February 27, 2024 • 50 mins
Retired actor and earth activist Ian Somerhalder is on the show today with a new film - but it's not just any film! Tackling the issue of environmental degradation and climate change, the Common Ground Film is a powerful new project from directors Josh and Rebecca Tickell. Narrated and produced by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Ian breaks down the importance of our soil as he and Kevin share their mutual concern for the future of our planet. This powerful episode then invites on Mia Vaughnes, founder of Good Neighbor Gardens, featured in the film and taking the issue of regenerative gardening and planet care to the people. If you are planet focused, you don't want to miss this captivating episode.
To learn more and get involved with Common Ground film or Good Neighbor Gardens head to CommonGroundFilm.com or GoodNeighborGardens.com. To support more initiatives like this program, text 'BACON' to 707070 or head to SixDegrees.Org to learn more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So a few years ago a film came out called
Kiss the Ground and Woody Harrelson produced it, and it
was basically about the importance of soil in the fight
to stabilize our planet. And there's this new film directed
and produced by the same team as Kiss the Ground.
It's got some pretty big Hollywood names involved. It's called
(00:21):
Common Ground. I was lucky enough to get a special
screening of it, and let me tell you, it's very powerful.
Film just really really knocked me out and made me think.
Taught me a whole bunch of stuff that I had
no idea about, having to do with soil and farming
and food and the environment, etc. I really recommend it.
(00:43):
My guest today is Ian Summerhalder, who was one of
the producers on the film. So if you're someone who
is environmentally minded and looking for ways to weather this
moment in our planet's history, so to speak, you're going
to enjoy this episode. So I am glad you're here. Leaning. Hey,
(01:09):
it's good to see you man.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good to see you man, Thanks for thanks for doing this.
Congratulations on this. These are these are cool, man. This
is like, this is a cool thing to be, a
worthy thing to be spending time on you.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Know, yeah, I I it's been it's been great to
you know, everybody and their mother has a podcast, and
it's been really really fun to to you know, connect
with people, but also to see the things that they're
interested in, and you know, it's it's often really really
(01:43):
inspiring and and and also I think the people are
are you know, getting a kick or or oftentimes being
you know, moved or or touched by some of the
stories that they've they've heard. But you know, you were
just talking about your roots, and I'm really curious about that.
He grew up in Louisiana, right.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, deep, deep, deep, right outside of New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And you were saying that your dad was of Cajun descent.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So my grandfather was born here. A great grandfather was
born here in seventeen forty seven, so I think his
parents had already been here for like twenty years. So
I think they got here in like the seventeen twenties. Man, Wow,
long time ago and all Louisiana. Yeah, my grandmother was
born in nineteen oh six. She didn't speak English until
(02:36):
nineteen thirty, so she was twenty four years old. And yeah,
so people don't realize like in until until like the forties,
you could live in the United States, Louisiana in particular,
and never have to speak English. It's so funny. It
(02:57):
was just looking up my grandmother's My birthday just passed
on the eighth, and my grandmother was on the seventh.
You know, my last birthday whatever three days ago was
forty five. And I called my mom and said, happy birthday,
is the day you gave birth to me. But I'm
now on the other side. I'm technically closer to fifty
(03:21):
than I am to forty. And at that point that
sound like, you know, like a morbid thought. This is
just I'm a numbers guy, so you're more than halfway through.
It's like whatever we consider a life cycle. But what's
crazy is because of our health situation in this country, food, medicine, healthcare, lifestyle,
(03:44):
all that stuff the United States. And don't quote me
on this data. I typically have so much data here
in front of me. We are the only developed nation
in the world where life expectancy is declining. Interesting, but
I always offer up this and I learned this twelve
thirteen years ago. So if you look at the planet right,
(04:06):
you look at trees, you look at water systems. If
you look at them, there's a reason that they're carbon copies, right,
They're coral in the ocean that look identical like a lung.
If you take a you take a pine tree, an
oak tree, turn it on its side, it literally looks
like a lum. So if you would imagine just for
a second, like taking a step back, that the earth
(04:28):
is the same biological process as us for not any different.
Those river systems, I mean, those forests are basically our lungs, right.
Those river systems and oceans are those party of vascular
systems carrying all the vital nutrients and organ nutrients to
the organisms. So if you think about it, once you
dam and pollute all the waterways, than the organism can't
(04:52):
get all those vital nutrients. If you cut and destroy
all the forests, that organism can't breathe and recycle so effectively.
We you know, when you put it in those terms,
people start really looking and go, oh my gosh. And
then you go to the soil. Well, the microbiome of
the soil. The health of that depends on the health
of the soil and what grows out of it. The
(05:13):
same way we think about it from health perspective, the
human body, the health of the human being is directly
related to the health of the gut microbiome. It's the same, right,
Without a healthy gut microbiome, there's no healthy human and
without a healthy soil microbiome, there is no healthy soil.
So you know, we keep forgetting that what we do
(05:35):
to the earth, we do to ourselves. And that's why
going back to what you were just asking, diving into
I want to know where I came from, whom I
came from, and when I go back to my roots,
like way way way back, both on my mother's side
and my father's side, they were farmers. They were long
(05:56):
long lines lineage of farmers. That is who I am
in my.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Blood, maybe even before they got to this country.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Most likely in the forties. My grandfather was an agricultural inventor.
He was the first guy to introduce in Mississippi, like
nineteen forty. The idea was taking the manure from all
of his cattle, cow's, chickens, hogs, everything. He built the
press that took dried it out, took the manure and
(06:26):
pressed it into these little cups where he would then
germinate all of his seeds, and that's how he he
germinated all of his seeds to plant. So you know,
we've all seen those. I wish you would have patented those.
We would probably have been a very different family. Anyway,
The long im was short of it is people always
say like, how and why is this like your you know,
(06:47):
you left acting, you literally walked away.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
From Let's talk about that's let's talk about first why
it is that you got into it, because I'm guessing
that probably you were at least in the mind already
of people in your family who who who found at
least at least initially a life in the theater. So
what was it do you think that pushed you in
that direction?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Since I was a kid man, since I was a
little kid, and I hear this, you know, I'm sure
it was the same for you and a lot of
people I talked to. It was just in me from
the beginning, you know. And I started doing local theater
when I was six or seven, and it was my
mom that brought me to all the auditions and read
everything with me in the car and singing and helping
(07:34):
me through it. And then and we were we had
a very intimate relationship with the poverty line. So we
didn't you know, like I wanted to play the sacks.
We couldn't afford a saxophone. I wanted to play the trumpet,
couldn't afford. So we were going to school and it
wasn't like it was disappointing. But my mom was so
great at explaining things. It's such a great you know,
(07:55):
we were just so tight bros. And but yeah, one brother,
one sister. They're seven and eight years older than me.
And it was my mom's foresight that when she it's
like that, it's like, you know, it's so funny. Man.
I'm a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan, and I know that
when Outliers came all came out. When Outliers came out,
(08:19):
we all read this book and we looked at society
and we realized, oh my gosh, she broke it down
in such a beautiful way. But in all of our lives,
we have those outlier moments that allowed us to get
to whatever we got to do right. And my mom
received She worked at a state hospital, a mental hospital,
(08:41):
but she wanted to be a massage therapist and do
actipressure and roam the therapy stuff. She couldn't get out
of that rut. She got laid off and the state
gave her a severance check. I think it was ten
thousand dollars, and no one in my family had ever
seen that amount of money in one piece of paper.
And it's crazy, dude. You know what she spent every
(09:04):
single dollar of that on and in a borrowing money
from my aunt Nancy on top of it, was to
send me to modeling and acting classes in New Orleans
when I was ten years old. Every dime of that
plus some went into me getting a contract with Ford
(09:25):
for three years when I was ten.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, were there ever moments when you thought this is
something I'm not sure I want to do this, this
is something that you want to do for me?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
No.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I loved it. I was already I was already doing
theater and stuff, you know, like the head of like
the young theater department at school and going to all
these local playhouses and not getting the roles for the
most part, the ones at school because I think they
had to. They had to, you had to have like
a level of participation. But it was that moment she
(09:57):
came to me and she goes, look, I have a
I have a deal. I have a proper position for you.
You know, we don't have a lot, but I can
give you this opportunity if you really want it. But
you gotta want it. She literally said that, She's like,
this is not for me, and I want absolutely no
way get me in. And so she would slept me
back and forth from you know, the North Shore to
(10:19):
New Orleans every week so I could train and train
and train. And then there was a model scout, you know,
a lot of it. It's like people did get a
lot of people did find contracts out of it, but
it was a huge, big money grab for these people.
They made a lot of cash. So when I was ten,
(10:44):
I got this contract with Ford because I went to
this big convention and model convention and like a talleentn.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Ford modeling right not for motors, yep and.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Hillton Head, South Carolina, dude, in nineteen ninety you can
believe that. And I got this contract and so we
would she would take some you know, she would take
off work and we'd go to New York for the
summers and and that's how I started working, you know,
and doing Ralph Lauren and Gap and all these cool things.
(11:13):
So you're ten years old from the bides Louisiana. All
of a sudden you're thrust into you know, these huge
sets with art directors and photographers and you know, all
these just super cool people. And by the way, this
is nineteen ninety, right, so like everyone is, you know,
it was a very different time. People are in these studios,
(11:33):
they're you know, they have big mood layer mood boards
laid out, and everyone's around tables and they're smoking cigarettes
and drinking coffee. And the French are like, you know,
boring Bordeaux at noon and you know, we're sitting there
eating like steaks and lobster and shit, and you know,
(11:54):
at lunch on this job. And I looked at it.
