Ep 94 A Rebirthing of Humanity w/Roger Tempest

Episode Summary:

There are places in the world where history doesn’t sit behind glass—it works directly with the present to shape the future. Broughton Hall is one of those places. Set across 3,000 acres in the rolling countryside of Yorkshire, England, the estate has been home to the Tempest family for more than 900 years. Its 97‑room manor house, a vast 16th‑century structure of stone and story, has held kings and queens, births and burials, and the quiet continuity of a lineage shaped by the land itself.

But Broughton is not a relic. Under the custodianship of today’s guest, Roger Tempest, the 32nd generation of his family to steward this land, the estate has become a living organism—one that is remembering its wildness and rediscovering its soul.

For decades, Roger has led one of the most ambitious rewilding efforts in the UK, allowing woodlands to regenerate, rivers to return to their natural courses, and wildlife to reclaim habitats long disrupted by industrial agriculture. The land is healing, and in its healing, it is teaching. At the heart of this renewal is The Sanctuary, a center for spiritual practice, creativity, and inner transformation. It’s a place where seekers, artists, contemplatives, and activists gather to reconnect with deeper rhythms of life. Here, outer rewilding and inner rewilding meet—where the land heals people, and people learn how to heal the land.

Our conversation moves through the spiritual undercurrents of this work—the listening, the surrender, the sense that the land itself is dreaming a future into being. Roger speaks from a lineage that stretches back nearly a millennium, yet everything he’s doing feels oriented toward what humanity might become next.

In this episode, Gary Alan and Roger discuss:

How custodianship differs from ownership—and why that shift changes everything

The spirituality that guides Roger’s vision

The outer and the inner life

Wildness as teacher and friend

Where the ancient and emergent meet in surprising ways

Broughton as a living laboratory for human transformation

What it means to cultivate a community that is both ancient and radically alive

Roger’s life offers a counter-narrative to the extractive, hurried patterns of modernity. His work at Broughton invites us to imagine a different way of inhabiting the world—one rooted in humility, reciprocity, and reverence for the more‑than‑human community.

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Show notes:

http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/roger-tempest-rebirthing-humanity

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This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes.