Best David Bollier Podcasts (2025)

1
David Bollier on His New, Updated Edition of 'Think Like a Commoner' 39:59

10d ago39:59

39:59

Radio Kingston host and executive director Jimmy Buff interviews David Bollier about his new, updated and revised edition of 'Think Like a Commoner,' originally published in 2014. This popular introduction now includes material on the commons as a living, relational organism, bioregionalism and the relocalization of economies, governance of digital…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Samuel Bollier 26:54

19d ago26:54

26:54

Ever think of running away from mundane existence to join the circus? Imagine if, one day, after watching the circus, the circus director comes over to recruit you for an unusual role in the spectacle and pageantry you have just witnessed. This is what happens in Jurj Salem’s “At the Circus” from our Winter 2025 […]…

1
Future Natures: On Seeing Commons through Popular Genres 36:07

1M ago36:07

36:07

Anthropologist Amber Huff, coordinator of the Centre for Future Natures at the University of Sussex in England, explains how popular genres like comic books, zines, social media, podcasts, and video, among others, can illuminate contemporary commons, enclosures, and the disorienting crises of capitalist modernity. What does this moment of crisis an…

1
Pirate Care as a Revolutionary Act: Valeria Graziano & Tomislav Medak 43:31

2M ago43:31

43:31

Pirate Care is a term used to describe creative, public acts that challenge the "organized abandonment" of people in need. In the tradition of civil disobedience, pirate care activists intervene to show compassion and social solidarity for ordinary people. Pirate Care also highlights how the state, markets, or patriarchal families have politicized …

1
Yuria Celidwen on Applying Indigenous Wisdom Traditions to Modern Challenges 49:40

3M ago49:40

49:40

Yuria Celidwen, an Indigenous researcher in the Department of Psychology at University of California Berkeley, discusses how contemplative practices in Indigenous traditions can expand mindfulness, heartfulness, compassion, and planetary flourishing. Her new book, 'Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Foundations for Collective Well-Being,' argues that rela…

1
Zoe Gilbertson on Bioregional Fibersheds & New Fashion Commons 44:33

4M ago44:33

44:33

Zoe Gilbertson is a British fashion ecologist who is re-imagining the fashion industry from the ground up, literally. In an effort to curb the ecological harms of fast fashion, global supply chains, and relentless consumption of clothes, Gilbertson is figuring how fiber crops like hemp and flax could be grown bioregionally to produce textiles and, …

1
Stefan Gruber's Global Portfolio of Urban Commons 42:36

5M ago42:36

42:36

Stefan Gruber, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of architecture and urbanism, sees cities as a prime site of struggle between capitalism and commons, and therefore an important incubator of just, regenerative, self-determined communities that move beyond the market/state paradigm. The traveling international exhibit, 'An Atlas of Commoning,' …

1
Brandon Letsinger on Cascadia and Bioregional Activism 53:07

6M ago53:07

53:07

Brandon Letsinger, a Seattle organizer and cofounding director of the Cascadia Department of Bioregion, discusses the history of bioregional activism in Cascadia and current challenges and strategies. Cascadia consists of three watersheds in the Pacific Northwest extending from British Columbia to northern California. For more than 40 years, Cascad…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Jamal Saeed 26:42

6M ago26:42

26:42

Join us today for a heartfelt conversation with exiled Syrian author Jamal Saeed, author of the 2022 autobiography My Road from Damascus (ECW Press, Toronto). Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak recently sat down with Saeed, now based in Canada, to discuss his devastating short story, a highlight of our recent Summer 2024 edition. Written amidst the ongo…

1
Bram Büscher: Bridging the Human/Nature Divide through Convivial Conservation 51:32

7M ago51:32

51:32

Bram Büscher, an activist-scholar in sociology at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, has launched an ambitious international project to invent noncapitalist forms of land conservation. He calls it "convivial conservation." Instead of locking up land as wilderness or using it to make money through ecotourism and genetic patents, "convivial co…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Dan Beachy-Quick 39:58

