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Inside Community Podcast

Inside Community Podcast

Inside Community

Take an inside look at the beautiful and messy realities of creating and sustaining an intentional community. Enjoy useful and inspiring stories to support you on your journey towards resilience, sustainability, and connection. Join community builder Rebecca Mesritz for interviews with experts in a variety of topics related to living communally --- from governance and decision making to ownership models, from navigating coparenting to navigating finances, from how to find your people to how to actually live with them. Learn more and support at ic.org/podcast
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Top 10 Inside Community Podcast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Inside Community Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Inside Community Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Inside Community Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Inside Community Podcast - Bonus: Inside Community from a Kid's Perspective
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12/03/24 • 58 min

This Bonus Episode is all about the perspective of the kids! Listen in on a funny and heartwarming conversation I had with 6 kids ranging in age from 5-24 about their experience growing up in community. This panel was conducted at the Emerald Village's Full Bloom Festival in San Diego and if you are considering community life, having a family or already have a family, or just like kids...Put this episode on your must listen list!

Learn more about the Emerald Village and get the details for their next event on Instagram @EmeraldVillageOasis

Check out Jakob Saloner's Portrait Project @P0rtraitproject

If you want to learn more about being a kid in community or any aspect of community, check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Foundation for Intentional Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, and lots of free educational materials. become a member so you can access even more of their incredible resources if it’s within your means, donate to help them continue to do their amazing work in the world.

Podcast listeners get 20% off in ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIC Bookstore ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠with code INSIDE20 and 30% off ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIC courses⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with code INSIDE30. You can learn more about FIC and access transcripts at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ic.org/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Stay in touch with me during our break! Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Facebook and Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@InsideCommunityPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - I’d love to hear from you there and am available for consulting! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

Check out my work with Shibori and Natural Dyes @BoundForColor and just follow me and the events I'm producing in Southern Oregon @RebeccaMesritz

Super Awesome Inside Community Jingle by FIC board member Dave Booda ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠davebooda.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Inside Community Podcast theme music by Rebecca Mesritz

Editing by Rebecca Mesritz

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Yana Ludwig is one of our most beloved guests on the Inside Community Podcast. In honor of her new book, Building Belonging, we are re-releasing episode 004 of Season 1: Finding Co-Founders and Creating Cooperative Culture with Yana Ludwig. The episode focuses on creating a cooperative culture when starting an intentional community, finding your people, and coming together with the like-minded visionaries that will be your co-founders. Her new book Building Belonging takes this conversation a step further. The book is both a practical guide for how to start a residential intentional community and is a collective framework for addressing the racial, social, ecological, and economic disparities affecting all aspects of the living experience for humans, land, and its co-inhabitants. Building Belonging is now available for pre-order at www.ic.org/building-belonging. Get your copy today!

Yana Ludwig is cooperative culture pioneer, group process trainer, and consultant and anti-opression activist who has lived in community for 25 years. She is the former Executive Director of both the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and Commonomics USA, an economic justice organization, and currently serves as the Executive Director of Leadership Eastside in Washington. Yana is a dynamic, compassionate and thoughtful speaker and teacher, committed to creating a world that supports the well-being and vibrancy of all beings. Her writing includes Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption (published under the name Maikwe Ludwig) , The Cooperative Culture Handbook (co-authored with Karen Gimnig), and numerous articles in Communities magazine. She has spoken on Tedx and hosted the Solidarity house podcast which centers on policy, culture and law. She was also a candidate for US Senate in 2020, ultimately placing 2nd in a crowded Democratic primary field.

You can learn more about Yana and her work at ⁠www.yanaludwig.net⁠.

  • Podcast listeners get 20% of Yana's books and other ⁠FIC bookstore ⁠purchases with code INSIDE20
  • Yana’s online course, ⁠Starting an Intentional Community⁠, has been made into an on-demand course ideal for people just getting started with a community project or dreaming of starting one. Podcast listeners get 30% off FIC courses with code INSIDE30

If you want to learn more about finding YOUR people or any aspect of building community check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, The Foundation for Intentional Community. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, an extensive bookstore and lots of free educational materials. You can learn more about FIC and access show notes at ⁠ic.org/podcast⁠. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Instagram ⁠@InsideCommunityPodcast⁠ - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - Ep:3 Preparing for Community with Lee Warren
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02/12/22 • 57 min

There are many communities out there looking for capable and eager new members to become a part of their project and help build their vision. Today we are going to focus on how you might best approach those communities, how to prepare yourself for community life, and how to find the community that best matches your personal vision. To talk with me about this today is Lee Warren.

