Caroline Howell: Rebuilding the World's Most Endangered Ecosystem

30:28Darin Olien:Because people don't realize there's a physical data center that requires a lot of energy, Which is why when the Bitcoin boom happens, you've got all this people going to Greenland, Iceland, derelict hydropower, trying to resurrect all this stuff because there's and then AI on top of it. So now you have this huge amount of energies and water spends and all of this stuff. So that's a thing that most people don't realize. Yeah. And so can we create a new type of currency where the more life that you generate is the increase of value in your currency? And this is where I think some of these nature-based credits get interesting for us.

31:15You know, the carbon credit market, I think, is ready for an evolution. It has been for a while. But I think if we begin by asking, what's a living currency where if we are measuring the improvement of biodiversity, if we're measuring the improvement of carbon cycling in the soil, so carbon metabolomics maybe, or I don't know that we can actually measure life, but we can measure for the conditions of life to thrive. and this gets interesting and this is ultimately where I would you know like to be able to take the project and what we're learning is why the farmers haven't been able to plant the trees to restore their land what's been happening for them financially why this seems untenable for them and their answers are make a ton of sense like we've put them in a system that rewards extraction and ultimately killing the land that they're being sustained by.

32:12And we've got to flip this narrative.

32:15Darin Olien:Yeah, because it's an implosion. It's happening right in front of us. Yeah, we're in it. Yeah, we're in it in so many different ways. And that's the opportunity. Unfortunately, many people that don't have a lot of levers to pull are suffering a lot as a result of that. And I think using tools in the correct way is the way forward because you can use AI models to gather data to help predict and understand. And again, I think, but it's lost if it's not on the ground. Like you really need that data on the ground. And that then you really, and include the indigenous people, because again, they have knowledge that is unspeakable in terms of what we can guess.

33:12Darin Olien:Yeah, so is the, I can only imagine the path then is obviously you're keen to this area. And is it, what's the current situation? You're expanding the models. You're monitoring the models. You want to expand. Obviously, it's a lot of work to expand in the global market, but obviously here. But is the model to kind of continue to extrapolate that and bring it out in other areas that could benefit? Yeah. Well, I think that right now we're listening to Canopy. So we're in about a 12 to 18 month, you know, deep listening process where we're collecting data every week. We're evaluating it. And some things that, you know, we're learning will for sure be relevant and repeatable for other processes.

34:07I think the system that we've developed to listen is for sure repeatable in other places. But first, we want to really dive into this one. And this is my home. This is where I am excited to call home for the next while. And so really nurturing this project, I think, feels very important. But beyond just our project, the whole community is really forming a new way to live together. We're attracting all kinds of different entrepreneurs and innovation to the area who are looking to build quite differently on the land. So I was actually just in China, flew in yesterday, was in Japan and China. and visiting a manufacturing facility that we're partnering with to develop a zero waste construction system.

34:53And so the shipping containers arrive. The walls of those containers unfold to be our flooring system. And we erect a home from there in about two months. It's all like this incredible precision manufactured luxury housing. And so this type of design innovation and people who are very curious about how to live inside of a natural system more sustainably are all coming there, which is really cool. And it feels very hopeful. And so I'm very excited to continue to try and attract that type of talent and resources to the project. And then there's no doubt that I love to see how we can grow and expand.

35:37I'm not clear on what that looks like yet in terms of other projects, but ideally we've got a very beautiful home for ourselves. And, you know, in a few years from now, we've identified a way to monetize restoration that is truly integrated with the land and that small landowners can participate in directly, not these like large scale projects. I really want our neighbors in Panama to be able to monetize their restoration. So that's what we're focused on at the moment.

36:04Darin Olien:Yeah, not to mention them just seeing it and seeing it and going, that's not hope. I don't know what is. Before we continue the pod, I want to share something. I've tried so many supplements. I've been in the space for 25 years. And every so often, something really pops out. Monovitality is that difference. It's not just about adding minerals. It's about tuning your body to the higher frequency, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, because this is the mana from the earth, the shilajit, the ormus minerals, and so on. There's so much going on with this brand. I'm so excited. Beyond the shilajit, they're expanding into other elementals.