8M ago39:58

39:58

To American poet and translator Dan Beachy-Quick, translations of Greek poets from the lyric and philosophical traditions are an opportunity to “use the eye to break apart the mind and remind us that we have a mouth to sing another’s song.” In this new Asymptote podcast episode, Beachy-Quick and Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak discuss the ongoing res…

1
Safouan Azouzi: Lessons of Desert Oases for Eco-Resilient Transformation 49:46

8M ago49:46

49:46

Safouan Azouzi, a Tunisian scholar of the commons and participatory social design, discusses how cultural traditions in desert oases hold important socio-ecological lessons for the world. For the Global South, long victimized by colonialism and capitalist extraction, oases culture embodies an eco-friendly, alternative vision of development. For the…

1
Camila Vergara's Vision of Plebeian Constitutionalism 53:28

9M ago53:28

53:28

Chilean political philosopher Camila Vergara boldly argues in her book 'Systemic Corruption' that decay and corruption are inevitable even in liberal, representative systems because oligarchs end up capturing state governance and law. Ordinary people rarely have their own plebeian institutions to express their interests and curb the abuses of the e…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Matthew Landrum on Faroese Writer Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir 25:04

10M ago25:04

25:04

In today’s thrilling conversation with author and translator Matthew Landrum, Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak explores the compelling poetry of Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir and the renaissance of Faroese literature as spotlighted in Asymptote’s Spring issue. Nine Faroese authors from multiple generations are represented in our Special Feature organized i…

1
Cooking Sections Serves Up Art, Eco-Activism & Local Food 47:00

10M ago47:00

47:00

The artistic duo known as Cooking Sections -- Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual of the Royal College of Art in London -- use their virtuoso visual, performance, and installation artworks to jolt people into new understanding of local ecosystems, capitalism, and food. Their work, shown at prestigious venues around the world to great acclaim,…

1
Asymptote Podcast: Nabokov and the Butterflies

11M ago

—

The third Asymptote Podcast episode for 2024 explores a chapter in the life of Vladimir Nabokov during his time in the United States (where he became a citizen in 1945). With his spouse, Vera, and son, Dimitri, he travelled across the America West at the dawn of the mid-nineteenth century. It’s estimated that Nabokov chalked […]…

1
Nathan Schneider on Building Democratic Governance on the Internet 50:18

11M ago50:18

50:18

To counter the "implicit feudalism" that is the norm on the Internet, activist-scholar Nathan Schneider explains the potential of democratic governance in online life and its importance to "real world" democracy. A professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Schneider argues that "online spaces could be sites of creative, radi…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Kristin Vego

1y ago

—

In the second podcast episode centering on contributors to Asymptote’s landmark 50th issue, Danish-Norwegian author Kristin Vego joins Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak in conversation. Her story, “All Things Lovely,” as translated by Jennifer Russell, represents her debut in the English language. Vego’s story also arrives at a moment when Norwegian li…

1
WIll Ruddick on 'Commitment Pooling' to Build Economic Commons 52:00

1y ago52:00

52:00

Will Ruddick, development economist and founder of Grassroots Economics, has spent the past 16 years in Kenya developing innovative "community inclusion currencies" for dozens of poorer communities. By combining ancient mutual aid practices with credit vouchers (circulating as a kind of money) and digital ledger technologies (to expand the scale of…

1
Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with David Unger

1y ago

—

Esteemed translator David Unger joins our new Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak for a conversation with readings of the poetry of Jaime Barrios Carillo. Born in Guatemala City in 1954 and living in Stockholm since 1981, Carrillo is known principally as a writer and columnist. His Two Poems from the Spanish Language volume Ángeles sin dios (Angels Witho…

