Guest: Matt Davison — Co-Living Founder & SEO Specialist

Based: Cape Town, South Africa

Matt Davison left South Africa because of its tainted past and spent fifteen years travelling the world trying to find somewhere else to call home. He found the answer in a co-living in Palma de Mallorca — not a place, but an idea — and then came back to Cape Town and realised the place had been there all along. It took him another year to find the right house. Two and a half years later, Cape Co-Living is a home rather than a business, and he calls himself a community facilitator rather than a host.

This conversation isn't about the business model. It's about the memories. The dance party he came home to at eleven at night. Three hundred dolphins breaching at sunset with champagne in hand. A birthday at Gold Restaurant that felt like stepping into Africa itself. It's also about the harder things: a guest targeted and robbed, and how the whole house closed around him afterwards. The stark inequality of Cape Town, and the honest conversations Matt has with guests before they arrive. A hungry man on the street, a guard, and a piece of chicken.

Underneath it all is a question about what makes a co-living a co-living. Matt's answer is that the host has to bring the frameworks — the Monday meeting, the name written next to the plan — and then get out of the way. Facilitate, don't control. It's a conversation about coming home, building with intention, and what it means when a house full of strangers starts to feel like family.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction, and why Matt

00:49 Three months at Cape Coliving, and the end of an era

01:22 Why he wanted a co-living: fifteen years of travel, and how isolating it can be

02:24 Palma de Mallorca, the co-living that changed his life

03:22 Back to Cape Town, and a year spent finding the right house

04:00 The dance party in the lounge

04:45 A 7:30am call from Philly, and a guest who wasn't a guest

06:13 Waking him up: you got robbed

07:14 Targeted and drugged, and why they warn guests

08:00 How the house closed around him, and trauma bonding in co-living

08:57 Staying vigilant in South Africa

09:34 Booking three co-livings because they all began with C

10:58 Never booking flights early, and the elephants on the booking page

12:06 All I heard was island: arriving at Robben Island by accident

13:13 Electric fencing, and what it feels like to touch it

13:52 Expectations of Africa, and embracing the mystery

14:45 The inequality, and where it starts to equalise

15:37 Informal housing, and what jars people on arrival

16:43 The question Matt asks every applicant before they come

17:40 The man who wanted the chicken, and the guard who stopped him

19:26 A normal Tuesday

20:18 Whether to give: night shelters, expectation, and the sandwich

21:31 Drugs, kids on the street, and the harder right answer

22:26 Wisdom teeth, painkillers, and walking the street without your wits

24:29 Seeing homeless people differently

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/matt-davison

Guest website: https://traveltractions.com

Watch: https://youtu.be/vxkT1mxltTI

Guest: Haz Memon — Community Builder & Co-Living Founder

Haz Memon doesn't believe in scaling. He's turned down market opportunities to expand to ten, fifteen, twenty locations because he knows that growth destroys depth. Instead, he's built something most entrepreneurs would call backwards: a sustainable co-living business by drilling down instead of expanding outward. He brings people together. He connects human beings in ways that transform them. And in the spaces he's created, over 2,487 people have passed through—including ten couples who fell in love without him trying to make it happen.

His philosophy challenges everything digital nomads believe about location independence. Freedom, he says, is not about being able to move whenever you want. It's a state of mind. It's about being so content where you are that movement becomes a choice, not a necessity. Which means you can be free in one location if your mind is free. And which also means you might need to build a solid baseline—good relationships, financial stability, community—before you can actually enjoy driving into the sunset.

This is a conversation about building community without scaling, defining freedom accurately, and what it really takes to achieve the lifestyle everyone's chasing.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction, greeting

00:03 What's on your mind right now - being at Chateau

00:20 Do you want to retire early?

00:38 What is it that you do - bringing people together

01:00 How many couples have you made - 2,487 people, 10 couples

01:41 Theory about digital nomads and entrepreneurship

02:07 Ibi's parallel theory about co-livings and drilling down

03:13 Tribal thinking, creating depth vs. scaling

04:03 What does freedom mean exactly?

05:14 Do nomads need to be location independent for freedom?