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37:41Darin Olien:So if you're tired of low energy, brain fog, and or just not feeling the same and like something's missing, check out Mana. Go to amana vitality.com that's m-a-n-n-a vitality.com use the code darren20 and you get 20 off your order this isn't about health it's about living in harmony with your greatest and highest potential the mental health crisis among farmers is among the highest of all professionals and so not just because i feel like society has really ostracized themselves from our farmers the people growing our nourishment but there's also been just so much shame I feel like for the way in which their business hasn't been able to be sustained or the way that they have used chemicals for their agriculture you know they've seen their land die in front of them and so there's a massive mental health crisis amongst farmers and I think there's nothing more restorative to health than to see life coming back and I think that we're on the brink of that just we're making that shift right now where um it just is necessary that that is happening and so i'm i'm very hopeful about seeing that more no i remember when i was god you know because most of my family ended up in the dakotas and they came through minnesota and we eventually ended up back there but i remember my my mom's father my grandfather was this proud farmer yeah and he was thriving he was wealthy and and thriving and didn't use chemicals.

39:17Darin Olien:And I just remember his aura. It was just hardworking, took care of the family. You know what I mean? And we went there every, that was my vacation. Like Chevy Chase freaking vacation. Family road trip. In that, whatever the station wagon was. But the joy of going in the fields and going out and seeing that level is always left similar, obviously, in Iowa and Minnesota and that kind of environment that, you know, farmers want to grow things. They want to know that they can provide for their family and legacy and stuff like that. And yeah, we're in this really, really flipped upside down model that needs a lot of attention in the right way.

40:14Darin Olien:And that's where I think it's very exciting because you don't even have to have data points to walk into a field of regenerative capacity thriving as opposed to a desert sitting over here and it doesn't grow anything. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that data is not required to observe life. Exactly. Yeah. I remember, like, I was in Brazil. We were in the Sahadu, so the south of the Amazon, this arid place. And I remember these stark deforested areas. And it was just a line of thrive and just absolute devastation, desert. and then you're seeing cows. And it just, it's so weird how we've got here. It is weird.

41:08Darin Olien:It's just. What were we thinking? I don't know. And, you know, we want to think that some, you know, there is a lot of weird people making weird decisions. But that said, I think it's so many decisions that have added up to lead us here astray in a certain way and breaking the natural cycle. and leaving us in this implosion that has to implode because you've already stepped outside of nature's principles. You just cannot. There is a place where we're already seeing it. You can't put more chemicals on. It's just impossible. It is, yeah. And so it's got to feel good not only that you've healed yourself by going to this land, but then to just rebuild it in a way that is just so needed.

42:04Yeah, it does feel really good. And it feels really exciting about what will emerge. I think one of the cool things about systems that are living as opposed to these artificial systems, which we largely live within, like we spend way more of our time figuring out how to pay taxes and figuring out how to manage abstract currencies and all of this than we do interacting with our food systems or where our water comes from or even riding a wave. This is actual life happening. And so I think one of the other cool things that life and the history of life evolving has shown us is that life, really magic can happen when life is occurring because these things want to evolve to be coherent with other life forms.

42:59And so, you know, one of the cool things that I love about carbon is that it's sort of demonized right now in the green.