I remember looking at my mom once she goes, this
isn't so bad as a kidd and I said, not
at all. Along this is pretty this is pretty awesome,
and so I and so anyway, that was three years
of that. I went home for two years back to
Louisiana and did normal stuff, played football and sports and
rode my horses and you know, did stuff. And then
(12:15):
at fifteen I realized, like, wow, this is not exactly
what I want to be doing. Mom, I want to
get back to doing what I was doing. I think
this is like where I want to be. So again,
we did another convention on my sixteenth birthday and then
that was it. I met agents and three days three
(12:38):
days later or five days later, get a call that
they had taken a bunch of polaroids from me and
this photographer Stephen Myzell. So if you remember Stephen Myzell
in the nineties was the biggest photographer pastiptographer in the world.
It was like Steven you know, Bruce Weber, any Legal,
It's you know, a couple of Richard Avedon, Like those
(12:58):
guys are still around. So anyway, two days after that,
I was on a plane. So one week after my
sixteenth birthday, it's December fifteenth, I think I land in
New York City to shoot like they Stephen myself booked
me for like twelve pages of at the time, the
Warmo Vogue, which the time was the biggest men's magazine
(13:18):
in the world. And that was it. And you know
what's crazy is because it was just the the sixtieth
anniversary of fiftieth anniversary of CBGB's and they were going
to do it at the store because it's a John
Breveta store. Now I was going to go for that,
but they put it into the Grammy Museum. I went
to CBGB's that night. I was, you know, I was
(13:43):
a week out of having like my emancipation paperwork done
and anyway, so that's like that started to imagine you're sixteen,
you're one week over sixteen, you fly to New York City,
you land drop your stuff at the hotel. You know,
the other people you're shooting with, like, Hey, come down
to the lobby. We're going to this place. CBGB's cool,
(14:06):
let's go listen to some music. You walk in and
it's like Patti Smith is there and Debbie Harry are there,
and you know, you're just like, what the hell is
going on? And so that was my that was my childhood. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, and then you obviously you were doing it sounds
like you were doing a lot of modeling as well
as having the roots in the acting. But then that
pretty quickly turned into, uh, you know, an acting career
with television and movies, and you know, we always thinking about,
you know, connections, we have the connect I mean, I
(14:40):
know there are paths have crossed in the past, but
we have the Kevin Williamson connection, and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That guy changed my life for sure. Man.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How long were you on that show on Vampire.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Diveris We did eight years?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Eight years in what was the town Atlanta? Atlanta? Right right, yep? Right?
Were you? Were you mostly right in the center of
Atlanta or did you there was a I feel like
I feel like I was recently in a small town
shooting something, and they they it was almost like a
like a Vampire Diaries museums or of thing. I mean,
(15:16):
is there a town Covington, Yeah, Georgia, that's it, Covington, Georgia.
I was down there making a movie and living in Covington,
and it's it's like they practically have like statues in
the town square, you know, for Vampire Diaries.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
They call it Coveywood, and it's a that was the
fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Was Covington, Georgia as
wild because I was born in Covington, Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, right, and then that's weird.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Now I'm in Covington, Georgia. And obviously, you know, when
you first started shooting and show, you think, oh man,
this thing is probably gonna go five years cut to
eight years later. But people in Covington, the police, the friends,
the business owners, is we're all so tight it now.
The Covington You know, if you go back and you
look at the Chamber of Commerce numbers, Vampire Diaries brings
(16:09):
one hundred and sixteen million dollars a year to that town.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Still, yeah, every year.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Wow, that's how much. You know, because the show has
been seen by over a billion people now, so at
that time point is just a numbers game, right, you
figure one in eight people in the country or in
the world have seen interface understand or know or have
heard of this ip and so it's just a testament
(16:38):
to the power of story and how story can bring
us together and shared experience. Right, That's what bonding is,
and that's it's actually where the reason you know, Paul
and I actually built this brand, Brothers bond over that
same ethos, which is this is about bringing people together.
(16:58):
And I think you can argue right now, actually not
argue right now, we need togatherness more than ever and
so and so whether it's sitting sharing a dram of whiskey,
or your health and wellness journey or your meditation, whatever
it may be, we need that connection and Paul and I,
(17:23):
you know, I might not be the smartest guy in
the room, but I'll I'll try and outwork everyone in there.
And I realize, like, I might not be the smartest
guy in the room. I don't even have a college degree.
But the one thing I realized I could do is
leverage entertainment value to create quantifiable change in the world, right,
(17:46):
whatever that may be. And we've the data don't lie,
you know what I mean, We've shown that in a
couple of different instances. There are definitely some use cases
for it, and it's been un you know, it's unbelievable.
As you know, He's like, how long were you guys
on The Following?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We were only on The Following for three years, three years,
and and that's the longest that I've ever done a show.
The last series I had was three years as well.
You know, it's it. I got sort of secondhand knowledge
of this eight year cycle from Kira because she was
on the on The Closer.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
For those years.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, and that was you know, it was an interesting
it was an interesting thing to watch from Afar. I mean,
up until that point, I I often used to say that,
and this just shows how different. How things have changed
so much in terms of you know, what we call television.
I used to say that if my agent called me
(18:44):
and told me that they had a series for me,
I would fire my agent because there was such a
division between being a movie star and being on television.
It was like something you would never ever ever do.
That's all gone completely, you know, I mean just it's
it's dissolved into this other world that we have. You know,
I'm I'm fascinating you. You you have the Brown liquor,
(19:10):
and yeah, I'm incredibly successful, and you also just do
so much sort of charitable. The charity is not even
the right word. I mean, it's more awareness and very
very hard work on all kinds of things having to
do with excute and the environment. I mean, I watched
(19:30):
this movie Common Ground that you Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You saw the film.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, that's spectacular, I mean spectacular. But you know, I
guess my question is is that you're you're not really
doing too much acting right now, am I right? It's
mostly producing and doing other kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I you know, man, I walked away from acting. The
last time I was on SHOWM. I can tell you
it was October, sorry, August nineteenth, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, so this is what I've I want to know
about it because.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I know the day.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I mean, that's when I walked that's my wife's birthday,
by the way, August nineteenth. Yeah, you you as you
walked away on Curious abtects birthday. You know, so I
would say.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That, which, by the way, was one of my biggest
crushes ever. I used to watch singles over and over
and over again. And obviously, you know, we we've had
the same pubblicist for you know, Anik Mueller has been
with me. We've been I've been with her for eight
nine almost nineteen years, so it's like I've always we've
always been in the same sort of like ether. She's
(20:35):
such a special you guys are such a what an
inspiration you are to a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You guys have really thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, she's she's a lot of fun to hang out with.
But you know, you there's not that many people. Uh,
people will leave the film business of acting. I'm mostly
talking about acting, Yeah, because they retired, because they get old.
People will believe because they just don't have any money.
(21:05):
A lot of people leave mysteriously because of you know,
drugs or alcohol, or or scandal or getting cancer. There's
a million ways to leave, but there's very few young
actors who are willing to just stop and say I
don't want to I'm not gonna do this anymore. So
I'm I'd like you to just kind of And I
(21:27):
can tell you that at the point, Well, first of all,
I don't think I'm ever gonna stop. It's just I
know that it's just too If it's too much, I'm
too I'm too wrapped up in it. In terms of
my own ego, my own sense of self worth is
so so completely tied to being a performer and being
(21:55):
I know, but still so one of the most.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Well known actors in the world period ever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So I'm just wondering what that was like, how how
did that how did that feel? And and and do
you ever do you ever miss it? Or or or
are you completely satisfied and happy doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I loved what I did. You know, I didn't have
a lot of success in films, and that I did
not like you did. I My success came from television.
There was some life changing moments on film, like doing
life as a house when Hayden Christiansen was a baby
and I was a baby, and uh, you know, Kevin
(22:39):
Kevin was just Kevin kleinb was obviously just you know,
it's just one of the greatest. He's like you you
just you watch him. You believe every second of this man. Anyway,
I had a couple of really great film experiences, but
TV was the bulk of that success. And I think
what I realized was it came as no surprise to
(23:05):
anyone in my inner circle except my management team that was.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Like, it's like, that's a definition of a spit take
when they they're just sitting there drinking their coffee and
they get the call from you before you know.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And but I, you know, I had, I had in
that time when I had completely stopped. They convinced me
to put myself on tape for two things that were
just absolutely mind blowing. One was the dope sick that
won the thing with Michael Keaton, which is amazing. And
then there was another one. Jessica Chastain like, look, we
(23:48):
know you don't want to do this. Just do it.
You're too good in this, Just make it happen. So
I did it, and it was all very close, and
but the roles were they needed to scan a big
a little older, and so it was all fine. But
I've never felt more at peace with the decision ever.
But it's scary, man, because when you walk away and
(24:09):
I have a wife and children, and when you walk
away from the only thing you've ever known that supports
your life. And also too, you know, I had gone
through a really wild financial mishap, which is during Vampire Diaries.