1
Kathryn Milun: Sharing the Sun's Energy through Solar Commons 42:25

1y ago42:25

42:25

Kathryn Milun, a community-engaged scholar, writer, and energy democracy advocate at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, has spent the past 15 years developing the innovative Solar Commons model. This powerful prototype uses decentralized solar arrays to generate steady revenue streams to build community wealth. Through partnership agreements, fou…

1
Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann's Project to Reimagine Economics Education 40:11

1y ago40:11

40:11

Appalled by the dismal state of economics education for young people, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann, an international secondary school educator, has launched an open, collaborative project to develop a comprehensive Regenerative Economics syllabus. Instead of framing "the economy" as a growth-obsessed machine standing apart from society and nature,…

1
Aaron Perzanowski on Bottom-up Creativity & the Right to Repair 51:04

1+ y ago51:04

51:04

Professor Aaron Perzanowski of the University of Michigan Law School explains how many artistic communities flourish as commons, without copyright protections that privilege private ownership and marketization. Tattoo artists, fashion designers, chefs, and stand-up comedians are among the communities that don't strictly own their primary creative w…

1
Shane O'Donnell: The Breakthrough Insulin Device Developed by Commoners 41:09

1+ y ago41:09

41:09

Shane O'Donnell, a sociologist and researcher, has been at the forefront of the "device activism" and #WeAreNotWaiting movement, a globe-spanning community of techies and people living with diabetes who have pioneered patient-led innovations in medical devices and healthcare. Outflanking a stodgy, risk-averse medical device industry, the movement h…

1
Mihnea Tanasescu on the Need for 'Ecocene Politics' 43:40

1+ y ago43:40

43:40

The best term for this era of geological history is not the Anthropocene, says Mihnea Tănăsescu, a research professor at the University of Mons in Belgium, but the Ecocene. "The increasingly frequent intrusion of ecological processes into political life” requires us to shed our anthropocentric notions, and recognize our deep, entangled relationship…

1
Hannes Gerhardt: Compeerism as a Path from Capital to Commons 43:47

1+ y ago43:47

43:47

Hannes Gerhardt, a professor of geography at the University of West Georgia (US), talks about his new book, 'From Capital to Commons: Exploring the Promise of a World Beyond Capitalism', especially as it applies to digital technology and online life. While Big Tech monopolies have crushed the hopeful experimentation that once prevailed in Internet …

1
Natasha Hulst: The Campaign for an Amsterdam Food Park 44:01

1+ y ago44:01

44:01

Natasha Hulst, Director of the European Land Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, describes a spirited campaign by commoners to build an urban farm and green space, Voedselpark, or Food Park, on the edge of Amsterdam. While climate change and global economics argue for relocalizing agriculture, city officials and businesses are det…

1
Thomas Linzey on Nature's Rights and Self-Owning Land 51:47

1+ y ago51:47

51:47

Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel at the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, has been at the forefront of ambitious campaigns to create novel legal doctrines for "community rights," "the rights of nature," and more recently, "self-owning land." The primary goal is to expand democratic self-determination, especially at the local level,…

1
Alnoor Ladha & Lynn Murphy on Post-Capitalist Philanthropy 50:45

2y ago50:45

50:45

Long-time activist Alnoor Ladha and former program officer Lynn Murphy explain why so many philanthropies aren't really interested in system change. In their book 'Post Capitalist Philanthropy', they explain how large foundations are more intent on reproducing capitalist modernity and its norms than in moving beyond the growth economy. The real cha…

1
Leah Penniman on 'Black Earth Wisdom' 52:19

2y ago52:19

52:19

Leah Penniman, cofounder of Soul Fire Farm in the Hudson Valley, New York, showcases the history of African-American farming and Indigenous land traditions in her new book 'Black Earth Wisdom' in which sixteen Black elders of various backgrounds discuss the intertwined fate of the earth and our spiritual lives. The book brings attention to often-ne…

1
Christian Iaione & Sheila Foster on Urban Commoning Initiatives 42:19

2y ago42:19

42:19

How might the commons paradigm be applied to cities in a more focused, effective way? Professors Sheila R. Foster of Georgetown University and Christian Iaione of Luiss Carli University in Rome, share their insights into this topic after years of study and collaborative experimentation. Their new book, 'Co-Cities: Innovative Transitions Toward Just…

1
Dorn Cox: When Open Source Meets Regenerative Agriculture 47:39

2y ago47:39

47:39

Dorn Cox is a New Hampshire family farmer who has long been in the vanguard of improving regenerative agriculture with open source technologies. He sees participatory science and knowledge commons as powerful tools for improving crop yields, soil health, and ecosystem resilience, especially in the face of climate change. Here, Cox talks about his n…

1
Binna Choi: Curating Art through Commoning 31:23

2y ago31:23

31:23

As Director of the Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Binna Choi is in the vanguard of exploring how commoning can be used to make art and curate exhibitions. Choi and her colleagues in Utrecht, Netherlands, see commoning as an organizing principle for how artists can produce art collaboratively, in service to the community. As the Insti…

1
John Thackara on Designing for Life 45:54

2y ago45:54

45:54

John Thackara is one of the brilliant irregulars exploring how humankind can make the transition to a climate-friendly, relocalized, post-capitalist world. A Brit with extensive academic and journalistic background in design, Thackara is an independent writer, activist and thinker who is probing the idea of "designing for life." For him, this means…

1
Joe Brewer's Bold Quest to Restore a Bioregion 1:00:53

2+ y ago1:00:53

1:00:53

Joe Brewer, an American activist with extensive background in earth sciences, embarked on a journey to heal the Earth, and ended up in Barichara, Colombia, helping to catalyze a bold effort to restore an arid tropical forest in the northern Andes. Here, Brewer describes his formal training in ecological sciences and complex systems; the techniques …

1
David Sloan Wilson: What Evolutionary Science Says about Prosocial Groups 46:26

2+ y ago46:26

46:26

David Sloan Wilson is a renowned evolutionary biologist with pathbreaking insights into the role of cooperation in the evolution of life. A professor emeritus at State University of New York, Binghamton, Wilson has investigated how natural selection occurs among groups and even ecosystems, and not only at the level of genes and individuals. In this…

1
Greg Watson on Buckminster Fuller, the World Grid and World Game 46:48

2+ y ago46:48

46:48

Drawing upon the pioneering work of Buckminster Fuller, Greg Watson, Director of Policy and Systems Design at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, explains his work promoting a "World Grid" -- a global infrastructure that would integrate electricity production and distribution into a single global network of networks. A free flow of electrici…

1
Konda Mason on Land, Race, Money & Spirit 43:05

2+ y ago43:05

43:05

BIPOC farmers -- many afflicted by the persistent legacy of slavery, racism, and land theft -- generally do not have an easy path forward. To help inaugurate a different history, Jubilee Justice, a small Louisiana organization, is developing an ambitious array of commons-oriented projects. As cofounder and president Konda Mason explains, these stra…

1
Farid Rakun & ruangrupa Reinvent Artistic Curation at documenta 15 39:57

2+ y ago39:57

39:57

When the Indonesian artists collective ruangrupa was selected to curate the prestigious international art exhibition Documenta, held every five years in Germany, the group made a bold choice: to prototype a new type of commons-oriented political economy for art-making. In this episode, Ruangrupa member Farid Rakun explains how the exhibition not on…

1
Guy Standing: How Blue Commons Can Transform the Economy of the Sea 50:08

2+ y ago50:08

50:08

Guy Standing, an economist and scholar of the commons at SOAS University of London, talks about his new book, 'The Blue Commons: Transforming the Economy of the Sea'. He argues that overfishing and destructive deepsea mining are predictable results of 'rentier capitalism', the market/state system that privileges expansive property rights, financial…

