Episode 105: Matt Smith | Facing Waves,Planting Forests and Finding Our Way Back to Life

What does it take to reforest a country that’s forgotten its forests?

In this grounded and wide-ranging conversation, I sit down with surfer, grower, and land-restorer Matt Smith—co-founder and CEO of the Hometree charity in Ireland.

A lifelong wave-rider turned regenerative farmer and landscape rewilder, Matt has poured his vision and determination into one of the most ambitious rewilding efforts on the island.

But this isn’t just a story of saplings and success.
It’s a story of tension—between aliveness and economy, vision and system.

Together we explore:

🌊 The courage it takes to ride both waves and grief
🌱 How regeneration must be cultural as much as ecological
🪵 The challenge of convincing farmers to plant trees—even now, even here
💸 The heartbreak of realising that money still speaks louder than the land
🎭 The role of artists and storytellers in restoring relationship to place

“We’re not just planting trees. We’re trying to re-story the land.”

This episode asks:
Can we grow forests from love rather than incentives?
Can we compost the logics of modernity while still living inside them?

It doesn’t offer easy answers. But it does offer soil, surf, and story.
Listen for the entanglement, not the solution.

“What kind of culture are we growing when trees need a financial justification?”

I hope this episode invites you to reflect on your own relationship with place, courage, and care.

Let’s keep asking the hard questions—not to collapse under their weight, but to compost the logic that got us here.