I was using all the money I was making to
(24:31):
finance and build companies, right that was, And so being
an entrepreneur versus being on a successful being an actor
on a successful television show is very different. And I
used a lot of that cash to finance a company
that should have been worth a fortune that I owned
a third of. At the time, we had the most
(24:54):
powerful LED light system in the world, right and we
were saving lives in the oil patch because of our
safety mechanisms and all sorts of cool stuff. Only to
find out that our biggest customer was stealing from us,
Like to the tunes of Like Millions, the CEO was
embezzling its that old famous story, young actor person gets
(25:16):
into a business they don't necessarily know, and they just
get posed. The big problem was I had made personal
guarantees on all of the loans, which.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Is so stupid.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What are you thinking? You know, you're like, you're in
your early thirties, you feel like you're invincible, super idealistic,
you know you've got this, and then one day you
find all this stuff out as you're transitioning out of
a television show, a successful one where you should be retiring.
On that faithful day, I get a phone call, Hey,
(25:48):
are you sitting down money chance? Uh huh from my
team for my lawyers. When you literally get that phone call, Hey,
I know you're wrapping one of the biggest TV shows world,
but I just want you to know you're in an
eight figure hole that you're gonna have to get out of.
And my wife is really a gangster and spent eighteen
(26:11):
months negotiating us out of this, figuring out how to
do it. But it was I mean, obviously life changing
right throws you upside down and so you pivot. And
I would have never been able to do that without her.
It's her genius and tenacity and finesse that allowed us
to do it. But I had to rebuild on top
(26:32):
of walking away from the one thing I knew. So
it was bizarre, but I've never felt better. And I think,
what when you step away from acting, what it does
is it gives you the clarity to focus on what's real,
(26:55):
which is your family, your children, your health, because I
lost my health, you know, going through this. And I
looked at my wife and I just said, she said,
is this something you really want to do. I'll support
you in every way you need. And I left. I
left the entertainment business to build my companies, raise my kids,
and launch these films, which there's three of them.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And I want to talk about the films, but I
also simultaneously want to bring on Mea Vaughan's who is
the CEO and founder of Good Neighbor Gardens. Hi Mia,
good to see you. Thank you so much, Kevin, thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Hi Maya, it's my honor, it's my privilege. Really, thank
you so much for this blessing.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Hey, you know, first off, well, you're you're living on
a farm. Is that correct? You live on a farm.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Now we are we're in we're in the city right now.
We're actually I'm going to go back out there in
just a little while.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
I was so knocked out by by the film.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Thanks you.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's really it's simultaneously. For those of you that haven't
seen it, it's it's it's it's a little bit hard
to pitch. It's a it's a lot about food. It's
a lot about soil. It's a lot about farming. It's
a lot about uh, you know, uh, chemical companies. It's
(28:20):
got conspiracies, it's got the government. I mean it's you said,
so Common Ground is the one that I watch, and
it's part of it. It's it's part of a trilogy.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
There's three of them.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Okay, so what's the first one called.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's called Kiss the Ground.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Kiss the Ground.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
I gotta go by the way that that's on Netflix.
You can find that right so easily. I don't know
what Harrelseon narrates for us. So it's like that great
melodic you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Like he's got a great voice.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What do you It's it's such a great voice, like
guys like what do you Harrelson or McConaughey, Like you
could just listen to those guys all day long. And
so we're really grateful that what he did that and
me and much too. You know what, the amazing work
that me has been doing. Kiss the Ground was the
beginning of this. And I and I think you know Mia,
(29:11):
like remember when we all saw that film cut together.
It changed, it changed, It changes your life, right, you
can't unsee it. So kiss the ground and common ground.
Kiss the ground was the promise of regeneration. Common ground
is why it happened and how we can get out
of it. Ground Swell is going to be the international
(29:33):
version and why and how it can spread globally and
the economic value of it.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So me, for those of us that don't know this
this term, can you please describe to us what regenerative
farming is in a nutshell so to speak.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Well, you know, to be honest, there's not one one
definition of regeneration my mind and in my spirit. But
essentially what the utilitarian use of the word is that
we are doing what we can to benefit the earth
in our practices here on the earth, Okay, instead of
(30:15):
taking away from the earth, depleting the earth, you know,
I mean I have to borrow from my own African
roots in that. You know, in the Western world, you're
taught that the earth is yours, you know, and that
you're the master of it. But you know, in African cultures,
you're taught that you're the Earth's you know. Yeah, And
(30:38):
so you know, not to get caught up in the language,
but to understand, like Ian was saying in the beginning,
you know, your composition is so much like the composition
of the earth. And that's what I teach the children
in the schools. You know that you are a living organism,
so as a plant, so it's a bug. Then I
(30:59):
ask them what else and they say, a tree, you know,
and you need five things to thrive and not just survive.
You know, you need water, you need air, sunlight, nutrients,
and you gotta have love in order to really thrive. Right,
And so does a plant. Plant needs that too. The soil,
(31:19):
the soil needs that, you know. And so regeneration is
really about for me, it's about teaching the next generation
so that we have the opportunity for sustainability to truly
give back to the Earth, to become engaged with the Earth,
to understand it, to start to identify with it in
(31:42):
such a way that you're motivated to develop a conscious
relationship with it. That's really for me what regeneration is
about and you know if you put if you pick
up a handful of soil, there's more living microbes, more
living organisms in that handful of soil than all the
human beings that were born on the face of the earth.
And I don't think they're completely unrelated. And it's my
(32:06):
it's my passion, it's my developed, it's my cultivated passion
to make sure that that I get that out there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Okay, So now I want to know before we get
into the details of the work that you're doing, I
want to know what it is that you think drew
you to this. Have this as a passion, right, Some
people are passion about music, some people are passionate about
acting or politics or whatever it is. What was the
(32:34):
connection to the earth. Do you think in your life
or your child that or your upbringing them?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Well, you know, it's a great question. Some things are
known and some things are unknown, right Because my mother
would say, do you really think you lead your own life? Honey?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You know?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
And so little did I know that I have a history?
Like Ian was saying, his family come, they were farmers.
You know, little did I know that I really have
a history of that, Because most families don't necessarily. I
don't know. My family didn't really talk about that too much.
We were just dealing with the day to day.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
But to be honest, where you grow up just out
of curiosity, and.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
You know, I was a military brat, so we grew
up everywhere and I didn't really have a place to
call home until I moved to San Diego in eighty
three and I've been here ever since. But in two
thousand and eight, after being a financial planner for more
than twenty years, I was kind of I started dating
a new guy and we both were praying to live
in our purpose. We were like, what, you know, what
were we really put here to do? You know, whatever
(33:32):
that is, that'll be our form of worship, that'll be
how we live, you know, what is it? And little
by little, you know, when you ask that question, it's
almost like, did I really ask that question? Now? I'm scared.
But my old life started to pass away and I
found myself digging in the dirt and I remember I
had a hoodie on, you know, a raincoat over that,
(33:53):
and I was it was actually raining in San Diego,
which is rare, and because I was losing so much
of my prior life, I was crying while it was raining.
But I was digging in the soil at this garden
that we had planted together, and I was feeling depleted.
But the soil was just wriggling with worms and the
nutrients that we had just hoped for the plant. I mean,
(34:13):
we were I was pulling up turnips and I couldn't
believe how plentiful and bountiful. And I just felt like,
this is what I want to do. I can hear
what I'm doing this. There's something in this that is
compelling me, you know, And so I thought, you know,
we've got to do this for other people. Because the
very first gift that this gentleman had offered me, he said,
(34:34):
can I build you a garden? And I thought, oh that's.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Hey, that's the best pickup line ever. Hey, could I
build you a garden?
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Well, you know, three hundred and fifty home garden installations.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Later, I tell us about that, tell us about good
neighbor gardens. I want to hear. I want to hear
how that, how that goes, and how you do it.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
And what Okay, Well, you know, I remember one day
we're on the phone, we were arguing, and I said,
you know, I don't think we're supposed to argue. You know,
we just harvested this garden and it was more bountiful
than we could ever imagine. We prayed over every seed
we put in the ground, and it was just so productive.
But the sad thing is is that we ended up
well it's not so sad now, but we composted two
thirds of it because we just didn't know who to
(35:17):
share it with, because we were in a new space.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
And get that one giant zucchini that could feed you
for the rest of your life, and you don't know
what to do with it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And so I thought, you know, this would be much
sweeter if we were able to share it, you know,
And I said, I think I'm hearing something. I think
we're think we're supposed to start something, and I think
it's supposed to be that we share this act with
others and we generate food for each other. You know,
people were so adamized at that time, and I just
felt like neighbors really needed to open up and love
each other and this will be a loving my neighbor
(35:49):
and neighbors feeding neighbors thing. And so there was a
garden across the street I could see the raised beds.
They are completely full of weeds and the people hadn't
done anything with it, and I thought, I'm gonna go
knock on the door and see if they'll let us,
you know, farm that land. I mean, I'm living in
a neighborhood here in San Diego, two blocks north of
the San Diego Zoo. You know, craftsmen's and Spanish style homes.
(36:09):
There's small yards, but man, there's twelve raised beds right there.
And sure enough they were like, do you really do
this for us? We've been looking for you, and you know,
it's a front yard garden. So we didn't have to
put out the word. Everyone's like, I want that, you know.
In the moon COVID hit, it was like, Wow, everyone
wanted a garden. Everyone wanted to learn that. Yeah. Every
(36:33):
so we you know, have installed over three hundred and
fifty gardens in people's yards in the last ten years.
And I haven't done much social media because I've been
in it, you know. But what happens is the gracious neighbor,
the person who allows us to grow food in their yard.
