After being a digital nomad for 8 years, travelling to 27 countries, and working in the startup ecosystem for 15 years, Jean-Baptiste and his partner decided to develop the mobile app NomadWay, drawing on our experience building communities for digital nomads over the past 4 years.

NomadWay is active in 20 cities, with more than 1,200 users, particularly in Alicante and Valencia.

In 2021, they also launched the Digital Nomads in Alicante community, which now has over 2,700 members and has organized 650 events in collaboration with locals.

Salome's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Originally from France, she has spent the last few years travelling and working remotely, all while creating her own community guest house in Tenerife with her partner.
This episode is not just about physical spaces; it's about the emotional and psychological aspects of what makes a home. Salome shares her experiences living in coliving spaces as a volunteer, a host and a guest, which have become a significant part of her life.
Throughout the episode, Salomé evokes the challenges and rewards of running a guest house with her partner while working remotely.

Tulia Instagram

Tulia Guest House website.

In our second episode of Who Reads Anyway? we explore the fascinating world of community living where chaos becomes a unifying force.

From the challenges at K9 to the unexpected joys of coliving, discover how organized chaos can strengthen bonds and foster creativity.

Don't miss this engaging episode—listen now and see chaos in a new light!

Find the piece on my substack.

Amélie is the founder of InfiniColiving, a seaside coliving space that fosters connection, creativity, and harmony with nature. After three inspiring years exploring Brazil, as an nomad worker she decided to settle on the northern coast of Salvador de Bahia. Her journey began with years of living in shared housing during her studies and an extended time in Paris, followed by experiences within spiritual and eco-sustainable communities. These deeply influenced her approach to InfiniColiving, which is not only a space to stay but an immersive experience.

There, residents engage in creative and spiritual activities, from art workshops to yoga and meditation, and discover the richness of Afro-Brazilian culture. Through InfiniColiving, she hopes to create a sanctuary where people can reconnect with themselves, nature, and the powerful spirit of community.

Check out her website: https://infinicolivingbr.com/

Follow her Instagrams: @infinicoliving @artmelie_

💬 Show Notes

In this episode of the Life on 5th podcast, we embark on a new journey of short and sweet episodes, diving into the heart of community living through blog articles from Substack.

Our host, that would be me, brings written words to life, exploring the complexities of co-living. From digital nomads to long-term community members, co-living presents unique challenges and opportunities for growth.

Discover the nuances of navigating new spaces, understanding unspoken rules, and finding your place in an established ecosystem. The episode delves into the realities of sharing spaces, time, and values, highlighting the importance of giving back to the community. Embrace the discomfort, ask the tough questions, and learn to accept the process of community living.

Join us as we uncover the priceless connections that form when masks drop and genuine relationships emerge. Experience the laughter, learning, and growth of living in a community, and discover the true value of belonging.

Grace is 26 and originally from the UK. She left when she was 19 to do her bachelor's in the Netherlands and then her master's in Stockholm, and she has stayed here ever since! She moved into K9 a year ago after meeting the people who lived there and feeling the huge outpouring of love they had for their home any time it came up in conversation. She felt it was a place she could join and contribute to —mostly by making cookies, but in other ways, too!

Ramon has been living in various coliving spaces over the past few years, embracing the community lifestyle while working remotely.

He is also the co-founder of Colivers Club, Mapmelon, and Mangobeds.

Projects all focused on improving the coliving community and making life easier and better for both colivers and coliving owners. He is passionate about building strong, supportive communities.

María founded Cactus Coliving in 2021 in Tenerife and recently opened a second location in La Gomera. She welcomes digital nomads from around the world, showing them the beauty of the island and its people. She is trying to create a new kind of “tourism” that will positively impact the locals and their economy.

César is a part-time digital nomad with a base in Madrid.

He works as a freelancer and has stayed in over eight colivings (so far!) for at least a month. He has also helped renovate a few of them.

He is the ambassador for Mapmelon and the host of the Colivers Club Podcast.

