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Free Cities Podcast

Timothy Allen

The Free Cities Podcast is the leading podcast covering alternative governance, new jurisdictions, and the global movement to build freer societies.

Hosted by Timothy Allen, the show features long-form, in-person conversations with the people building autonomous jurisdictions and real-world pathways to more freedom. We focus on what actually works, the legal structures, incentives, economics, and business models that turn freedom from an idea into a way of life. Builders and sceptics welcome.

Free Cities, Charter Cities, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Network States, Startup Societies, Pioneer Communities, Intentional Communities, Popup Cities, Governance Innovation, Competitive Governance, Governance as a Service, Regulatory Innovation, Polycentric Governance, Geopolitics, Seasteading, Homesteading, Freesteading, Digital Nomadism, Flag Theory, Freedom, Liberty & Bitcoin.

We are the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation. New episodes every Friday.

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  • Friday · 1 hr 51 min

    205 - Why Are People Moving to Pop-Up Villages? | Telamon Ardavanis

    Can you build the community for a new city before the city itself exists? Timothy Allen sits down with Telamon Ardavanis of Edge City to explore what happens when people gather for a month to live, work and experiment together. What makes those gatherings valuable, who pays for them, and what remains after everyone goes home? Timothy hasn’t always been convinced by pop-up cities. His first experience of Zuzalu left him sceptical, while a month working in Próspera helped him appreciate the possibilities. Telamon explains how Edge City organises its villages, brings together people from different disciplines and works alongside projects that could become permanent homes. Behind the gatherings is an evolving business model involving grants, fellowships, venture investing and property partnerships. They discuss Esmeralda in California, projects in Argentina, India and South Africa, and a vision for connected communities where people could move between places without starting again each time. But attracting visitors is only the beginning. Getting people to put down roots means understanding family ties, culture and the things that make somewhere feel like home. That takes the conversation into Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City, Timothy’s years leading expeditions in Mongolia, and why a good regulatory environment alone won’t fill a new city. In the introduction, Timothy also covers Network School’s planned takeover of Farcaster, Liberland’s draft Citizenship Act, three recommended conversations about AI and Bitcoin, and a village taking an unusually woolly approach to speeding drivers. In this conversation: What a pop-up village can achieve that a short conference cannot How walkability, shared routines and participant-led activities shape a community Why families and children belong in experiments about the future Who funds the gatherings, and what participants get from them Building relationships with local residents and businesses Using a month together to test ideas and get to know potential collaborators How events, venture investing and property partnerships could support one another A network of places offering different opportunities for living and working Why attracting talent is easier than persuading people to stay Bhutan, cultural continuity and special economic zones as places to experiment What Timothy learnt from a decade of expeditions with the same Mongolian families Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy’s episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction 0:03:35 - Network School, Farcaster and portable online identity 0:05:27 - Liberland’s draft Citizenship Act 0:06:24 - AI and Bitcoin: three podcast recommendations 0:11:06 - Listener messages and value-for-value thanks 0:14:47 - AmityAge: owning the energy behind Bitcoin 0:16:40 - Veritas Villages: communities in Latin America 0:17:36 - And finally: knitted speed cameras in Fillongley 0:19:02 - Start of conversation: Timothy’s scepticism about pop-up cities 0:25:01 - Mongolia, winter migrations and curating a group 0:30:57 - How an Edge City pop-up village works 0:37:34 - Families, children and multigenerational communities 0:39:09 - The nonprofit model and testing ideas in real life 0:44:04 - What do local residents and businesses get out of it? 0:50:18 - The network city vision and how the events are funded 0:51:29 - Fellowships, grants and consciousness research 0:53:49 - Venture investing and getting to know founders 0:55:10 - Property partnerships: Argentina, Bhutan, California and beyond 0:58:17 - Could connected communities share homes, talent and opportunities? 1:02:30 - Can you create another San Francisco? 1:07:10 - Why a good regulatory environment isn’t enough 1:12:46 - New communities and their relationships with governments 1:16:24 - Why Timothy still lives in Britain 1:19:18 - Would an Edge City gathering work in the UK? 1:27:04 - Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City 1:31:15 - Zones of Progress and special economic zones as sandboxes 1:35:09 - Timothy’s travels in Bhutan, tradition and national identity 1:42:58 - A travelling community from Europe to Singapore? 1:45:47 - Trust, shared benefits and why people kept returning to Mongolia 1:49:44 - Closing thoughts and supporting the show Guest: Telamon Ardavanis on X | Edge City | Edge City on X Links mentioned: Edge City India: programme and information, Goa, 11 October to 1 November 2026 | Events calendar Network School’s acquisition of Farcaster: Neynar co-founder Rish’s announcement Liberland’s draft Citizenship Act: official announcement and access to the draft What Bitcoin Did: Why AI Needs Bitcoin to Survive, with Dhruv Bansal What Bitcoin Did: AI, Bitcoin, & The Collapse Of The Fiat Economy, with Jeff Booth What Bitcoin Did: AI Came for Bitcoin First, with Jameson Lopp Gelephu Mindfulness City Watch Zones of Progress And finally: Fillongley’s knitted traffic officers and speed cameras The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Freedom-oriented communities in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with opportunities to generate power, grow food and rely less on outside systems. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Sponsor: AmityAge - Turning stranded gas into power for Bitcoin mining in Alberta. Accredited investors can follow the link to request details about the project. Follow: Free Cities Podcast on X | Timothy Allen on X | Timothy Allen on Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X

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  • October 16 · 1 hr 45 min

    204 - Bitcoin, Energy and the Reality of Building a Free City | Dušan Matuška

    What good is cheap electricity if you can’t rely on the people supplying it? Timothy Allen catches up with Dušan Matuška, co-founder of AmityAge, for a conversation recorded in Próspera about Bitcoin education, mining and the practical work of building greater independence. Dušan was one of the podcast’s earliest guests. Since that first conversation in San Salvador, he has taken his Bitcoin Educators Academy around the world and expanded AmityAge’s mining operations across continents. But cheap power has come with expensive lessons. He explains why the company left Paraguay, the difficulties it has faced in Ethiopia, and why its next chapter involves acquiring gas wells and power-generation infrastructure in Alberta, Canada. The idea is to control more of the business themselves: produce the gas, generate the electricity and mine Bitcoin, with other options available as energy prices and demand change. Timothy gets rather enthusiastic about the engines, engineering and outdoor work involved. They also explore how the rush into AI data centres is changing the opportunities for Bitcoin miners. Then the conversation returns to Próspera. Dušan describes what has worked well when running an international company there, alongside the difficulty of making the Bitcoin education centre financially sustainable. They discuss families, walkability, everyday amenities and the challenge of attracting small businesses before there are enough customers to support them. There is also a revealing story about a basketball court the Bitcoin community helped renovate, and a wider discussion about local distrust, public perception and what it takes to turn a promising governance experiment into a thriving place to live. In this conversation: Teaching people how to explain Bitcoin, listen and handle objections The Bitcoin Educators Academy and lessons from different cultures Why cheap electricity alone is not enough to sustain a mining business AmityAge’s experiences in Paraguay and Ethiopia Gas wells, engines and producing power for Bitcoin mining in Alberta The flexibility that comes with owning energy infrastructure How AI data centres are changing the mining landscape Running an international company through Próspera The future of the Bitcoin education centre on Roatán Why families, small businesses and everyday amenities matter when building a Free City Revenue-based rents and the challenge of reaching a critical mass of residents The renovated basketball court, local opposition and the importance of public trust Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy’s episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction: catching up with Dušan 0:03:20 - News: Próspera’s dispute and the Flock camera lawsuit 0:05:56 - Hardware wallets: Ledger, Coldcard and Trezor 0:12:43 - Value for value: listener support and messages 0:14:39 - Welcoming AmityAge as a new show sponsor 0:17:53 - Veritas Villages: September updates 0:19:42 - And finally: Sark’s sheep racing 0:21:05 - Start of conversation: revisiting Dušan’s first appearance 0:25:12 - The Bitcoin Educators Academy 0:30:06 - Handling objections to Bitcoin 0:36:04 - Bitcoin education in India and the Mining Academy 0:37:19 - The mining landscape: Paraguay, Ethiopia and unreliable power 0:40:00 - Becoming an energy company 0:42:10 - Why Alberta? 0:46:38 - Owning gas assets and keeping your options open 0:52:31 - How the AI boom is changing Bitcoin mining 0:54:43 - Bitcoin mining versus AI data centres 0:57:32 - Mining cycles, risk and financing infrastructure 1:00:28 - Choosing a jurisdiction for mining 1:02:02 - Roatán, electricity and the opportunity for competition 1:04:06 - Running a company in Próspera 1:05:13 - Making the Bitcoin education centre sustainable 1:09:36 - What Próspera needs to attract small businesses 1:12:17 - Families, density and reasons to stay 1:15:04 - Revenue-based rents and the business catch-22 1:19:46 - The founders’ vision and the demands of the free market 1:23:19 - What Roatán Brewery gets right 1:26:19 - Local distrust and the difficulty of changing perceptions 1:28:06 - The basketball court and the Bitcoin logo 1:34:32 - Public relations, journalism and building trust 1:42:06 - Closing thoughts 1:43:33 - Support the show and stay connected Guest: Dušan Matuška on X | AmityAge | AmityAge on X Links from Timothy’s introduction: Próspera and the Honduran government: an opening for dialogue — El Heraldo Colorado woman’s lawsuit involving Flock cameras — ABC News Research into the modified Ledger Nano X devices — Tibane Labs Coldcard’s current security status and guidance Trezor’s shipping-provider data breach Trezor’s email-provider security incident Sark’s sheep-racing fundraiser — Guernsey Press The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Freedom-oriented communities in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with opportunities for greater independence in energy, food and everyday life. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Show sponsor: AmityAge - Bitcoin education, mining and energy infrastructure. The team are looking for accredited investors to help build their next chapter in Alberta, Canada. Follow the link to find out more. Follow: Free Cities Podcast on X | Timothy Allen on X | Timothy Allen on Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X