It's their garden. They get to eat their fill. But
if and when there's ever too much because we're maintaining
(36:55):
it weekly. We basically hire and train people how to
do it. Call those people the urban farm hands, and
they they will ask the homeowner, Hey, there's a lot
of holopanos there. I don't know if you can eat
all that? Would you like to share it? So it's
really about the ask and please share it, take as
much as you'd like. So every other Wednesday, we aggregate
(37:17):
all the harvests from all of the surplus from all
these yards and we bring it to our urban barn
which is on the alley, and we make harvest boxes
that other people subscribe to, so they get a box
that's got ten items in it from all the aggregated
gardens and local regenerative farmers. So that way we're connecting
these local regenerative farmers with the homeowners, the people that
(37:40):
are patronizing them with you know wherever at the farmer's
markets or whatever. We're driving their business hopefully. And so
really what this is is this is a community development project,
right because those people that get that harvest box, a
portion of the proceeds goes to support school garden education.
(38:00):
So we've taught in sixteen schools. I wrote my own
curriculum eight lessons that we administer in schools, elementary schools,
and you know, that's really regeneration to me when we
can inspire the children to develop that relationship with the
earth in such a way that they're willing to care
for it and to understand that when they do that,
(38:22):
they're caring for themselves.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
You know, that's awesome and is a So is there
the possibility I would think that something you know, this
is in San Diego, but something this kind of plan
or this kind of structure could could be started all
over the country, all over the world.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Oh yeah, that's my goal. I mean right now, you know,
I'm trying to flush out what I consider this regional
co op here in San Diego. Even though we've installed
over three hundred and fifty gardens, and we've installed gardens
and schools and we had the opportunity to teach children,
we want to be able to dim and straight to
schools and to policymakers that this is critical. Every child
(39:05):
should have the opportunity to learn outside. And if we
are given the opportunity to demonstrate that here in California,
then we can replicate this in other areas. You know,
Package it because the program works because it's regional. It's
neighbors feeding neighbors. The harvest boxes are picked up at
the local yoga studio or the local you know, wherever.
(39:27):
We've got a bagel shop, you know, and that way,
people walk in, they buy bagels, or they walk in
they pick up a yoga class. You know. Again, it's
a way to feed one another, not just with food,
but other ways. I can't tell you the stories.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
But the big word is is connection.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Connection. That's it.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's and now, because these things are so prevalent, what
you're doing, Mia is you're You've created a form of
connection that is untouchable. It's like that is more powerful
than pretty much anything, you know. And the states or
municipal governments, we can spend billions and billions of dollars
(40:08):
a year, but if people don't have a way to connect,
you know, or kids don't have things to do after school,
then we lose them. We lose that connection.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
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(40:49):
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Speaker 1 (40:56):
You know, I want to ask you Ian about uh
An and please me and feel free to You've had
your fingers in the dirt quite a bit. So my
question is, you know, I'm watching the film Common Ground
and and it is at times really overwhelming in terms
(41:19):
of the problems that exist in our food chains, with
with the chemicals, with the lobbying. You know, there's a
lot of big, big issues there that are existential to us.
And and then you I kind of think to myself, well,
I have you know, a small farm. And I started
(41:44):
kind of going, you know, online and seeing how to
approach this just on a personal basis. And I'm wondering
if either one of you have any direct sources resources
in terms of how people can either get involved with
a community garden or if they do have farms farmers
(42:08):
or small farmers or gentlemen farmers or whatever happens to be,
you know, actually start to start to do this, to
try to embrace this regenerative idea.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
If you're in San Diego, you're going straight to me.
But if you're not, you know, one of the things,
so Mia one of also the things that just blew
our mind. So we released, we released Kiss the Ground.
We cut a forty five minute educational version that we
released to thirty five million students globally for free that
(42:41):
changed the way kids saw the world. But Kiss the
Ground the website, because it's also a nonprofit, the Common
Ground is not tied directly to the five oh one
C three as Kiss the Ground was. But you can
go on our Kiss the Ground website and you can
find people well, first of all toolkits, but then find
(43:03):
people in areas where you are that all of a
sudden directly connect you not with just tips, but with
actual toolkits and people. And I think that is the
big thing, because you know, and I know because and
I know people ask me of this all the time too.
But people literally look at me and and and a
(43:23):
lot of journalists and and they're they're they cut through
the bs because they don't want to. They don't. Everyone's
sick of like greenwashing. Same, what is this regenerative agriculture,
and why should I care? One of the biggest things
is not just bringing people together. No matter what side
of the aisle you sit on, regeneration, regenerative agriculture not
(43:48):
only will stop climate change in its tracks. The greatest
existential threat to humankind is climate disruption, right, because it's
going to disrupt our food system. It's going to cause
a whole lot of issues that we're staring down the
But not only that, Regenerative agriculture produces higher yields, which
produce bigger profits when used. Because so money talks bs walks, right,
(44:16):
regenerative agriculture produces more money. So you can't argue with that. Right.
So when people say why regeneration, what is it? It's
just the use of planned grazing methods and using living
growing plants literally agriculture at scale to sequest the enormous
amounts of carbon dioxide, store it safely back in the
ground belongs. Now, when you do that, you feed all
(44:37):
the vitaminal organs in the soil. Healthier soil, healthier plant,
healthier planet. But then higher yields, more money for farmers,
higher tax bases, school districts get better, and rural area
water districts gets better, you know what I mean, It's
like we're doing it together and that's the beauty of regeneration,
you know.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah, I wrote a poem. I mean, yes, you know,
we tend to relate to one another sometimes in terms
of the dollars, the potential dollars, but I think on
a spiritual level, you know, we're really disoriented as it
relates to the earth and how we are the earth.
And I want to make sure that the children don't
get missed because they are the next generation. They're the
(45:17):
ones that are going to inherit whatever it is that
we're doing. And so you know, I wrote a poem
about it that kind of guides me. And it's essentially,
I don't know if I have time to read the poems,
very short, but you know, making sure that if we
do amass these dollars, that we put it back into
educating the youth, you know, so that they can carry
(45:39):
this torch forward. You know, that would be the most
responsible and sustainable thing we can do.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, all of this, Yeah, this is all for them.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
It is yeah, exactly exactly, and we you know, we
haven't done so well, so let's let's hope that they
can they can do a little do a little better.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Yeah, they're great ambassadors, you know. I mean they believe,
you know, they still have the ability to imagine and
believe that seed that looks nothing like what it's destined
to become can actually become that thing that we're telling them,
you know. And so they're great ambassadors. And if they'll
eat it, they can. Their parents will eat it. But
if you try to offer it to the parent, they
might just say, oh, I'm good, but hey mom, I
grew it. Okay, I'll try it.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
There you go, there you go. Well listen, I want
I thank you guys so much for saying here common
ground film you really need to see and kiss the
ground I'm going to watch and what are and and
also uh, where are the websites that that we can
uh find out about the work that you're doing? Me
me and and uh and as well as the films
(46:43):
and where this is the call to action? How can
people get involved and how can people check out the
good work?
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Tell Mia?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Okay, well, my website is good neighborgardens dot com and
it's plural gardens, uh single singular neighbor good Neighbor Gardens
dot com. We've got a couple calls to action right now.
We're trying to raise money to put more gardens in
schools so that we can, you know, create this opportunity
for kids to learn outside. So we have a donate
button on the bottom of our front our home page
(47:12):
of our website. We're trying to raise a substantial amount
of money. I'd like to see this these gardens be
established in different states, not just here in California, because
the school is really the hub of the flower of
the home gardens, which are the pedals that will drive
this big garden of us all being interconnected in this country.
We also, you know, we're always looking to be familiar
(47:34):
with who is our local farmer, who wants to grow
food in this town, who wants to get food in
this town. So we have a button for each of
those things on our website because our goal is to
connect all of these people together. People who build good composts,
we want them to be a part of our co op.
You know, anyone who wants to grow food in their
yard and it just continues to ripple outward. So it's
(47:55):
all there on our website.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I love that. Well, maybe as a way to close
this episode out, you could read your poem.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Oh, you gotta read that poem.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
All right, we go. We're following the path of little feet,
that's what it's called. It says. Most adults are feeling
it now, although the promise of spring is here. I
wrote this a while ago, and the weight of the
unpredictable virus seems profound in our environment. Thankfully, the children
keep it light and are eager to plant new seeds
in fresh soil. Let's be like them. Every time I
(48:30):
tend to one of the sharecrop gardens, I heed the
call for childlike submission. My questions are elementary. Did I
water the kale enough at the root level? Well? Well,
the aph it's take over my broccoli or wild mind astursium?
Trap crop and prayers prove effective. If I prune this tomato,
will it yield good fruit? And where exactly should I
cut it to direct its energy? Plainly put, I'm seeking
(48:52):
spiritual guidance, and these are my humble conversations with God.
It's grounding. It's where I express my curiosity and intelligence, hope, creativity,
and patience. It's divine relationship. No one not Sandra Bose
or even George Washington Carver ever uncovered all the sensitive
secrets of mother nature. But they were compelled and they
(49:15):
prove that as your birth mother, she just wants your love.
So come spend time with her. She will nurture your
inner child and reward you dearly. If not with food,
then at least with practical wisdom for trying. How much time,
that's your choice and how will you spend it. That's
up to you as well. Just follow the path of
little feet and get in there.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
That's amazing for sharing us with that and someone Halder,
thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you,
thanks for having it fascinating and insightful conversation and I
appreciate the great work that you guys are doing, so thanks.
Thanks for doing this. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to
another episode of six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. And if
(49:59):
you want to learn more about the Common Ground Film
or Good Neighbor Gardens, head to Comicgroundfilm dot com and
Good Neighborgardens dot com. You can find all the links
in our show notes, and if you like what you
hear here, make sure you subscribe to the show and
tune into the rest of our episodes. You can find
six Degrees with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or
(50:23):
wherever you get your podcast
So a few years ago a film came out called
Kiss the Ground and Woody Harrelson produced it, and it
was basically about the importance of soil in the fight
to stabilize our planet. And there's this new film directed
and produced by the same team as Kiss the Ground.
It's got some pretty big Hollywood names involved. It's called
(00:21):
Common Ground. I was lucky enough to get a special
screening of it, and let me tell you, it's very powerful.
Film just really really knocked me out and made me think.
Taught me a whole bunch of stuff that I had
no idea about, having to do with soil and farming
and food and the environment, etc. I really recommend it.
(00:43):
My guest today is Ian Summerhalder, who was one of
the producers on the film. So if you're someone who
is environmentally minded and looking for ways to weather this
moment in our planet's history, so to speak, you're going
to enjoy this episode. So I am glad you're here. Leaning. Hey,
(01:09):
it's good to see you man.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good to see you man, Thanks for thanks for doing this.
Congratulations on this. These are these are cool, man. This
is like, this is a cool thing to be, a
worthy thing to be spending time on you.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Know, yeah, I I it's been it's been great to
you know, everybody and their mother has a podcast, and
it's been really really fun to to you know, connect
with people, but also to see the things that they're
interested in, and you know, it's it's often really really
(01:43):
inspiring and and and also I think the people are
are you know, getting a kick or or oftentimes being
you know, moved or or touched by some of the
stories that they've they've heard. But you know, you were
just talking about your roots, and I'm really curious about that.
He grew up in Louisiana, right.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, deep, deep, deep, right outside of New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And you were saying that your dad was of Cajun descent.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So my grandfather was born here. A great grandfather was
born here in seventeen forty seven, so I think his
parents had already been here for like twenty years. So
I think they got here in like the seventeen twenties. Man, Wow,
long time ago and all Louisiana. Yeah, my grandmother was
born in nineteen oh six. She didn't speak English until
(02:36):
nineteen thirty, so she was twenty four years old. And yeah,
so people don't realize like in until until like the forties,
you could live in the United States, Louisiana in particular,
and never have to speak English. It's so funny. It
(02:57):
was just looking up my grandmother's My birthday just passed
on the eighth, and my grandmother was on the seventh.
You know, my last birthday whatever three days ago was
forty five. And I called my mom and said, happy birthday,
is the day you gave birth to me. But I'm
now on the other side. I'm technically closer to fifty
(03:21):
than I am to forty. And at that point that
sound like, you know, like a morbid thought. This is
just I'm a numbers guy, so you're more than halfway through.
It's like whatever we consider a life cycle. But what's
crazy is because of our health situation in this country, food, medicine, healthcare, lifestyle,
(03:44):
all that stuff the United States. And don't quote me
on this data. I typically have so much data here
in front of me. We are the only developed nation
in the world where life expectancy is declining. Interesting, but
I always offer up this and I learned this twelve
thirteen years ago. So if you look at the planet right,
(04:06):
you look at trees, you look at water systems. If
you look at them, there's a reason that they're carbon copies, right,
They're coral in the ocean that look identical like a lung.
If you take a you take a pine tree, an
oak tree, turn it on its side, it literally looks
like a lum. So if you would imagine just for
a second, like taking a step back, that the earth
(04:28):
is the same biological process as us for not any different.
Those river systems, I mean, those forests are basically our lungs, right.
Those river systems and oceans are those party of vascular
systems carrying all the vital nutrients and organ nutrients to
the organisms. So if you think about it, once you
dam and pollute all the waterways, than the organism can't
(04:52):
get all those vital nutrients. If you cut and destroy
all the forests, that organism can't breathe and recycle so effectively.
We you know, when you put it in those terms,
people start really looking and go, oh my gosh. And
then you go to the soil. Well, the microbiome of
the soil. The health of that depends on the health
of the soil and what grows out of it. The
(05:13):
same way we think about it from health perspective, the
human body, the health of the human being is directly
related to the health of the gut microbiome. It's the same, right,
Without a healthy gut microbiome, there's no healthy human and
without a healthy soil microbiome, there is no healthy soil.
So you know, we keep forgetting that what we do
(05:35):
to the earth, we do to ourselves. And that's why
going back to what you were just asking, diving into
I want to know where I came from, whom I
came from, and when I go back to my roots,
like way way way back, both on my mother's side
and my father's side, they were farmers. They were long
(05:56):
long lines lineage of farmers. That is who I am
in my.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Blood, maybe even before they got to this country.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Most likely in the forties. My grandfather was an agricultural inventor.
He was the first guy to introduce in Mississippi, like
nineteen forty. The idea was taking the manure from all
of his cattle, cow's, chickens, hogs, everything. He built the
press that took dried it out, took the manure and
(06:26):
pressed it into these little cups where he would then
germinate all of his seeds, and that's how he he
germinated all of his seeds to plant. So you know,
we've all seen those. I wish you would have patented those.
We would probably have been a very different family. Anyway,
The long im was short of it is people always
say like, how and why is this like your you know,
(06:47):
you left acting, you literally walked away.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
From Let's talk about that's let's talk about first why
it is that you got into it, because I'm guessing
that probably you were at least in the mind already
of people in your family who who who found at
least at least initially a life in the theater. So
what was it do you think that pushed you in
that direction?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Since I was a kid man, since I was a
little kid, and I hear this, you know, I'm sure
it was the same for you and a lot of
people I talked to. It was just in me from
the beginning, you know. And I started doing local theater
when I was six or seven, and it was my
mom that brought me to all the auditions and read
everything with me in the car and singing and helping
(07:34):
me through it. And then and we were we had
a very intimate relationship with the poverty line. So we
didn't you know, like I wanted to play the sacks.
We couldn't afford a saxophone. I wanted to play the trumpet,
couldn't afford. So we were going to school and it
wasn't like it was disappointing. But my mom was so
great at explaining things. It's such a great you know,
(07:55):
we were just so tight bros. And but yeah, one brother,
one sister. They're seven and eight years older than me.
And it was my mom's foresight that when she it's
like that, it's like, you know, it's so funny. Man.
I'm a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan, and I know that
when Outliers came all came out. When Outliers came out,
(08:19):
we all read this book and we looked at society
and we realized, oh my gosh, she broke it down
in such a beautiful way. But in all of our lives,
we have those outlier moments that allowed us to get
to whatever we got to do right. And my mom
received She worked at a state hospital, a mental hospital,
(08:41):
but she wanted to be a massage therapist and do
actipressure and roam the therapy stuff. She couldn't get out
of that rut. She got laid off and the state
gave her a severance check. I think it was ten
thousand dollars, and no one in my family had ever
seen that amount of money in one piece of paper.
And it's crazy, dude. You know what she spent every
(09:04):
single dollar of that on and in a borrowing money
from my aunt Nancy on top of it, was to
send me to modeling and acting classes in New Orleans
when I was ten years old. Every dime of that
plus some went into me getting a contract with Ford
(09:25):
for three years when I was ten.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Well, were there ever moments when you thought this is
something I'm not sure I want to do this, this
is something that you want to do for me?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
No.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I loved it. I was already I was already doing
theater and stuff, you know, like the head of like
the young theater department at school and going to all
these local playhouses and not getting the roles for the
most part, the ones at school because I think they
had to. They had to, you had to have like
a level of participation. But it was that moment she
(09:57):
came to me and she goes, look, I have a
I have a deal. I have a proper position for you.
You know, we don't have a lot, but I can
give you this opportunity if you really want it. But
you gotta want it. She literally said that, She's like,
this is not for me, and I want absolutely no
way get me in. And so she would slept me
back and forth from you know, the North Shore to
(10:19):
New Orleans every week so I could train and train
and train. And then there was a model scout, you know,
a lot of it. It's like people did get a
lot of people did find contracts out of it, but
it was a huge, big money grab for these people.
They made a lot of cash. So when I was ten,
(10:44):
I got this contract with Ford because I went to
this big convention and model convention and like a talleentn.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Ford modeling right not for motors, yep and.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Hillton Head, South Carolina, dude, in nineteen ninety you can
believe that. And I got this contract and so we
would she would take some you know, she would take
off work and we'd go to New York for the
summers and and that's how I started working, you know,
and doing Ralph Lauren and Gap and all these cool things.
(11:13):
So you're ten years old from the bides Louisiana. All
of a sudden you're thrust into you know, these huge
sets with art directors and photographers and you know, all
these just super cool people. And by the way, this
is nineteen ninety, right, so like everyone is, you know,
it was a very different time. People are in these studios,
(11:33):
they're you know, they have big mood layer mood boards
laid out, and everyone's around tables and they're smoking cigarettes
and drinking coffee. And the French are like, you know,
boring Bordeaux at noon and you know, we're sitting there
eating like steaks and lobster and shit, and you know,
(11:54):
at lunch on this job. And I looked at it.
