Post-Growth Australia Podcast

Meet the host of new NENA podcast -Tiyana Jovanovic

This year, the New Economy Network Australia (NENA), launched a new podcast, ‘Voices of the New Economy’ hosted by Dr Tiyana Jovanovic. For this very special episode of PGAP, we catch up with Tiyana to tell us more about this new exciting podcast series, and how podcasting is an important storytelling tool to encourage and facilitate change. Also in this episode: Tiyana explores her journey within NENA over the past three years, including her coordination roles on the board of directors, strategic direction group, coordination hub, and storytelling hub. She also shares her work and advocacy beyond NENA, as founder of the of Humanitarian Changemakers Network and host of the Changemaker QandA podcast. Tiyana discusses her recent PHD work, in which she redefined concepts such as ‘empowerment’, ‘resilience’ ‘adaptability’ and ‘sustainability’. She describes how her work with women and communities in rural India informed her research. We discuss how the broader post-growth movement can benefit from a deeper understanding on the dynamics of empowerment and resilience. Finally, Tiyana shares with us her personal vision for a day in the life in a new economy, post-growth world. Did you know - PGAP host Michael Bayliss was also a recent guest on the ‘Voices of the New Economy’ podcast. You can even watch the conversation on YouTube. In this episode, I invite listeners to hold one face to face conversation with at least one other person who is new to degrowth. Please CONTACT US on PGAP if you would like any tips before your conversation. Otherwise, let us know how your conversation went. It is very important that we all do what we can to make post-growth a mainstream issue, as the world is on brink of disaster. If you can, we would appreciate you taking the time to share this and other episodes of PGAP with your networks, or rate and review us on Apple Podcast. *Links for further exploration: * Tiyana’s non-linear approach to change/growth is discussed in the context of rethinking sustainability at the Australian Earth Laws Alliance conference last year: https://youtu.be/9XvAJyn0Gc0?si=KNiVxCwgLdRLwY8T Tiyana’s empowerment framework (which can be applied to how we think about the role of an economy): https://youtu.be/4z1e6EM2GOk?si=qXI4TXPOP0uqk9Mb You may be interested in the past NENA themed PGAP episodes: Reimagine a Earth Centered Economy with Michelle Maloney PGAP live at the NENA conference: Life After Capitalism PGAP is made possible through the support of Sustainable Population Australia. All perspectives, views and legacies of PGAP guests are exclusively theirs and do not always reflect those of PGAP or SPA. Timestamp: Intro: Start – 05:10 Interview part 1: 05:10 – 32:47 Intermission: 32:47 – 35:05 Interview part 1: 35:05 – 56:46Special Guest: Tiyana Jovanovic.

The Post Fossil-Fuel Era with Scott Witheridge

Recent events have brought to the surface how vulnerable Australia is to energy shortages with only 30 days of stockpiled oil reserves. Within the context of these tentative times, it is important that we re-explore alternative energy options. Scott Witheridge is an Environmental Engineer and Author of the book "The Post Fossil Fuel Era". The book is a deep investigation into the next frontier of energy—exploring decentralised power, hydrogen innovation, and the intersection of conventional and emerging technologies. In this interview, Scott discusses the possibilities of abundant, perpetual and non-conventional energy. All views, opinions and legacies of guests on Post Growth Australia Podcast are exclusively theirs and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of PGAP. This is especially true for this episode as host Michael Bayliss remains cautiously neutral on this issue. From a post-growth perspective, the idea of abundant energy offers a fascinating hypothetical. If abundant energy is possible, how does this challenge our notion of energy scarcity and our response to this (such as planned degrowth and voluntary simplicity)? On the other side of the coin, does abundant energy give humanity a free pass to continue expanding unchecked and do post-growth principles still apply? All this and more are explored under the hypothetical microscope in this special episode of PGAP. “THE POST FOSSIL-FUEL ERA: A Blueprint for a Boundless Future” is available for purchase on Amazon HERE. You can check out Scott’s videos, including the full length “The Story of the Joe Cell” documentary, on the Post Fossil Fuel Era YouTube channel HERE. If you would like to hear host Michael Bayliss’ most recent interview on Pulse, representing Sustainable Population Australia, link HERE (go to the third chapter starting at 2:00:00). If you enjoyed this episode, please share with your networks. We encourage you to rate and review PGAP on Apple Podcast. CONTACT US with your thoughts and suggestions for future episodes and guests.Special Guest: Scott Witheridge.