Lee Warren is reclaiming wisdom through conscious relating to self, land, and others. She has 25 years of experience with innovative solutions to mutually empowered relationships, land-based food systems, residential community, non-violent communication, and sustainability education. She is the principal and founder of Reclaiming Wisdom and co-founder of SOIL, School of Integrated Living. Lee is a writer, teacher, and activist, with a passion for embodiment practices, rural wisdom, sustainable economics, conscious dying, and community of all kinds. You can learn more about Lee and her work at https://reclaimingwisdom.com/

This episode was recorded in 2022, so her live workshops have passed, but “Becoming a Communitarian” is now available as a pre-recorded, at your own pace course. The FIC has a full and incredible curriculum of courses you can access any time. Podcast listeners, use this code: INSIDE30 and get 30% off any course. You can also get 20% off in the FIC Bookstore with code INSIDE20

If you want to learn more about preparing for community life or any aspect of building community check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, The Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC). FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, an extensive bookstore and lots of free educational materials. You can learn more about FIC and access show notes at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - #002: Vision and Values with Dave Henson
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01/29/22 • 78 min

This episode explores the topic of Mission, Vision, and Values in community. These guiding principles and founding documents help communities determine who they are and what they do. In many ways, this is the “intention” part of intentional community. Joining me on a deep dive into this topic is Dave Henson.

Dave Henson is a co-founder and current member of the 27-year old Sowing Circle intentional community, as well as a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, OAEC.org. Sowing Circle and OAEC share living and working at an 80-acre organic farm and social movement training and retreat center in Sonoma County, Northern California. An ecologist, educator and facilitator for 40 years, Dave has served as a strategy and organizational design consultant to hundreds of environmental and social justice organizations, movement networks, foundations, and land-based projects in the US and around the world. Within the intentional communities’ movement, over the past 25 years Dave has led more than 50 weekend or week-long “Starting and Sustaining Intentional Communities” workshops at OAEC for more than 1000 participants, and has consulted with over 100 projects around the U.S. seeking to develop shared living farms, centers and Communities.

If you want to learn more about creating Mission, Vision, and Values, or any aspect of building community check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, The Foundation for Intentional Community. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, an extensive bookstore and lots of free educational materials. You can learn more about FIC, access show notes, at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there. Podcast listeners receive 30% off FIC courses with code INSIDE30 and 20% off in the bookstore with code INSIDE20.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and video of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - Why Me? Why Now? an Introduction

Why Me? Why Now? an Introduction

Inside Community Podcast

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01/15/22 • 15 min

In this introduction episode, I tell you the story of my journey creating and living in community, and why this podcast felt so important for me to create now.

If you want to learn more about living inside community or learn more about this podcast, visit our website, hosted by the Foundation for Intentional Community, at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and video of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - #012: Creating Inclusivity with Sociocracy
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06/16/22 • 72 min

Sociocracy brings an incredible opportunity to cooperative groups to embody higher levels of inclusivity through their governance. As a sociocracy trainer and transgender man living in community, Ted Rau has a unique story and perspective on how to make organizations function better and be more supportive to all their members. In this episode we talk both about his trans journey inside community and the ways in which Sociocracy creates networks of support.

Ted Rau is a trainer, consultant, and co-founder of the non-profit movement support organization Sociocracy For All. He grew up in Germany and studied linguistics before earning his Ph.D. in linguistics there in 2010. He moved to the USA and fulfilled a long-held wish to live in an intentional community where he still lives with his five children and 70 neighbors in a cohousing community in Massachusetts. Ted's perspective is influenced by being transgender, by his interest in Nonviolent Communication and social justice, by being part of a global sociocracy organization at work, and a parent at home.

Learn more about Ted and his work at www.sociocracyforall.org/community/ and on Instagram @Sociocracy4All

Ted’s course “Sociocracy in Community” - in collaboration with Jerry Koch-Gonzalez - is offered through the Foundation for Intentional Community and is now available as a pre-recorded course available anytime. Ted Rau's Books, Who Decides Who Decides? and Many Voices One Song - co-written with Jerry Koch-Gonzalez are available in FIC bookstore. Podcast listeners, use the code INSIDE30 and get 30% off your purchase courses and code INSIDE20 to get 20% off books.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Facebook and Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community. If you want to learn more about Sociocracy or any aspect of building community, check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, The Foundation for Intentional Community. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, an extensive bookstore and lots of free educational materials. You can learn more about the show and access transcripts at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating!

Communities Magazine is a primary resource for information, stories, and ideas about intentional communities—including urban co-ops, cohousing groups, ecovillages, and rural communes. Each full-color quarterly issue focuses on a specific theme. Subscriptions are available and more than 400 back-issue articles are posted for free public reading on the website.https://www.gen-us.net/communities/

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Inside Community Podcast - #001: What is Community? Fantasy vs. Reality
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01/15/22 • 20 min

Hello friends and welcome to the Inside Community Podcast where I bring you along for an inside look at what it takes to create and sustain community. In this first episode we are going to take a look at what we actually mean when we say "community." This episode is going to cover a lot of the basics, but we will also get into some of the projections, fantasies and realities of what community is. So whether you are new to this topic or someone who's been wondering if community is right for you... hopefully you’ll all find some useful nuggets here!

If you want to learn more about living inside community or learn more about this podcast, visit our website, hosted by the Foundation for Intentional Community, at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there. Podcast listeners receive 30% off FIC courses with code INSIDE30 and 20% off in the bookstore with code INSIDE20.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and video of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - #007: Governance & Decision Making with Diana Leafe Christian
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04/08/22 • 63 min

When it comes to deciding who gets to make decisions and how decisions get made, the communities movement has done a lot to innovate more equitable and transparent strategies. In today's conversation with Diana Leafe Christian, we talk about the importance of solid governance models and decision making structures, how these structures and a lack thereof can impact everything from relationships to the ability to get things done, and specifically about Sociocracy, her preferred governance model.