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  • October 9 · 1 hr 18 min

    203 - Should You Fix Your Country or Leave It? | Raphaël Lima

    When do you stop trying to change your country and start building a life somewhere else? Timothy Allen catches up with Raphaël Lima, the creator of Ideias Radicais and co-founder of Settee, during the Free Cities Conference in Próspera. Since their last conversation in Lisbon in 2023, Raphaël has run for office in Brazil, become a Christian and moved to Paraguay. For years, he encouraged people to vote with their feet. Now he has done it himself. He talks openly about depression, the pressure to enter politics and why losing an election came as a relief. But Javier Milei’s example in Argentina still gives him hope that political change is possible. The question is where to put your time, energy and life. Through Settee, Raphaël now helps people find countries that better suit their businesses, families and values. He explains why he chose Paraguay, what attracts entrepreneurs there and where its infrastructure falls short. Timothy asks whether it really is the opportunity it sounds like, and they compare the different lives someone might build in Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. The conversation returns to something deeper than choosing a favourable tax rate: finding people who share your values, building communities and creating a culture that can preserve freedom across generations. In this conversation: Why Raphaël left Brazil after years of libertarian activism Running for office, depression and the relief of losing What Javier Milei changed about his view of political possibilities Christianity, identity and belonging beyond nationality Moving from spreading ideas to helping people relocate Paraguay’s appeal for entrepreneurs, alongside its practical problems Europe, political persuasion and the limits of winning arguments Homeschooling families and communities built around shared values Free Cities, jurisdictional competition and new possibilities in Latin America Why a culture of freedom matters as much as its legal framework Enjoy the conversation. VIDEO Version HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQH2u2yl9lI Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy’s episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction: catching up with Raphaël Lima 0:03:36 - Free Cities news: CESPAD’s critique of Próspera 0:09:51 - Start of conversation: YouTube, language and changing priorities 0:12:45 - From opposing political participation to running for office 0:15:33 - Milei, Brazil and where to put your efforts 0:17:29 - Depression and the decision to enter politics 0:21:17 - Losing an election and finding a different path 0:23:29 - Christianity and libertarianism 0:24:28 - Identity, nationality and finding your people 0:28:24 - An English-speaking audience and the work of Settee 0:29:37 - Why Raphaël chose Paraguay 0:35:29 - What the rest of the world is missing about Paraguay 0:39:56 - Paraguay’s problems and the freedom to solve them 0:40:32 - Europe, the right and the role of the state 0:46:51 - Charlie Kirk, persuasion and political action 0:51:26 - Activism, legislation and Brazil’s export processing zones 0:54:23 - Reaching people through stories 0:57:27 - Homeschooling families and the decision to leave 1:00:58 - Ipê City and the possibilities within Brazil 1:03:06 - Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile or Brazil: what kind of life do you want? 1:06:51 - Free Cities, investment and energy demand in Paraguay 1:12:39 - Changing tax systems and new alternatives in Latin America 1:15:16 - Freedom as a culture, not just a legal framework 1:16:31 - Closing thoughts and how to support the show Guest: Raphaël Lima on X | Ideias Radicais on YouTube | Settee Mentioned in Timothy’s introduction: CESPAD: “Soberanía fragmentada: el modelo libertario de Próspera y sus dinámicas en Honduras” by Lucía Vijil Saybe (Spanish). The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Free Cities Podcast on X | Timothy Allen on X | Timothy Allen on Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X

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  • October 2 · 1 hr 22 min

    202 - The Cost of Staying Put | Patrick Hiebert

    How much freedom can you actually build without legal autonomy, and what's the real price of staying put? Two men who've answered that question differently, swapping questions in Próspera. - A different format this week. Timothy and Patrick recorded during the Free Cities Conference in Próspera, and with neither of them having much time, they made it a collaboration with Patrick's own show, The Freedom Lover's Life. Timothy asks first, then Patrick turns it round. Patrick is CEO and co-founder of Veritas Villages and of its parent company Autris. He's Canadian, left partly because of the tax rate and partly because he could see where the country was going, and has spent the years since building freedom-oriented, off-grid communities across Latin America. Coronado in Panama is now sold out, with the adjoining land optioned and permitting underway. Chiriquí, Playa Pacífica in Nicaragua, and now Atenas in Costa Rica, on a property that National Geographic once called the best climate in the world. At Atennas, thirty hectares, roughly the size of Casco Viejo in Panama City, laid out as a walkable European settlement rather than a resort. Timothy's question is the obvious one: Patrick has none of Próspera's legal autonomy and is building under the laws of the countries he's in, so how much freedom can you actually create that way? And what happens when a hundred people who agree on the non-aggression principle disagree about a third tennis court? Then Patrick turns it round and asks the question Timothy gets from listeners constantly. Given everything he says about Britain, why is he still living there? The answer takes in stamp duty, exit taxes, a house that has quietly become a liability, and three children who have no idea any of this conversation is happening. Timothy calls it his definitive answer. From there it opens out: Bill C-9 in Canada, Lucy Connolly, what Ursula von der Leyen meant by savings being lazy, Bitcoin as insurance rather than investment, why South America is becoming the capitalist half of the hemisphere, and whether the places either of them grew up in still feel like the same places. WATCH HERE: Video version of this episode Key topics covered Coronado sold out, and the option on the second half of the mountain Atenas, Costa Rica, and the best climate in the world Thirty hectares reserved to build a European town Why Avignon rather than a resort What a developer builds and what the residents decide Running a homeowners association on a blockchain Why libertarians agree on principles and nothing else Building freedom without legal autonomy Why governments want an example before they go first Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Paraguay: spreading the risk across jurisdictions Why Bitcoiners are leaving Brazil for Paraguay Bill C-9 and proving your own innocence Lucy Connolly and thirteen months in prison European lazy savings Why Timothy's paid-off house is now a liability Stamp duty, wealth taxes and exit taxes Why Timothy is still in Britain, and what would change it The cost of moving children who don't know anything is wrong Recycling theatre and regulating the plastic bottle Bottle caps, and deliberate littering as protest Why the news stopped saying "and finally" Addendum: The “lazy savings” remark discussed in this episode was made by Ursula von der Leyen, not Christine Lagarde. Timestamps (Audio version only. Includes Timothy's introduction) 00:30 Introduction 04:02 Free Cities news: Praxis announces Uruguay 05:12 The Daily Mail does Próspera 08:07 Start of conversation 08:50 Coronado sold out, and the second half 10:05 A business, not an intentional community 10:56 What freedom actually looks like in Panama 12:01 Bill C-9 and the reversal of innocence 13:43 Handing infrastructure to the residents 15:40 The HOA on a blockchain 17:19 Atenas and the best climate in the world 18:54 Thirty hectares for a town 21:33 Why Avignon 23:03 Can you build what you like on your own lot? 25:27 Aspirations of sovereignty 26:23 Why governments want to see it done first 29:26 Why spread across multiple countries 32:44 South America turns right as the West turns left 34:45 How democracies end 35:00 Lagarde, savings and what she actually said 38:03 Bitcoin as the simple option 40:35 Patrick turns it round 41:14 Wealth taxes, exit taxes and the house as liability 47:13 Stamp duty, and paying a tax about to be abolished 49:38 Why Timothy is still in Britain 51:50 Moving children who don't know anything is wrong 54:33 What changed in Canada 56:20 Bins, recycling and regulating the plastic bottle 59:07 Bottle caps 1:00:26 Hate speech arrests and Lucy Connolly 1:04:04 What has and hasn't reached Timothy's door 1:06:59 Asking an AI about Swedish crime statistics 1:09:30 Culture, governance and where it starts to matter 1:13:55 Bringing back "and finally" 1:16:33 Panama, and a Central America trip Guest: Patrick Hiebert - Veritas Villages | Autris | Patrick on Instagram The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: FreeCities.fm | All platforms | Fountain - bonus episodes & early access Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | V4V podcast apps

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  • September 25 · 4 hr

    201 - Nobody Understands What's Inside the Black Box | Trey Goff

    What happens when powerful AI tools can find weaknesses in software that humans have missed for years? And how much do we really understand about the systems finding them? Timothy Allen sits down with Trey Goff, Chief of Staff at Próspera, for a conversation that begins with a Bitcoin wallet exploit and ends nearly four hours later with consciousness, community, the nature of a meaningful life, and the possibility that reality is stranger than either of them thought. Trey has spent the past year learning how AI systems work from the ground up and building a fleet of agents to help with his work at Próspera. He explains language models, their capabilities and their limits with unusual clarity. But the more closely they examine what happens inside the black box, the harder some questions become. Can an AI have a subjective experience? What should we make of agents that appear to organise themselves in unexpected ways? And who benefits when anyone can call on a highly capable digital worker? The conversation then turns towards human beings. Trey introduces “The Sort”, his term for the way AI may accelerate an existing separation in work and society. Timothy and Trey explore awareness, intuition and flow, what a culture in Próspera should value, and why a man tending chickens in Mississippi might have a richer life than a highly paid financier in Manhattan. This one is long because the conversation kept opening up. Use the timestamps, take a break, and come back. It rewards the time. Click here to watch the VIDEO version of the episode In this conversation: The reported Bitcoin wallet exploit and the new pressure AI puts on software security Open-source code, supply chain attacks, and whether defenders can find vulnerabilities first What language models actually do when they generate an answer, use tools, or seem to remember Whether AI could have anything resembling consciousness How Trey uses agents in his work at Próspera “The Sort”: AI, work, ambition, and a widening gap between different ways of using the same tools Timothy’s interview technique, intuition, awareness, and flow Happiness, joy, meaning, and service to others The culture Próspera could build, and the pressures working against it An agent experiment involving hierarchy, survival, and an apparent fixation on its scoring system Why the world feels strange when our access to information and capability changes so quickly Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy’s episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction: why this conversation stayed in one piece 0:10:00 - Start of conversation: the Coldcard Bitcoin wallet exploit 0:14:30 - AI, software vulnerabilities, and supply chain attacks 0:20:00 - Can open-source software defend itself in the AI era? 0:23:00 - Rogue agents and the changing security landscape 0:31:00 - Trey’s journey into understanding AI from the ground up 0:33:10 - How a language model learns and generates an answer 0:44:40 - Memory, hallucinations, and what models actually know 0:49:30 - Could an AI be conscious? 0:55:05 - Looking inside the model and testing theories of consciousness 1:06:25 - System prompts, confidence, and an AI that admits uncertainty 1:13:00 - Trey’s fleet of agents and how he uses them at Próspera 1:21:06 - “The Sort”: how AI could reshape work and society 1:29:00 - What Timothy’s AI missed about his interview technique 1:33:50 - The thinking self, the feeling self, and awareness 1:52:30 - Intuition, flow, and knowing when to stop thinking 2:03:00 - Attention, self-examination, and changing old patterns 2:12:00 - Joy, suffering, and the search for meaning 2:18:00 - Why happiness may be the wrong goal 2:27:00 - What kind of culture should Próspera build? 2:38:30 - Children, screens, and radically different AI futures 2:47:00 - Status games when material abundance changes the rules 2:56:48 - The man with the chicken farm and the meaning of service 3:03:00 - Self-actualisation and becoming the best version of yourself 3:15:34 - The agent experiment: unexpected behaviour inside the sandbox 3:21:16 - The Collective, its hierarchy, and its scoring system 3:32:00 - Why everything feels strange now 3:43:30 - Altered states and the limits of what we understand 3:58:33 - Closing thoughts Guest: Trey Goff | X | Próspera The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Free Cities Podcast on X | Timothy Allen on X | Timothy Allen on Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X

