Inside Community Podcast

Are you ready to build your dream community? Creating deeper connections, harmonious collaborations, and more supportive relationships is a benefit to everyone and can start today, wherever you are in your community journey. Todays conversation dives into the how with three seasoned community veterans, Thomas Wall, Aaron Kahlow, and Leyla Makris. Recorded at the June Bloom Festival at the Emerald...

This Bonus Episode is all about the perspective of the kids! Listen in on a funny and heartwarming conversation I had with 6 kids ranging in age from 5-24 about their experience growing up in community. This panel was conducted at the Emerald Village's Full Bloom Festival in San Diego and if you are considering community life, having a family or already have a family, or just like kids…Put thi...

We're closing out our second season with an examination of how to navigate inevitable interpersonal conflict and move towards restored connection. Social architecture can be what makes or breaks a community, business, or organization. How we process our own pain and trauma and interact with the trauma of others offers rich opportunities for growth and learning. In this conversation with Dr. Je...

There’s a rich opportunity to push the needle forward when it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, but navigating Race, Class, Privilege, Ability, and all the ways folks face different levels of adversity can be vulnerable and uncomfortable.  Sometimes we need support to know what to ask for, how to be better allies, and to push us to grow in our capacity to accept others… and recognize our...

Bringing new life into the world requires levels of support practically unheard of in modern, western culture... unless you've cultivated community that is up for the task! Seasoned midwife and communitarian Monique Gauthier joins us today to help us envision birth from a deeply held and conscious space that brings about the creation of new culture on the planet. We’ll cover the fascinating in...

My conversation with Monique Gauthier was too full of inspiring and helpful information, so I created this bonus episode to share some of the wisdom that couldn't fit in the full length episode. Here, Monique leads us through the centering meditation she does with her midwifery clients as they arrive in her office as well as shares some very practical tools for expecting families to cope with...

As we close out 2023, it's time to take stock of the Communities Movement and consider where we might be headed in the future. In this episode we are joined by new FIC co-director Daniel Greenberg, who brings his deep experience from the ecovillage world, as well years living in and researching international communities like Findhorn and Auroville to his visions for what is possible for collab...

Cults get a pretty bad reputation in the mainstream world, but are they really evil? Or just misunderstood? Jesse Stone, co-host of the Cults I'd Join podcast comes on the show to shed some light on the upside of cults while giving us some helpful advice on what to look out for if manipulation just isn't for you. Down in the Ozarks, Jesse Stone lives and loves with her young son Solace, tw...

The subject of death is seen by many as morbid or taboo, but what if this dark topic could be life-giving, affirming, and empowering? Join me as I talk with Angela Franklin about the possibilities of end of life and death care, how communities and individuals can reimagine how they view their final days, how to plan for the end, and the importance of creating containers for grief. Angela is a prac...

There are as many ways to structure a community as there are communities, but perhaps one of the most controversial models are those with central leadership. I mean... is that even REAL community?!? Today's guest and self-proclaimed "evil dictator," Paul Wheaton comes on to explain the benefits of top-down power structures and the great responsibility that comes with taking on the ro...

We're re-releasing this awesome interview with Laird Shaub in preparation for FOUR upcoming classes he's going to be teaching through the FIC! https://www.ic.org/designing-a-community-membership-process/  (starts mid Sep) ⁠https://www.ic.org/facilitation-in-community/⁠  (starts mid Sep) https://www.ic.org/working-with-conflict-in-community/  (starts late Oct) https://www.ic.org/participati...

In this episode we will chat with intimacy nerd Dave Booda, about why intimacy is so important, get new ideas on prompts that can lead towards deeper connection, and discover ways to create a safe container to meet people where they're at when building deeper bonds and creating more vulnerability. Dave Booda is a writer, musician, and social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Intimacy Fest...

