The Lightfoot Podcast

This week I'm joined by one of the most embodied humans I know, Blox. He is a highly accomplished acrobatics coach and one of the founders of Rebel Ridge which is a newly established community just outside of Asheville, North Carolina. He playfully describes it as a bunch of 'acrobats settling down to learn permaculture'. We delve into what it's really like to be the driving force behind a new community and explore complex realities of building and operating a residential co-living project for over 12 people on 18 acres of land, what many people feel is a kind of 'living the dream', but is it really? We also zoom right out to the macro and explore what it takes to move the culture to a more regenerative place. I feel there's lots to love about the way Blox moves through the world and lots to be learned from his journey over the last couple of years, I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

This week I'm joined by Stephen Reid, he is a co-operative technologist and cultural changemaker who has trained in the fields of complexity science, physics, software development, meditation, psychotherapy, plant medicine, conscious sexuality and political activism. He is currently a co-director of Dandelion Collective (the not-for-profit worker co-operative behind the Psychedelic Society, which he founded in 2014), the lead developer of dandelion.earth, founder of the Autopia DAO and associated AUT token, teacher of the Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance and Introduction to Crypto & DeFi courses, and a contributor to Enspiral.

We delve deep into the fascinating world of the blockchain, zeroing in on DAO's and some of the more progressive projects emerging in the space. We also explore the state of the psychedelic movement and the potential for the integration of community cultivation and psychedelic medicine distribution. Finally Stephen shares his Taoist perspective on the merger of the political and spiritual. Enjoy.

https://stephenreid.net/

https://autopia.co/

On this weeks podcast I'm joined by empathy expert, empath, performance artist, filmmaker, writer and revolutionary, David Sauvage. We explore the role of Empaths within a community context, sound out the nature of a potential Occupy 2.0 movement and take a snapshot of how the many inner parts of David are currently organising themselves. I left this conversation smiling ear to ear with a bunch of new insights to try on for size.

https://www.davidsauvage.com/

https://www.empath.nyc/

This week I'm joined by Seishin who runs the Willow Monastic Academy in Canada. We had a wonderful discussion about the the benefits of walking the neo-monastic path, the challenge of balancing awareness and responsibility and the joys of finding true trust in the right in the teacher. You can learn more about Willow and visiting the centre here : https://growingwillow.org.

Today I spoke (and sang) with the marvellous Malcolm Ocean, we delved deeply into his emerging notion of the Non Naive Trust Dance and explored how breaking the taboo of speaking about the loss of trust can be a key component in community cultivation. 

https://malcolmocean.com

Peter Limberg lays out his journey as The Steward of The Stoa and together we break down some of the core elements that might help nudge us all towards cultivating a deeper sense of Communitas in our lives.

https://www.thestoa.ca/

Dr Jason Fox joins me to share the story of The Coterie, an online community of complexity practitioners and philosopher poets. Our discussion ranges far and wide, beginning and ending with the same circuit breaker of a question... Who Am I?

https://www.drjasonfox.com/

Diana Nayeli Monsberger shares her story of being a part of the Noden community in Stockholm. We explore the intersection of Noden, House Blivande and the Borderlands festival and touch upon a whole range of different philosophical ideas together. 

https://www.noden.community/

My dear friend Sam joins me to tell the story of Dok Rak, a community and Proto-Collective in Chiang Mai that we've been a part of since 2016. We track its origins, peak moments of connection and near dissolution after the community went through a turbulent process of grappling with questions of racial justice. Strap in and buckle up, it's quite a ride.

Gene Ellis and Jan Gerards join me to share the story of the PYNK Collective, a community that has been sharing peak moments of connection together for over a decade. We explore what it is that makes a truly transformational gathering and unpack the arc of evolution that we seem to be on as a social species.

https://www.arcofhumanity.com/