By Disaster or Design: A Degrowth Answer to Finance with Matt Orsagh

“By disaster or design a Post Growth world is coming…because if we don’t do anything, the systems we depend on will collapse. Let’s not let that happen, let’s design our way to a better system.” In this episode of Post Growth Australia Podcast, we welcome special guest Matt Orsagh, from the Arketa Institute for Post Growth Finance, and author of the blog ‘Degrowth is The Answer’. Matt and his colleagues at Arketa have been working to align to financial sector with environmental and wellbeing needs, culminating in the 2025 research paper: “By Disaster or Design: How finance can evolve to avoid the worst of the ecological challenges we face and enable the transition to a better economic mode.” The paper proposes many degrowth solutions to the finance sector, to which Matt explores further in this interview. We also explore Matt’s own written work at his Substack blog, 'Degrowth is the Answer'. Big themes include wealth inequality, the loneliness epidemic, and collapse. These articles exemplify Matt’s storytelling skills. While describing our current predicaments with unflinching realism, Matt reminds us that the future remains hopeful if our global society transitions toward practical, planned Degrowth solutions. This episode of PGAP is dedicated to the memory of Tristan Sykes, co-founder of Just Collapse, who recently passed away Change the World through Changing Economics with Marcus Champ: The premiere episode of season 8 is a great companion episode, as it similarly explores economics and finance. Planning for a Just Collapse with Kate Booth: Our interview with ‘Just Collapse’ co-founder remains one of our most listened to episodes. We also encourage you to read the PGAP blog article To populate or not to populate? How we can come together around the eternal debate of everyone’s favourite vexed issue. This interview explores the following three articles from Matt’s Substack Blog ‘Degrowth Is The Answer’: Americans Don’t Know How Good They Don’t Have It Collapse: Don’t Look Down Everyone I Know is Lonely You can find the Arketa institute publications HERE, where you may read the report ‘By Disaster or By Design.’ _Enjoyed this episode? Please feel welcome to show your support for PGAP by sharing this and other episodes with your friends, family and networks. Leave a review for us on Apple Podcast or your favourite podcast platform. Contact us anytime with your thoughts and suggestions. _ Time stamp Introduction: Start – 00:04:19 Interview Part 1: 00:04:19 – 00:32:06 Intermission: 00:32:06 – 00:34:27 Interview Part 1: 00:34:27 - EndSpecial Guest: Matt Orsagh.

Change the World through Changing Economics with Marcus Champ

“The foundational elements of neoliberal economics is false” – Marcus Champ Welcome to 2026 and a brand-new season of Post Growth Australia Podcast! With co-host Mark Allen on travel leave, host Michael Bayliss (with his degrowth cap on) opens the episode with some mixed feelings in welcoming the new year. Since 2025, humanity has breached planetary boundaries, shifted more of our collective wealth into the hands of oligarchs and added 70 million to the population. Each new year brings a new appreciation of the magnitude to the scale of the human enterprise, which makes turning things around that more difficult (we keep trying, however!) Our first special guest to open Season 8 of PGAP is Marcus Champ. With a professional background in psychology, Marcus is studying at the one-of-a-kind Masters of Economics of Sustainability degree through Torrens University. Along with fellow students, Marcus has started an economics advocacy group called “Public Money. Public Good.” Marcus was also a presenter at the 2025 New Economy Network Australia (NENA) conference. His presentation was titled: “Pathways through a crisis: wartime experience and lessons for the coming climate catastrophe.” In this episode, Marcus draws from his presentation to compare Australia’s economy during World War II to that of our economic system today. In his words: “It’s amazing how much our understanding of economics and finance has changed in the last 50 years or so.” With panache and passion, Marcus shares a new economic vision for Australia. Informed from the achievements of the past, it eschews the current neoliberal paradigm to create a future where social and environmental wellbeing is prioritised over GDP, profits for the few and endless growth on a finite planet. Post Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP) is made possible with the support of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). All opinions and legacy of PGAP guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of PGAP or SPA. Enjoyed this episode? Please feel welcome to show your support for PGAP by sharing this and other episodes with your friends, family and networks. Leave a review for us on Apple Podcast or your favourite podcast platform. Contact us anytime with your thoughts and suggestions. Want to explore more episodes on this theme? Links below: Finding The Money with Maren Poitras PGAP live at the NENA conference: Life After Capitalism MMT for Activism with Gabrielle Bond Ecological Economies and MMT with Steve Williams Time stamp: Intro - 00:06:20 Interview part 1 - 00:06:20 - 00:27:20 Intermission - 00:27:20 - 00:29:05 Interview part 2 - 00:29:05 - 01:00:55Special Guest: Marcus Champ.

