14_Final.mp3" title="“For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss: Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster – Part 2" color="#00AFB9" social="true"...
#013 Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster (Part 1 – “For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss)
[smart_track_player url="https://adbarker.com/stream/5krjuRKit4W3v5mHiG8FRyC8/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/sharinginsights/Jason_Bliss-Episode_013.mp3" title="“For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss: Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster – Part 1" color="#00AFB9" social="true"...
I really appreciate what Jason is doing to make a difference on our planet, right now. Thank you for the wonderful time that we shared in making the podcast.
It is really encouraging and inspiring to see like-minded people coming together and Sharing Insights being a key driver in connecting these people. It was a great pleasure to meet Jason and I am looking forward to hearing more.
Jason Bliss is an incredible guy! Right now, he is collecting information on how to make the world a better place, and whether you have information to give or want to receive this information, I highly recommend Jason and Sharing Insights.
10 Most Recent Podcast Episodes
#017 Building Resilient Communities (Season 1 Recap, Part 3)
Welcome to the third installment of our Season 1 Recap series, where I’ve been reviewing what we’ve learned from a dozen interviews with veteran landowners throughout Costa Rica. In today’s episode, we’re going to take a dive into the concept of ‘Community’, our place in it, and how we can be more harmonious members and effective contributors to our communities, both within a project and amongst our neighbors. In my twenties, I spent a lot of time visiting communities around North America. I’ve seen it done a lot of different ways. I’ve...
#016 Hosting Guests, Volunteers, and Students (Season 1 Recap, Part 2)
Welcome to Volume 2 of my Season 1 recap series. In this episode, we’re going to review some of the advice we’ve been given about hosting guests, volunteers, and students. Hosting is a hot topic for many new landowners as welcoming in volunteers is an enticing way to get much-needed help building foundational infrastructure. For many new landowners, it also fulfills a desire for social connection and a sense of community. When done well, hosting guests as volunteers, apprentices, students, tourists, farm-stay...
#015 Enhance Your Project's Financial Sustainability (Season 1 Recap, Part 1)
Hello, world! Jason Bliss from the Sharing Insights Podcast here. I’ve been on one heck of a journey. Over the last 9 months, I’ve dived into permaculture, exploring different ways we can develop sustainable homesteads and communities for a better way of life. We’ve interviewed a whole host of amazing people, all with their own unique experiences and insights to share with the permaculture community. Last month I decided to assemble a recap episode to look back over the show’s highlights and discuss...
#014 Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster (Part 2 – “For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss)
This episode is part 2 of my interview with Brandy Montague from her podcast, For Animals For Earth. In this half of the interview, I shared a bit of advice for travelers looking to visit impact centers as guests, volunteers, digital nomads, or students. In the end, we’re all really students! Brandy asked me to share a description of what it might be like to visit a place like mine. I freely shared some of the comforts along with several of the discomforts that one might expect as part...
#013 Vagabond Permaculture Podcaster (Part 1 – “For Animals For Earth” w/Jason Bliss)
Listen in on this conversation that was recorded by Brandy Heyde Montague interviewing me for her podcast “For Animals For Earth”. She was intrigued by the term Ecological Impact Center and asked if I’d be a guest on her show - For Animals for Earth. I met Brandy thanks to her offer to read through and give feedback on what’s become my first eBook, exploring permaculture and how we can apply it to our lifestyles. You can download the book for free right here. I’ve decided to...
#012 : Lynx Guimond of Sailcargo Inc: Building a Zero-Emissions Ocean Vessel on a Permaculture Homestead
Lynx Guimond of Sailcargo Inc. is an adventurous carpenter and shipwright with an inspiring mission. He's created a homestead in Costa Rica, uniting a team of over 20 shipbuilders from around the globe to embark on the quest to create a zero-emissions cargo eco-ship called Ceiba, to cross the Atlantic ocean between Central America and Europe. He shares the story of how he went from bee-keeping in the mountains to creating a sustainability-focused shipyard from scratch....
#011 Nico Botefur of Essence Arenal: Permaculture Designed Hotel, Restaurant, and Food Forest
Nico Botefur of Essence Arenal shares how he’s turned a couple of rooms on a denatured piece of property into a thriving business, food forest, and employment opportunity for entrepreneurs in his region. Located at the base of the beautiful Arenal Volcano, his hotel/restaurant/spa is an excellent example of what magic can come with the patient and persistent application of the permaculture principles to one’s business. Nico and I discuss his use of bamboo for a wide variety of...
#010 Meghan Casey of Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat: Community Outreach Creating Regional Resilience
This interview, with Meghan Casey of the Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat, is the kind of conversation that can change the fabric of a project’s relationship with its region and neighbors. We discuss community outreach projects that anyone can do, including: teaching English promoting cooking classes and homestay/farm stay experiences for guests to have authentic cultural experiences with the locals. We also talked about organizing cacao and coffee tours, raising children in...
#009 Estéban Acosta of Sembrando Flores and Viogaz: Biodynamics, Commercial Crops, & Home-Scale Biodigesters
Today’s episode is with Estéban Acosta of Sembrando Flores & Viogaz, Costa Rica’s leading manufacturer and installer of bio-digesters for home-scale, as well as commercial, uses. We discuss the spiritual side of agriculture through the application of biodynamic principles, growing “green manure” (mucuna beans), and the benefits of using a biodigester to process grey water and black water. Esteban is a consultant and international spokesperson for the biodynamic...
#008 Terry Lillian Newton of Kindred Spirits: Raising Horses using Permaculture and Mindfulness
In today’s episode with Terry Lillian Newton of Kindred Spirits, we explore horse care, equine therapy, using connection with horses to enhance yoga and meditation practices. Permaculture, & natural medicine. It’s a conversation filled with intriguing stories, practical advice, and inspiration to follow one’s dreams. Terry shares her top tips for horse care in the tropics, as well as things that aspiring owners would do well to consider before solidifying their commitment. We've...