After working remotely in over 40 countries and witnessing the unstoppable rise of flexible work, Juan saw an opportunity to utilize remote work as a means to revitalize rural areas and improve work-life balance. He co-founded Rooral, a social venture that partners with small villages at risk of depopulation to create enriching and restorative remote work experiences. Rooral serves as a bridge between the urban and rural worlds, with a special emphasis on building community. In the past, success was often associated with leaving one's village behind. Rooral supports remote workers in going back and rediscovering the forgotten essence of our roots.

Amir is a third culture kid and a perennial translator between people, whether at work or in social situations.

His childhood in Iran was filled with multi-generational community life before he was transplanted into British life as a teenager. Later in his twenties, he kept gravitating towards various experiments in community living, from artist warehouses to fringe social movements in London.

Since becoming a nomad in 2022, he noticed how at home he feels on the road and how he forms long-lasting connections at colivings or simply by living somewhere for a few weeks.

He doesn't know how long he'll keep doing this, but the skill of not just forming but maintaining quality relationships across geography and time is something he'll be ever grateful for.

Grace, the founder of Voice of Humanity, has extensive experience in eco-villages across Europe. These experiences have deepened her appreciation for collaborative living and sustainable practices. Voice of Humanity creates systems of collaboration, governance, and currency design to reconstruct human economic systems, aiming for a world where humans live in harmony with one another and with the natural systems of planet Earth. Grace is committed to ensuring everyone can influence the issues that impact their lives.

In our latest episode, join me as we dive into the world of coliving with Ricky, a digital nomad and copywriter from Valencia, Spain.

Discover how shared living can transform solo travel into lasting connections and explore the balance between travel and work.

From the impact of AI on creativity to the joy of community living and the "Digital Nomad pressure" of social media, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration for anyone interested in working remotely at their own rhythm.

Learn more about Ricky: Website & Linkedin.

Learn more about Islow Coliving, Pyren'Escape, Alpiness Coliving, Chateau Coliving.

In 2016, Manu co-founded Germany's first residential Coliving in Hamburg. In 2020, he moved to the countryside to start a rural destination coliving with ten bedrooms north of Hamburg. That was intense and extremely rich in learning. Etti grew up in the city and left home when she was sixteen to attend an international boarding school in Wales. That was her first experience of community. But it was only when she became a mum, about six years ago, that community became an important theme again. Motivated by a strong feeling of loneliness, she began researching different types of communities. After several years of theory, she finally had the courage and moved to where she met Manuel in 2022. Together, they then embarked on a journey to start Moom Coliving, a rural, intentional, and mindful coliving space in the German countryside open to families with children and animal lovers.

What a joy to record an episode with Fabienne & Benoit.

First off, I don't know how they do it but they practically never cut each other when speaking, they somehow magical know when the other is done. It was a pleasure to listen to their stories. And they have many! They've traveled so much, met so many people, they were Digital Nomads before it was hype, and before they even knew it and ended up in a coliving because of crappy wifi.

Fabienne and Benoit in their own words:

We are Ben and Fabienne. We are both in our late thirties and grew up in Switzerland. We met back in 2008 and quite quickly we got bitten by the travel bug. After our studies, we decided to move to Vienna (Austria) and worked there for 2 years. In 2013, we left for what was supposed to be a 1-year backpacking trip around the world. The trip turned out to last 19 months and the least we can say is that this gave us new perspective on our life and careers. We were no longer attracted by the corporate world and started dreaming about a more flexible, filled with human interactions and entrepreneur life. Financial reality however made us go back to an office job after returning from the trip. We both took a job in a tech start-up in Zurich (March 2015). In August 2016, barely 18 months after signing our contract, we resigned and founded our own company and started travelling again.

After being fully nomad for a little more than 2 years, we pushed the doors of our first coliving in December 2018 (Nine Coliving). This has been a game changer and we started to spend about 50% of our time in coliving spaces across Europe (nine coliving, cloud citadel, Anceu, Re-Station, Bansko). In 2023, we're now opening our own space in the Swiss Alps.

