Jeff Flake Alone on an Island with a Knife

Jonathan Hillis is the founder and caretaker of Cabin, a network of co-living spaces which link up and vet members in other communities via blockchain technology. His "neighborhood" of intentional living is in beautiful Texas Hill Country an hour outside of Austin, where he lives with friends in a hub-and-spoke model of private accommodation surrounding communal social spaces. He's the former CTO of Coinbase, and you can see how his tech background influences his obsession with scalability (we talk about Metcalf's Law, and the optimum size of "one sauna teams") as well as the non-financial elements of blockchain to that end. It actually reminds me a bit of Neil Stephenson's Franchise-Organized Quasi-National Entities or "burbclaves" in Snow Crash. Cabin strikes me as a kind of libertarian commune (though neither Hillis nor myself ever uses the term). It's big scattered geographic network of modular co-ops you can plug into and out of. Vetting community members is a big thing in communes, and Cabin relies on blockchain technology and somethin akin to personal Yelp reviews to allow people to skip up from Austin, TX to like-minded communities in Santa Fe or Portland, or wherever. He joins to discuss his model, and what day-to-day life is like living in an intentional co-living community.

If you wanted to live with a bunch of buddies in a house, how would you do it? What are the mechanics of setting up, financing, and socially maintaining a commune? Samwise Rodriguez runs a commune—which combines their skills as a philanthropist, entrepreneur (and to some extent, as a polyamorist). This week we explore: how do you build your own commune?

What happens when Trump leaves office? Do the Republicans reform or catalyze?  Jeff Flake is the former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute, Ambassador to Turkey, and representative and then Senator from the great state of Arizona. He is also a Knight of the Kingdom of Sweden. He joins to discuss what a post-Trump Republican Party will look like.

Colin Woodard posits that America is not really a country, it's a dozen or so distinct nations with their own cultures and ideologies which are constantly battling for supremacy. His new book "Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America." In it he argues that  argues that deep-seated cultural divisions, stemming from different colonial settlement patterns, are the root cause of modern American political polarization, inequality, and threats to democracy. The book uses historical and data-driven analysis to show how these regional cultures clash on issues like gun control, immigration, and abortion, and proposes a renewal based on the unifying ideals of the Declaration of Independence.    "America is Eleven Different Countries"  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/america-is-eleven-different-countries/id1439837349?i=1000646222225   SUPPORT THE SHOW! Patreon: Patreon.com/andrewheaton Substack: ThePoliticalOrphanage.com

Rudyard William Lynch is the host of WhatifAlHist, a popular history channel on YouTube. He joins to discuss how the origins and circumstances of America's regions permanently imprinted on its cultures and political outlooks. Colin Woodard's Map: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-11-nations-of-the-united-states-2015-7 Rudyard's Map: https://preview.redd.it/cultural-map-of-america-done-by-whatifalthist-on-youtube-v0-7clddg9nunpa1.jpg?auto=webp&s=663b38b9434bdf7791fac983f0d5e5beb643b779 Relevant Book: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard

What did people in the Dark Ages think about economics? Why did poverty exist, and how do you alleviate it? To find out, I took my time machine to 1282 and 1314, to speak to barflies and a priest. Fr. Richard Kirby is a fourteenth century prior of Whitby Abbey and formerly the sacrist of St. Mungo's. He is a specialist in Just Price Theory, and joins the show to discuss how his fellows in the Dark Ages approach economics.

Clayborne Carson is the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education institute, and hand-picked by Coretta King to publish the letters of his late husband. He's one of the foremost historians on MLK and his legacy. He joins to discuss King, color blindness, and the three approaches of the Civil Rights movement.

Or... how to host a party if you have Asperger's. Nick Gray is an entrepreneur and an author living in Austin, Texas. I met him roller skating. He started and sold two successful companies: Flight Display Systems and Museum Hack.  His YouTube and short videos have been seen by over 55 million people. He's been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine called him a host of "culturally significant parties." Leading him to write the book, "The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: a step-by-step handbook that teaches you how to build big relationships by hosting small gatherings." You can find that book, as all books discussed on this program, by going to mightyheaton.com/featured. Nick Gray's PersonalWebsite.org and PersonalWebsites.net Nick Gray's Patron View donor database Nick Gray's Website and Blog Patron View Patron Leaderboards The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray Friendship Recession  

How did Venezuela become an economic basket case? Not socialism. Or capitalism. Venezuela is a textbook example of a petrostate in the thrall of the Paradox of Plenty, or "the Dutch Disease."   Bonus: Norway's Big Bucket of Oil Money https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com/p/bonus-norways-big-bucket-of-oil-money   Why Trump Wants Greenland https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com/p/why-trump-wants-greenland   What Happens when the Ayotallah Falls https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happens-when-the-ayatollah-falls/id1439837349?i=1000724729486

College students are increasingly registering as disabled–particularly at high-end universities, which often entails longer test times and extensions on papers. Does the growing rate of accommodation mean American universities are simply better at identifying disabilities; evidence of students and their families gaming the system for advantages; or a cultural shift wherein students increasingly believe they are disabled, but aren't?   Dr. Andrea Jones-Rooy (a former university educator) and Michael Ira Kaplan (a parent) weigh in.