As yesterday I relistened to the first podcast I heard featuring Joseph (Podcast #6: Joseph Lofthouse - Cultivariable) it made me think that what I love - out of the surprisingly creative process that is liberated thanks to Joseph’s approach-, it is the collaborative approach, a network of friends who collaborate on plant breeding. The part from 1’00’35" is partially dedicated to the “how”, and discussion goes around this collaborative aspect. Bill Whitson is amazed by that. And @Joseph_Lofthouse thank you 
Even if I did not remember precisely this then, it is more or less why I recently suggested community calls. To fill a gap between people, stuck behind their screens, with the usual high level of interpretation we can all have, and which does not help creating a friendship feeling within a diversity of people. If we met each other in person, and even more if we collaborated on breeding projects, I am quite sure friendship would come along easily, even if we come from different standpoints, have different language mastery, etc….
So, my wishlist of things i believe neccessary and cannot be prescribed :
- community calls, more and more, without necessarily a firm driving leadership but more the will to share what we are up to, as I believe it is the best way to meet each other, so to say create some friendship along the way. Pragmatically, that would accelerate our respective projects, and surely initiate new communautary ones.
- links to podcast. I think it is kind of “strange” we don’t link to the forum those podcasts nor discuss them here. Kind of disconnection. 18 great podcasts and we barely never even talked about them. Thanks @jens for your recent idea (Going To Seed Zoom Podcast with Joseph, Holly, and Shane - #11 by jens), which I support.
- same story with online courses, even if they have their own commentary sections.
- I believe there is also a need to do regional community calls. In Europe, as I believe we are even more priming up things than in the US, it would be great if people find ways to gather and meet each other, so to say help each other, share networks, share seeds, infos, more easily. Community call would be perfect.
On a personal level, I decided to stop talking strictly about agronomy on this forum, as I see there is this tendency (may be just personal) to identify with this or that, or identify the other with this or that… being “permaculture”, compost, cover crop, or whatever… to all kinds of specialities, with their possible mind rigidity, and with very different level of expertise, and of experience, etc… whereas the focal point around which we can gather is plant breeding, in a modern landrace style. Yes, talking compost or this or that in relation with plant breeding, why not, but not in essence, or without expanding too much on it. Personnally, hat has been energy dispersal for me, of not much use eventually, which is perfectly normal, as we are not gathering around this.
So kind of refocusing on basics : “how can we help each other in our respective breeding projects”, first. Then comnunity calls first. + some regionals. Then the community-friendship feeling will come along and improve naturally.