I remember looking at my mom once she goes, this
isn't so bad as a kidd and I said, not
at all. Along this is pretty this is pretty awesome,
and so I and so anyway, that was three years
of that. I went home for two years back to
Louisiana and did normal stuff, played football and sports and
rode my horses and you know, did stuff. And then
(12:15):
at fifteen I realized, like, wow, this is not exactly
what I want to be doing. Mom, I want to
get back to doing what I was doing. I think
this is like where I want to be. So again,
we did another convention on my sixteenth birthday and then
that was it. I met agents and three days three
(12:38):
days later or five days later, get a call that
they had taken a bunch of polaroids from me and
this photographer Stephen Myzell. So if you remember Stephen Myzell
in the nineties was the biggest photographer pastiptographer in the world.
It was like Steven you know, Bruce Weber, any Legal,
It's you know, a couple of Richard Avedon, Like those
(12:58):
guys are still around. So anyway, two days after that,
I was on a plane. So one week after my
sixteenth birthday, it's December fifteenth, I think I land in
New York City to shoot like they Stephen myself booked
me for like twelve pages of at the time, the
Warmo Vogue, which the time was the biggest men's magazine
(13:18):
in the world. And that was it. And you know
what's crazy is because it was just the the sixtieth
anniversary of fiftieth anniversary of CBGB's and they were going
to do it at the store because it's a John
Breveta store. Now I was going to go for that,
but they put it into the Grammy Museum. I went
to CBGB's that night. I was, you know, I was
(13:43):
a week out of having like my emancipation paperwork done
and anyway, so that's like that started to imagine you're sixteen,
you're one week over sixteen, you fly to New York City,
you land drop your stuff at the hotel. You know,
the other people you're shooting with, like, Hey, come down
to the lobby. We're going to this place. CBGB's cool,
(14:06):
let's go listen to some music. You walk in and
it's like Patti Smith is there and Debbie Harry are there,
and you know, you're just like, what the hell is
going on? And so that was my that was my childhood. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, and then you obviously you were doing it sounds
like you were doing a lot of modeling as well
as having the roots in the acting. But then that
pretty quickly turned into, uh, you know, an acting career
with television and movies, and you know, we always thinking about,
you know, connections, we have the connect I mean, I
(14:40):
know there are paths have crossed in the past, but
we have the Kevin Williamson connection, and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That guy changed my life for sure. Man.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How long were you on that show on Vampire.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Diveris We did eight years?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Eight years in what was the town Atlanta? Atlanta? Right right, yep? Right?
Were you? Were you mostly right in the center of
Atlanta or did you there was a I feel like
I feel like I was recently in a small town
shooting something, and they they it was almost like a
like a Vampire Diaries museums or of thing. I mean,
(15:16):
is there a town Covington, Yeah, Georgia, that's it, Covington, Georgia.
I was down there making a movie and living in Covington,
and it's it's like they practically have like statues in
the town square, you know, for Vampire Diaries.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
They call it Coveywood, and it's a that was the
fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Was Covington, Georgia as
wild because I was born in Covington, Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, right, and then that's weird.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Now I'm in Covington, Georgia. And obviously, you know, when
you first started shooting and show, you think, oh man,
this thing is probably gonna go five years cut to
eight years later. But people in Covington, the police, the friends,
the business owners, is we're all so tight it now.
The Covington You know, if you go back and you
look at the Chamber of Commerce numbers, Vampire Diaries brings
(16:09):
one hundred and sixteen million dollars a year to that town.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Still, yeah, every year.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Wow, that's how much. You know, because the show has
been seen by over a billion people now, so at
that time point is just a numbers game, right, you
figure one in eight people in the country or in
the world have seen interface understand or know or have
heard of this ip and so it's just a testament
(16:38):
to the power of story and how story can bring
us together and shared experience. Right, That's what bonding is,
and that's it's actually where the reason you know, Paul
and I actually built this brand, Brothers bond over that
same ethos, which is this is about bringing people together.
(16:58):
And I think you can argue right now, actually not
argue right now, we need togatherness more than ever and
so and so whether it's sitting sharing a dram of whiskey,
or your health and wellness journey or your meditation, whatever
it may be, we need that connection and Paul and I,
(17:23):
you know, I might not be the smartest guy in
the room, but I'll I'll try and outwork everyone in there.
And I realize, like, I might not be the smartest
guy in the room. I don't even have a college degree.
But the one thing I realized I could do is
leverage entertainment value to create quantifiable change in the world, right,
(17:46):
whatever that may be. And we've the data don't lie,
you know what I mean, We've shown that in a
couple of different instances. There are definitely some use cases
for it, and it's been un you know, it's unbelievable.
As you know, He's like, how long were you guys
on The Following?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
We were only on The Following for three years, three years,
and and that's the longest that I've ever done a show.
The last series I had was three years as well.
You know, it's it. I got sort of secondhand knowledge
of this eight year cycle from Kira because she was
on the on The Closer.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
For those years.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, and that was you know, it was an interesting
it was an interesting thing to watch from Afar. I mean,
up until that point, I I often used to say that,
and this just shows how different. How things have changed
so much in terms of you know, what we call television.
I used to say that if my agent called me
(18:44):
and told me that they had a series for me,
I would fire my agent because there was such a
division between being a movie star and being on television.
It was like something you would never ever ever do.
That's all gone completely, you know, I mean just it's
it's dissolved into this other world that we have. You know,
I'm I'm fascinating you. You you have the Brown liquor,
(19:10):
and yeah, I'm incredibly successful, and you also just do
so much sort of charitable. The charity is not even
the right word. I mean, it's more awareness and very
very hard work on all kinds of things having to
do with excute and the environment. I mean, I watched
(19:30):
this movie Common Ground that you Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You saw the film.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, that's spectacular, I mean spectacular. But you know, I
guess my question is is that you're you're not really
doing too much acting right now, am I right? It's
mostly producing and doing other kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I you know, man, I walked away from acting. The
last time I was on SHOWM. I can tell you
it was October, sorry, August nineteenth, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, so this is what I've I want to know
about it because.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I know the day.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
I mean, that's when I walked that's my wife's birthday,
by the way, August nineteenth. Yeah, you you as you
walked away on Curious abtects birthday. You know, so I
would say.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
That, which, by the way, was one of my biggest
crushes ever. I used to watch singles over and over
and over again. And obviously, you know, we we've had
the same pubblicist for you know, Anik Mueller has been
with me. We've been I've been with her for eight
nine almost nineteen years, so it's like I've always we've
always been in the same sort of like ether. She's
(20:35):
such a special you guys are such a what an
inspiration you are to a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
You guys have really thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
It's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, she's she's a lot of fun to hang out with.
But you know, you there's not that many people. Uh,
people will leave the film business of acting. I'm mostly
talking about acting, Yeah, because they retired, because they get old.
People will believe because they just don't have any money.
(21:05):
A lot of people leave mysteriously because of you know,
drugs or alcohol, or or scandal or getting cancer. There's
a million ways to leave, but there's very few young
actors who are willing to just stop and say I
don't want to I'm not gonna do this anymore. So
I'm I'd like you to just kind of And I
(21:27):
can tell you that at the point, Well, first of all,
I don't think I'm ever gonna stop. It's just I
know that it's just too If it's too much, I'm
too I'm too wrapped up in it. In terms of
my own ego, my own sense of self worth is
so so completely tied to being a performer and being
(21:55):
I know, but still so one of the most.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Well known actors in the world period ever.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So I'm just wondering what that was like, how how
did that how did that feel? And and and do
you ever do you ever miss it? Or or or
are you completely satisfied and happy doing what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I loved what I did. You know, I didn't have
a lot of success in films, and that I did
not like you did. I My success came from television.
There was some life changing moments on film, like doing
life as a house when Hayden Christiansen was a baby
and I was a baby, and uh, you know, Kevin
(22:39):
Kevin was just Kevin kleinb was obviously just you know,
it's just one of the greatest. He's like you you
just you watch him. You believe every second of this man. Anyway,
I had a couple of really great film experiences, but
TV was the bulk of that success. And I think
what I realized was it came as no surprise to
(23:05):
anyone in my inner circle except my management team that was.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Like, it's like, that's a definition of a spit take
when they they're just sitting there drinking their coffee and
they get the call from you before you know.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And but I, you know, I had, I had in
that time when I had completely stopped. They convinced me
to put myself on tape for two things that were
just absolutely mind blowing. One was the dope sick that
won the thing with Michael Keaton, which is amazing. And
then there was another one. Jessica Chastain like, look, we
(23:48):
know you don't want to do this. Just do it.
You're too good in this, Just make it happen. So
I did it, and it was all very close, and
but the roles were they needed to scan a big
a little older, and so it was all fine. But
I've never felt more at peace with the decision ever.
But it's scary, man, because when you walk away and
(24:09):
I have a wife and children, and when you walk
away from the only thing you've ever known that supports
your life. And also too, you know, I had gone
through a really wild financial mishap, which is during Vampire Diaries.
I was using all the money I was making to
(24:31):
finance and build companies, right that was, And so being
an entrepreneur versus being on a successful being an actor
on a successful television show is very different. And I
used a lot of that cash to finance a company
that should have been worth a fortune that I owned
a third of. At the time, we had the most
(24:54):
powerful LED light system in the world, right and we
were saving lives in the oil patch because of our
safety mechanisms and all sorts of cool stuff. Only to
find out that our biggest customer was stealing from us,
Like to the tunes of Like Millions, the CEO was
embezzling its that old famous story, young actor person gets
(25:16):
into a business they don't necessarily know, and they just
get posed. The big problem was I had made personal
guarantees on all of the loans, which.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Is so stupid.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
What are you thinking? You know, you're like, you're in
your early thirties, you feel like you're invincible, super idealistic,
you know you've got this, and then one day you
find all this stuff out as you're transitioning out of
a television show, a successful one where you should be retiring.