43:08Darin Olien:Well, it's got a bad PR spin. Someone really had a thing out for carbon. But it also goes to show this reductionist side of things like now that's your data point exactly yeah and there's as opposed to seeing carbon as the incredible element of life that it is in all of us and all of the plant life and our soil systems and being in an inquiry of like how does carbon behave in a healthy way and can we create the environment for it to metabolize to it to cycle again for it to you know let's close the the carbon loops that are available to us, there's so much energy potential in this. And this is what's exciting is if we can imagine all of the kind of abstraction that's been created that is creating so much asymmetry in the world and think about that as an energy system, the release of that is enormous energetic potential, like the torque that's been bound up in that if we can direct that into you know creating systems that are living and are create environments that help people thrive as well there's just an enormous amount of energy potential that's sitting right here for us and i think that that's the opportunity that we all can see because a lot of climate people would say it's too late like i've heard that the people are like it literally in europe in classrooms with scientists telling kids that it's too late that we're the earth is doomed i don't think so like i know that magic can exist when we just direct this energy towards you know productivity and i think we're at the brink of that right now well you're you're talking about the force of nature herself like anything's possible yeah and you get out of the way and you see chernobyl like we don't live there anymore but life has figured out a way fungi is literally growing eating this radioactive material it's so cool like yeah it's like so that force is just so powerful and i agree like there there's so many opportunities but we don't because we don't understand or not willing to understand those systems we lose that transition transitional power opportunity i mean i remember a great amazing living permaculturist david bloom lives up in watsonville and he's been writing about uh regenerative capacity in the government since the 70s and and uh we did this little some good friends of mine doing some clean energy stuff which is a whole nother amazing conversation but we we took his compost piles and just created all the power for all of his indoor growing operations just by that radiant change right so a compost pile is like 140, 150 degrees.

46:03Darin Olien:If you use the normal systems of, you know, power generation or turbines or whatever, they don't work well because they lose so much power. But if you use properly tuned energy conversion systems, there's so much power available. Yeah. Just in that tiny little thing, just a compost pile. Wow. Yeah. Right. So it's just there's there's loss of heat all over the place. There's there's loss of potential. And and again, it's turned the system the system has already shown us the answers are already here, but we just have to follow them. Totally. I love that. Yeah. One of the things I like to call the now is the town of today because there's all of this like cities of the future and all of this which is cool but not so smart cities yeah yeah exactly like but it's also like the future kind of keeps it out of our power today like right now whereas today exists an enormous like wealth of tools of technologies of people who are dedicating their efforts towards this and so if we just wake up and think what do I what does this system need right now in order to be healthy I actually think a lot of that has already been invented and created and once it's to your point really integrated into a project it now gets to iterate to be even more relevant and more attuned to the system to create even better impact so that's what I think is so exciting are these projects that are really like the applied sciences of this is you know all of this just waiting to be implemented and we're excited to do it today we don't want to wait for tomorrow or the future we're we're doing it now exactly because it's like number one who are those scientists saying that and number two put them in the field and see something from a year or two years and you can see you can just see it yeah and it's and it's right there and it's like that's hope too that's hope manifested as as a new future yeah and you know there's probably a fractured world where there's a whole bunch of people that aren't going to change anything there's nothing we can do it's actually none of our business yeah you know it's like okay that's you stay there and there's a lot of people that want to do and i think that's the how weird the world is today or at least the part of it that we're seeing so much of um that creates pressure yeah it creates pressure in a way that hey you know maybe my nervous system crash is perfect yeah because it's showing me telling me my own implosion system is screaming you know that there needs to be something different totally yeah Yeah.

48:56And yeah, I love what you're speaking towards around the rest of the world. And I go through, still go through my own judgments of like, why is it, where is everybody? Like, wake up. And yeah, you're right. It's not really my business. And the other cool thing that life shows us is that it doesn't actually, I read this somewhere and it's really stuck with me, is that life really doesn't require consensus. What life requires is just the environment that allows it to emerge. And so as long as I'm a part of that environment and I'm feeding that environment to allow for even more life to flourish and thrive, I'm in my right place.

49:35And that's what's right for me. And life will be expressed where it's allowed to be. So I try to just focus myself there.

49:44Darin Olien:Yeah. And that's and I think that's the common sense of all of us. And like we have we have the numbers as people. And I think if you go to any person and say, hey, listen, there could be a way in your current environment that we could generate water, power, food, shelter, healthy home. Is that something you're interested in? Tell me who wouldn't say yes. Regardless of where they're from, regardless of their political leanings, regardless of that. Not the people trying to do whatever controlling overcorrection they're doing, but I'm saying the real people. Tell me someone that you haven't met that wouldn't want that or at least would want the help to make it happen.

