Logo - When the Biomass Hits the Wind Turbine

Each week Annie & Jay Warmke present a radio program (which appears on WOUB radio (NPR) and WGRN (Pacifica). The program is also syndicated on the Pacifica Radio Network.

When the BioMass Hits the Wind Turbine is a serious, but not too serious, look at issues surrounding sustainability and sustainable living.

Link to Podbean Hosting of Podcast

 

045 – Creating a Not-for-Profit Homestead

September 1, 2019

Turning your farm or homestead into a not-for-profit corporation may be the way to go as you seek to make a living, live sustainably, and change the planet.  Claire Orner of Quiet Creek Herb Farm and School of Country Living explains how they went about turning their 30-acre herb farm into a non profit educational destination – and the advantages and challenges they faced in the process.  

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031 – Raising Dairy Goats (part 4)

August 29, 2019

Raising goats on a homestead is both rewarding and challenging.  This series discusses the issues and solutions found at Blue Rock Station in raising and caring for a small herd of dairy goats.  (Part 4 of an ongoing series).

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044 – Greenwashing (the lies they tell and the liars who tell them)

August 25, 2019

Those of us who wish for a better world want to support products and companies that support that vision.  We know this – and they know it.  But how do you separate fact from fiction in the world of green marketing?

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054 – Starting a Small Creamery – featured on PBS Sept 2nd

August 22, 2019

Celeste Nolan and her family began operating a small creamery about 15 years ago or so.  Their operation, Laurel Valley Creamery, will be featured in an upcoming PBS show, POV which will air at 10 pm on September 2nd.  She sat down with us to discuss how she found herself living this life, and what are the joys and misadventures of milking cows twice a day and making artisan cheeses. 

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043 – Natural Gardening

August 18, 2019

How to work with nature rather than against it in growing food, flowers and other assorted greenery.  Companion planting, natural pesticides, natural fertilizers – beyond organic. 

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042 – Heading Towards Zero Waste

August 11, 2019

Each year every man, woman and child generates a huge amount of solid waste.  How is this managed, what are the issues it poses to the planet, and how can we deal with it?  How can we change our behaviors to move as a society towards zero waste?  

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041 – Opting Out (Everything they ever told you is Wrong)

August 4, 2019

Society tells us to aspire to certain ideals.  We should own a big house, drive a nice car, go for that next promotion… eat this, drink that.  What happens when you reject these as goals.  How do you form your own path in a world that judges you against fairly rigid guidelines. 

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040 – Learning to Thrive

July 28, 2019

With so many of us simply trying to figure out how to get by – how can you actually thrive in a society that seems bent on bringing you down? 

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039 – Outlawing Sustainability (Water and Shelter Regulations)

July 21, 2019

As more and more people seek alternatives – government follows closely behind with one regulation after another seemingly designed to make these decisions illegal.  Take tiny houses for example.  Homes smaller than a certain size become illegal.  People get around this by putting wheels on the home.  So living in a home with wheels is suddenly illegal.

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038 – History of Electricity (Dead White Scientist Series)

July 14, 2019

Ben Franklin did not fly a kite in a rainstorm then suddenly Thomas Edison invented the light bulb (actually, neither of those things happened).  The history of and development of electricity is much more interesting – filled with scientists trying to pull a vacuum apart with teams of horses, deciding that a kicking frog leg was the key to visualizing the human soul, and much more.

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037 – Outlawing Sustainability (Food Regulations)

July 7, 2019

As more and more people seek alternatives to the industrialized food system – government follows closely behind with one regulation after another seemingly designed to make sure corporate profits are not adversely impacted.  Things your grandparents took for granted are suddenly illegal. 

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036 – Sustaining Diversity (in a world bent on sameness)

June 30, 2019

The corporate monoculture is reducing food options.  The media is bent on a steady diet to sameness – celebrity, scandal, and tragedy.   How do we encourage, embrace and celebrate diversity in our homes, lives, culture and planet.

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025 – Raising Dairy Goats (part 3)

June 24, 2019

Raising goats on a homestead is both rewarding and challenging.  This series discusses the issues and solutions found at Blue Rock Station in raising and caring for a small herd of dairy goats.  (Part 2 of an ongoing series).

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035 – Wind Energy (from Wind Mills to Wind Turbines)

June 23, 2019

Wind turbines now produce about 7% of the nation’s electricity.   In some states it is as much as 30%.  It is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, yet it receives constant attacks – most from fossil fuel backed groups that claim wind kills thousands of birds and bats, causes tumors, causes hair loss, changes the climate, and can make you deaf.  Find out what is true and what is so much horse hockey about the wind.

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034 – Healing with Herbs (Natural Medicine)

June 16, 2019

Herbal medicine, or natural healthcare has literally been around for centuries – yet those who practice it are still labeled as crackpots or witches (okay, maybe a couple centuries out of date with labeling) by the medical establishment that is very nearly always proved wrong by the next medical establishment that is later proved wrong… and so it goes. 

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023 – Raising Dairy Goats (part 2)

June 10, 2019

Raising goats on a homestead is both rewarding and challenging.  This series discusses the issues and solutions found at Blue Rock Station in raising and caring for a small herd of dairy goats.  (Part 2 of an ongoing series).

Transcript of Show

033 – Living a Net Zero Lifestyle

June 9, 2019

We have heard of net zero energy.  Net zero construction. But the heart of sustainability is seeking to live a net zero life.  How do you get through this life with as little adverse impact on the generations that follow. 

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032 – From Whale Oil to Kerosene (Dead White Scientist Series)

June 2, 2019

The search for energy has largely been a search for light.  We have evolved from huddling around campfires, to burning candles made of animal fat, to hunting whales on the oceans, to refining oil and ultimately the electric light.  This is a journey filled with adventure, fortunes, misfortunes – but mostly lies and lawyers.  Join Annie and Jay Warmke of Blue Rock Station for a discussion of sustainable living – and the Dead White Scientists that made it all possible.

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030 – Aging Sustainably

May 26, 2019

We all age – at least the lucky among us.  Yet our society treats aging as a disease, and the systems created to “help” are for the most part insane.  How can we age gracefully and sustainably?

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029 – The Man Who Invented Everything (William Murdoch) – Dead White Scientist Series

May 19, 2019

Probably the most important scientist that you have never heard of.  It can be claimed (and we will claim it) that William Murdoch was involved in creating or perfecting most of the major inventions that brought us through the Industrial Revolution to the modern age.  From the steam engine to the locomotive, to the automobile to the steam boat – he even invented the pneumatic tube (that thing that delivers checks at the bank) and a way to purify beer with fish.  Join Annie and Jay Warmke of Blue Rock Station for a discussion of sustainable living – and the Dead White Scientists that made it all possible.

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028 – Future of Sustainability

May 12, 2019

We all know the major systems in our society – communication, fuel, transportation, food, housing, economy – are dependent on unsustainable foundations.  How will these systems evolve to meet the challenges of a world with limited resources?  Join Annie and Jay Warmke from Blue Rock Station for a discussion of sustainable living in the real world.

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021 – Raising Dairy Goats (Part 1)

May 12, 2019

Raising goats on a homestead is both rewarding and challenging.  This series discusses the issues and solutions found at Blue Rock Station in raising and caring for a small herd of dairy goats.  (Part 1 of an ongoing series).

Transcript of Show

027 – Accidental Activism

May 5, 2019

Life, if you are living it aware, has a way of pushing you into becoming an activist – whether you want to be or not.  It’s not enough to just get upset and rail at the system – you need a plan to be an effective agent of change.

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