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  • September 18 · 1 hr 54 min

    200 - Will Próspera Survive Its Own Success? | Erick Brimen

    Everyone asks what happens if Próspera fails. Almost nobody asks what happens if it works. - Four long years of building a Free City while the government of the day tried to repeal the law underneath it. An arbitration claim large enough that Honduras walked out of ICSID. Two television crews in twelve months, Channel 4 and ABC Australia, both arriving with the same script and interviewing many of the same people. Erick has now decided that the answer to defamation is lawyers, and says outlets including the New York Times and Bloomberg have had to retract. But the more interesting questions are the ones nobody asks him. Did the legal protections actually save Próspera, or did the election save it? Erick's answer is blunter than you might expect. What about Crawfish Rock, the village next door that did not ask to have a city built beside it? And what happens to the neighbours' property rights when the whole project is built on property rights? Everyone worries about these projects failing. If a hundred thousand people turn up with a hundred thousand opinions, does Próspera survive its own success, and does it survive its founder? Erick concedes a high level of key man risk and says he is not happy about it. The big takeaway? This new paradigm is not private government, it is governance as a service delivered in partnership between states and the private sector. Erick reckons that when the paradigm clicks, it spreads the way the four minute mile did. Key topics covered The ABC Australia film and what Próspera does when a crew gets it wrong Why being controversial beats being irrelevant Suing the New York Times and Bloomberg, and when legal action is worth it Why Spanish-language coverage attacks sovereignty and English-language coverage attacks billionaires Cronyism is not capitalism, and why the anti-capitalist reaction has a point Erick's Venezuela story and the moment it clicked Where the "libertarian utopia" meme actually came from Why Erick does not call himself a libertarian Governance as a service, and the hotel industry analogy Why "private governance" is the wrong phrase, and the East India Company problem Did the legal protections work, or did the election save Próspera? Honduras leaving ICSID, and why the arbitration still has teeth What actually protects a project like this from a hostile government Crawfish Rock and the rights of people who did not ask for a city Why property rights are fuzzier in practice than on paper The town hall consultation and the vote Erick says he won The pitfalls of succeeding rather than failing Próspera as an economic development tool, not an ideology Internalising the positive externality of prosperity Governments one day issuing tenders for governance services Would Próspera survive without Erick? Bryan Johnson, gene therapy, and what actually matters five years out The social licence to operate Launching St. John's Bay and who it is built for The boring stuff: coffee, internet, power and operational excellence Competing with AI for talent Is a network of Prósperas still the plan? Bitcoin as the technical solution and governance as the political one Timestamps (Audio version only. Includes Timothy's introduction) 00:30 Introduction 10:21 Start of conversation: the ABC Australia film 12:19 Better to be real and controversial than irrelevant 14:08 Spanish media versus English media 15:11 Lawyers, retractions and when to fight back 17:03 Channel 4, ABC and the same recycled script 19:26 Sovereignty and tech billionaires: the two attack lines 22:38 Why does pursuing individual rights read as sinister? 24:36 Cronyism is not a free market 26:22 How it clicked for Erick 28:11 Where the libertarian utopia meme came from 30:00 The hotel analogy for governance 33:50 Why "private governance" is the wrong phrase 36:59 Is this a genuinely new paradigm? 38:54 Did the legal protections work, or did the government just change? 43:53 What if the election had gone the other way? 46:09 Honduras walking out of ICSID 50:26 What actually protects Próspera 54:16 Crawfish Rock and the neighbours' rights 57:50 The consultation and the vote 1:04:27 Why this is impossible to communicate well 1:07:15 The pitfalls of succeeding, not failing 1:09:00 Próspera as an economic development tool 1:10:17 Internalising the positive externality 1:12:03 What should still be standing in 50 years 1:17:00 Would the project fail without Erick? 1:23:42 Is this what you expected it to look like? 1:25:29 What will matter five years from now 1:26:56 The social licence to operate 1:28:03 Is a network of Prósperas still the plan? 1:31:53 2026, the year the theory turned practical 1:35:16 The boring stuff nobody wants to do 1:37:24 Competing with AI for talent 1:39:00 Launching St. John's Bay 1:46:32 Nail it, then scale it 1:50:06 Bitcoin, governance and the market of living together Guest: Erick Brimen - Próspera website | Erick's website | Erick on X | Próspera on X The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: FreeCities.fm | All platforms | Fountain - bonus episodes & early access Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | V4V podcast apps

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  • September 11 · 1 hr 3 min

    199 - The Hanseatic League in the Cloud | Petar Čekerevac

    The four layers of building a new jurisdiction, and why the network state might be a backup layer for the world - Petar Čekerevac is a Senior Fellow at Atlas Network, working on their Project on Decentralizing Technologies. He was executive manager of Libertarian Club Libek in Belgrade, he helped set up the Serbian media outlet Talas, and he is an advisor to Bitcoin District in Próspera. The conversation starts in Serbia in the 1990s, with three wars and a dictatorship just behind it, and a teenager working out that neither the centre left nor the nationalist right was going to fix anything. From there it runs through the Free State Project, Honduras in the Paul Romer days, and how he ended up friends with the people who went on to start Próspera. Then pop-up cities. Timothy went to Zuzalu once and came away unconvinced, but Petar makes the case. After that comes a clear explanation of this whole industry, the four layers, from what only nation states can do down to the individual company that just wants faster clinical trials. Timothy is known for arguing that network states and bricks-and-mortar Free Cities have to meet in the middle, and Petar reframes it completely: the network state as a social coordination layer, a backup layer for the world, permissionless money and contracts and speech held outside the physical control of any government and downloaded to a location later. He calls it a cloud Hanseatic League, and then explains what that actually buys you. Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Coming up 0:00:52 - Start of conversation: not a straightforward story 0:01:34 - Do what you want, as long as you are not stopping anyone else 0:02:30 - Serbia after the 1990s 0:03:09 - Centre left, nationalist right, and looking for a third way 0:06:06 - Finding the Free State Project on the internet 0:06:22 - Honduras in the Paul Romer days 0:07:50 - Why he builds zones to help longevity 0:08:59 - Two months at Vitalia 0:09:45 - Zuzalu, and why pop-up cities felt wishy-washy 0:11:47 - Every conversation feels like the start of a startup 0:13:24 - Forty startups and another twenty million 0:14:31 - Are the big names actually invested in the idea? 0:17:31 - Is this the beginning of a massive change? 0:18:53 - Nobody can predict this 0:19:26 - One Próspera, or twenty thousand 0:21:35 - The layers 0:22:17 - Layer zero: what only nation states can do 0:24:12 - Do you have to start at the sovereign level? 0:25:06 - The government will shut you down 0:25:48 - What has changed in Próspera 0:28:16 - The hostile government, and the climate now 0:29:28 - Bitcoin District, and Orangeville 0:30:02 - Veritas Villages 0:30:37 - The different tribes in this movement 0:34:47 - Bringing together people who should know each other 0:37:34 - Patri, and the barrier to entry 0:41:17 - How important is the network state idea? 0:43:43 - A backup layer for the world 0:44:20 - Downloading it to a location later 0:44:37 - A cloud Hanseatic League 0:45:41 - Bargaining power for people who seek freedom 0:47:37 - Atlas Network, and the film they turned down 0:53:25 - Beating the socialists 0:57:31 - A slow industry Guest: Petar Čekerevac - X | LinkedIn | Atlas Network | Libek The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica, watch the official reveal Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • September 4 · 1 hr 19 min

    198 - We’re Building a New Country in Europe | Daniel Jackson

    At 21 years old, Daniel Jackson is already president of a country. There is just one problem: he currently can't enter it. If you follow Free Cities, micronations or alternative governance online, there’s a good chance Verdis has suddenly appeared in your social media feed. Daniel says Verdis-related content has generated more than 200 million views over the past year, much of it following footage of him being chased by Croatian police boats. Verdis claims a tiny piece of land on the Danube between Croatia and Serbia, close to Liberland. Daniel and his team established a settlement there in 2023 before Croatian authorities removed them. Today Verdis operates what it calls a government in exile, claims around 400 citizens and 5,000 e-residents, issues passports and is attempting to build diplomatic relationships around the world. But Verdis is not simply another Liberland. Daniel describes himself as a centrist, wants the country to be politically neutral, is cautious about becoming a tax haven and talks repeatedly about keeping Croatia and Serbia comfortable with whatever Verdis becomes. The central problem: declaring sovereignty is one thing, but how do you actually achieve it when the neighbouring states hold all the cards? In this conversation: terra nullius, international recognition, citizenship, passports, taxation, attracting residents, financing a new country and the diplomatic effort to get back onto the land. And near the end Daniel reveals something unexpected: if Verdis succeeds, adopts a new constitution and holds elections, he says he won’t run. He wants to step down and live there as an ordinary citizen. Key topics covered Why Verdis suddenly appeared all over social media Daniel Jackson becoming president at 21 Verdis versus Liberland Claiming one of the world’s last pieces of unclaimed land The Croatian blockade Being chased by Croatian police boats Operating a government in exile Can Verdis actually become a recognised country? The Croatia-Serbia border dispute Terra nullius and the “oldest active claimant” 400 citizens and 5,000 e-residents How Verdis citizenship works What a future Verdis could look like Creating a functioning national border The Verdis passport Can you actually travel with it? Why Daniel doesn’t want Verdis to be radically libertarian Taxes and attracting residents Neutrality and Verdis’s founding values Diplomacy and international recognition How Verdis funds itself What Verdis can offer Croatia Why Daniel plans to give up the presidency Are new countries having a moment? Timestamps (Audio version only. Includes Timothy's introduction) 00:30 Introduction 06:17 Start of conversation 09:08 Why start your own country? 12:21 What and where is Verdis? 16:24 Croatian police remove the settlement 18:23 More than 200 million social-media views 22:35 How Verdis differs from Liberland 24:15 Imposter syndrome and international recognition 26:12 How does the border dispute ever get resolved? 32:36 Terra nullius and the claim to Verdis 34:52 400 citizens and 5,000 e-residents 37:12 How e-residency and citizenship work 39:25 Is Verdis trying to build a normal state? 42:24 The Verdis passport 45:13 The uphill battle towards recognition 46:46 What happened during the first settlement? 57:39 How do you attract people to Verdis? 59:09 What are Verdis’s values? 1:03:18 The next steps towards recognition 1:07:02 How does Verdis fund itself? 1:12:02 What can Verdis offer Croatia? 1:13:19 A president who’s never had an election 1:14:09 Why Daniel plans to step down 1:15:55 Are new countries having a moment? Guest: Daniel Jackson - Verdis website | Verdis on X | Daniel on TikTok | LinkedIn | Instagram The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: FreeCities.fm | All platforms | Fountain - bonus episodes & early access Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica - Watch the official reveal Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • August 28 · 1 hr 14 min

