Serenbe Stories

Last season, we went straight to the best source for Serenbe Stories, Serenbe residents. They talked about how they first discovered the community and the friends they made. We heard about the businesses started, homes built, and the inspiration found. All of these stories had a common thread: A curiosity and a willingness to learn, an openness to new people and ideas, and a desire for connection...

Meghan and Patrick Sharp carried around a Cottage Living Magazine featuring a Serenbe home on the cover long before making the move, but the moment they drove in and saw the sign "Children & Adults at Play," they decided this was their place. Interior design is what they do, creating beautiful spaces within the neighborhood and beyond. In this episode, the Sharps talk about designing...

Patrice Sumpter is an award-winning real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Georgia Properties, receiving the Chairman's Circle Award in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and consistently performing in the top 1% of agents in the country.  As a self-professed "city girl," she and her husband, Ron first chose the Mado neighborhood for it's city energy. In this episode we talk about their...

Stacy Simmonds had a long career in retail, branding, and sales, all the while with a lifelong dream of opening her own store. Before settling in Serenbe, Stacy, and her husband, Jason, lived in cities all over the country. She didn't know it at the time, but everywhere she lived she was acquiring the inspiration for what is now Hamlin, her modern lifestyle store in the Selborne neighborhood....

Today we're talking with Penny McPhee, who is the former President of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, a well known philanthropic nonprofit that has donated over $800 million to initiatives from early childhood development to the arts. She knew from an early age that she wanted to change the world and that writing was her talent. In this episode, we talk with Penny about her career in j...

Our neighbor Gemmie Dayrit has worked with traveling museum exhibitions throughout Asia and the U.S., including iconic shows RMS Titanic and Bodies: The Exhibition. Her specialty is curating museum gift shops,  and she recently launched Wild Tribe Productions that is also creating pop-up retail experiences.  In this episode, we talk about how a trip to a haunted New York hotel room led her to Sere...

Today we have another great guest, Dr. Kate Edwards who founded Precision Physical Therapy. Running is where is all started for Kate. Her first race was the Hyannis Half Marathon back in 2003. She said she had no idea what she was doing and did everything wrong: trained inconsistently, did a nine-mile-long run, wore brand new shoes, went out too fast...the list goes on.  Since then she has complet...

Biophilic Solutions is a new nature and science podcast. Biophilia is the innate connection that human beings seek with the natural world and this podcast will help understand, elevate, and amplify biophilic solutions across a broad range of industries. Because we believe nature has the answers. Serenbe resident Dr. Phill Tabb is the first guest on Biophilic Solutions and we wanted to share his un...

Dr. Eden Hinds came to Serenbe to lead and grow Acton Academy at Serenbe and ended up finding home. As the Head of School and CEO she embodies the Acton ideal of a curious, lifelong learner - she holds multiple degrees and certificates in education and never stops asking questions.  In this episode, we talk about instilling practical life skills in children and the benefits of place, specifically...

Pierre Ferrari is the President and CEO of Heifer International , an organization on a mission to end hunger and poverty by supporting and investing alongside local farmers and their communities. He has worked or held board roles at Coca-Cola, Ben & Jerry's and the Small Enterprise Assistance Fund, and he has a Master’s degree in economics from Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard. Pierre&ap...

Today we're talking with Juliet Cutler, a teacher, author, and Serenbe resident, whose memoir, Among The Maasai , documents her time teaching English at a Maasai girls' school in the late '90s and she addresses the challenges inherent in tackling issues of extreme poverty across vastly different cultures. In this episode, we talk about the power of educating women and girls, how Jul...

Camille Lowe thought she'd stay on the West Coast when she left Georgia after college. Not only did Serenbe draw her back, she was inspired by the place and people to get involved in determining its future, and is now our city council representative for Chattahoochee Hills. In this episode, we talk with our neighbor Camille about the gift of nature homebuyers get when they move here, her favo...

Today we have resident Jason Geter, who is the co-founder of Grand Hustle Records and most recently, Heavy Sound Labs that is a music incubator for emerging artists. We talk about removing the gatekeeper model in music, finding creativity in nature and how a serendipitous golf cart ride made his move to Serenbe a no brainer.  A natural leader, Jason Geter embraces the blue collar intersection of m...