06:09 Co-living isn't just for digital nomads

07:02 Destination vs residential vs hybrid co-livings

07:52 Focus on destination co-living for digital nomads and remote workers

08:52 Real example: London office worker using co-livings for remote work days

09:59 What are you trying to create? A sense of belonging

10:28 Freedom is a state of mind, being yourself without judgment

11:22 Co-living as home, welcoming guests as family

11:43 The importance of coming with open mind and open heart

12:28 Co-living Hub project and certifications

12:59 Co-living mafia question - standardization vs soul

13:47 What certification looks at: infrastructure, accessibility, sustainability, community

14:48 Two years of research with co-living founders, debunking fake co-livings

15:43 [Community-driven solution approach]

16:00 [Letting go and trust lessons]

17:00 [Growth versus contentment philosophy]

18:00 [Opening spaces in Switzerland and Greece]

19:00 [Personal philosophy on location and passion]

20:00 [Living in spaces - three months, then five minutes away]

21:00 Lived near first space for five years, then had to let go

22:28 Opening second location taught him to trust others

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/haz-memon

Guest website: https://www.ourescape.co

Watch: https://youtu.be/jXIhuXyjhls

Guest: Jennifer Chuu — Comic Artist and Writer

Based: Nomadic

Jennifer Chuu didn't want to go to university. Four years felt too long, so she went to Vancouver Film School for one year instead, studying game design. Just enough to know what she was getting into before she actually got into it. Then she worked for a games company, developing worlds in tiny digital spaces. Sometimes she designed pet habitats for a game called Dream Pet House. Sometimes she created characters and assets she loved. The work was solid. It paid well. But it was also strategic. Every paycheque was a brick in the wall she was building to eventually leave and chase her real dream: being a comic artist full time.

When she got laid off at 23, she didn't panic. She had savings. She had time. She had hunger. She told her parents: give me one year. One year to debut herself in Taiwan as a full-time comic artist. She did it in exactly that, creating a series about a boy named Leo who got on a circus train to chase after a mermaid. And somewhere in the middle of drawing Leo's journey, she realised something profound: she wanted Leo's life. She wanted to travel and work like he did. She wanted to see what was beyond her own fish tank.

Now six years into her current comic "The Witch and the Bull," she travels everywhere the Mediterranean Sea touches. Not to escape her work, but to deepen it. Every coastline, every stranger, every clashing belief becomes material for her characters. She's learned that discomfort is where growth happens. That your characters hold pieces of your consciousness. That living your story doesn't mean you have to sacrifice telling it. This is a masterclass in using travel to create, and creativity to justify travel.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to Digital Nomad Stories podcast

00:37 Ibi's introduction to Jennifer's unique journey

01:08 Overview of Jennifer's story and \"The Witch and the Bull\

01:34 Transition into main conversation

01:46 Jennifer works on comics, currently six years into \"The Witch and the Bull\

02:07 Game artist career in New York for eight years

02:40 Working for Zynga creating 2D game assets

03:14 Designing pet habitats and environments for Dream Pet House

03:32 Jennifer's favourite design: detective Dutch hound house

04:13 Passion in game design versus other game companies

04:52 Laid off at Zynga, decision to pursue comic artist dream

05:22 Game artist job as savings strategy for dream

05:54 Vancouver Film School one-year game design course

06:18 Entering manga contests and parents' concerns about career

06:50 Parents asking for commitment, one year to debut in Taiwan

07:29 Creating circus train mermaid series over two years

08:01 Taiwan publication through Japanese company, webtoon format

08:54 Webtoon digital scrolling format versus traditional pages

09:00 [Publishing the Taiwan series and moving forward]

09:30 [First travel experience and Croatia inspiration]

10:30 [Character Leo inspiring real-life travel]

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/jennifer-chuu

Watch: https://youtu.be/9CLSISbJ9qY

Guest: Kristen Womble — Writing Coach, Editor, Publishing Consultant

Based: ½ Year in DC and ½ year Nomadic

Kristen Womble spent years living divided. There was travel Kristen and there was home Kristen, and they didn't talk to each other. She'd studied abroad in France at twenty, and when she came back, her friends made jokes. The study-abroad clichés were merciless. So she learned to hide it. She kept her travels private, her home life separate, maintaining two distinct identities that never quite fit together.

The more she hid, the more fractured she felt. She was being dishonest with the people she cared about most. There was this gap between who she actually was and who she was pretending to be, and that gap was painful. Then one day she made a choice: she decided to stop hiding. She decided to be brutally honest about who she was, what she was doing, where she was going. And something remarkable happened. The division started to heal.