50:30Totally. Everybody is. We're all so similar. And that's what also I think this narrative is doing somewhat successfully, which is to really divide these communities. And that's the opportunity, I think, also of living in a closer community where, you know, if you piss off your neighbor, you're going to see them the next day. And so your behavior shifts a little bit because there's some accountability to it. But you also listen to their perspective more deeply and you understand them better. And there's more collaboration potential there because of that environment that's set. So, you know, I actually agree with you.

51:08We have so many things to be aligned around. We all actually want really similar things.

51:13Darin Olien:I think the answer is that. I think the answer is breaking the conglomeration of too much population capacity of certain areas. And, you know, it's like, to your point, it's like that Dunbar effect where archaeologically and anthropologically and sociologically they say, hey, after about 150 people, to your point, you don't know who Jack is anymore, you know? So if we kind of set, even though we don't have to necessarily pull people aside, but have some sort of governing principle of about 100, 150 people so that we support each other in that effect, I think that's the type of answer. The community aspect is, I think about this all the time, because that is a system that does work.

52:10Darin Olien:And then people are contributing. If you're not contributing, then you got, you know, Jill comes to your door and says, hey, man, you didn't produce anything. And like, what are we going to do here? But there is something to that. Like you can hide in a big city, which is why New York, L.A., it can become lonely. And we just want to feel connected at the end of the day. Absolutely. Yeah, totally. My experience living in Vinal, it's about a thousand people who live there today. and varying times of the year too like people whatever coming and going and there is just such a a sense of belonging there that even I've been traveling the last couple of weeks I've gotten so many messages from people like hey I hope it's going great we're thinking about you here you're watching sunset and just checking in you know are you happy good and it's like there's this effect of you feel kind of under the wing of a whole community that brings you a sense of deep safety and of resilience and something that's really trustable.

53:17Because I think, you know, when it's gotten so big, and this is where I think the decentralization movement has a lot of wisdom, like the intent behind it's cool, but we get into these systems that are so large, and there's not the same personal relationship to the people who are controlling these systems. And now we've given over our power of food, water, energy production to the federal, to these national systems that have done a lot of things to break our trust. And so now it's like there's this upheaval, I feel like of...

53:51Darin Olien:Okay, everybody, are you ready to upgrade your operating system? I know I am. I'm always game to do that. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. That's what we're doing over at Super Life Patreon. This isn't just behind-the-scenes membership. It's a global experiment in conscious living that I am connected to, committed with, in every cell of my body. Each week, you'll get exclusive access to deeper podcast conversations, extended interviews voice notes from the road of me personally personal reflections behind the scenes footage community wellness challenges and even some surprise drop-ins that i no longer do on social media because i don't really dig it anymore we're talking decentralized healing reclaiming sovereignty, ancient wisdom meets future tech, and a tribe of people with you walking the path.

54:55Darin Olien:If you love this podcast, the Patreon is where we go deeper, get more real, and reclaim our power together. Join us at patreon.com forward slash Darren Olean.

55:15Darin Olien:That's R-I-N-O-L-I-E-N. Join the movement. Support the mission. Let's rise together. People are anxious because they've given up so much of their power of the things that they're just needed for basic human survival. And it's concerning. You know, it's like, well, they're failing us in these ways. Are they going to fail us in these other ways? And so, yeah, these communities that are really looking to become sovereign, you know, develop their own food systems, really secure their own water resources, really care for each other. This to me feels safe and good and super. Yeah, it feels really healthy.

55:56Darin Olien:Well, it is. And you can weigh that in health. You can weigh that in happiness and contentment, all of those things when you have that power back. And food and water and even shelter is not is not that difficult, especially when you can come together in a community to get these things done. You know, water capture. I mean, the municipalities, okay, you can go almost anywhere in the world and turn on a tap, but you also don't know what the hell you're getting anymore. Yeah. And you don't know that they've monitored that they have the capacity for more development. Like, I think that's where we've seen actually a lot of failures is they've made their resources available to actually an unsustainable number of people.