Imagine if your car were powered by solar roads made out of recycled tires? Today we talk with Allie Kelly, the Executive Director of The Ray, a highway that is the future for sustainable roads and transportation. She talks about how her family found Serenbe and Steve challenges listeners with a Serenbe scavenger hunt to find the chair placed in memory of the highway's namesake Ray C. Anderso...

We talk with Heather Ruth about leaving a high-stress career to gain multiple yoga certifications and to launch the Serenbe Yoga & Bodyworks studio. Her journey began as a way to manage stress and gain physical strength. Listen to her story and hear how she became Mom to five Nigerian dwarf goats. Heather received her Thai Yoga Therapist certification and 200 RYT in Costa Rica specializing in...

Stop any resident on the streets of Serenbe, and they’ll have a story to tell you about how they got here. How they first discovered Serenbe and the friends they’ve made. Parents will share why they’re raising their children, and others share how they’ve built their own extended family. Some have started a business, built a new home, or found creative inspiration to write a book or create art. Oth...

We planned on recording 12 episodes of this biophilia-focused season, but we couldn't end without talking to Jeff Tkach, the Chief Impact Officer at Rodale Institute, about the place where life begins: The Soil. As Rodale has proven, Healthy Soil equals Healthy Food, which makes Healthy People, and the healthiest soil is organic and regenerative. Not only is healthy soil important for us, it&...

Diandra Marizet stopped through Serenbe in December 2019, while on a road trip from New York to her family's home in Texas. She found us while searching for farm stays she could visit along the way, and was drawn in by Serenbe's design intention. Her afternoon here made an impression, and her subsequent work on Intersectional Environmentalist made an impression on us. Diandra Marizet is...

Did you know that when we're in cities, it's hard to relax because we're taking in all the stimuli around us. In contrast, when we're in nature - even with our eyes open - the quiet and peaceful environment allows us to relax, which is imperative for human health and de-stressing. Today we are talking with Florence Williams, who is a journalist and author, whose most recent boo...

Design is a powerful tool in addressing climate change, but what IS design? And what is a design museum? The Museum Of Design Atlanta - or MODA -  defines design as "A creative process that inspires change, transforms lives, and makes the world a better place." Today we talk with MODA Executive Director Laura Flusche and Exhibitions Manager Veronica Klucik about the role of museums in th...

What kind of world are we going to leave our children? That is the question Principal Patrick Muhammad asks himself as he leads Chatt Hills Charter School. With a tri-focus curriculum of Arts, Agriculture, and Environment, he's teaching them the value of life from a ladybug to a human. Education is a pillar of our Biophilic Principles, and Serenbe is proud to support our local charter school...

Steven Peck was introduced to the idea of green roofs and living walls in the mid-90s and quickly realized how important it is to have nature at the center of architecture and design. Since 1996, he has worked to advance the green roof and wall industry by facilitating research; organizing conferences; writing articles;  and advocating for supportive policies and standards at all levels of governm...

Yoli Ouiya is passionate about sustainability and wellness, and is best known for her eco-lifestyle portal Yoli’s Green Living, which earned her the moniker “Queen of Green” by Black Enterprise Magazine. Her self-professed “first passion,” though, is food, and when COVID struck the world in early 2020, she turned her focus to food equity, co-founding The Food + Wellness Equity Collective. The coll...

Today we're talking with Bill Browning and Catie Ryan from Terrapin Bright Green. Bill is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and is an advocate for sustainable design solutions. As Co-Founder of Terrapin Bright Green, he is no stranger to biophilic design. Bill has worked with the Pentagon, Starwood Hotels, Google, the city of New York Buil...

You may have thought "wellness" was just a buzzword, but it's also a $4.5 trillion dollar economy, with the wellness real estate sector making up $134 billion dollars of that. These figures were determined through extensive research done by The Global Wellness Institute, which is the non-profit research organization that grew out of the Global Wellness Summit, an annual think tank e...