We know it's been a little while, but we're so excited to present another episode from The Neighboring Movement Podcast! This week, our own Ian Campbell sat down with Kent Smith, a professor at Abilene Christian University, in order to discuss Kent's background of building community in all kinds of contexts and how this relates to his Christian faith.

Throughout his years of community-building work, Kent has gotten up to all kinds of shenanigans, including cofounding entities like the Eden Center for Regenerative Culture and the Luke 10 Community. The work has also led him to the practice of sociocracy, a form of social governance in which everyone plays a role and collaborates together in order to reach decisions to which everyone consents and that are "good enough for now and safe enough to try". In the episode, both Kent and Ian discuss this form of governance further and how they see it relating to their own work contexts.

Because Kent's faith greatly contributes to his passion for community, this episode in particular contains in-depth discussion of topics related to Christian faith. This being said, regardless of faith background or religious tradition, we hope you find this episode a helpful and wisdom-giving one; we certainly have!

To learn more about the Eden Community and the Eden Fellows, click here.

To learn more about the Eden Center, click here.

And, for some resources on sociocracy, click here and here!

At The Neighboring Movement, we believe neighboring is a life-changing practice, and this certainly proved true for Karen Kasten, our guest for this newest episode of the podcast. Tune in to hear cofounder Catherine Johnson interview absolute neighboring rockstar, Karen, as they discuss Karen's journey of neighboring in our nonprofit's founding neighborhood of SoCe.

In this episode, Karen documents how neighboring became such a huge part of her life and daily practice. One of our SoCe neighbors, Karen participated in our Community Animator Network program (learn more about this here!) and then proceeded to begin very intentional neighboring right where she lives, along with dreaming about how to help revitalize a neighborhood park across the street from her house. Every single one of her stories is so inspiring, and Karen is one of those people who is wholeheartedly committed to the wellbeing of her neighborhood and taking real steps in order to create that very wellbeing.

For those with or without the experience of intentional neighboring, we hope this episode proves encouraging and insightful for you! Karen is nonstop and has so much wisdom to share from all of her passionate neighboring work.

Happy 2024! In this first episode of the new year, we are so excited to welcome our dear friend Carter Ellis onto the front porch. Carter is the executive director of The Hub Argentine, a hub for neighboring and asset-based community development in the awesome, Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. 

A neighbor-led organization, the Hub is a wonderfully diverse gathering space in the neighborhood, providing resources such as a community garden, community market, and clothing closet - all through the lens of abcd. The truly relational work being done there is so incredible, so we can't wait to share this amazing episode with you all!

Conducted by co-founder Catherine, this interview walks through the history of the Hub, the way their programming matches neighborhood gifts with gaps, and the way that individual neighbors are both mobilized and celebrated. For anyone who's interested in how asset-based work might tangibly look in the context of a neighborhood, or how to curate a more asset-based space, this is an episode you won't want to miss!

Click here to visit the Hub's website and learn more!

Welcome to our Part 2 episode with Joseph Rathinam! For today's conversation, Joseph and Ian continue their discussion around the incredible impact of neighborocracy - an alternative system of neighbor-based, inclusive, and fully participatory governance now functioning in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods across the globe. This episode is jam-packed with amazing stories and wisdom, and you won't want to miss it!

As this conversation is a continuation of our first episode with Joseph titled "Joseph Rathinam (Part 1): Neighborocracy- Global Governance From Below", you will definitely want to tune into that discussion first, if you have not done so already, where we introduce neighborocracy and Joseph as a key practitioner of the form of governance. In today's episode, Joseph continues that conversation by making a case for the practice of neighborocracy in America and by sharing incredibly powerful stories around some of what neighborocracy has accomplished across the globe.

Once again, if you're looking for further connection, you can find Joseph and key resources from the movement at https://ncnworld.org/.

And, here are some helpful articles:

Child-led governance builds a sustainable world:

https://www.theearthandi.org/post/child-led-governance-builds-a-sustainable-world

Children's Parliaments and Sociocracy: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/childrens-parliaments-sociocracy-case-study/

A great interview with Joseph on Neighborocracy: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-qkwv9-133d647

When neighbors come together, everyday people can have some serious power. Around the world, in places like India, Syria, and Mexico, there are massive movements taking what we are doing with neighboring at The Neighboring Movement, building those same kinds of abundant relationships we are, but then turning those relationships into a completely transformative way of governing their daily lives far more empowering for the average person than the divisive party politics we find ourselves in. Starting in India and expanding around the world, Neighborocracy is an alternative system of neighbor-based, inclusive, and fully participatory governance now functioning in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods. Joseph Rathinam, a key organizer of Neighborocracy, joins us to help us learn about what the most radical horizons are for neighboring in part 1 of a 2 part interview.