56:44And so you see water shortages. I think this is the biggest crisis facing real estate in the coming 20 years is we're going to see developments that literally don't have access to fresh water. And already we're seeing this impacting things. So it's a really lived experience that I actually think business and people who are playing with land can really reimagine themselves as true stewards of we're not just delivering a building or a dwelling we're actually delivering an entire environment that is safe for our future residents and that's I think the next evolution of real estate development and of community development.

57:26Darin Olien:Yeah you should think of things like instead of it's coming from over there where's my water coming from. I have a river, I have a well, I have a, or my neighbor does. And then, and then you can circle around those things because safety is such a huge thing and resources are such a huge thing. Like even, you know, rebuilding my property again, I have a well, thank God. I found another one. Cool. Right. And, and I'm in a valley. So water is just abundant. Yeah. So I don't need those things and food forest planning and all of these things but you know i guess if we reel this back to people listening going yeah great i can't go to panama or costa rica or i really want some land we'll stay you know maybe stay on that purpose keep it open but for people like where do you think the hope can come from for people that are scrolling too much and listening to media, but also are listening to this today and going, yeah, that is true.

58:36Darin Olien:Like our sovereignty has been hijacked and centralized. That never works well in almost any situation. You want to decentralize it? Use the infrastructure. Fine, do it. But there's a way. What do you think the hope is for the people in Minnesota, Iowa, who are just working hard and want hope again? Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely my observation that a lot of people are just on autopilot, you know, reacting to life happening to them. And I think one small change that my coaches have really helped me to identify is if we move from kind of this victim mentality, like we're victims sort of to what's happening around us, then one very small way to move from that to kind of a creator mode is just to create a new option.

59:35Now you've actually created something for yourself. So if before you thought your options for the evening were to sit in front of the television and to microwave up your, you know, dinner or whatever, can you create a new avenue where maybe it's an option to go for a walk? and or that it's an option to go by a tree and plant it in your backyard or it's an option to invite your neighbor over for dinner and just this creative power in these small moments to create a new option for yourself I think puts us on a trajectory that's different than the one we were at before and this I think is hopeful and you know as it relates to these larger systems I think there's just so many ways to imagine how we reclaim our power back in in daily and in small movements and in small moments and when we have the agency to do this we'll be in a mentality to do that in bigger ways when those opportunities come and so just like working a muscle yeah exactly

1:00:44Darin Olien:Exactly. That muscle memory is there. And so that's where a lot of just the personal reps, you know, has come in for me. And it's allowed me to have the strength to take those bigger moves when I've needed to, to, to do a different change. I think it's really important to say, because, because I think you and I can probably relate, like easy for us to stay in Minnesota and Iowa, a lot of my friends have and um i i never thought i was gonna globally change anything yeah um now i still have a delusion that i can throw something into the mix but uh uh but that never that showed up because of big hell when i went from you know a town of 8 000 to university of saint thomas and St.

1:01:37Paul that was massive yeah my sister went there for school did she yeah oh wow yeah Dan

1:01:42Darin Olien:Buettner too yeah yeah before me but yeah um it was a beautiful but it felt massive like not really traveling other than going to my cousins but but 80 miles away felt like another planet yeah and so that was and then the day out you appreciate this day after graduation I jumped on my motor day after college graduation I jumped on my motorcycle dad jumped on his motorcycle and I drove to Boulder wow cool and I and so my point is that I always said I can always go home it was kind of like a not a big deal I want to just adventure over here well I never ended up going back home yeah right and then even from Colorado to California I was like I can always go back to Colorado.

1:02:30Darin Olien:And so I think the paralysis that you're also talking about is if you don't take these steps to do little things differently, then you cannot absolutely see yourself living in another country if you're unwilling to just do small micro steps to kind of build this confidence, this worldview change every time i've left 40 some countries i've been in it's just rewired yeah you know what i mean it just changes the worldview it just automatically and so so the hope is that yeah you can start you can plant that tree you can grow that basil on the windowsill even in the winter, right? You can grow sprouts on your counter, whatever, you know, whatever that is, and you can go to your neighbor instead of siloed another night of Netflix.

