Book your free tickets (click on the links below)!
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Felice Jacka: “The Lost Harvest: Industrial Diets, Vanishing Diversity, and the Mental Health Crisis”
Soil Yourself September! The Lost Harvest Tickets, Wed, Sep 3, 2025 at 5:30 PM | Eventbrite
WHEN: Wednesday, September 3rd 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
This talk will explore the interconnectedness between the loss of biodiversity and soil health driven by industrialised dietary patterns and the global mental health crisis we are facing.
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Alyce Martin: “Microbiome-gut interactions as determinants of health”
Book your free ticket here: Soil Yourself September! 'You Are What You Eat' Tickets, Wed, Sep 3, 2025 at 6:30 PM | Eventbrite
WHEN: Wednesday, September 3rd 2025 at 7 pm Melbourne time
This talk will cover how bacteria can directly “talk” to gut cells, showing how your microbiome might be helping to shape your health in surprising ways.
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Eli Court: “Soil is not dirt - The amazing universe that is healthy soil, and why it matters.”
Soil Yourself September! 'Soil is not Dirt!' Tickets, Thu, Sep 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM | Eventbrite
WHEN: Thursday, September 4th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
A single teaspoon of healthy soil can contain 10 billion organisms, and the activity of all of these creatures creates the conditions necessary for all life on Earth. But soil is poorly understood and mostly invisible to the planet's largely urban population. Eli will introduce the amazing universe that is healthy soil, why it's so important, and how farmers can and must be at the centre of regenerating our most precious natural asset.
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Steve Allender: “Community Food Systems Thinking”
WHEN: Thursday, September 4th 2025 at 7 pm Melbourne time
Steven will present the creation of a detailed system map and a collection of prioritised action ideas specifically designed to tackle food insecurity and promote healthy eating and soils within the community, thanks to the collaborative effort of local stakeholders, community members, and Deakin researchers.
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Craig Liddicoat: “Soil and gut microbiome connections”
WHEN: Wednesday, September 10th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
This talk will summarise the growing body of evidence that links soil, gut and human health via the microbiome pathway. Craig will also outline new research that is revealing shared alterations in the functional capacities of soil and gut microbiomes that occur in degraded soils and metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
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Bruce Pascoe: “Perennial Earth”
WHEN: Thursday, September 11th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
In this talk, Bruce explores how accepting the full truth of Australian history, particularly the agricultural practices of First Nations peoples (and promoting their leadership), can guide us toward a more sustainable future with healthy soils. By reviving and cultivating native perennial grains, we can sequester carbon, restore degraded landscapes, and still enjoy staples like bread. This is a journey of ecological repair, cultural renewal and practical solutions grounded in deep time.
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Sarah Bassett: “Communicating Climate and Sustainability: Techniques for cutting through apathy, changing culture and inspiring action”
WHEN: Thursday, September 11th 2025 at 7 pm Melbourne time
Sarah, a former journalist and science communicator, will inspire us to communicate effectively about climate and environmental sustainability (including soil health!). Successful communication can add to a ripple effect of much-needed culture change affecting how humans relate to our environment, with the aim of encouraging a more planet-friendly future. We will learn research-backed communications techniques to use during work, study and everyday conversations to boost pro-environmental outcomes.
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Jake Robinson “What Lies Beneath: Do soils shape minds?”
WHEN: Wednesday, September 17th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
In this talk, Jake takes a ‘systems thinking’ approach to explore the underappreciated but potentially powerful role of soils in this network, linking it not only to air quality and microbial exposure, but also to multisensory experiences that influence the gut-brain axis - and ultimately, our minds.
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Jacoba Bromfield: “Nature's Touch”
Soil Yourself September! Nature's Touch Tickets, Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM | Eventbrite
WHEN: Thursday, September 18th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
Jacoba will explore the fascinating connections between soil, gut, and skin microbiomes, and discover how getting your hands dirty outdoors can have a profound impact on your health and wellbeing.
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Feargal Ryan: “Decoding the Gut-Brain Connection with Big Data”
WHEN: Wednesday, September 24th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
This talk will explore how cutting-edge tools like DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence are helping us decode how we interact with microorganisms. We'll look at how this new knowledge could transform healthcare by offering more personalised treatments, improving mental health, and helping us understand the root causes of complex diseases.
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Rubén Fernandez-Rodriguez: “Planetary nutrition through school meals”
WHEN: Thursday, September 25th 2025 at 6 pm Melbourne time
School Meals are a pivotal platform in the global transition to healthy and environmentally sustainable food systems with healthy soils. Therefore, promoting school food procurement from an agroecology approach that ensures agrobiodiversity and environmental sustainability while providing children with planet-healthy meals for their development is a timely necessity. In this talk, Ruben will explore the relationship between regenerative soils and planet-friendly school meals and their implications for well-being, brain and mental health in children.
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Ariane König: “Futures for the pluriverse”
WHEN: Thursday, September 25th 2025 at 7 pm Melbourne time
The seminar will serve to discuss the latest insights into transdisciplinary research approaches to catalyse knowledge co-production on human-environment relations with a focus on how we engage with land and soils across differences in interests, professions and understandings.