Winter Alternatives

When Heiða Helgadóttir closed her bank account eight years ago, everyone said she'd be back within weeks. Instead, she developed a complex system of trading massage therapy for rent, vegetables for dental work, and dog-walking for groceries—all in one of the world's most expensive cities. This is the story of how she did it, what almost broke her, and the surprising community that formed around her experiment.

They both involve people living together with shared values, but that's where the similarities end. We explore two real communities—a Vermont commune still operating from the Summer of Love era versus a high-tech cohousing village in Colorado—to uncover what separates utopian idealism from pragmatic collaborative living.

What happens when an entire town says no to automobiles? From a medieval Italian village to a modern Dutch suburb, we're counting down seven communities that ditched cars completely. You'll hear about the unexpected challenges, the surprising benefits, and why some residents would never go back.

Kate Thompson doesn't just collect vintage items—she inhabits an era. From her rotary phone to her ration-book cooking, from her pin curls to her husband's role as '1950s breadwinner,' she has erased seven decades of progress from her daily life. We explore why she made this choice, how she maintains it, and what it costs her.

They share roots, dress codes, and religious texts—but one drives cars while the other uses horse-drawn buggies. We explore the surprisingly complex decision-making behind what technology gets accepted and what gets rejected, and how two communities from the same tradition ended up on opposite sides of the modern world.

What happens when you completely opt out of the money system? From a German woman who hasn't touched cash in two decades to a man who lived on one cent a day, these five rebels prove that currency might be more optional than we think. Their stories will challenge everything you believe about what it takes to survive in the modern world.

In 1973, Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill discovered an abandoned cement factory outside Barcelona and saw something no one else could: his future home, studio, and masterpiece. We explore how transforming this industrial ruin into La Fábrica became more than a renovation project—it became a blueprint for living entirely outside the system, where waste became wonder and conventional career paths were abandoned for total creative autonomy.

Maybe one of these is for you!

Some people thrive in the cold!

Living in the Alternative best of episode!