Seaweed People

🧑‍🎨🪸 Welcome to Part 2 of our conversation for HoldFast! You’ll like this episode if you’re curious about the thermal tolerance of kelps and a vision of the near future from a molecular ecologist, if you want a first-hand account of managing a coral restoration project during a cyclone, if you find the word ‘hydrocommons’ alluring.

We hear from Leza Howie, Josephine Johnson and Nicole Steenhoff, three WA-based artists who have organised the HoldFast exhibition in Walyalup (Fremantle). We hear stories from Norway from Dr. Antoine Minne, dip into coral restoration with Research Director of WAMSI, Dr. Jenny Shaw, and - last but not least - we get an insight into asparagopsis (beyond the methane story!) from Tom Puddy, managing director of SeaStock.

Find out more about HoldFast here. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to guests and other stuff in this ep:

Leza Howie - artist
Nicole Steenhof - artist
Josephine Johnson - artist
Dr. Antoine Minne
Gecokelp Project - Kelp forests in the anthropocene
White Rock - short film by the Great Southern Reef Foundation
Bodies of Water, Human Rights and the Hydrocommons - Astrida Neimanis
SeaStock
SeaStock’s Asparagopsis red pigment

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🧑‍🎨🪸 This conversation is SO full of seaweed people I had to split it into two episodes. You’ll like this part if you’re interested in kelp forests growing on ancient coral beds, Scottish seaweed mythology, seaweed robots and trumpets, biobanking, how kelp makes babies, and stories about connecting scientists with communities and artists.

We hear from two artists - Leza Howie and Josephine Johnson - who along with Nicole Steenhoff have organised the HoldFast exhibition in Walyalup (Fremantle) WA. Also joining us are molecular ecologist Dr. Antoine Minne and Research Director of WAMSI, Dr. Jenny Shaw.

Find out more about HoldFast here. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to guests and other stuff in this ep:

Leza Howie - artist
Josephine Johnson - artist
Dr. Antoine Minne
Abrolhos islands
Ecklonia brevipes
Dr. Jenny Shaw - Research Director, WAMSI
Seeing Change: A photographic story from Abrolhos fishers
The Nuckelavee (Scottish mythology)
The Tangie (Scottish mythology)
Posidonia Australia: Prototype for Listening - Catherine Higham

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s for anyone who doesn’t want to consume 12kg of plastic, who likes the idea of the ocean as hero not victim, who’s into zines and radical imagination and composting. We're talking seaweed bioplastic! ♻️🦋

Sway is a material innovation company scaling compostable solutions for plastic made with seaweed. Their products match the performance of conventional plastics and plug into existing infrastructure - but unlike conventional plastics, Sway’s materials are made from regenerative seaweed and can be composted after use. Alyssa Pace, Sway’s Head of Marketing and Comms, is here to tell us all about it.

You can find Sway at swaythefuture.com on or socials @swaythefuture, and Alyssa on LinkedIn. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to other stuff in this ep:

Leah Thomas (Greengirl Leah - Intersectional environmentalism)
Four wings of movement collaboration (the butterfly) - Christine Tyler Hill
Leah Penniman - Soul Fire Farm
Creating a New Sargassum Value Chain in Puerto Rico | Newlab
Regenerative organic certification
SeaTrees
Native Conservancy
Sway - Impact & guiding principles
Macro Oceans
Sway x Umaro Foods - extracting proteins from seaweed and turning them to foods
Seaweed Stories film (Rewild/Lonely Whale)
HOPE! documentary (Javier Peña)

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s for early risers and big dreamers, those of you into kelp restoration fans, clothes made of seaweed, imagination, snorkelling and a fire by the beach, if you’re interested in how Indigenous Knowledges and ceremony can connect coastal communities, or how corporates can invest in the ocean 🌅🧶

Sea the Weed is a collaboration of organisations reforesting 70 hectares of once destroyed Phyllospora Comosa ('Crayweed') along Sydney’s coastline. Throughout 2025, friends Arthur Little and Brenden Newton from AIME have been running a monthly program of sunrise, ceremony and seaweed, drawing human attention back to nature and ‘looking sideways’. We recorded this one at Malabar beach, after a beautiful swim with the reforested crayweed.

Find dates and more info on the AIME website here. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to other stuff in this ep:

AIME - mentoring & the Imagi-Nation hub
Operation Crayweed (also listen to episode 2 with Adriana Verges)
Abyss Scuba Diving
Making a Hoodie Podcast with Sea the Weed
The Grey Space podcast with Brenden Newtown
AIME’s Imagine film
The seaweed hoodie (+ the Regenerators website)
PYRATEX innovative textiles Seaweed fabric
Become a shareholder of the ocean (deck)

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You are going to love this conversation if you dream of spending a week greeting the sun with seaweed songs, having seaweed baths after saunas, if you’re into seaweed tattoos, if you’re a student or a teacher and you wanna go diving, and generally if you’re into the idea of regenerating underwater forests 🤿🛀🏽

Along with the team and communities behind Love Rimurimu, Zoe Studd is doing all of these things. Zoe is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mountains to Sea Wellington Trust, where she manages both marine and freshwater education programs and citizen science programs, working with schools and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. We talk about starting kelp restoration projects in schools, regenerating coastlines with science and cultural knowledge, and running a kickass seaweed festival.

Follow the Love Rimurimu project here and on their socials. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.
Links to other stuff in this ep:

Seaweeds of Wellington (video ID)
Mountains to Sea Wellington
Experiencing Marine Reserves community program
New Zealand approves first special permit to remove kina barrens
Project Baseline Wellington
Kelp Forest Alliance website (or listen to Episode 11 with Aaron Eger)
Green Gravel Group
Love Rimurimu’s Seaweed Restoration Toolkit
Seaweed Fest 2025
Hot tubs, seaweed soaks & saunas in Ireland

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.