Diana Leafe Christian is the author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community. An Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) trainer for Gaia Education and editor of Communities magazine for 14 years, Diana has contributed chapters to three Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) and Gaia Education books: Beyond You and Me, Gaian Economics, and Ecovillage: 1001 Ways to Heal the Planet. She is a Board Member of GEN-US. In 2017, she received the Foundation for Intentional Community’s Kozeny Communitarian Award, a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the US communities movement. She speaks at ecovillage and cohousing conferences, offers consultations, and leads workshops in person and online internationally. With the ability to make things simple and clear, and drawing on a deep and broad understanding of community dynamics, Diana encourages effective and harmonious ways for groups to become healthy and thriving, and resolve the typical interpersonal challenges that can arise in any community. She has an upcoming six-week online Sociocracy course starting on April 30th and will be offering an Introduction to Sociocracy for Co-housers course on August 25th, ahead of the National Cohousing Conference in Madison, Wisconsin where she will also be speaking on her recent Communities magazine series Working Effectively with Especially Challenging Behaviors. You can find out more about these courses, trainings, and services by reaching out to her directly at [email protected]

Podcast listeners receive 30% off courses with code INSIDE30 and 20% off in the FIC Bookstore with code INSIDE20.

If you want to learn more about how to find and purchase community property or any aspect of building community, check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, The Foundation for Intentional Community. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, an extensive bookstore and lots of free educational materials. You can learn more about the show and access transcripts at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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Inside Community Podcast - Inside Community Podcast Trailer

Inside Community Podcast Trailer

Inside Community Podcast

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01/14/22 • 1 min

If you want to learn more about living inside community or learn more about this podcast, visit our website, hosted by the Foundation for Intentional Community, at ic.org/podcast. Your financial support of Inside Community helps us to continue to create meaningful and exciting content and I hope you’ll consider donating through our website while you are there.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and video of community life on Instagram @InsideCommunityPodcast - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

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We're closing out our second season with an examination of how to navigate inevitable interpersonal conflict and move towards restored connection. Social architecture can be what makes or breaks a community, business, or organization. How we process our own pain and trauma and interact with the trauma of others offers rich opportunities for growth and learning. In this conversation with Dr. Jessica Plancich Shinners we cover emotional hygiene, strategies for reconnection, the importance of humility and validation, when to ask for help, and when to call it quits.

Dr. Jessica Plancich Shinners, MA, MFT, Ed.D. is a social architect, community builder, and leadership expert who teaches leaders and organizations how to operate at their highest potential and resiliency by truly serving people, planet, purpose, and profit.

With a Master’s in clinical psychology, a doctorate in Organizational Leadership (Ed.D. Pepperdine University), and 20-year psychotherapy practice, she applies a whole human approach to consulting that nurtures body, mind, and spirit so the wisdom of the heart can be awakened. After years of witnessing the limitations of Western psychology, Jessica sought training in Eastern approaches to healing and wellness. With certifications as a yoga and qi gong instructor and massage therapist, she utilizes a holistic and somatic approach to her work.

Her penchant for social entrepreneurialism has led Jessica to consult for nonprofits, grassroots movements, start-ups, major corporations, and their leaders, helping align them with their core values and serve the greater good. The co-founder of an eco-village in San Diego, CA (theemeraldvillage.com), she is steeped in collaborative thinking and decision making, incorporating what she has lived, learned, and tested herself. The reclamation of our communities at the local level, she believes, is the solution to the panoply of problems we find ourselves in – ecologically, economically, and socio-politically.

Jessica has had the honor of learning from countless teachers- whether clients, mentors, professors, or guides. She humbly recognizes that so many of the healing traditions she has studied were gifts given from native people with an unencumbered connection to creation. Jessica strives to deeply embody and pay homage to their wisdom by passing it on to her clients.

https://fiercegraceconsulting.com/

SUMMER FUN!

Books and Resources Mentioned:

If you want to learn more about interpersonal relating and conflict resolution in community or any aspect of community, check out the Inside Community Podcast sponsor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Foundation for Intentional Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FIC is an incredible resource center with weekly events, online courses, classified advertisements, and lots of free educational materials. Podcast listeners get 20% off in ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIC Bookstore ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠with code INSIDE20 and 30% off ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FIC courses⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with code INSIDE30. You can learn more about FIC and access transcripts at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ic.org/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Follow the show and see inspiring images and videos of community life on Facebook and Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@InsideCommunityPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - I’d love to hear from you there! If this content has been meaningful or useful to you, please subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, and share with your friends and folks you know who are curious about living Inside Community.

Super Awesome Inside Community Jingle by FIC board member Dave Booda ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠davebooda.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

ICP theme by Rebecca Mesritz

We are so grateful to for our show's sponsors:

Caddis Collaborative - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠caddispc.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

CohoUS -

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