1
Stephan Harding on Gaia Alchemy & the Animate Earth 50:35

3y ago50:35

50:35

Dr. Stephan Harding, a cofounder of Schumacher College (England) and senior lecturer in holistic science, is a pioneering scientist focused on earth sciences, deep ecology, and the theory of Gaia. His work stands on the shoulders of his friend and colleague James Lovelock, the originator of Gaia theory, and microbiologist Lynn Margulis, who bravely…

1
Alanna Irving of Open Collective: Distributed Leadership & Infrastructures for Commoning 58:40

3y ago58:40

58:40

It takes a lot of hard work to get small-scale commons started, especially with complications of managing money, budgets, and tax and legal compliance. These challenges have gotten easier since the rise of Open Collective, a nonprofit platform that acts a kind of commons-enabling infrastructure. In this episode, Alanna Irving, Chief Operating Offic…

1
Sam Moore of The Radical Open Access Collective 40:07

3y ago40:07

40:07

Open access is a term used to describe academic books, journals, and other research that can be freely copied and shared rather than tightly controlled by large commercial publishers as expensive, proprietary product. Over the past 20 years, this vision has fallen far short of its original ambitions, however, as large publishers have developed new …

1
#8: The Commons with David Bollier 33:48

3y ago33:48

33:48

We are joined by David Bollier, one of the world's leading theorists and evangelists for the idea of the “commons” — a new (old) paradigm for re-imagining economics, politics, and culture. He pursues this work as Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and as cofounder of the Commons Strategies G…

1
Ruth Catlow of Furtherfield: Art, Play and the Imagining of New Worlds 47:05

3y ago47:05

47:05

Ruth Catlow is an artist, curator, and co-leader of Furtherfield, a London-based arts collective that has been convening playful, participatory art projects for more than 25 years. The group's artistic experiments -- deeply rooted in open source technologies and philosophies -- use digital platforms and its green space and gallery in Finsbury Park …

1
Sara Arnold & Sandra Niessen on Moving Toward Defashion and Degrowth 53:42

3y ago53:42

53:42

British activist Sara Arnold and Dutch fashion scholar/activist Sandra Niessen explain their vision for "a radical defashion future" driven by degrowth, decolonization, and commoning. As two leaders of Fashion Act Now, they are part of a growing network of dissident fashionistas trying to make the global clothing industry more ecologically responsi…

1
Jose Luis Vivero Pol: Treating Food as Commons, Not Commodites 49:47

3y ago49:47

49:47

Why is there so much hunger in the world today when the global food system produces, and wastes, amazing quantities of food? Jose Luis Vivero Pol, an anti-hunger activist and PhD Research Fellow at the Universite catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, points to our treatment of food as commodities, as traded in heavily subsidized markets dominated by l…

1
David Cayley on Why Ivan Illich Still Matters 47:12

3+ y ago47:12

47:12

David Cayley has written a magisterial synthesis and interpretation of his late friend and colleague, Ivan Illich (1926-2002), 'Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey', which reveals the ongoing relevance of Illich's searing social critiques. Illich was a radical Christian, cultural historian and itinerant scholar who soared to international fame in …

1
#7: Mass Decarceration with Alec Karakatsanis 46:08

3+ y ago46:08

46:08

We are joined by Civil Rights Corps founder Alec Karakatsanis to talk about his work helping change the unjust criminal legal system—and the policies and strategies he believes are promising to achieve mass decarceration at the state and local level. Follow Alec on twitter here. Get a copy of Alec's recent book, Usual Cruelty here. Learn more about…

1
Shaun Chamberlin on David Fleming's Vision of Post-Capitalist Life 55:32

3+ y ago55:32

55:32

When he died in 2012, David Fleming -- a polymath thinker among the earliest to address Peak Oil -- left behind an unusual book manuscript about climate change, the fragility of capitalism, and the likely nature of our post-capitalist future. Fortunately, Shaun Chamberlin, a British author and activist who was Fleming's associate, shepherded the ma…

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