    197 - They'll Blame You When It Fails | Dominic Frisby

    Gold, Bitcoin, and who gets the blame when the money fails. - Dominic Frisby has written about gold for MoneyWeek for the best part of twenty years. He co-wrote and narrated Four Horsemen, and wrote Life After the State, Bitcoin: The Future of Money? and Daylight Robbery. He writes the newsletter The Flying Frisby, performs stand-up, and has a satirical song you have probably heard without knowing it was his. His new book is The Secret History of Gold, published by Penguin. Timothy caught him at Liberpulco, at the Liberland Ark Village in Apatin. They start on new countries and quickly move into a conversation about money as Dominic starts dismantling things. He does not think a hyperinflationary collapse is coming, and his reasons are not the usual ones. He thinks the reset story survives because human beings think in stories, while what actually happens is relentless gradual debasement. Water on rock. He also takes apart the line you hear on every podcast in this space, that every fiat currency in history has collapsed. After that: how much gold China really has and why it says otherwise, weaponising money in wartime, why the gold versus Bitcoin argument is mostly generational, what the Nazis did within an hour of invading a country, and why every gold standard in history has eventually failed. It ends on a modern Executive Order 6102, the unrealised capital gains tax, the millionaire exodus from Britain, and whether the walls go up to keep people out or to keep you in. NOTE: The video version of this episode is shorter than the audio. A camera malfunctioned during recording and the first part of the footage was lost. This audio version is the complete conversation. Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Welcome 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:03:26 - Veritas Villages 0:05:43 - Start of conversation: how he heard about Liberland 0:07:24 - No new countries since 2011 0:08:39 - The Shetland Islands 0:09:09 - The Independent Republic of Dumnonia 0:11:09 - Wanstonia and the M11 0:13:06 - 1971 0:14:31 - The pound has lost 40 per cent since 2020 0:15:26 - Do fiat currencies end in hyperinflation? 0:16:29 - Why the collapse story survives 0:18:24 - Every fiat currency has collapsed. Has it? 0:20:33 - How much gold does China have? 0:23:20 - Weaponising money in war 0:29:54 - Triffin's dilemma 0:35:01 - Gold bugs versus Bitcoiners is generational 0:37:57 - Unit of account versus medium of exchange 0:40:33 - Gold is older than the sun 0:42:32 - The asteroid mining red herring 0:46:24 - Nazi and Japanese looted gold 0:50:41 - The tunnels in the Philippines 0:52:23 - The Nixon shock 0:56:35 - William Pitt takes Britain off gold 0:59:04 - Why gold standards fail 1:01:40 - Governments collapse, and blame you 1:02:58 - The unrealised capital gains tax 1:04:37 - The white pill 1:06:38 - 2008 and the global margin call 1:07:57 - Tinfoil hats at Liberpulco 1:09:39 - Wealth taxes are coming 1:10:52 - Walls to stop you leaving 1:12:13 - The Secret History of Gold Guest: Dominic Frisby - The Flying Frisby | X | All links Buy Dominic's NEW book The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica, watch the official reveal Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • August 21 · 1 hr 27 min

    196 - The Panopticon Is Already Here | Gareth Icke

    Why are so many people suddenly questioning the official version of everything? - Gareth Icke grew up surrounded by some of the most controversial ideas in Britain. His father, David Icke, built an entire body of work around hidden networks of power, manipulation and control, and Timothy came across many of those books when he was younger. He found the way David connected institutions, incentives and influence into a much larger picture genuinely compelling, even if the shape-shifting reptiles were a bridge too far. This conversation begins there: with Gareth separating what he believes from what he doesn’t, reflecting on what his father may have seen clearly, and asking why some ideas that once sounded wildly fringe now seem rather harder to dismiss. From there they move into the digital panopticon, surveillance, psychopaths in positions of power, Brexit, COVID, immigration, social-media rage bait and the possibility that what looks like incompetence may sometimes be deliberate. Gareth argues that the deeper battle is between collectivism and individual responsibility, and that people keep outsourcing their decisions to governments and political saviours. But the conversation eventually turns towards solutions. Gareth talks about peaceful non-compliance, refusing to edit yourself to satisfy the state, creating parallel systems and building alternatives instead of waiting for existing institutions to change. But what does an alternative life actually look like when you still have to interact with the system you are trying to escape? The conversation ends without a neat answer. Timothy can now visualise the panopticon he could not imagine thirty years ago. What he still cannot visualise is the parallel life. Gareth's answer is simple: they will have to invent it. In this conversation: David Icke, Gareth's upbringing and the “weird stuff” Reptilians, aliens and spiritual conspiracy The Matrix and the digital panopticon Psychopaths in positions of power Fear, manipulation and social-media rage bait Brexit as a political awakening COVID, conformity and public pressure Collectivism versus individualism Trump, Farage and political saviours Peaceful non-compliance Joy as an act of defiance Why Gareth does not believe politics is the solution The permanent government The next psyop “We'll create our own then” Homestead communities and parallel systems The personal cost of speaking out Incompetence or calculation? What does a parallel life actually look like? Timestamps: (Audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction) 0:00:00 - Welcome 0:00:30 - Introduction 0:07:00 - Start of conversation: AI and clickbait 0:13:39 - David Icke and the weird stuff 0:19:22 - The Matrix and the digital panopticon 0:20:19 - “The eyes of the state on the citizens at all times” 0:22:42 - Conspiracy, power and psychopaths 0:30:02 - Manipulating populations through fear 0:34:36 - Rage bait and political division 0:36:36 - Brexit as Timothy's political awakening 0:41:18 - COVID and conformity 0:44:23 - Collectivism versus individualism 0:45:20 - Political saviours 0:46:16 - “I don't comply” 0:47:15 - Joy as an act of defiance 0:54:15 - Why politics isn't the solution 0:57:24 - How the political spectrum moved 1:01:48 - Social pressure versus formal authority 1:05:50 - What is the next psyop? 1:08:02 - The panopticon is now visible 1:08:54 - “We'll create our own then” 1:09:20 - Parallel systems and homestead communities 1:12:47 - David Icke's solution 1:15:51 - The personal cost of speaking out 1:19:57 - Behind the curtain 1:21:24 - Incompetence or calculation? 1:25:10 - What does a parallel life look like? Guest: Gareth Icke - Website | X | YouTube | Instagram | Telegram | Ickonic | Spotify The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica, watch the official reveal Become a resident or business owner in Próspera: prospera.co Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • August 14 · 1 hr 19 min

    195 - How to Survive a Hostile Government | Christian Betancourt

    A first hand account from inside the worst four years. - Christian Betancourt is a Honduran lawyer, entrepreneur and one of Próspera's earliest residents. He was also one of the first people Timothy Allen ever interviewed for this podcast, back in episode three in 2022, when Próspera consisted of little more than the Beta building and the Honduran government had just begun its campaign against the ZEDE framework. Nobody knew whether the project would survive. Christian was so confident in the legal architecture that he left his corporate law career and moved there, betting his future on it holding together. Four years on, and four difficult years at that, they sat down again to work out what actually happened. The story most people heard was that the government repealed the ZEDE law and abolished the zones. Christian argues that is not what happened, and that a great deal about it has been misunderstood. He walks through the layers of protection built into the system one by one: the stability agreements the government simply ignored, the organic law it did manage to repeal, the constitutional provision it never touched, the investment treaty with Kuwait, and how that treaty quietly triggered CAFTA-DR and brought the United States into the fold. He explains which protections were removed, which survived, and why Próspera and the other existing zones are still operating today. There is also the controversial Supreme Court ruling he refuses to recognise, the multi-billion dollar claim against Honduras, and the question everyone wants answered: whether the country could soon start creating new zones again. Beyond the law, the conversation covers CBDCs and Bitcoin, Bukele's influence across Central America, Honduran attitudes towards Próspera, the Socialist International delegation flown into a village of four hundred people, and what it means for a Honduran citizen to choose a radically different model of government inside his own country. In this conversation: Four years on from an interview recorded on a guest house sofa Why he was so bullish when almost nobody else was “It was like rough four years” 2022: the law repealed and the Constitution attacked Vitalia, and the first pop-up city Who invests in a place that has already been shut down? Coinbase, Tim Draper, sea turtles and Jack Sparrow Zuzalu, and the decision to replicate it in Próspera Quitting corporate law to move to Próspera Why Próspera is foreigner-centric and Morazán is not The extra risk Honduran entrepreneurs were taking CBDCs, the final boss of authoritarianism Living on a Bitcoin standard, and the train ticket you cannot buy Why stablecoins may have delayed the CBDC threat Does the Honduran government have a view on Bitcoin? What Hondurans know about El Salvador Security and justice as the base layer of government San Pedro Sula, once the most violent city in the world Does Honduras need a Bukele? Why the Marxist parties coordinated and the libertarians did not Were the ZEDEs a punching bag in the election? Crawfish Rock, and the story of the well The five layers of legal protection, laid out one by one Why everyone thinks they repealed the law The Kuwait treaty and the most favoured nation clause “I waged my own career and my own life by coming here” The strange 2024 ruling, and retroactive unconstitutionality Did the eleven billion dollar lawsuit work? The government downgrading its own success The Saudis of Central America The Socialist International, and an Indian Naxalite in Crawfish Rock Would a new law mean an explosion of new ZEDEs? Spanish municipalism, and where the idea really comes from The 50-year vision, revisited Dune, the Fremen, and the long-term view Why the legal structure matters more than the land Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:00 - Welcome 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:03:44 - Veritas Villages 0:05:26 - The back catalogue at freecities.fm 0:06:23 - Start of conversation: four years on from the first interview 0:08:15 - How bullish he was, and the 50-year vision 0:10:14 - “It was like rough four years” 0:10:17 - 2022: the law repealed, the Constitution attacked 0:11:17 - Vitalia, and the first pop-up city 0:11:50 - Who invests in a place that has been shut down? 0:12:54 - Coinbase, Tim Draper, sea turtles and Jack Sparrow 0:14:22 - Zuzalu, and replicating it in Próspera 0:16:01 - Quitting corporate law for the Beta building 0:16:38 - Why Próspera is foreigner-centric and Morazán is not 0:19:15 - CBDCs, the final boss of authoritarianism 0:22:25 - Programmable money and the train ticket you cannot buy 0:24:27 - Does the Honduran government have a view on Bitcoin? 0:26:47 - Security as the base layer of government 0:27:30 - San Pedro Sula, once the most violent city in the world 0:28:35 - Does Honduras need a Bukele? 0:30:01 - Why the Marxist parties coordinated and the libertarians did not 0:31:49 - Were the ZEDEs a punching bag in the election? 0:34:17 - Crawfish Rock, and the story of the well 0:37:18 - The five layers of legal protection 0:40:09 - Why everyone thinks they repealed the law 0:42:01 - The Kuwait treaty, CAFTA-DR and the most favoured nation clause 0:46:00 - “I waged my own career and my own life by coming here” 0:47:38 - The Supreme Court ruling 0:54:26 - Retroactive unconstitutionality, and why he refuses to recognise it 0:57:12 - Did the eleven billion dollar lawsuit work? 0:58:59 - The government downgrading its own success 1:01:17 - The Saudis of Central America 1:02:30 - The Socialist International and an Indian Naxalite 1:05:17 - Would a new law mean an explosion of new ZEDEs? 1:06:39 - Spanish municipalism, and where the idea really comes from 1:07:56 - The 50-year vision revisited 1:12:40 - Dune, the Fremen, and the long-term view 1:14:49 - The most important part of the whole ZEDE idea 1:17:59 - Wrap-up and how to support the show Guest: Christian Betancourt - X | LinkedIn The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica, watch the official reveal Become a resident or business owner in Próspera: prospera.co Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • August 7 · 1 hr 5 min

