Was it worth it, in the end? Who can say? It would be impossible to quantify all of the direct impacts created by the Regenerative Communities Roadshow, let alone their unknown ripple effects. I certainly burned a lot of carbon pushing my little Ford Focus around the country, but I also met hundreds of amazing people, learned a ton, and planted seeds of evolutionary change everywhere I went. Living at such a pivotal time on Planet Earth, I think we all need to act boldly on our convictions, even if the outcome isn’t guaranteed. I hope my example will inspire others to do the same, each in their own way.

Double Rainbow — Photo by Bob McCullough.

The Roadshow started with a launch party at Yellow Barn Farm, a hub for regenerative farming and community just outside of where I currently live in Boulder, Colorado. There was live music, local food and drink, and short talks by representatives from six local changemaking organizations, all while this double rainbow beamed out high above us like a blessing. The next day, I delivered another presentation at the Equinox Center of Herbal Studies in Fort Collins, then got packed and ready to hit the road.

My first stop outside of Colorado was Helena, Montana, for an event hosted by the Montana Book Company and organized by Resilient Helena. I especially enjoyed being interviewed about The Regeneration Handbook by my friend and former Transition US Board Chair, Mark Juedeman. While driving through the wide-open spaces and small towns of Northern Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Eastern Washington State, I couldn’t help but reflect on the rural/urban divide in the United States and how the problems of “Democrat-run cities” must seem quite distant and unreal to people living way out there.

The biggest gap in my tour schedule took place near the beginning. With only one event in the next 11 days, I was fortunate to be able to set up a base of operations in this dreamy little hobbit village on Ancortes Island, which was generously provided by a couple of members of Transition Fidalgo. After my talk at the Watermark Book Company, I also had the pleasure of staying with Phoebe Barnard and John Bowey of The Climate Restorers for a couple of days in nearby Mount Vernon before heading an hour north to give a presentation for Transition Whatcom at the Community Hub Bike Shop in Bellingham.

After a disappointing turnout in Sonoma County, California, where my host came down with COVID less than two days before the event, I arrived in Berkeley for one of the biggest events of the tour. Transition Berkeley organized it and the venerable Ecology Center hosted. Though not without its problems, Berkeley seems to me one of the best examples of a regenerative community located in a dense urban setting here in the US: deeply multicultural, irrepressibly vibrant, and fiercely committed to sustainability and social justice.

Hearty Hodgepodge — Photo by Sylvia Holmes.

As I headed down the California coast, I could already feel the heat ratcheting up. I was listening to the audiobook of The Ministry for the Future and thinking Kim Stanley Robinson might not be too far off. Temperatures were breaking records day after day, even in a La Niña year. Following an event with Transition Pasadena, my car’s thermometer hit 120°F passing through Phoenix. How long will people be able to put up with this before they decide to migrate north en masse? It was a long and sweaty drive for me across I-10 to Florida.

Arriving in Florida felt like a homecoming. I gave a talk at Sweetwater Organic Community Farm in Tampa, then another presentation and two workshops at the Fogartyville Community Media & Arts Center and the Unitarian Universalists of Sarasota. I visited with my mother and stepfather, spent time with some of my dearest friends, and prepared myself for 11 events in the 13 days ahead.

Land Acknowledgement — Photo by Emma Medina-Castrejon.

On my first night in Media, Pennsylvania, a 20 year-old kid tried to assassinate Donald Trump during a rally in the western part of the state. As I watched Trump rise up out of a tangle of Secret Service agents and pump his fist in defiance, I contemplated the self-defeating nature of political violence. The next day, I facilitated a four-hour workshop on the Transition Towns Movement, effective collaboration, and mutually-beneficial partnerships for Transition Town Greater Media. The talk I gave the following night, at the Providence Friends Meeting, is now available to watch for free on YouTube.

After Pennsylvania, I drove further north to Vermont to stay at my friend Ruah Swennerfelt’s abundant homestead in Charlotte. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl (the earliest Category 4 and 5 hurricane ever recorded) flooded nearby towns a week before I arrived there, and floods impacted other friends I visited in St. Johnsbury less than three weeks later. I gave a presentation for Sustainable Charlotte Vermont at the Charlotte Public Library and a reading at The Eloquent Page in St. Albans the following day. Even though this last event was the smallest of the entire tour, I was glad that Northwest Access TV showed up to record it.

Following another reading at The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, New York, I landed in Delaware, Ohio. A local group called The Climate Kids performed an abridged adaptation of The Lorax before my talk at the Stratford Ecological Center, which has been a beacon of light for sustainability efforts throughout the region for more than 30 years. The following morning, Sustainable Delaware hosted me for a workshop at the Andrews House, where we discussed how to leverage their popular North Central Ohio Pollinator Pathways program to get more people involved in the wider work of regeneration.

In Rochester, Minnesota, I participated in a day-long event for local government officials and other community leaders called “Transitioning to a Resilient & Sustainable Future.” It began with a presentation about the nature of our current meta-crisis by Ivan Idso of Rochester EarthFest, followed by a talk on shifting economic and knowledge paradigms by Ashley Hodgson of The New Enlightenment. Instead of my usual book talk, I rounded out the event by presenting specifically on Practical Regeneration, sharing many inspiring examples and principles for regenerative project design. That same evening, I gave a short reading for Rochester Green Drinks.

My last stop on the tour was Saint Paul, Minnesota, where Transition US had held its first in-person National Gathering almost exactly seven years earlier. Transition Town All St. Anthony Park hosted me for a presentation at the United Church of Christ on Summit and invited me to participate in their Changing Times book discussion group the following day. Before leaving town, I stopped at Minnehaha Falls, as I had done in 2017. Thanks to an especially rainy summer in the Twin Cities, it was flowing even more powerfully than it had back then. As I headed back home across the Plains, I felt a bit humbled, temporarily exhausted, and filled with gratitude for the many exceptionally kind people who supported me all along the way.

Regenerative Communities Roadshow Debrief

Ted Trainer’s Review of The Regeneration Handbook