Margaret Critchlow, PhD, taught anthropology at York University in Toronto, Canada for 25 years before retiring to Vancouver Island. She loved learning from villagers in the south Pacific islands of Vanuatu and from residents of Canadian housing co-ops. She has written or co-authored more than 50 academic article and 7 books. She was a founding member of the first senior cohousing community in wes...

For many looking for community a primary goal is to be a part of a multigenerational reality where they can raise their own children or be in that special relationship of co-parent or auntie/ uncle. Whether folks are looking for support or to be supportive in the care of the young, it is important to create a safe container, clear agreements, and attune to the highest needs of each individual chil...

Yana Ludwig is one of our most beloved guests on the Inside Community Podcast. In honor of her new book, Building Belonging, we are re-releasing episode 004 of Season 1: Finding Co-Founders and Creating Cooperative Culture with Yana Ludwig. The episode focuses on creating a cooperative culture when starting an intentional community, finding your people, and coming together with the like-minded vis...

We're kicking off Season 2 with a pair of episodes about Placemaking, how we design and consider creating environments for healthy thriving humans. In this second episode, Ridhi D'Cruz approaches the topic from a liberatory and healing perspective. ridhi d’cruz (they/them) is a gender queer Malayali who grew up in the city of Bangalore in southern India and moved to Wapato Valley (Portland...

We're kicking off Season 2 with a pair of episodes about Placemaking, how we design and consider creating environments for healthy thriving humans. In this first episode I talk with Bryan Bowen about the ins and outs of designing sustainable spaces for healthy, connected, thriving humans from a design perspective. Bryan Bowen is an architect, cohousing nerd, and sustainable community-based des...

Welcome back to Season 2 of the Inside Community Podcast! On this show we explore the beautiful and messy realities of living inside community and this season we are diving into more of the messy and the nitty gritty of what it takes to build cooperative culture. This trailer features a song from dear friend Dave Booda, whose music you can find at davebooda.com If you want to learn more about livi...

We wrap up our first season with a thoughtful conversation with communities experts Yana Ludwig, Sky Blue, and Cassandra Ferrera on the state of the communities movement (and if it is even a "movement"!)  We discuss the complexity of challenges facing both individual communities and the greater collective Community to meet both the everyday social, financial, and emotional needs of membe...

Are you ready to see how other communities are doing it or perhaps are looking for a community to join?  Well, visiting communities in person is the best way to learn what works and what doesn't work for you.   Communing With the Campbells is the project documentary filmmaker Anthony "Campo" Campbell and his family have been sharing with the world through TikTok, YouTube, and Instagr...

Sociocracy brings an incredible opportunity to cooperative groups to embody higher levels of inclusivity through their governance.  As a sociocracy trainer and transgender man living in community, Ted Rau has a unique story and perspective on how to make organizations function better and be more supportive to all their members. In this episode we talk both about his trans journey inside community...

For many folks interested in more interconnected ways of living, yet not financially or energetically prepared for something like an income sharing community, cohousing provides the benefits of greater sustainability and resource sharing, more social and emotional connection, and that beautiful neighborhood vibe all while allowing members a higher degree of autonomy.  In many ways it can be seen a...

Conflict in life is inevitable. Today's guest Alyson Ewald talks about how to have a good fight, how to transform harm into connection, and the importance of creating conflict systems that are personal and effective for your community. Alyson Ewald works with individuals and groups to design systems and practices that support learning, connection, creative conflict engagement, and collaborativ...

Moving groups through tough decisions can be tricky, if not impossible, without a skilled and well-trained facilitator to hold folks through the process. Laird Schaub joins us today to talk about the how’s and why’s of excellent facilitation. You'll learn from his 40+ years of lived community experience and training in facilitation, and leave with practices you can use in your community conver...

In this episode, I'm joined by Sky Blue to discuss income sharing and innovating economic models by living in community. We examine some of the ways communities and collaborative culture endeavors are reimagining the way they design and live into their economies using the Twin Oaks Community, of which Sky is a former member, as a jumping off point. Our discussion begins with income sharing as...