Last Episode for Season Seven

In this final episode for Season Seven, co-hosts Mark Allen and Michael Bayliss catch up for a short, freewheeling conversation to wrap up a busy year. In June 2025, Michael and Mark participated in a community consultation weekend on the future development of North Albany. Michael later presented his observations at the Albany Community Environment Centre forum ahead of the City of Albany elections in September. His presentation explained to prospective councillors and fellow environmentalists why urban planning matters for both social wellbeing and ecological resilience. It also invited attendees to reflect upon the long‑term consequences of unchecked growth for the city’s future. For this episode, Michael reads out this talk for posterity, which can also be read on the PGAP blog HERE. This prompts an open discussion with Mark around issues such as: Albany’s growth pains and the impact this has for future planning, housing security and the natural environment; How face to face community consultation, including Citizen Assemblies, can encourage cooperative debate and discussion, in contrast to the divisiveness which is so common in online or social media debates; How holistic approaches to debate can ensure that everyone can find common ground and navigate difference of opinion across many critical issues, including overpopulation; The importance of including post-growth thinking into our conversations, to encourage people to think about the bigger picture and act proactively as well as reactively; Finding the time to be in a space outside of language and narrative. An article, written by Michael in 2023, argues why the pursuit of growth makes this all the more difficult. Link HERE; Election fatigue in which it seems to be a case of the trees voting for the axe at federal, state and local levels, and: Finally, on a darkly humours note, we imagine what kind of apocalypse we face when world coffee stocks run out. As we draw a close to season seven, we reflect on a very good year for PGAP. This has been our longest season to date, beginning as far back as November 2024, when we broadcasted the radio documentary ‘Rethinking Sustainability’. Since then, Season Seven has covered many topics across fifteen episodes, such as steady state economics, techno dystopia, regenerative agriculture and a panel discussion on Degrowth at the University of New South Wales. This year, PGAP was recognised by the site MillionPodcasts as being in the top ten global podcasts that covers overpopulation and in the top fifty podcasts on Sustainable Living. This is very encouraging news to hear as we take a break over the festive season and plan for season eight. While we are on our break, we encourage you to share this and other episodes of PGAP with your friends, family and networks. We are grateful to anyone who takes the time to review and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast platform. We are also appreciative when people take the time to contact us directly with feedback and suggestions for future episode topics or guests. Many of our interviews this season came about from community suggestions or from prospective guests who emailed us. Reaching out is so important, not just for building connection but for helping us to broaden our range of episode topics and guests. Last, but certainly not least, we extend our gratitude to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA), which has supported PGAP since its inception in July 2020. This season, we also bid farewell to John Coulter, a long-time leader of SPA and the wider post-growth movement in Australia who sadly passed away last year. We welcomed SPA’s new patron, Anne Poelina, and spoke with Isaac Kabongo, the Ugandan CEO of the Ecological Christian Organisation, who has represented SPA at COP events. You can learn more about SPA here.