Lewis Hyde, a celebrated scholar, essayist, literary critic and poet, wrote two classic books on aspects of the commons -- 'The Gift,' in 1979, about the power of gift-exchange in forging and maintaining social reciprocity, and 'Common as Air,' in 2010, about creativity as a force nourished by cultural commons. In this episode, Hyde discusses the origins of his striking perspectives on creativity as a gift that must be shared ("the gift must always move"), and the ways in which the US Founding Fathers sought to protect the free circulation and sharing of knowledge rather thane excessive private control through copyrights and patents. More more on the commons, visit www.Bollier.org. Credit for photo of Hyde: Anna Schuleit Haber

As the capitalist economy grows more expensive and predatory, Stephanie Rearick and her colleagues are building an alternative social economy that meets people’s needs through care and cooperation. As founder of the Madison Mutual Aid Network Cooperative and Dane County Timebank in Wisconsin, Rearick is a leading champion of mutual aid projects as a force for building the "real wealth" of community. She also works internationally through Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks (HUMAN), a global network of networks dedicated to building the mutual aid economy. More on Mutual Aid Network at https://mutualaidnetwork.org/man. More on the commons at www.Bollier.org.

At a time when the superstructures of modern civilization seem terminally messed up, the authors of 'Relationality: An Emergent Politics of Life Beyond the Human' argue that we must start a new conversation about the nature of being and modern myths of the self. Anthropologist Arturo Escobar, cultural studies scholar Michal Osterweil, and biologist Kriti Sharma draw on a diversity of sources – evolutionary science, cultural studies, art and poetry, Indigenous practices, wisdom traditions, and more – to explain the deep interdependence of all living beings: a perspective can help us develop a new political economy and culture. More on the commons at www.Bollier.org.

What might the world look like if capitalist growth and carbon emissions continue, and modern civilization collapses? Chris Smaje, a small farmer and writer in England, extrapolates from existing trends to sketch a vision of post-capitalist social economies. His new book, 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft,' envisions a world that is largely rural, decentralized, and grounded in local ecosystems and self-reliance. The book is neither a doomer nor survivalist tract, but rather an intelligent, speculative inquiry into models of collective organization, bottom-up governance, and ethical belief that will shape "local livelihood communities."

As climate change and other crises makes the economy and everyday life more precarious, innovative forms of bioregional action are needed to respond to 'Gaia on the move," says Isabel Carlisle, founder and director of the Bioregional Learning Centre (BLC) in Devon, England. Carlisle describes the importance of building local ecological expertise, participation, and institutions to build community resilience in the years ahead, especially because centralized nation-states will not be able to do the job. The BLC is part of a growing worldwide interest in 'bioregioning' -- activism, projects, and philosophical shifts to build a new type of socio-ecological economy. More on the commons at www.Bollier.org.

Evan Henshaw-Plath, better known as Rabble, is a pioneering programmer for social media platforms and decentralized technologies. Here, Rabble explains how network protocols are critical infrastructure for enabling -- or impeding -- commons and open markets, not to mention privacy, free speech, and community control. Their ambition is a future in which everyone has "access to authentic, private online communities built on care, connection, and sustainable relationships.” [More on commons at www.Bollier.org.]

Gustavo Salas describes the remarkable culture of commoning at Cecosesola, a federation of 30 rural and urban cooperatives in Venezuela that serves hundreds of thousands of people with fresh produce, healthcare, funerary services, and many other goods and services. Cecosesola's priority is to create spaces of trust, togetherness, and self-improvement for its 1,300 associates while meeting the everyday needs of low-income families. Market prices and norms are secondary. For its work in escaping the transactional, capitalist-driven mindset and pioneering forms of provisioning that are fair, personally enriching, and much more affordable, Cecosesola won the Right Livelihood Award in 2022.

Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, describes the countless varieties of organized sharing that it supports through its journalism, organizing, and partnerships. In recent years, Shareable has helped amplify the work of mutual aid networks, expand the Libraries of Things concept, championed new forms of urban commoning, and develop new infrastructures of sharing. Its work on creative, bottom-up collaborations also showcases dozens of vanguard ideas, such as peer-to-peer lending, DIY bike lanes in cities, emergency battery networks for neighborhoods, and "Permablitz" conversions of suburban backyards into micro-farms for vegetables.

What are some of the distinctive ways that precarious arts collectives share resources, support each other, and make art? This episode hears from artists' collectives in three countries to learn how they organize their commoning practices. The three collectives are the "-" (dash) collective in Iran (with an artist who goes by the pseudonym "M" for political reasons); Papaya Kuir, a lesbo-transfeminist collective for Latin American migrants in the Netherlands (with Mexican-born Alejandra Maria Ortiz); and Indonesian artists who practice 'nongkrong' (Angga Cipta, aka "ACip," on left in photo, and MG Pringgotono, founder of Serrum and Gudskul, on right). More on commons at www.Bollier.org.