On that faithful day, I get a phone call, Hey,
(25:48):
are you sitting down money chance? Uh huh from my
team for my lawyers. When you literally get that phone call, Hey,
I know you're wrapping one of the biggest TV shows world,
but I just want you to know you're in an
eight figure hole that you're gonna have to get out of.
And my wife is really a gangster and spent eighteen
(26:11):
months negotiating us out of this, figuring out how to
do it. But it was I mean, obviously life changing
right throws you upside down and so you pivot. And
I would have never been able to do that without her.
It's her genius and tenacity and finesse that allowed us
to do it. But I had to rebuild on top
(26:32):
of walking away from the one thing I knew. So
it was bizarre, but I've never felt better. And I think,
what when you step away from acting, what it does
is it gives you the clarity to focus on what's real,
(26:55):
which is your family, your children, your health, because I
lost my health, you know, going through this. And I
looked at my wife and I just said, she said,
is this something you really want to do. I'll support
you in every way you need. And I left. I
left the entertainment business to build my companies, raise my kids,
and launch these films, which there's three of them.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
And I want to talk about the films, but I
also simultaneously want to bring on Mea Vaughan's who is
the CEO and founder of Good Neighbor Gardens. Hi Mia,
good to see you. Thank you so much, Kevin, thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Hi Maya, it's my honor, it's my privilege. Really, thank
you so much for this blessing.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Hey, you know, first off, well, you're you're living on
a farm. Is that correct? You live on a farm.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Now we are we're in we're in the city right now.
We're actually I'm going to go back out there in
just a little while.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
I was so knocked out by by the film.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Thanks you.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's really it's simultaneously. For those of you that haven't
seen it, it's it's it's it's a little bit hard
to pitch. It's a it's a lot about food. It's
a lot about soil. It's a lot about farming. It's
a lot about uh, you know, uh, chemical companies. It's
(28:20):
got conspiracies, it's got the government. I mean it's you said,
so Common Ground is the one that I watch, and
it's part of it. It's it's part of a trilogy.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
There's three of them.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Okay, so what's the first one called.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's called Kiss the Ground.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Kiss the Ground.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
I gotta go by the way that that's on Netflix.
You can find that right so easily. I don't know
what Harrelseon narrates for us. So it's like that great
melodic you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Like he's got a great voice.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What do you It's it's such a great voice, like
guys like what do you Harrelson or McConaughey, Like you
could just listen to those guys all day long. And
so we're really grateful that what he did that and
me and much too. You know what, the amazing work
that me has been doing. Kiss the Ground was the
beginning of this. And I and I think you know Mia,
(29:11):
like remember when we all saw that film cut together.
It changed, it changed, It changes your life, right, you
can't unsee it. So kiss the ground and common ground.
Kiss the ground was the promise of regeneration. Common ground
is why it happened and how we can get out
of it. Ground Swell is going to be the international
(29:33):
version and why and how it can spread globally and
the economic value of it.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So me, for those of us that don't know this
this term, can you please describe to us what regenerative
farming is in a nutshell so to speak.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Well, you know, to be honest, there's not one one
definition of regeneration my mind and in my spirit. But
essentially what the utilitarian use of the word is that
we are doing what we can to benefit the earth
in our practices here on the earth, Okay, instead of
(30:15):
taking away from the earth, depleting the earth, you know,
I mean I have to borrow from my own African
roots in that. You know, in the Western world, you're
taught that the earth is yours, you know, and that
you're the master of it. But you know, in African cultures,
you're taught that you're the Earth's you know. Yeah, And
(30:38):
so you know, not to get caught up in the language,
but to understand, like Ian was saying in the beginning,
you know, your composition is so much like the composition
of the earth. And that's what I teach the children
in the schools. You know that you are a living organism,
so as a plant, so it's a bug. Then I
(30:59):
ask them what else and they say, a tree, you know,
and you need five things to thrive and not just survive.
You know, you need water, you need air, sunlight, nutrients,
and you gotta have love in order to really thrive. Right,
And so does a plant. Plant needs that too. The soil,
(31:19):
the soil needs that, you know. And so regeneration is
really about for me, it's about teaching the next generation
so that we have the opportunity for sustainability to truly
give back to the Earth, to become engaged with the Earth,
to understand it, to start to identify with it in
(31:42):
such a way that you're motivated to develop a conscious
relationship with it. That's really for me what regeneration is
about and you know if you put if you pick
up a handful of soil, there's more living microbes, more
living organisms in that handful of soil than all the
human beings that were born on the face of the earth.
And I don't think they're completely unrelated. And it's my
(32:06):
it's my passion, it's my developed, it's my cultivated passion
to make sure that that I get that out there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Okay, So now I want to know before we get
into the details of the work that you're doing, I
want to know what it is that you think drew
you to this. Have this as a passion, right, Some
people are passion about music, some people are passionate about
acting or politics or whatever it is. What was the
(32:34):
connection to the earth. Do you think in your life
or your child that or your upbringing them?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Well, you know, it's a great question. Some things are
known and some things are unknown, right Because my mother
would say, do you really think you lead your own life? Honey?
Speaker 2 (32:48):
You know?
Speaker 3 (32:49):
And so little did I know that I have a history?
Like Ian was saying, his family come, they were farmers.
You know, little did I know that I really have
a history of that, Because most families don't necessarily. I
don't know. My family didn't really talk about that too much.
We were just dealing with the day to day.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
But to be honest, where you grow up just out
of curiosity, and.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
You know, I was a military brat, so we grew
up everywhere and I didn't really have a place to
call home until I moved to San Diego in eighty
three and I've been here ever since. But in two
thousand and eight, after being a financial planner for more
than twenty years, I was kind of I started dating
a new guy and we both were praying to live
in our purpose. We were like, what, you know, what
were we really put here to do? You know, whatever
(33:32):
that is, that'll be our form of worship, that'll be
how we live, you know, what is it? And little
by little, you know, when you ask that question, it's
almost like, did I really ask that question? Now? I'm scared.
But my old life started to pass away and I
found myself digging in the dirt and I remember I
had a hoodie on, you know, a raincoat over that,
(33:53):
and I was it was actually raining in San Diego,
which is rare, and because I was losing so much
of my prior life, I was crying while it was raining.
But I was digging in the soil at this garden
that we had planted together, and I was feeling depleted.
But the soil was just wriggling with worms and the
nutrients that we had just hoped for the plant. I mean,
(34:13):
we were I was pulling up turnips and I couldn't
believe how plentiful and bountiful. And I just felt like,
this is what I want to do. I can hear
what I'm doing this. There's something in this that is
compelling me, you know, And so I thought, you know,
we've got to do this for other people. Because the
very first gift that this gentleman had offered me, he said,
(34:34):
can I build you a garden? And I thought, oh that's.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Hey, that's the best pickup line ever. Hey, could I
build you a garden?
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Well, you know, three hundred and fifty home garden installations.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Later, I tell us about that, tell us about good
neighbor gardens. I want to hear. I want to hear
how that, how that goes, and how you do it.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
And what Okay, Well, you know, I remember one day
we're on the phone, we were arguing, and I said,
you know, I don't think we're supposed to argue. You know,
we just harvested this garden and it was more bountiful
than we could ever imagine. We prayed over every seed
we put in the ground, and it was just so productive.
But the sad thing is is that we ended up
well it's not so sad now, but we composted two
thirds of it because we just didn't know who to
(35:17):
share it with, because we were in a new space.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
And get that one giant zucchini that could feed you
for the rest of your life, and you don't know
what to do with it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And so I thought, you know, this would be much
sweeter if we were able to share it, you know,
And I said, I think I'm hearing something. I think
we're think we're supposed to start something, and I think
it's supposed to be that we share this act with
others and we generate food for each other. You know,
people were so adamized at that time, and I just
felt like neighbors really needed to open up and love
each other and this will be a loving my neighbor
(35:49):
and neighbors feeding neighbors thing. And so there was a
garden across the street I could see the raised beds.
They are completely full of weeds and the people hadn't
done anything with it, and I thought, I'm gonna go
knock on the door and see if they'll let us,
you know, farm that land. I mean, I'm living in
a neighborhood here in San Diego, two blocks north of
the San Diego Zoo. You know, craftsmen's and Spanish style homes.
(36:09):
There's small yards, but man, there's twelve raised beds right there.
And sure enough they were like, do you really do
this for us? We've been looking for you, and you know,
it's a front yard garden. So we didn't have to
put out the word. Everyone's like, I want that, you know.
In the moon COVID hit, it was like, Wow, everyone
wanted a garden. Everyone wanted to learn that. Yeah. Every
(36:33):
so we you know, have installed over three hundred and
fifty gardens in people's yards in the last ten years.
And I haven't done much social media because I've been
in it, you know. But what happens is the gracious neighbor,
the person who allows us to grow food in their yard.