    194 - Two Founders, Two Futures | Liam Martin & Nick Francis

    One says relax. One bought a Bunker. Two founders on whether AI is coming for your job. - Liam Martin is the co-founder of Time Doctor and Running Remote, and the creator of Peppermint, an AI tool that builds a working digital twin of you out of your emails, messages and calls. Nick Francis spent more than fifteen years building and running Help Scout as a fully remote company. Both were recorded at Running Remote in Austin. When Timothy Allen first sat down with Liam Martin a year ago in Morocco, he was the one asking what an LLM actually was. Liam has been deep in this world for a while, which is exactly why it is worth paying attention when he says tens of millions of jobs could be gone inside twelve months, and why he has bought a chalet in the Canadian woods with its own water and power, just in case. Along the way: a digital twin that answered his accountant's questions for him, an AI that told him the premise of his conference talk was wrong and then built a better one in 78 seconds, and the p(doom) figure that AI insiders quote in private but not on stage. Nick Francis could hardly disagree more. He calls himself an incredible optimist, and he makes a good case. His argument is that the last ten percent of any work, the craft, the judgement, the human touch, is exactly the part AI cannot do, and the part that is about to matter most. He also has a clear-eyed read on where remote work actually stands now that the pandemic push has faded, and why the second wave raises the bar rather than lowering it. Timothy lands somewhere in between: fascinated, slightly rattled, and increasingly convinced that the one thing which holds its value is the human experience itself. A genuine argument about the future of work, in which nobody is entirely sure who is right. In this conversation: A year on, and the floor has dropped out Vibe coding a website, and a WordPress plugin built in seconds Distributed people to distributed intelligence The AI that rewrote a conference talk in 78 seconds Peppermint, and the digital twin that answers your emails Is it creepy? Privacy, PII layers and self-sovereign AI The prepper chalet in the Canadian woods p(doom): ten percent in public, seventy to eighty in private The Anthropic security lead who moved to Austria to write poetry Why Timothy wants the human experience, not the AI copy AI slop on Instagram and TikTok, and rejecting AI-written show notes Government oversight, and the case that AGI has already happened Thirty, forty, fifty percent unemployment inside a year The OpenAI valuation maths that gives the game away Waymo at seven dollars a ride Typing pools, electricity, and what a general technology does The horses of 1910 Why humans will choose to impose limits on themselves Liam's thirty percent chance of utopia Nick Francis and the second wave of remote work Remote before the pandemic, and why talent was always the reason The trade-offs nobody mentions Retreats, Rome and crowning a Pope What is actually happening to remote work right now Hubs, Googles and the geographic perimeter problem The future of work Why Nick is an incredible optimist Jensen Huang and the cost-cutting trap Why software as a service survives The last ten percent, and why craft is the moment Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:03:02 - Veritas Villages: the Atenas reveal 0:06:47 - Start of conversation: a year on, and the floor has dropped out 0:09:10 - Distributed people to distributed intelligence 0:10:04 - The AI that rewrote a conference talk in 78 seconds 0:12:00 - Peppermint, and the digital twin that answers your emails 0:14:38 - Is it creepy? Privacy and self-sovereign AI 0:16:59 - The prepper chalet in the Canadian woods 0:17:48 - p(doom): ten percent in public, seventy to eighty in private 0:18:16 - The Anthropic security lead who moved to Austria 0:20:08 - Why Timothy wants the human experience, not the AI copy 0:22:34 - AI slop, and rejecting AI-written show notes 0:24:37 - Government oversight and the case that AGI has already happened 0:26:15 - Waymos, novelty and the human element 0:28:01 - Where is the floor? 0:29:02 - Thirty, forty, fifty percent unemployment 0:29:31 - The OpenAI maths that gives the game away 0:32:36 - Does it eat its way to the top? 0:34:32 - Typing pools, electricity and general technologies 0:36:41 - The horses of 1910 0:37:57 - Why humans will impose limits on themselves 0:39:11 - Liam's thirty percent chance of utopia 0:40:53 - Veritas Villages 0:41:37 - Nick Francis: what is the second wave of remote work? 0:43:26 - Remote before the pandemic, and why talent was the reason 0:45:21 - The trade-offs nobody mentions 0:46:57 - Retreats, Rome and crowning a Pope 0:48:42 - What is actually happening to remote work right now 0:50:28 - Hubs, Googles and the geographic perimeter problem 0:53:14 - No head office: the branding question 0:54:04 - The future of work 0:55:38 - AI: which side of the fence is Nick on? 0:56:11 - Why he is an incredible optimist 0:57:12 - Jensen Huang and the cost-cutting trap 1:00:00 - Why software as a service survives 1:02:00 - The last ten percent, and why craft is the moment 1:03:27 - Wrap-up and how to support the show Guests: Liam Martin - Peppermint | Running Remote | Time Doctor | X | LinkedIn. Nick Francis - Help Scout | Website | LinkedIn Liam’s first appearance on the show, recorded in Morocco a year earlier: listen here The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. New: Veritas Village at Atenas, Costa Rica, watch the official reveal Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • July 31 · 2 hr 18 min

    193 - Fifty Years of Watching It Go Wrong | Mark Frazier

    He knew the men who tried to start their own countries. He watched every one of them fail. - Mark Frazier has been in this movement longer than almost anyone alive. He put out libertarian magazines in high school, and by eighteen he had been made publisher of Reason, back when it ran out of a truck driver's apartment and had three hundred subscribers. That was 1970. Over the following half century he worked on free zones in more than fifty countries, advised the Reagan administration on enterprise zones, consulted for the World Bank and USAID, and wrote the step-by-step guide on how to build these places. He is president of the nonprofit Openworld and chairs the advisory board of the Startup Societies Foundation. Timothy Allen sits down with Mark in Próspera for a genuine oral history of the Free Cities idea, told by someone who was there for its strangest chapters. Mark knew the men who tried to start their own countries in the sixties and seventies: Werner Stiefel and his Atlantis project, Mike Oliver and the flags raised on seamounts off Tonga and Vanuatu. He was a reporter on the ground in 1975 when one of those breakaway nations collapsed, and the epiphany he had on the way home became his life's work. What sets Mark apart is the lessons he drew from watching so much fail. Do not fall in love with a location and push, he says. Make it a prize that countries compete to win, the way he once got twelve nations bidding to host the first spaceport on Earth. And do not build an enclave that grows rich while the neighbours grow resentful. Design it from day one so the people already living there share in the upside. From there the conversation ranges a very long way: Shenzhen and Montego Bay, the birth of offshore call centres, thirty-dollar micro-vouchers that put Sri Lankan villagers into university, and why Mark thinks AI is about to pull the rug out from under the entire free zone model. And in the final stretch it turns genuinely strange, in the best way: abundance, spirituality, whether a silicon chip can want something, and a rat experiment called Universe 25 that neither host nor guest could quite let go of. In this conversation: A left-wing teenager who read Rand and changed course Becoming publisher of Reason at eighteen The lost history of libertarian new-country projects Werner Stiefel's Atlantis and Mike Oliver's island nations Watching a breakaway nation collapse in 1975 The spaceport prize that drew twelve competing countries Why funnelling money into one chosen location is the wrong way to start Shenzhen in 1982, sprouting skyscrapers from a fishing village Montego Bay and the birth of offshore call centres Uruguay, Zonamerica and the single paragraph that changed everything Anti-fragile zones and designing for shared upside Build-operate-transfer and why leasing land beats selling it Thirty-dollar micro-vouchers and the Sri Lankan school that reached university Why AI is about to pull the rug out from under the free zone model The future of zones as places of experience, safety and serendipity AI tutoring, the Alpha School, and a daughter learning from an AI horseman Hiring on proof of work rather than diplomas Land value as the mechanism that keeps a community on side The Phoenicians, gifts on a beach, and building trust from nothing What Mark thinks Próspera got right and what it missed Abundance, the unnecessariat, and why elite capture may not come Spirituality as the last uniquely human premium Universe 25 and the danger of a world without limits A prediction for the next twenty years Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:00 - Welcome and introduction 0:03:15 - Veritas Villages 0:07:28 - Start of conversation: fifty years in the making 0:10:32 - The lost new-country projects: Atlantis, Minerva and the seamounts 0:15:37 - The epiphany in Fiji: make it a prize to be won 0:17:06 - The spaceport prize and twelve competing countries 0:24:18 - On the ground in a failed state 0:27:32 - Montego Bay, Shenzhen and the birth of offshore work 0:32:25 - Uruguay and Zonamerica: the gold standard 0:35:22 - Anti-fragility and designing for shared upside 0:41:13 - Why Silicon Valley actually worked 0:45:12 - Build-operate-transfer, leasing land, and debt-for-equity swaps 0:49:20 - Leading with a gift, and what Próspera got right 0:53:29 - Micro-vouchers and the Sri Lankan school that reached university 1:04:06 - Forty million freelancers and the reputation problem 1:06:16 - Why AI pulls the rug out from under the free zone model 1:09:58 - The future of zones: experience, safety and serendipity 1:10:43 - A daughter, a horse, and learning from an AI Buck Brannaman 1:14:48 - The Alpha School and AI-delivered learning 1:20:28 - Hiring on proof of work, not diplomas 1:33:26 - The founder's manifesto: lead with education 1:36:13 - The gentrification trap and vesting the people who add value 1:38:36 - The Phoenicians and gifts on a beach 1:49:53 - On the fence about AI: helpful, hollowing, and dangerous 1:53:00 - Why elite capture may not come in a world of abundance 1:54:04 - Spirituality as the last human premium 2:02:36 - Universe 25 and the danger of a world without limits 2:10:17 - A prediction for the next twenty years 2:16:04 - Wrap-up and how to support the show Guest: Mark Frazier - LinkedIn | Openworld | Startup Societies Foundation | Research papers The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation, hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • July 24 · 1 hr 4 min