1:03:33Totally, yeah.

1:03:34Darin Olien:Unless there's a good program. I mean, there are sometimes. And that's a great option when it's an option. Sure. But not necessarily when it's just an autopilot and just reacting to life. And this is like life force energy is creative force energy. So just creating the option, even if you don't take it, is tapping back into that life force energy. So I think that's kind of the origin of it, which is a cool and very doable method. And one thing that my one of my best friends and she's also a coach for me also invited me to do, which I love. So I just want to share is to only look at my phone in my left hand and my non-dominant hand.

1:04:16because we're so like tied to these like leashes of phones I have been at least and so if I just move it to my left hand and become aware of that I'm now noticing when I'm on my phone a lot more because it's less comfortable it's less automatic yeah I'm like how do I use this

1:04:36which causes me to use it less and then because it's not so autopiloty I'm like what am I even doing on this phone? Like, am I sending a message?

1:04:46Darin Olien:It disrupts the neurological unconsciousness. And then that kind of transmits into other areas of like, what am I doing on autopilot? And do I want to do something differently? So I'm sure most of us are out there on our phones a lot. And it's a cool little trick to just disrupt things. I took the social media apps and I've them to the second and third screen. So they're not on the home screen. And then I also, there's a function that you can, instead of having color, you can black and white the whole thing. So now it's, yeah, so it's not stimulating, not looking for that symbol and you're just unconsciously just clicking it.

1:05:28Darin Olien:Yeah. So we have to disrupt so that we can re-engage, I think. Totally. That's a good one, though. I like the left hand thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's good for a brain, too. Yeah. but yeah those are powerful things so so i guess staying on the hope train what's your vision for a fully exercised uh view that you want to in 20 years what would you love to see yeah i'd love to see playa van now be a home to a lot of creators and innovators who are creating new ways for us to interact more positively with our environment um so we're creating not just an ecosystem that's really healthy for the for the ecology there but also for the creators there so and i actually think that the sovereign food water and energy systems is a big part of that because if you have your basic needs taken care of, you can spend a lot more time in your creative zone.

1:06:39So this is kind of why the agricultural movement happened anyways, was like, you know, let's take care of these natural...

1:06:45Darin Olien:You take this off the table, now how can you live? Exactly, yeah. So there's a lot more time to be creative. And I think as long as we're focusing that creative energy towards regenerating our healthy systems, it's great. And my hope is that there are a lot of other places who are figuring out how to do that locally as well. Everybody's kind of looking for these large-scale solutions. And nature, I think, repeats, but I don't know that nature scales. Nature has just a unique expression in all of these local places. And so I'm very hopeful that we've found, as humans, a new identity as reclaiming what I consider to be our birthright as keystone species to, you know, really participate positively into the natural world.

1:07:37Stewardship. Yeah. And that we enjoy the heck out of it. It's like so fun and beautiful and includes the uncomfortable human experience. You know, it's not, we're not, you know, just shying away from it and only doing beauty. Like it includes death and it includes, you know, hard moments and problems that we don't know how to solve yet. And that that just gets to be a part of the experience. And we celebrate that.

1:08:05Darin Olien:Amen to that. I'm game. I got to come down there. Yeah, please come. Visit you guys. Wow. Sounds like a great jump off point. It's sure. It's a really amazing place. We would love to have you. And if you're a surfer, it's a world class surfing bay. We have professional surfers who live there. It's this half moon bay where the center point has pretty large waves. But then as you get to the sides of the bay, they become really baby and fun. And this is where most of us hang out. And the sunsets are beautiful. And there are all kinds of endangered species literally reproducing on the land. We found a baby margay, which is like a baby leopard.