It's their garden. They get to eat their fill. But
if and when there's ever too much because we're maintaining
(36:55):
it weekly. We basically hire and train people how to
do it. Call those people the urban farm hands, and
they they will ask the homeowner, Hey, there's a lot
of holopanos there. I don't know if you can eat
all that? Would you like to share it? So it's
really about the ask and please share it, take as
much as you'd like. So every other Wednesday, we aggregate
(37:17):
all the harvests from all of the surplus from all
these yards and we bring it to our urban barn
which is on the alley, and we make harvest boxes
that other people subscribe to, so they get a box
that's got ten items in it from all the aggregated
gardens and local regenerative farmers. So that way we're connecting
these local regenerative farmers with the homeowners, the people that
(37:40):
are patronizing them with you know wherever at the farmer's
markets or whatever. We're driving their business hopefully. And so
really what this is is this is a community development project,
right because those people that get that harvest box, a
portion of the proceeds goes to support school garden education.
(38:00):
So we've taught in sixteen schools. I wrote my own
curriculum eight lessons that we administer in schools, elementary schools,
and you know, that's really regeneration to me when we
can inspire the children to develop that relationship with the
earth in such a way that they're willing to care
for it and to understand that when they do that,
(38:22):
they're caring for themselves.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
You know, that's awesome and is a So is there
the possibility I would think that something you know, this
is in San Diego, but something this kind of plan
or this kind of structure could could be started all
over the country, all over the world.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Oh yeah, that's my goal. I mean right now, you know,
I'm trying to flush out what I consider this regional
co op here in San Diego. Even though we've installed
over three hundred and fifty gardens, and we've installed gardens
and schools and we had the opportunity to teach children,
we want to be able to dim and straight to
schools and to policymakers that this is critical. Every child
(39:05):
should have the opportunity to learn outside. And if we
are given the opportunity to demonstrate that here in California,
then we can replicate this in other areas. You know,
Package it because the program works because it's regional. It's
neighbors feeding neighbors. The harvest boxes are picked up at
the local yoga studio or the local you know, wherever.
(39:27):
We've got a bagel shop, you know, and that way,
people walk in, they buy bagels, or they walk in
they pick up a yoga class. You know. Again, it's
a way to feed one another, not just with food,
but other ways. I can't tell you the stories.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
But the big word is is connection.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Connection. That's it.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's and now, because these things are so prevalent, what
you're doing, Mia is you're You've created a form of
connection that is untouchable. It's like that is more powerful
than pretty much anything, you know. And the states or
municipal governments, we can spend billions and billions of dollars
(40:08):
a year, but if people don't have a way to connect,
you know, or kids don't have things to do after school,
then we lose them. We lose that connection.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
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Speaker 1 (40:56):
You know, I want to ask you Ian about uh
An and please me and feel free to You've had
your fingers in the dirt quite a bit. So my
question is, you know, I'm watching the film Common Ground
and and it is at times really overwhelming in terms
(41:19):
of the problems that exist in our food chains, with
with the chemicals, with the lobbying. You know, there's a
lot of big, big issues there that are existential to us.
And and then you I kind of think to myself, well,
I have you know, a small farm. And I started
(41:44):
kind of going, you know, online and seeing how to
approach this just on a personal basis. And I'm wondering
if either one of you have any direct sources resources
in terms of how people can either get involved with
a community garden or if they do have farms farmers
(42:08):
or small farmers or gentlemen farmers or whatever happens to be,
you know, actually start to start to do this, to
try to embrace this regenerative idea.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
If you're in San Diego, you're going straight to me.
But if you're not, you know, one of the things,
so Mia one of also the things that just blew
our mind. So we released, we released Kiss the Ground.
We cut a forty five minute educational version that we
released to thirty five million students globally for free that
(42:41):
changed the way kids saw the world. But Kiss the
Ground the website, because it's also a nonprofit, the Common
Ground is not tied directly to the five oh one
C three as Kiss the Ground was. But you can
go on our Kiss the Ground website and you can
find people well, first of all toolkits, but then find
(43:03):
people in areas where you are that all of a
sudden directly connect you not with just tips, but with
actual toolkits and people. And I think that is the
big thing, because you know, and I know because and
I know people ask me of this all the time too.
But people literally look at me and and and a
(43:23):
lot of journalists and and they're they're they cut through
the bs because they don't want to. They don't. Everyone's
sick of like greenwashing. Same, what is this regenerative agriculture,
and why should I care? One of the biggest things
is not just bringing people together. No matter what side
of the aisle you sit on, regeneration, regenerative agriculture not
(43:48):
only will stop climate change in its tracks. The greatest
existential threat to humankind is climate disruption, right, because it's
going to disrupt our food system. It's going to cause
a whole lot of issues that we're staring down the
But not only that, Regenerative agriculture produces higher yields, which
produce bigger profits when used. Because so money talks bs walks, right,
(44:16):
regenerative agriculture produces more money. So you can't argue with that. Right.
So when people say why regeneration, what is it? It's
just the use of planned grazing methods and using living
growing plants literally agriculture at scale to sequest the enormous
amounts of carbon dioxide, store it safely back in the
ground belongs. Now, when you do that, you feed all
(44:37):
the vitaminal organs in the soil. Healthier soil, healthier plant,
healthier planet. But then higher yields, more money for farmers,
higher tax bases, school districts get better, and rural area
water districts gets better, you know what I mean, It's
like we're doing it together and that's the beauty of regeneration,
you know.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah, I wrote a poem. I mean, yes, you know,
we tend to relate to one another sometimes in terms
of the dollars, the potential dollars, but I think on
a spiritual level, you know, we're really disoriented as it
relates to the earth and how we are the earth.
And I want to make sure that the children don't
get missed because they are the next generation. They're the
(45:17):
ones that are going to inherit whatever it is that
we're doing. And so you know, I wrote a poem
about it that kind of guides me. And it's essentially,
I don't know if I have time to read the poems,
very short, but you know, making sure that if we
do amass these dollars, that we put it back into
educating the youth, you know, so that they can carry
(45:39):
this torch forward. You know, that would be the most
responsible and sustainable thing we can do.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, all of this, Yeah, this is all for them.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
It is yeah, exactly exactly, and we you know, we
haven't done so well, so let's let's hope that they
can they can do a little do a little better.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Yeah, they're great ambassadors, you know. I mean they believe,
you know, they still have the ability to imagine and
believe that seed that looks nothing like what it's destined
to become can actually become that thing that we're telling them,
you know. And so they're great ambassadors. And if they'll
eat it, they can. Their parents will eat it. But
if you try to offer it to the parent, they
might just say, oh, I'm good, but hey mom, I
grew it. Okay, I'll try it.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
There you go, there you go. Well listen, I want
I thank you guys so much for saying here common
ground film you really need to see and kiss the
ground I'm going to watch and what are and and
also uh, where are the websites that that we can
uh find out about the work that you're doing? Me
me and and uh and as well as the films
(46:43):
and where this is the call to action? How can
people get involved and how can people check out the
good work?
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Tell Mia?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
Okay, well, my website is good neighborgardens dot com and
it's plural gardens, uh single singular neighbor good Neighbor Gardens
dot com. We've got a couple calls to action right now.
We're trying to raise money to put more gardens in
schools so that we can, you know, create this opportunity
for kids to learn outside. So we have a donate
button on the bottom of our front our home page
(47:12):
of our website. We're trying to raise a substantial amount
of money. I'd like to see this these gardens be
established in different states, not just here in California, because
the school is really the hub of the flower of
the home gardens, which are the pedals that will drive
this big garden of us all being interconnected in this country.
We also, you know, we're always looking to be familiar
(47:34):
with who is our local farmer, who wants to grow
food in this town, who wants to get food in
this town. So we have a button for each of
those things on our website because our goal is to
connect all of these people together. People who build good composts,
we want them to be a part of our co op.
You know, anyone who wants to grow food in their
yard and it just continues to ripple outward. So it's
(47:55):
all there on our website.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I love that. Well, maybe as a way to close
this episode out, you could read your poem.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Oh, you gotta read that poem.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
All right, we go. We're following the path of little feet,
that's what it's called. It says. Most adults are feeling
it now, although the promise of spring is here. I
wrote this a while ago, and the weight of the
unpredictable virus seems profound in our environment. Thankfully, the children
keep it light and are eager to plant new seeds
in fresh soil. Let's be like them. Every time I
(48:30):
tend to one of the sharecrop gardens, I heed the
call for childlike submission. My questions are elementary. Did I
water the kale enough at the root level? Well? Well,
the aph it's take over my broccoli or wild mind astursium?
Trap crop and prayers prove effective. If I prune this tomato,
will it yield good fruit? And where exactly should I
cut it to direct its energy? Plainly put, I'm seeking
(48:52):
spiritual guidance, and these are my humble conversations with God.
It's grounding. It's where I express my curiosity and intelligence, hope, creativity,
and patience. It's divine relationship. No one not Sandra Bose
or even George Washington Carver ever uncovered all the sensitive
secrets of mother nature. But they were compelled and they
(49:15):
prove that as your birth mother, she just wants your love.
So come spend time with her. She will nurture your
inner child and reward you dearly. If not with food,
then at least with practical wisdom for trying. How much time,
that's your choice and how will you spend it. That's
up to you as well. Just follow the path of
little feet and get in there.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
That's amazing for sharing us with that and someone Halder,
thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you,
thanks for having it fascinating and insightful conversation and I
appreciate the great work that you guys are doing, so thanks.
Thanks for doing this. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to
another episode of six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. And if
(49:59):
you want to learn more about the Common Ground Film
or Good Neighbor Gardens, head to Comicgroundfilm dot com and
Good Neighborgardens dot com. You can find all the links
in our show notes, and if you like what you
hear here, make sure you subscribe to the show and
tune into the rest of our episodes. You can find
six Degrees with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or
(50:23):
wherever you get your podcast
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