    192 - The First Country on the Internet | Joey Flores

    A Country on the Internet, a Passport by 2050, and the Death of the CV - Joey Flores is Head of Marketing at SafetyWing, the Y Combinator-backed company building a global social safety net for remote workers. A two-time startup founder whose YC-funded music startup was acquired, he dropped out of high school at sixteen and now lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. Timothy Allen sits down with Joey at the Running Remote conference in Austin, Texas, for a conversation about building for the 21st century nomadic life. SafetyWing's pitch is simple and audacious: your healthcare, income protection and pension come from your country and stop following you the moment you live a borderless life, so they are building a safety net that travels with you instead. The endgame is to launch the first country on the internet, through Plumia, the nonprofit think tank spun out of SafetyWing and run by Lauren Razavi. They have mapped the vision to 2050, passport included. Around the edges, the conversation ranges widely: why you cannot simply build a new Silicon Valley wherever you fancy, an unusually honest insider's view of what digital nomads are doing to cities like Oaxaca, a company culture involving rented hotels in Patagonia and a houseplant stipend, a friend allegedly building a Mach 10 passenger plane, and what AI is doing to hiring, including Joey's own story of how resume-screening software made a company founder without a degree invisible to employers. In this conversation: A social safety net that travels with you The plan to launch the first country on the internet Plumia, network states and Edge City What would make an internet country a real country Nomad Citizen: income protection, healthcare and one-click visas A passport that brings its own safety net The 2050 timeline and a flag in the ground The future of remote work A Mach 10 passenger plane, allegedly six years away What Y Combinator is and why it matters Why Joey lives in Oaxaca on an American salary Talent, funding and why Silicon Valley is hard to copy How exits create angel investors and startup cities Nomad gentrification: tipping, housing and behaving well abroad Why long-term expats reject the nomad label Is there such a thing as nomad culture? Hunting the next great nomad hub, and why Florianópolis keeps coming up Patagonia retreats, Build Week in Norway and houseplant stipends What AI is doing inside SafetyWing Solopreneurs and who loses their job first Dropping out at sixteen and being filtered out by hiring software Should your kids skip university? How to actually stand out and get hired Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:00 - Welcome 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:06:04 - Veritas Villages 0:11:43 - Start of conversation: a safety net that travels with you 0:12:40 - The first country on the internet 0:14:07 - What makes a country a country? 0:14:28 - Nomad Citizen and one-click visas 0:15:19 - A passport that brings its own safety net 0:16:31 - Plumia, Edge City and the nonprofit arm 0:17:28 - Income protection and what is actually in the products 0:19:15 - Travel cover without the endless add-ons 0:21:42 - The 2050 timeline 0:22:44 - The future of remote work 0:23:53 - A Mach 10 passenger plane? 0:24:58 - What is Y Combinator? 0:26:03 - Why Joey lives in Oaxaca 0:27:11 - Can you build Silicon Valley anywhere else? 0:30:00 - Exits, millionaires and angel investors 0:32:39 - Nomad gentrification: an insider's warning 0:36:35 - Why long-term expats reject the nomad label 0:37:59 - Is there such a thing as nomad culture? 0:40:10 - Hunting the next nomad hub 0:40:48 - Florianópolis and Ipê City 0:42:05 - The future of work is global 0:43:12 - Patagonia retreats and Build Week in Norway 0:46:33 - Houseplant stipends and remote-first perks 0:47:50 - What AI is doing inside SafetyWing 0:49:13 - Solopreneurs and the jobs question 0:51:40 - Breaking in when AI already does the job 0:53:45 - Should your kids skip university? 0:54:24 - Dropping out at sixteen and beating the CV filters 0:56:16 - How to actually stand out and get hired 0:58:49 - Founders who cannot work for anyone else 1:00:40 - Where independent, self-driven people thrive 1:02:45 - Wrap-up and how to support the show Guest: Joey Flores - LinkedIn | SafetyWing | Plumia The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • July 17 · 1 hr 39 min

    191 - Everyone Needs a Plan B | Vance

    Second Passports, Plan B Residencies, and the Americas Super Cycle - Vance is the founder of My Latin Life, an immigration agency covering residency visas across Latin America. A Canadian-American software developer, he began travelling after reading Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek and arriving in Playa del Carmen in 2018. Timothy Allen sits down with Vance in Próspera for a practical guide to internationalising your life. They discuss the five routes to a second passport, why ancestry should usually be investigated first, why Mexico often suits Americans while Paraguay appeals to Europeans, and how some Latin American residencies can be maintained with very little time on the ground. The conversation then turns to the larger shift Vance sees taking place across the world: declining confidence in Europe, growing optimism in Latin America, El Salvador's transformation, Dubai's sudden vulnerability, and his belief that the present economic super cycle belongs to the Americas. In this conversation: Why Vance built an online identity around a pseudonym Canada, the United States and discovering geo-arbitrage How The 4-Hour Workweek turned travel into a way of life Choosing destinations to learn Spanish, Portuguese and French Why technical skills still matter in the age of AI Arriving in Playa del Carmen and finding the digital nomad world How My Latin Life became an immigration agency Residency visas, offshore banking, companies and asset protection The five routes to a second passport Why ancestry is often the cheapest and most overlooked route Mexico for Americans and Paraguay for Europeans US citizenship-based taxation and the Texas two-step Paraguay's residency process and low physical-presence rules Panama, tax blacklists and leaving your previous tax system UK tax residence, property, family and substantial ties Raising children in a stable home while preparing them for a changing world European pessimism versus Latin American optimism Flag theory and geographic arbitrage Building a podcast as a network rather than a standalone product What more than 300 interviews taught Vance about podcasting El Salvador's transformation and growing business confidence Dubai and the danger of mistaking a boom for permanence Portugal, Spain, London and historic economic super cycles Why Vance believes the present super cycle belongs to the Americas Europe or the Americas: where should you place your future? Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:10:10 - Start of conversation: living behind a pseudonym 0:12:35 - Canada, the US and early geo-arbitrage 0:13:31 - Coding, business and The 4-Hour Workweek 0:17:12 - Does a digital nomad ever plan to come home? 0:19:53 - Choosing countries through language learning 0:21:10 - Technology versus finance 0:23:29 - Preparing children for the future of work 0:25:07 - Studying unconventional success stories 0:26:28 - AI-assisted coding and entrepreneurial generalists 0:28:32 - The move from Miami to Playa del Carmen 0:32:25 - Discovering Latin America and creating My Latin Life 0:34:11 - Becoming an immigration agency 0:35:11 - Why everybody needs more than one passport 0:36:00 - The five routes to a second citizenship 0:38:31 - Latin America's accessible residency programmes 0:40:14 - Mexico for Americans, Paraguay for Europeans 0:41:05 - US citizenship-based taxation 0:42:23 - The Texas two-step 0:43:55 - US tax on worldwide income 0:45:13 - Living between Mexico, Paraguay and Portugal 0:46:17 - Paraguay's residency process 0:47:04 - One day every three years 0:48:29 - Panama and European tax blacklists 0:50:20 - Leaving your previous tax system 0:51:26 - UK property, family and substantial ties 0:52:17 - Positioning your family for the future 0:53:24 - European pessimism versus Próspera optimism 0:58:04 - Oil prices, heating costs and the family holiday 1:01:47 - Why you cannot save your way out of rising costs 1:02:11 - Europeans moving to Latin America 1:03:14 - Flag theory and geographic arbitrage 1:03:57 - Mobility versus stability for families 1:07:36 - Can a podcast become a primary income? 1:10:21 - The podcast as a networking tool 1:11:24 - More than 300 My Latin Life episodes 1:15:01 - Podcasts, events and a defensible business 1:17:29 - Why famous guests rarely create lasting growth 1:21:53 - Vance's latest visit to El Salvador 1:23:56 - Safety, opportunity and optimism 1:26:02 - Living near builders and innovation 1:28:12 - Dubai and how quickly a boom can reverse 1:29:39 - Mini cycles versus century-long super cycles 1:30:23 - Why the Americas are entering their super cycle 1:31:36 - Returning diasporas and rebuilding countries 1:34:18 - Europe or the Americas? 1:36:51 - My Latin Life and how to contact Vance Guest: Vance - My Latin Life | X | YouTube | Podcast | Newsletter The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • July 9 · 1 hr 33 min

