The Regenaissance Podcast

Brad Wiley's family has farmed the same land since 1790. In this episode on our Farmer Stories series, he share shis wonder at the invisible web beneath his fields - and what it means to carry 200 years of family memory on a single piece of ground.
Farmer Stories pulls the best conversations from The Regenaissance archive - real voices from American farmers on the systems, economics, and communities shaping food and land in the US.

Timestamps
00:00 — The biological web that makes Tesla look simple
01:00 — Locust trees feeding cover crops across an entire field
03:30 — Cover crops and grazing replace the lime truck
05:30 — The moment Brad walked away from $30k in cash rent
07:30 — The manure spreader sinks into dead soybean soil
11:00 — 200 years of family memory on one piece of ground
22:30 — Life is designed to be a struggle

Connect with Brad:
Otter Creek Farm

Follow the tour on YouTube

Joel Hollingsworth runs Smoke River Ranch in northeast Oklahoma. This conversation from our Farmer Stories Series talks about why Joel believes we need to keep manufcaturing in America & why Oklahoma's culture of self-governance is a cultural model the country can build around.
Farmer Stories pulls the best conversations from The Regenaissance archive - real voices from American farmers on the systems, economics, and communities shaping food and land in the US.
Timestamps
0:00 — Why build in America, not abroad
1:30 — The federalist structure and America's creation story
4:00 — Oklahoma's culture of self-governance
6:30 — Regen ag as a churn factory
7:30 — Triffin dilemma and hollowing out of domestic production
9:00 — How crop insurance locks out new farmers
11:00 — Foreign cattle and the 30% currency gap
12:30 — Land as money, not farmland
14:00 — Farm credit weaponized (Dustin Kittle story)
15:30 — Average rancher age 58.5
17:00 — What rural collapse looks like
18:30 — Sovereign debt and centralizing risk
Links:
Full podcast episode:
- YouTube
- Spotify
- Apple
Connect with Joel:
- Smoke River Ranch Website
- X

Gunthorp Farms is a 3rd generation pork and poultry operation in northern Indiana with on-farm USDA-inspected processing. This tour covers the full farm from farrowing paddocks to kill floor, smokehouse, and wastewater treatment. Watch alongside the full podcast episode for the full story.
Key Topics
Adaptive multi-paddock grazing in practice
50-paddock farrowing system and piglet management
Building and running a USDA-inspected on-farm processing facility
USDA enforcement: how small and large plants are treated differently
Constructed wetland wastewater treatment
What You'll Learn
How paddock size and recovery time shift by season
What to ask when you visit a pig farm
What it costs to build on-farm processing and where permitting breaks down
How HACCP regulation actually gives small plants flexibility if you understand it
Why scale changes food safety risk in ways inspection policy doesn't reflect

Connect w Greg & Gunthorp Farms
Website
X
Instagram
Linkedin
Full podcast interview
Follow the tour on YouTube
Timestamps
00:00:00 Adaptive multi-paddock grazing explained
 00:03:00 Pig health, thermoregulation, and antibiotic-free management
 00:05:00 What consumers should ask when visiting a pig farm
 00:15:00 Energy-free waterers and farrowing paddock design
 00:27:00 Kill floor overview and processing plant history
 00:36:00 Permitting, wastewater, and navigating USDA regulation
 00:45:00 Food safety: small vs large plant accountability
 00:51:00 USDA enforcement disparities and advocacy
 01:02:00 Packaging equipment walkthrough
 01:13:00 Smokehouse construction and constructed wetland wastewater system

Charles and Heather Maude are 5th generation ranchers in South Dakota running a direct-to-consumer beef and pork operation built on land their family has worked for over 115 years.
This tour covers the full operation - cattle, hogs, grain storage, equipment, and the irrigated river bottom at the center of a federal land dispute that drew national attention.
Watch this alongside the full-length podcast episode for the complete story behind what you're seeing on the ground.