Joseph is a wealth of knowledge, experience, and stories, so these will be longer episodes! But you will definitely want to stick around 'till the end of this one! You can find Joseph and key resources from the movement at https://ncnworld.org/.

Helpful articles:

Child-led governance builds a sustainable world:

https://www.theearthandi.org/post/child-led-governance-builds-a-sustainable-world

Children's Parliaments and Sociocracy: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/childrens-parliaments-sociocracy-case-study/

A great interview with Joseph on Neighborocracy: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-qkwv9-133d647

For this podcast episode, we had the great honor of sitting down with Seth Kaplan! Seth is an expert on fragile states with so many consulting gigs to his name, but recently, his work has led him to the conclusion that one of our most fragile states might just be our very neighborhoods. In this episode - based around Seth's book that just came out today - he makes his case for the fragility of our neighborhoods, and more importantly, what we all might do about that.

By consulting gigs, we mean that Seth consults for entities like the World Bank and U.S. State Department, so we're very appreciative that he gave us some of his time! His work is absolutely fascinating, which you'll hear about in this episode, and it's telling that a person like him is now arriving at neighborhoods as a focal point of his work...the larger neighboring movement is real, folks!

Aside from his consulting work, Seth is also an author, and his newest book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code At A Time just came out today! This episode is based around our host, Adam, reading the book and dialoguing with Seth about it, so we encourage you to go check it out here!

To learn more about Seth's work, visit his website here. Enjoy this amazing episode!

One of the most globally important examples of neighbor power and possibility is under full-scale military assault. Today we bring on Samantha Teal, a media activist with the Rojava Information Center, to give us insights of life on-the-ground in North and East Syria, where a revolution for women's liberation, direct democracy, and ecology- with neighbors at the center of politics and life- is under attack from drones, planes, and artillery of the Turkish state.

In this episode, Ian and Samantha cover both the incredible stories of hope coming from the region governed by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, colloquially known as "Rojava," and the realities of war. Most of the episode is spent painting the picture of how the "Rojava Revolution" has made neighbors living on their blocks the most important political actors and imagining how Western countries might take neighboring farther to reimagine governance.

Samantha works for the Rojava Information Center, the best resource connecting international media outlets to live updates from on-the-ground. The best source for news, analysis, and explanations of the system is their website.

Ian also posted a blog on The Neighboring Movement website that goes much more in-depth into the context behind the Rojava Revolution. In 2018, he also made a documentary on the system of neighbor-powered direct democracy in North and East Syria. You can check that out here.

Finally, if you want to help the people of NES in their struggle, see the above blog post.

We are so honored to present a podcast episode with Majora Carter! Majora is one of those people who is changing the world in incredibly visible, physical ways. As an urban revitalization strategist and real estate developer, she is taking the lead in facilitating neighborhood-level economic development that is both led by - and directly benefiting - neighbors. Tune in to hear all about this amazing, powerful work!

It was such a joy to interview Majora for the podcast, and we are so appreciative that she said yes. With countless accolades to her name, and so many projects she is always taking on, she could have been doing anything else, so we were so excited to get a chance to sit down with her and share her wisdom with you all!

Born, raised, and still living in the South Bronx, Majora has been championing her low-status community her entire life. Now, she's at the forefront of incredibly massive and innovative neighborhood development projects that are not predatory or gross but instead are neighbor-driven and give neighbors a slice of both the communal and economic benefits. Her work is so so inspiring, and as a nonprofit that is also now starting to dip its toes into economic development in our neighborhood - and attempting to do so in a way that is not harmful to, but instead happily rooted within, the identity of the neighborhood - we cannot get enough.

The subtitle of Majora Carter's 2022 book Reclaiming Your Community, also quoted on a wall at the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture in DC, says it all: "You don't have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one." Enjoy this powerful episode!

And, to learn more about Majora's work, check out the links below:

• Majora's 2022 book Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have To Move Out Of Your Neighborhood To Live In A Better One
• Majora's website
• Majora's projects
• Majora's Instagram
• Majora's LinkedIn