1:08:49It's a very small leopard. they don't get big like leopards they kind of are the size of like house cats like a large house cat but just gorgeous and these like blue eyes and you're like what is this this is like so exciting and hopeful and so adorable and um yeah it just moments like that make it all so rewarding and fun and very yeah very hopeful for sure that's the thing man adventure in our own lives that's

1:09:19Darin Olien:Because we can easily get into this understanding or think we understand that this life is not that great. But I think one of the messages I heard from you so loud and clear is we need to live back in. We need to experience the parts of life that we have kind of gotten cut off and get back into. Even if it's someone who get into that park or get into the nature, go for a hike. We have to make that priority to feel nature again. Yeah, and notice how it feels. Take a couple of moments to see how it feels sitting watching Netflix at the end of it or how it feels going for a walk. Maybe it feels a way in which you want to repeat again.

1:10:14It's been really rewarding, and I would love to have you down. It's really fun. So, yeah, everybody's invited down. Come on.

1:10:22Darin Olien:Well, we did talk with my buddy Chris Patton, who's doing some incredible energy tech, and we've got some family offices that are supporting him. And the last 30 years, Zach had a short little meeting with him, but now we've advanced clean energy tech to a degree that will blow your mind. Cool. You can't say a lot of stuff on camera about it, but we don't have to worry about power anymore. Amazing. We're really calling in these technologies, so it's great and timely, and we'd love to learn more about it. Yeah, so the solutions are here, and there's advances in the health systems and things like this that are, you know, I think meeting people like you and knowing Zach and people in my life, that builds so much more hope in me so that I continue to do it.

1:11:18Darin Olien:And again, when we gather, because we want to, we want to change these things that aren't working. And anyone listening, if you have any inkling to do that, reach out to us, come on board. Like there's always something to do and to contribute to to make this world better. Totally, yeah. Yeah, and just to reference, my boyfriend is Zach Bush who's been in this space for a while, and I know you have a great relationship with him. And so he's just one of the many people who we're attracting down there who are really looking to apply this incredible, you know, real lived experience to really applying it, which I feel like so much of it's been theoretical, and it's like, it's time to go.

1:12:03and to really integrate these projects and see how we improve them and iterate on them. So we're really excited about it and would love to invite anybody who has these ideas down. It's really exciting.

1:12:17Darin Olien:Well, there might be, I think there's a gathering in our future. Great. For sure. I'm excited. Well, I'm proud of you for breaking out of Iowa's golden bubble. But also we do love where we came from. Yeah. Because it's really special. It's grounded me in life, and I still feel it every day. And it's wonderful. And the world is an extraordinary adventure. It is, yeah. Yeah, so thank you for making it that much better, especially in the area that you're focused on. And I know people listening are grateful, and I know I am too. Yeah, well, and same. Thank you for all the great storytelling and work that you're doing.

1:13:00And I'm so excited to hear about all of this technology being worked on. And it's so fun and energizing to collaborate with people in the space because it's so we're the ones having fun. There's some warriors out there.

1:13:14Darin Olien:There's some really, really good stuff going on. Yeah. And, you know, one good friend created an alternative to PFAS, which is already in the marketplace using algae. Wow, cool. Benign performs just as good. Wow. And is slightly cheaper. Wow. So that's something. Every reason to do it. Yeah. So it's already in the packaging of some fast food companies. And like. Nice. No one knows about it. Right? Yeah. And there's regenerative practices going on a big. I can't say who it is. But a good friend Paul Hawken is doing a lot of stuff. Yeah. And you don't even know that big companies have made some big swings to regenerate lands and working with their farmers.

1:13:57Darin Olien:and so there is a lot of hope. I just read his book, Carbon. It's amazing. I think it's his best book. It's his best. And it's the most truth-telling so far for sure. It feels the most relevant. It's such a jewel. Really great work that he did. That guy is an amazing shout-out to Paul. Yeah. But, yeah, keep going. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Keep using that tenacity that you have from Iowa and the cold winters that we forged. We're so tough. but I'm certainly glad I wasn't there this winter. Wow, me too. It was really freaking cool. I know. I've gotten a little soft down in the tropics.

1:14:35I'm not going back for the winters.

1:14:38Darin Olien:I told my mom over 20 years ago, you probably won't see me at Christmas ever. I love you. I'll come visit, but probably not at Christmas. Let's celebrate Easter. Thank you, Carolyn. Yeah, thank you so much. Awesome.