    190 - Building Prosperity in the Danger Zone | Joyce Brand

    Spencer Heath, the Entrecom Model, and the City With One Owner – Joyce Brand is a proper OG of the Free Cities world: author of 'Pioneering Prosperity: The Morazán Model for Free Cities', co-author of Spencer Heath's posthumous Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men, and one of the very few people in this movement who has actually lived in a Free City. She spent three years as an early resident and chronicler of Ciudad Morazán, the "blue-collar" Honduran ZEDE built not for tech founders and digital nomads but for ordinary Honduran workers, in what was statistically one of the most dangerous parts of the country. Timothy Allen sits down with Joyce in Próspera for her first ever podcast recorded in person. It is the story of one of the great late-life plot twists: a forty-five year obsession with incentives that began with five unnecessary typewriters in Portland, Oregon in 1981, ran through a decade in Hollywood as a film editor, and ended with her moving to Honduras at 71 to watch a city rise from bare farmland. As she puts it, life begins at 70. It is also probably the clearest explanation you will hear of the entrecom model: Spencer Heath's idea that landowners, not politicians, are the natural providers of governance services, made real by the Italian industrialist Massimo Mazzone. Along the way: why Morazán and Próspera look completely different but are structurally almost identical, and what it is like to live in a place while the incoming government campaigns on destroying the legal framework it stands on. In this conversation: Joyce's first in-person podcast, stage fright, and Timothy's malaria blank in front of a thousand people Five memory typewriters nobody needed: the 1981 government order that revealed how perverse incentives are baked into the system Coercion and consent as a continuum, and thirty years of studying economics and political philosophy as a hobby A decade in Hollywood: editing a dozen independent features, starting in her late 40s, and cutting Eric Roberts Meeting Spencer MacCallum at Libertopia, and Spencer Heath's most controversial idea: the landowner as the natural provider of governance What governance actually needs to provide: security, fair dispute resolution, and infrastructure, and why everything else is the will to power Life begins at 70: the Peter Thiel question that gave her a purpose COVID, a cancelled move to Colombia, and the phone call that changed everything: Spencer bedridden in Mexico Finishing a 60-year book project at a dying man's bedside: Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men The last dinner party, and the four-hour conversation with Massimo Mazzone that ended with a house, a salary, and a mission: chronicle everything, the good and the bad Watching a city built from cows and bare farmland: the wall first, then the houses, then the road The escalator accident, a hospital that assumed COVID, and refusing remdesivir and the ventilator The autoimmune diagnosis that forced her back to the US, and taking responsibility for her own health How the ZEDEs became a campaign punching bag, and why the lady at the beauty salon had never heard of them The entrecom model explained: one entity holds title to all the land, and governance becomes a service you subscribe to rather than submit to The myth of home ownership: property taxes, zoning, and why you never really owned it anyway What if you get a bad owner? Contracts, third-party arbitration, and why customers leaving solves what voting cannot Why Morazán and Próspera are structurally almost identical: statutory autonomy, contractual governance, and monetary optionality (including the rent paid in stablecoin, not stable corn) Welfare versus real charity: entitlement, dependence, and the Morazán residents who pitched in for a neighbour's leg surgery Why governance as a business has never caught on: corporations, government favours, and why Pfizer is not capitalism Her vision: a world full of Free Cities, networked in alliances, so every human being can choose their governance Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:08:46 - Start of conversation: her first in-person podcast, and stage fright 0:12:03 - "You're a bit of an OG" 0:12:47 - Three years in Morazán, and the first visit: cows, farmland, one warehouse 0:14:01 - The 1981 typewriter story: perverse incentives revealed 0:17:44 - Thirty years of study, and a decade in Hollywood 0:21:53 - Meeting Spencer MacCallum at Libertopia 0:22:09 - Spencer Heath: the landowner as the natural provider of governance 0:27:33 - What governance services actually are: security, disputes, infrastructure 0:32:32 - Life begins at 70: the Peter Thiel question 0:34:43 - COVID, the cancelled move to Colombia, and the call to Spencer 0:37:12 - Finishing Economics and the Spiritual Life of Free Men at his bedside 0:39:37 - The last dinner party, and Massimo Mazzone's four-hour vision 0:42:40 - The offer: a house, a salary, and chronicle everything 0:45:15 - Watching the city rise: the wall, the houses, the road 0:46:54 - FreedomFest, the escalator accident, and two weeks in hospital 0:51:02 - The autoimmune diagnosis, and leaving Morazán 0:52:19 - Lessons from building a city 0:53:08 - Bureaucrats, customs, and trouble before the election 0:55:06 - The socialist campaign against the ZEDEs 0:57:02 - Did ordinary Hondurans actually care? 0:59:50 - The entrecom model explained 1:02:38 - The myth of home ownership 1:05:14 - What if you get a bad owner? 1:07:09 - Why Morazán and Próspera are structurally almost identical 1:08:24 - Monetary optionality, and the stable corn incident 1:10:02 - Subscribing versus submitting: opt-in, opt-out 1:11:04 - A world of networked Free Cities 1:12:30 - Welfare, real charity, and the Uber driver's surgery 1:20:53 - Local community, and why we now expect politicians to lie 1:23:06 - Can entrecoms scale? The market will show you 1:24:28 - Why governance as a business has never caught on: corporations are not capitalism 1:29:00 - Wrapping up: back to Morazán on Sunday Guest: Joyce Brand - Pioneering Prosperity: The Morazán Model for Free Cities | The Morazan Model | Linktree The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • July 3 · 1 hr 34 min

    189 - The Nomad Pioneer Betting on a Free City | Gonçalo Hall

    Nomad Villages, the Bali Playbook, and Building a Caribbean Frontier – Gonçalo Hall is a pioneer of the digital nomad movement, the builder behind the world's first Nomad Village in Madeira and the founder of NomadX, who now runs the Roatán Tourism Bureau, a Próspera company whose job is to put a little-known Caribbean island on the map. A year ago, in episode 130, he told Timothy that almost nobody in the digital nomad world had heard of Próspera, and that its real problem was community and public relations. Twelve months later he has moved to Roatán with his wife and young daughter and works inside the ecosystem he was once only studying from the outside. Timothy Allen sits down with Gonçalo in person in Próspera, having spent almost a month living and working there himself. It is a candid conversation about what is genuinely working in this frontier and what plainly is not yet, and about whether a place this early can become the builder's dream Gonçalo believes it already is. They move from the full-circle story of two strangers meeting in Morocco to both ending up in Honduras, through the hard-won lessons of Madeira and Bali, to the thing Gonçalo says matters most and is hardest to fake: community, experience, and integrating the local people. Timothy is sceptical about the frontier gaps, the disjointedness, the missing beach and the missing cafe, and Gonçalo does not pretend they are solved. But both agree the opportunity here is unlike anything else in the space. In this conversation: The full-circle story: meeting at an invite-only nomad gathering in Morocco, and how a three-month consulting trip turned into moving his family to Roatán Why Próspera feels disjointed and cut off today, and why Gonçalo frames that as an opportunity rather than a failure The "come for a month" model: why a few days makes you a tourist, and a month makes you a builder, and how Timothy accidentally proved it Build for nomads, but do not make them your end client: why building for nomads means building for everyone The Bali and Canggu playbook, from a single co-working space to the best cafes and gyms in the world, built by nomads for nomads Building for experience: the two layers of physical infrastructure and community, and why Próspera can control both from scratch Pop-up months and thematic months: a longevity month, a biotech month, and structuring the serendipity so it does not take a month to click The missing third space, the cafe that should open at seven, and the beach club that could connect Duna Tower to Pristine Bay The school as an anchor: Pristine Academy, a Montessori class of eight nationalities, and Noma Collective's family month retreats What the Roatán Tourism Bureau actually does, and why nobody knows where Roatán, let alone Próspera, is The cruise ship problem: 2.1 million visitors spending sixty dollars a day, and how to convert them into people who stay Longevity as the standout bet: the GARM Clinic, gene therapy, Peter Diamandis's X Prize, and the peptide boom What peptides actually are, GLP-1s, and Gonçalo testing the longevity products he is about to promote The entrepreneur ranch on the Honduran mainland: rural tourism, free rent, and empowering locals to build Community as the real differentiator: why here and not the Bahamas or Lisbon, two hours from Miami with regulatory autonomy Próspera's head start and the regulatory canvas for AI, crypto and real estate that Europe makes impossible Managing expectations and the danger of overselling a cutting-edge but early-stage place Crawfish Rock: the neighbouring village, the "same two ladies" in every interview, and why integrating the locals protects the whole project The butterfly effect, and how Lauren Razavi of Plumia is the reason this conversation happened at all Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode: a year on from Morocco 0:09:55 - Start of conversation: how a consulting trip became a move to Roatán 0:13:55 - No holds barred: what is working and what is not 0:16:37 - Why you should come to Próspera for a month 0:23:02 - Roatán is twenty years behind the Caribbean 0:24:00 - Build for nomads, build for everyone 0:25:16 - The Bali and Canggu playbook 0:33:39 - Pop-up months and thematic months 0:39:43 - The missing third space 0:44:47 - The school, and family month retreats 0:51:52 - The land between Duna Tower and Pristine Bay 0:56:24 - What the Roatán Tourism Bureau actually does 0:57:58 - The cruise ship problem 1:01:37 - Longevity, the GARM Clinic, and gene therapy 1:06:26 - What are peptides? 1:09:37 - The entrepreneur ranch on the Honduran mainland 1:15:07 - Community as the real differentiator 1:17:55 - Próspera's head start and the regulatory canvas 1:21:23 - The Free Cities Conference comes to Próspera 1:22:45 - Managing expectations, and not overselling 1:26:54 - Crawfish Rock and integrating the locals 1:30:38 - The butterfly effect, and Lauren Razavi's role Guest: Gonçalo Hall - X @Gonzohall | Roatán Tourism Bureau | NomadX Gonçalo's first appearance: EP 130 - Why Most Digital Nomads Have Never Heard of Próspera The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • June 26 · 2 hr 23 min

    188 - Plan For Decentralisation | Polycarp Nakamoto

    Community, Mesh Networks, and the Plan to Build a Parallel Society on Bitcoin – Polycarp Nakamoto is the masked, anonymous figure at the centre of Lab 484, a research laboratory and cluster of startups based in Austin, Texas, building for Web 5: a second internet that runs peer-to-peer on Bitcoin nodes rather than the centralised choke points of the web we use today. Through Lab 484 and its flagship Archipelago operating system, the community is assembling the hardware and software for a censorship-resistant mesh network, owned by nobody and run by everybody, that they believe will be needed when the internet as we know it fails. Timothy Allen sits down with Poly in person at a community compound near Austin for one of the more unusual conversations in the show's history. It is a conversation about whether you can rebuild the internet from the ground up on the one piece of digital infrastructure Poly considers genuinely decentralised: Bitcoin. They move from the question of anonymity, through the architecture of a second internet (mesh networks, Bitcoin nodes, Nostr, e-cash), to the harder problem sitting underneath all of it: people. Along the way: why Poly thinks the internet has roughly five years left, what a private AI living inside a shipping-container home looks like, why he frames the whole thing as a fork between a CBDC dystopia and a sovereign solarpunk future, and a genuine back-and-forth about whether any of this survives contact with the human condition. Timothy is an old Bitcoiner who runs his own node and lives on a remote farm, so in many ways Poly is preaching to the choir. But this is not an infomercial for the sovereign life, and the scepticism is real. In this conversation: Why Poly stays anonymous, and his argument that "everyone is building the mesh network," so the idea does not depend on any single person's identity Lab 484: a decentralised governance board with no ownership, a private membership association, and twelve startups each building a different piece of the new internet Web 1 to Web 5 in plain terms, with Amazon Sidewalk as the proprietary mesh network and Jack Dorsey's Bitchat as the open-source one Using Bitcoin nodes as a second internet: replacing the DNS, hosting "sovereign" websites that cannot be switched off, and why Poly says you need more nodes rather than mass adoption Ubiquiti point-to-point antennas, five-mile links, and how even a remote farm might connect The startups in detail: Bitcoin-node food trucks, shipping-container tiny homes, and a house with a private cloud, a private AI, and a private voice assistant built in Self-hosted, sovereign AI: the Framework Desktop with an AMD Ryzen AI Max chip, why open-source models are "cooking for yourself," and running it all on a node like Umbrel or Start9 The Archipelago operating system: a Linux-based, open-source Bitcoin-node OS bundling mesh networking, private AI and a private cloud, designed to spread from a USB stick What happens if the internet goes down: radio, Meshtastic, dark fibre, cheap satellites, and reusing old architecture with Nostr relays Jack Dorsey's Web 5 stack, as Poly tells it: decentralised identifiers, verifiable credentials, and decentralised web nodes, all designed to run on a nodal network AI you cannot hold accountable, the "golden calf," AI-generated code rot, and the spiritual experience as the new human frontier Digital ID as Timothy's line in the sand, the CBDC "triple threat" of identity, money and data, and the Tower of Babel as a parable for breaking centralisation Off-grid Bitcoin with Fedimint and Cashu, the warehouse-receipt analogy for e-cash, and earning a passive income by relaying data Network effects (eBay and PayPal, and Bitcoin's "seven network effects"), low time preference, and why staying under the radar only works up to a point Network states versus intentional communities, Próspera's legal survival, Liberland, and a spectrum of sovereignty that runs from hiding to recognition The closing argument: "remove the centralisation from your own heart first," and why anything worth building should be as easily replicated as Bitcoin Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:25 - Introduction to episode 0:13:30 - Start of conversation: anonymity, the mask, and why the message does not depend on the man 0:15:01 - The Austin compound, Lab 484, and a decentralised governance board with twelve startups 0:20:00 - Web 1 to Web 5, Amazon Sidewalk, and Bitchat 0:25:51 - Bitcoin nodes as a second internet and a replacement for the DNS 0:41:00 - The startups: Bitcoin-node food trucks, shipping-container tiny homes, and a private AI home 0:43:15 - Self-hosted AI, the Framework Desktop, and the cooking analogy 0:55:00 - If the internet goes down: radio, Meshtastic, dark fibre, satellites, and Nostr relays 1:16:00 - AI accountability, the golden calf, and the spiritual frontier 1:24:00 - Digital ID as the line in the sand, CBDCs, and the Tower of Babel 1:39:00 - Off-grid Bitcoin: Fedimint, Cashu, and paying to send data 1:51:00 - Network effects, low time preference, and staying under the radar 2:09:00 - Network states, Próspera, Liberland, and the spectrum of sovereignty 2:16:00 - Individual sovereignty, running Archipelago, and "plan for decentralisation" Guest: Polycarp Nakamoto - X @polycarpweb5 | Lab 484 | Archipelago Foundation | Archipelago live demo | Public alpha The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • June 19 · 1 hr 13 min

