What if the way we live now is not natural at all, just inherited? In this episode, we explore the world of intentional communities and why people throughout history have chosen to reject the default settings of modern society in search of something better.

From ancient ashrams and Buddhist monasteries to 1960s communes, company towns, urban kibbutzim, and modern co-living experiments, this deep dive traces humanity’s recurring attempt to redesign daily life around shared values, shared resources, and a stronger sense of belonging.

We unpack what makes an intentional community different from a neighborhood, why so many of these experiments fail, how some have survived for decades, and what their rise says about loneliness, housing, money, and the structure of modern life. If society’s rules are written in pencil, not ink, what would you change first?