Now she's a writing coach and publishing consultant who travels roughly a third to half the year whilst maintaining a home base in Washington, D.C. that exists purely for her personal life. She has Sunday family dinners. She plays on a weekly soccer team. She's built what most digital nomads spend years trying to achieve: true integration between both sides of her life. Not a compromise between them. Not choosing one over the other. But actually having both, fully, without the shame or the secrecy. This is what freedom looks like when you stop dividing yourself in half.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction by Ibi

00:39 Ibi's introduction to Kristen's journey

01:06 Kristen's current lifestyle, writing coach, travel balance

01:29 Closing intro statement

01:38 How long nomadic, started 2022, now has home base in D.C.

03:20 D.C. home base, metro system, politics, distance from city centre

04:10 Pickup truck tangent and vehicles in American cities

05:00 [Main topic: Career path and consulting background]

06:00 [Main topic: Writing and publishing consulting]

07:00 [Main topic: Unstructured travel beginning, first solo trip]

08:30 [Main topic: Setting boundaries for first unstructured travel]

10:00 [Main topic: Identity crisis and siloing experience]

11:30 [Main topic: Study abroad experience in France]

13:00 [Main topic: Communication challenges with people back home]

14:30 [Main topic: Breaking the division, becoming transparent]

16:00 [Main topic: Benefits of being honest about travel]

17:00 [Main topic: Nomadic mindset and meeting new people]

18:00 [Main topic: Balance between travel and home base needs]

19:30 [Main topic: Family dinners and soccer team importance]

21:00 [Main topic: Community and roots whilst traveling]

22:00 [Main topic: When she got home base, end of 2024]

23:30 [Main topic: Career as location independent consultant]

25:00 [Main topic: Freelancing journey and business building]

26:30 [Main topic: Risk taking from position of safety and security]

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/kristen-womble

Guest website: https://passkeypublishing.com

Watch: https://youtu.be/5tMhIgw1Yc0

Guest: Yelena McElwain — Retired Data Analyst

Based: Nomadic

Yelena McElwain discovered FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) at 25 when she read Tim Ferriss's "The Four Hour Workweek." But she didn't want to start a business like Ferriss did. Instead, she kept working as a data analyst, saved intentionally, and hit her financial independence number in ten years. Not because she was aiming for exactly ten years, but because she had a concrete target based on her spending: roughly 200 times her monthly expenses, or 25 times her annual spending. When the 4% rule is working in your favour, that's your ticket out.

She didn't quit immediately when she hit her number. She continued working for another 3-4 years while projects started shifting in directions she didn't want to go. Then she left, travelled full-time for three years, settled in Denver for another three, and now she dives on shipwrecks, practises yoga, and teaches meditation. She teaches Instinctive Meditation, a practice rooted in The Radiance Sutras, honouring individual nature rather than forcing rigid techniques.

Here's the twist that breaks all the assumptions about early retirement: she spends less now than when she was working. Her childhood in 1990s Russia taught her frugality, her Russian parents prepared her to always be ready, and that foundation made saving as natural as breathing. This is not a story about luck. It's a spreadsheet equation anyone can solve if they treat freedom as a number rather than a fantasy.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:37 Ibi's intro of Yelena, FIRE formula explanation