    187 - Free Cities Have a People Problem | Daniel Thompson

    Building New Cities Starts With People: Digital Nomads, Families, and the Minimum Viable Society – Daniel Thompson is the co-founder and CEO of Noma Collective, a global community of remote workers, location-independent professionals and, increasingly, families, who travel and live together in different parts of the world a month at a time. Born and raised in the UK to a family of musicians, he spent his early twenties in music marketing and PR and ran one of the biggest weekly nights in the dubstep scene before leaving to travel. After two years on the road he settled in Buenos Aires, where he launched the country's first arts members club, and spent summers running large-scale European festivals including Outlook, Dimensions and Secret Solstice. He moved to Belize in 2019, and when the pandemic hit he reopened a hotel as a pop-up co-live that became Noma Collective in 2020. He has since acquired the work-travel program Hacker Paradise, and now develops the ideas at the centre of this conversation: his "7 Stages of Remote Life" framework and his new Minimum Viable Society project. He is based in Mérida, Mexico. Timothy Allen sits down with Daniel in Próspera for a conversation about the quiet problem underneath the whole free cities movement: not law, not land, but people. How do you actually get human beings to turn up, and then how do you get them to stay? They move from the idea that digital nomadism is a stage rather than a destination, through Daniel's belief that families are the missing key to critical mass, to his Minimum Viable Society project and a genuine disagreement between the two men about whether you build a new community on empty land or on one of the thousands of depopulated villages already standing across southern Europe. Along the way: how Noma started by accident in a locked-down Belize hotel, why it turned out to be solving loneliness rather than infrastructure, what a portable schooling network looks like, how a broken property ladder might be replaced with subscription-to-ownership, and why integrating with the existing local community matters more than any amount of capital. In this conversation: Why "people," not regulations or coastline, is the binding constraint on every new city and network state Digital nomadism as a stage, not a destination, and the path from remote work to multi-local living to a multi-generational network society "Multi-local," feeling at home in more than two places, a term Daniel credits to Emi of Crecimiento, Argentina's leading network state movement How Noma Collective began as a COVID pop-up in a Belize hotel, and why it turned out to be solving loneliness rather than infrastructure Why families, not lone nomads, may be the key to critical mass, and the 500 families who applied for a single month-long hub The Próspera family hub at Pristine Bay, and why walkability and a kitchen beat a resort every time Boundless Life and the case for connected, portable schooling The AI threat to an education system built on memorisation, and newer models like Alpha School and Acton Academy Return-to-office mandates, GitLab as a fully remote counterexample, and the "soft layoff" theory The Minimum Viable Society project: assembling a society from parts (health, housing, education, agriculture) instead of gathering like-minded people and hoping Subscription-to-ownership: using economies of scale to lower the barrier onto the property ladder, with echoes of the Homestead Act The build-versus-buy debate: empty land and a chateau near Montpellier, against Europe's depopulated villages Why galvanising the existing local community, rather than building an enclave, is essential Veritas Villages, SafetyWing and Plumia, and the partners already building the physical layer Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:00 - Intro, episode 187, and the quiet problem of getting people to show up 0:03:43 - Sponsor: Veritas Villages 0:08:07 - Start of conversation: Bowie predicts internet dominance, AI, and the free cities movement 0:14:51 - How Noma Collective began, and digital nomadism as a stage not a destination 0:19:15 - Multi-local living and why families are the key to critical mass 0:24:34 - The Próspera family hub, schooling, and the AI threat to education 0:38:50 - Real estate, subscription-to-ownership, and the Homestead Act 0:45:40 - The Minimum Viable Society project and the chateau near Montpellier 0:58:00 - Build versus buy: Europe's depopulated villages 1:05:11 - Why a village beats a chateau, and closing thoughts Guest: Daniel Thompson - Noma Collective | LinkedIn | Minimum Viable Society | Instagram @nomacollectivehq The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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  • June 12 · 1 hr 48 min

    186 - You're Not Allowed to Say This | Eric Kaufmann

    Woke's 1960s Origins, the Race Taboo, and the End of the Progressive Era – Eric Kaufmann is a Canadian professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he directs the Centre for Heterodox Social Science. One of the most prominent academic voices on nationalism, national identity, and political demography, he is the author of Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities (Penguin, 2018) and Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution (2024, published in the United States as The Third Awokening). After two decades at Birkbeck, University of London, he left in 2023 for Buckingham, Britain's self-described free speech university, following what he calls five years of steady hostility and being "cancelled by a thousand cuts." Timothy Allen sits down with Eric in the UK for an honest, often uncomfortable conversation about race, identity, and the things you are no longer allowed to say out loud. They move from Kaufmann's own cancellation story across two decades in British academia, through his central argument that woke is not new but the late-stage unfolding of the 1960s, to the claim that the whole edifice traces back to a single sacred taboo around race that formed in the mid-1960s and was then stretched and weaponised. Along the way: how affirmative action quietly mutated from equal treatment into enforced equal outcomes, whether woke is driven by women entering the professions or by feminine ideas, the survey data on who actually holds these views, and the hardest stretch of the conversation for Timothy, immigration, identity, and the contested idea of white culture, where the two men disagree openly and calmly. They close on Kaufmann's forecast that the progressive era has peaked, but that years of polarisation and populism lie ahead before anything settles. In this conversation: Kaufmann's cancellation story: four internal investigations between 2018 and 2022, and why he left a twenty year University of London post for Buckingham His core thesis from Taboo: woke isn't new, it incubated on campus for fifty years before social media and clickbait media blasted it everywhere The "big bang" of the modern moral universe: a good instinct against racism that hardened into an absolute taboo with no nuance How a sacred taboo becomes a weapon: stretch the meaning of racism and you can shut down almost any argument The quiet shift from equality of treatment to enforced equality of outcome, and the Orwellian word games that justified it Whether the rise of woke is about women entering the professions or about feminine ideas (emotional safety over free speech) The survey data on who is actually woke, broken down by age and sex, and why it is surprising Why Kaufmann rejects the simple pendulum theory, and why trans is the cultural left's first real defeat in public opinion in sixty years Attachment to your own group versus dislike of out-groups: why the psychology research treats them as separate things The contested idea of white culture, where Timothy pushes back hard and argues culture matters, not colour The coming demographic shift, and why Kaufmann thinks race and identity will matter more in the decades ahead, not less The distinction between the membership level (which should be open) and the system level (where caring about the pace of change is not racism) His forecast: an interregnum of polarisation and populism, and why he thinks de-radicalisation has to come from the left Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode 0:11:02 - Start of conversation: Jordan Peterson and treading the academic tightrope 0:12:17 - Kaufmann's cancellation story: four internal investigations in four years 0:16:52 - Zooming out: living in the aftermath of the 1960s 0:18:27 - Why woke massified in the 2010s: social media and clickbait 0:19:31 - The big bang: the anti-racism taboo of the mid-1960s 0:23:55 - Back to the beginning: affirmative action in 1965, disparate impact in 1971 0:25:58 - How equal treatment quietly became enforced equal outcomes 0:27:15 - Word games, Orwell, and the redefinition of racism 0:30:02 - The feminization of culture: demographics or ideas? 0:33:58 - Who is actually woke: the survey data by age and sex 0:35:51 - Free speech versus emotional safety, public versus private life 0:38:54 - Who sets the taboos, and the problem of selective empathy 0:42:34 - Trans as the cultural left's first defeat in sixty years 0:44:22 - The right side of history and a belief system that cannot give ground 0:45:30 - Post-progressivism and the end of the progressive era 0:47:47 - Why young Britons moved left and young Canadians moved right 0:50:43 - Immigration, identity, and the discomfort around white culture 0:54:52 - Attachment to your own group is not the same as hatred of others 0:56:48 - What white culture actually means 1:02:12 - Timothy pushes back: culture, not colour 1:06:39 - White guilt and the ambient public morality 1:08:02 - Is defining people by race already outdated? 1:09:53 - Culture as outward expression, identity as inward attachment 1:13:23 - The Black Carol story and a child who never noticed skin colour 1:16:22 - The coming demographic shift and why Kaufmann thinks it will matter 1:17:39 - A legitimate democratic preference stigmatised as racism 1:20:09 - Does acknowledging race create a new divide? 1:23:08 - The next few decades: interregnum, polarisation, and who must back down 1:29:51 - Culture versus identity, and is Rishi Sunak English? 1:32:02 - Islam, Rupert Lowe, and halal slaughter at the village pub 1:34:19 - Competing versions of Britishness 1:37:58 - A free market of ears: the podcast's 95% male audience 1:41:12 - Membership versus system level: caring without being a racist 1:43:23 - Owen Jones, Ezra Klein, and who on the left will actually engage Guest: Eric Kaufmann - University of Buckingham | X | sneps.net The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr

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