Key Topics
Direct-to-consumer beef and pork - how it actually works
Cattle finishing and feeder calf production
Farrowing crates - the honest case for and against
Why feed quality determines meat quality in hogs
Grain storage, forage systems, and matching stocking rate to grass
The disputed river bottom and the federal land dispute

What You'll Learn
How a small ranch runs multiple livestock enterprises on limited acres
Why weaning date is a range management decision, not just an animal one
What farrowing crates are actually for and why a skeptic changed her mind
How monogastric and ruminant digestion produce fundamentally different meat
What 115 years of private land management looks like - and what happens when it's challenged
Why boundary disputes in the rural West are common, and criminal indictments are not

Connect with Charles & Heather
Website
Instagram
Facebook

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Introduction and context 
00:02:00 — Cattle paddock: finished beef and this year's steer calves 
00:04:00 — Weaning early — a drought and range management decision 
00:06:00 — Grain bins: what they store and how they work 
00:08:00 — Farrowing facility: why the crates exist 
00:13:00 — Hog nutrition: simple stomach vs. ruminant digestion 
00:15:00 — Pasture-raised pork: why quality and finish time differ 
00:18:00 — Legacy equipment: grandfather's tractors and the 1948 truck 
00:24:00 — The fence line: terrain, flooding, and where fences actually go 
00:25:00 — The Forest Service dispute begins 
00:27:00 — No written violation, no due process, criminal charges 
00:28:00 — Working toward resolution: the Small Tracks Act 
00:30:00 — Secretary Rollins, the temporary use agreement, and what changed 
00:33:00 — The survey stakes, the crop damage, and the escalation 
00:37:00 — What the land trade proposal was and why it was rejected 
00:39:00 — What this case means for ranchers and private landowners 
00:41:00 — Final reflections

Joel Hollingsowrth has spent years doing something most people wouldn't dare try - building a regenerative cattle ranch from scratch, with no money, no inherited land, and no roadmap. And yet, it has become one of the pioneering regenerative farms in the nation. 
Joel is joined by David, who left an Ivy League PhD program to ranch in rural Mexico before landing here, and Daniel, the herd manager responsible for translating Joel's system into daily practice. 
Together they walk us through mob grazing at extreme stocking densities, a heritage genetics breeding program built for a world without antibiotics, virtual fencing technology, and a community ownership model designed to solve the financing problem that stops most regenerative farmers before they start.
This is a conversation about what it really takes (the stubbornness, the financial creativity, the ecological thinking, and the human community) to build something lasting and that works.
KEY TOPICS
Ultra-high-density mob grazing and how it mimics bison impact to restore soil and seed banks
Heritage breed genetics (Piney Woods, composite bulls) and building "zombie apocalypse" cattle
Virtual fencing technology and its potential to transform daily ranch labour
The herd share financial model and how community capital makes regenerative ranching viable
Reviving rural community through food sovereignty, nutrient density, and local economic energy
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
Why stocking density, not just rotation, is the key lever in regenerative grazing
How cows' hooves act as seed planters and why "weeds" like thistles are actually healing the soil
What rumen fill and manure consistency tell a herd manager about animal health and forage quality
Why cattle genetics matter as much as grazing method, and what "adapting to the system" looks like
How Joel financed his ranch with no money down, and why the herd share model is a blueprint others could follow
CONNECT WITH JOEL
Smoke River Ranch Website
X
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome to Oklahoma: Joel, David & the Smoke River story
08:00 – What's broken in rural America and what Smoke River is rebuilding
12:00 – Fresh Rx Oklahoma: food as medicine and local supply chains
15:00 – How Joel got started: a $1/year lease, no capital, and a Twitter DM
19:00 – Virtual fencing: digital paddocks and 60 hours of saved labour per week
21:00 – Heritage breeds: Piney Woods cows, composite bulls, and the genetics program
25:00 – Mob grazing explained: why five moves a day and what stocking density actually means
31:00 – Herd management with Daniel: rumen fill, manure scoring, and daily cattle metrics
36:00 – Sick cow protocols and building a self-selecting genetics program
45:00 – Weeds as healers: thistles, pioneer species, and soil succession