01:05 The 4% rule, ten-year journey, diving and meditation

01:34 Conversation beginning

01:45 How long nomadic, six years almost

02:00 Three years full-time nomad, three years half-time

03:00 Quit job whilst full-time nomading, got tired of travel, moved to Denver

03:30 Countries visited, Mexico, Colombia, Vietnam, Bali

04:30 Average 10-12 countries per year, one month each

05:45 Dive master training, diving on shipwrecks

06:24 Discovered FIRE at 25, Tim Ferriss \"Four Hour Workweek\

07:21 FIRE wasn't earth-shattering initially, unsure if it was for her

08:00 Tim Ferriss business path versus saving path

08:40 Data analysis career, studied economics

09:50 Data science explosion, right place right time

10:15 FIRE inspiration, saving mentality, not becoming big spender

11:00 Russian childhood foundation, frugality mindset

12:00 Set monetary target based on spending

13:00 The 4% rule explained, 200 times monthly spending

14:30 Portfolio growth assumptions, inflation adjustments

15:30 Real estate versus stock market investments

16:30 Ten-year saving journey, reaching financial independence goal

17:30 Continued working 3-4 years after hitting number

18:30 Projects not going in desired direction, decision to quit

19:30 Travelling whilst still working, remote work flexibility

20:30 First month or two identity crisis after retiring

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/yelena-mcelwain

Guest website: https://www.meditation-compass.com

Watch: https://youtu.be/1RPghL9albQ

Guest: Andreea Rusu — Marketing Manager

Based: Nomadic

Andreea Rusu was sad and depressed in her Bucharest flat in June 2021, post-COVID, with no money to travel. So she bought a one-way ticket to Spain, spent half a year researching on YouTube and Google, and discovered the World Packers platform. She applied to 40 volunteer opportunities, got accepted to 12, and ended up in Anceu, Galicia—a 100-person village in rural Spain—to do some Instagram marketing for a co-living space.

What was meant to be a one-month stay became five months, then extended to two and a half years of returning repeatedly. Because when she arrived, something shifted. On a date before the trip, someone had asked her, "Who are you?" and she could only answer, "I'm Andreea and I'm a video editor." At Anceu, surrounded by strangers who became family, she finally discovered the answer. She wasn't just a video editor. She was a community builder. A connector. Someone who made strangers feel like they belonged.

Now she's building a directory bridging two worlds: community builders looking for places to volunteer, and co-living spaces looking for community builders. She's experienced 15-plus co-livings, understood the power of genuine curiosity, learned that what you feel is valid even when you grew up in a conservative environment that told you to shut up, and realised that being a community builder is actually a full-time job in mental space—even if volunteering looks part-time. If you want to know everything about co-living, about finding yourself by helping others belong, about the personal development bootcamp that is community building, Andreea is your person.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction by Ibi

00:37 Andreea's story intro, depressed in Bucharest, one-way ticket to Spain

02:00 Discovery of World Packers, applied to 40 opportunities

03:00 Anceu co-living, Galicia, rural village

03:30 First month experience

04:20 Marketing volunteer role discovering co-living concept

05:30 Applied to 40 opportunities, accepted to 12, found Anceu

06:50 Stayed one month, emerged as community builder

08:15 The date question \"Who are you?\" identity crisis as video editor

09:30 InsideOut project by J.R., rural revival cause

10:30 Using InsideOut as excuse to stay longer

12:00 Two types of communities, online and offline

13:00 Building community in tiny 100-person village

14:30 Trust people, don't guide them through everything

15:00 Conservative upbringing, fear of speaking openly

15:45 Learning from others' stories, discovering multifaceted self

16:30 \"What you feel is valid\"—psychologist moment

17:00 Control freak lesson at team dinner, learning to trust

18:30 Lived there on and off, one year nonstop

20:00 Community expanded from co-living to village to neighbouring villages

21:30 Personal development bootcamp aspects

23:00 Permission to fail, observer role, awareness of impact

24:30 Friends around the world, friendships built through co-living

25:30 Material benefits, no rent, maintaining freedom

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/andreea-rusu

Watch: https://youtu.be/jo-hT8Yy9ZQ

Guest: Ab Khurana — Sales Executive

Based: Nomadic

Ab Khurana treats his entire life as a series of experiments, including the experiment of having a normal life. Two years ago, the timing was right to settle, so he signed a lease in San Diego, built a routine, joined sports leagues, dated normally—all the standard stuff. Then, two years later, the timing was right to leave, so he left. Some people would call that a success. Some would call it a failure. Ab just calls it valuable experience.

He doesn't theorise about what he wants. He runs experiments and observes the results. His framework: try ten things, you'll love three, hate three, and feel neutral about four. But only once you've actually tried them, not just imagined them, will you know what to orient your life around. San Diego taught him he's definitely a beach and sun person. That making new friends as an adult matters to him. That two years of routine felt good but not complete.

Now he's pursuing the specific things his twelve-year-old self always wanted to do whilst the window is still open. Machu Picchu, check. Erupting volcano in Guatemala, check. Scuba diving certification despite being scared of water, check. Next up: the Galapagos Islands, a safari in Africa, a month on a farm with WWOOF making things with his hands instead of pushing pixels. And eventually, being a tourist in India, the country where he spent his first thirteen years but hasn't visited since.

This is a masterclass in building self-knowledge through empirical living. When you stop predicting how you'll feel and start collecting actual evidence, you stop wondering what you've missed and start knowing what matters. The tetherball metaphor applies: you can stray as far as you want, but you're still tethered to something solid—whether that's good parents, close friends, or the three things you've discovered you genuinely love. Trust your inner fire. It's unique to you, and that's the point.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:41 Guest introduction

02:05 Two and a half years nomadic in two stints

03:33 San Diego experiment, lease and routine

05:04 Why he left, timing and freedom before commitments

06:38 Long-term relationships and family considerations

07:56 Twelve-year-old dreams and pursuing new experiences

09:18 Maslow's hierarchy of needs discussion

10:05 Fulfilling relationship needs through community

12:34 Nomads more open and untethered from roles

13:29 Only getting one layer deep, something missing

14:20 Strengthening existing relationships

15:23 Electron metaphor, travellers vs settled people

16:57 Hopping on friends' trips, maintaining connections

18:21 US vs Europe vacation time, 15 days vs 35 days

19:42 Tetherball metaphor, being grounded whilst travelling

21:48 Good parents as foundation, unconditional love

23:41 Ten experiments framework, love 3, hate 3, neutral 4

24:58 Self-awareness through experimentation

25:54 Ibi's grounding, music and fire metaphor

28:11 Inner fire, comparing to others leads to analysis paralysis

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/ab-khurana

Watch: https://youtu.be/Tv0I1FYH2sI

Guest: Elle Ota — Program Officer, Human Rights Foundation

Based: Nomadic

Elle Ota spent her summers underwater, diving to fourth-to-sixth-century Roman shipwrecks off the coast of Sicily. She studied classics and ancient Greek, worked as an underwater archaeologist, and seemed destined for a PhD analysing ceramics under microscopes. Her professors pushed her toward academia. The track was clear. But Elle had a problem: she has an enormous social battery, and a career staring at pottery shards in labs felt fundamentally lonely. So she made a choice, she picked living people over thousand-year-old ones.

Today she works remotely for the Human Rights Foundation whilst running the U.S. fundraising arm for a Ukrainian aid organisation. October 2022 changed everything, she moved to Europe the same month she first volunteered in Ukraine. The parallel timeline revealed something crucial: remote work didn't just enable travel, it enabled impact. She could hold down her 9-to-5 promoting democracy and human rights whilst balancing weeks in conflict zones managing aid operations. Without location independence, none of it would be possible.

She's lived completely out of a suitcase for two years, gaining perspective from Europeans and South Americans in co-livings across the continent. Not surface-level tourist perspective, the depth that comes from living with people, hearing their stories day after day, understanding how they think. She surfs, climbs mountains, learns to scuba dive despite childhood fear of water, and has built a life that lets her chase both adventure and meaningful work. When you ask if she's brave, she gets uncomfortable and she knows activists who've been tortured, soldiers in trenches defending their country. Her work feels comparatively small. But that's exactly the point: she's found a way to contribute whilst feeding her enormous energy to try everything.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:37 Guest introduction

01:56 Moving to Europe October 2022, transitional period

02:44 Part-time to full-time nomad journey

03:27 Value of having a base to return to

04:40 Returning to same places for familiarity

05:02 Living completely out of suitcase, 23kg limit

07:18 Kiev as difficult home base, travel logistics

08:29 Human Rights Foundation 9-to-5 work

09:19 Ukraine volunteering origin, October 2022 parallel timeline

10:31 Remote work enabling Ukraine volunteering flexibility

12:08 Nomadism enables building best version of life

14:09 Ibi's background and motivations

15:11 Maslow's hierarchy and trying different things

16:58 Gaining depth of perspective from living with Europeans

19:24 Nuance of understanding European countries beyond surface level

21:13 First-hand vs second-hand perspective, both valuable

23:53 Sicily discussion and tourism perspective

25:40 Underwater archaeology background, Roman shipwreck

27:18 Academia career path consideration

28:52 High social battery, choosing people-focused work over ceramics

30:52 Ghosts and archeology spirits discussion

Remaining timestamps are in the full write-up linked below.

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/elle-ota

Watch: https://youtu.be/hxsuI1ZNMI8

Guest: Miranda Miller — Writer, Editor, Marketer

Based: Nomadic

Miranda Miller didn't wait for the remote work revolution. She was already there. Since 2006, fighting for $15-an-hour writing contracts as a single mum in small-town Canada, scrapping together work on Elance whilst waitressing and working factory shifts. Then someone offered her $1,000 a day to work conferences. She had two babies. She initially said no. But then she called her mum to arrange childcare.

Australia, London, the US—she caught the travel bug and never looked back. Eighteen years later, she's survived every era of remote work. The pre-COVID grind when nobody understood what she did. The COVID burnout when boundaries dissolved and she took on too much. The recovery when she had to intentionally reset, kill projects that weren't working, and choose what actually mattered.

Now she runs Midlife Nomads, a community helping 40-plus professionals make the leap to location independence. Not the backpacker hustle. Not the 30-year-old grind. A different pace. Different priorities. Comfort over adventure. Sustainability over exponential growth. Three years of building slowly, choosing the right people over fast expansion.

This is a masterclass in reframing. When you stop seeing failures as losses and start treating them as experiments, eighteen years of trial and error becomes eighteen years of compounding wisdom. She's killed beloved projects, turned down opportunities, bought fifty domains she'll never use, and learnt that the real skill isn't saying yes to everything—it's knowing which opportunities to pursue before you run yourself ragged.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:37 Guest introduction

01:48 Been remote since 2008, part-time then full-time nomad

02:12 Travel durations and recovery time

03:10 Midlife Nomads origin and purpose

04:08 Different pace and priorities for 40-plus travellers

05:57 Starting as single mum, $15/hour struggles

07:15 Elance platform and women writers' network

08:15 $1,000/day conference work pivot

09:12 Catching the travel bug

09:25 Factory work, hospitality, finding what she's good at

10:23 Internet as levelling the playing field

11:33 COVID impact: doors slamming shut, burnout, boundary issues

13:33 Selling time vs expertise theory

15:02 Packaging services and productising expertise

16:39 Contract mindset and reframing

18:49 Anxiety about proving productivity whilst nomading

19:27 Reframing mindset from corporate to outcomes-focused

20:12 Seeing others model the lifestyle, monthly check-ins

21:22 Becoming a beginner again, permission to suck

21:58 Building sustainably vs get-rich-quick

23:48 Three years building Midlife Nomads slowly

24:44 Daily routine and grounding practices

26:04 Energy management and seasons

27:01 Self-imposed pressure and recovering from perfectionism

28:18 Too many ideas problem, Writer's Den vs Midlife Nomads

29:35 Reframing failures as experiments, knowing which opportunities to pursue

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/miranda-miller

Watch: https://youtu.be/Ishui5vvCbE

Guest: Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts — Political Communications Specialist

Based: Nomadic

Jocelyn Macurdy Keatts spent ten years trying to save the world from inside Washington, DC. She worked as a political consultant, produced events for politicians, reported on protests, and built a career in progressive activism. But the system swallowed her whole. Networking became performance. Activism became about who you know, not what problems you're solving. The power center's ambient narcissism and daily energy tax drained her creativity.

So she left. She told herself she just wanted to travel, write media advisories from Greek islands, take a break. But what she discovered was something deeper: distance gave her clarity that insiders never have. Being outside the US made her more effective at US politics, not less. She could think long-term instead of chasing viral moments. She could focus on problems over profit. She could build stability instead of reacting to whatever Twitter was talking about that week.

Now she runs political campaigns from co-livings across Europe, more effective than she ever was in DC. She produces Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, teaching nonviolent resistance tactics. She's discovered anti-fragility, collective nobility, and that curiosity compounds exponentially when you're surrounded by courageous people.

This conversation explores how leaving a power center can make you better at changing it, why comfort is the enemy in the modern economy, and what happens when you stop assuming everyone else is right and just try things.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:33 Guest introduction

01:37 Political consultant for ten years

02:08 Burnt out on Washington DC power center

02:52 Activism distorted by power networks

03:48 Left to travel, discovering deeper reasons

05:08 Daily energy tax of maintaining normie existence

06:24 Creative liberation from leaving

07:36 Berlin and different assumptions

09:51 Anti-fragility concept and building resilience

11:28 Comfort is the enemy, disruption is the law

13:32 Nomadic mindset and capitalizing on opportunities

14:52 American left's problem, replicating failed strategies

17:18 Problem over profit mindset shift

18:42 Solving problems vs making money

20:42 Objectivity from distance

23:56 Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Jayapal

26:26 Building stability vs chasing viral moments

28:38 Surrounded by people you respect

30:18 Courage and collective nobility

32:31 Curiosity compounds exponentially

34:47 Closing

Full write-up and transcript: https://www.ibimalik.com/podcast/jocelyn-macurdy-keatts

Watch: https://youtu.be/tuJIZKaTcOU