We've been running our travel blog since 2013 and a wordpress-SEO blog (novo-media.ch) since 2016. We love writing hiking guides (books as well as ebooks)

Keep up with their adventures: https://www.instagram.com/alpiness_coliving

Check out Alpiness Coliving: https://alpiness-coliving.com/

I'm not the one to claim the benefit of social media but I will admit this time around it is Instagram that brought Lisa and me together. Well, Insta and a common friend. We quickly connected through what seemed to be a never-ending list of shared interests.

Lisa in her own words:

I just turned 27 years and was born and raised in Berlin to parents from East Berlin. I left the city several times. Until now, I always returned but never felt like settling or being able to commit to this city. I was too driven and curious to explore the unknown. It refreshes my sense of self. Talking about CV milestones and community experiences, I did a corporate BA in Economics & Real Estate during which I worked at a big, international real estate firm, Jones Lang LaSalle. On an Erasmus exchange semester in The Hague, The Netherlands, I studied Sustainable Urban Engineering and loved it! It gave me a sense of purpose, motivation and belonging.

Afterwards, I worked in a private airline. It paid the bills and gave me time for orientation. In that period I hiked along the coast of Portugal and visited a friend’s off-grid hut in Aljezur. I felt free :)

In 2019, I got accepted to the program 4CITIES, a MSc in Urban Studies. This Euromaster takes place in four different cities. With 40 selected international students, I spent each semester in a different city: Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid. Here, I noticed that being an individual in a community is never easy yet very fulfilling.

Two of my semester breaks I spent at Masseria Cultura in the Zona di Trulli, Puglia, an art residency project of two friends. A magical place, where I could get my hands dirty restoring the trulli while gardening!

I graduated from 4CITIES in September 2021. Since the beginning of 2022 I was employed at Gründerinnenzentrale. During this time I hosted two online networking events for my Master program, realizing how much valuable knowledge and experience we as alumni carry and can share. During one of my vacations, I worked at a small, woman-led vineyard in Provence, France. Looking back, I realize I was (and still am) actively searching for community experiences, which reflects my search for a home and my big curiosity for self-organized, architecturally interesting projects. My recent discovery is the vacation village Borgo Batone in Tuscany, Italy.

I quit my job as a project manager at Gründerinnenzentrale (Female Founders Office) in Berlin this April. Since 2006, the project supports women in running their own businesses through knowledge sharing, networking events, and target group-specific consultancy. I'm currently reaching out to people and exploring projects/businesses to find out what's dear to my heart. The stories of people inspire and encourage me to navigate my own path and philosophy of life.

I'm searching for an occupation and physical surrounding that is simpler, more tangible, and "soul-filling“. I do love fast-paced, high-energy environments like Berlin. I love to discover urban areas, the unpredictable nature of them, the people and to be taken away by their rhythms. However, cities do overwhelm me as well and I’m mindful of the impact of e.g. anonymity and noises on the individual. So, I’ve got that very opposite side in me, which calls for silence and grounding. Being back in Berlin makes me feel like missing out on something more pure and to be building something larger for me. What’s calling and inspiring me? Vernacular architecture, the production of food, smaller communities & more reliable connections, and places nearby the sea.

Keep up with Lisa: https://www.instagram.com/theycallher.lisa

Explore Borgo Battone: https://www.borgo-batone.com/

A few weeks back I had a lovely conversation with one of the amazing girls of the Chateau Coliving team. But Jeanne does much more than that!

Jeanne in her own words: I’m Jeanne, from France. I split my time between travels and Château coliving where I work as a community facilitator as well as freelancing in event management. I chase meaningful conversations, laughs, new experiences, and good food, pretty much anything that can be shared!

We talk about a lot of things!

We discuss her journey from full time employment to remote to digital nomad. From discovering coliving to making it a career.

We talk about the growth, learning and boundaries that we develop when living with others. We talk about the joy of the little moments and the challenge of never going "back Home".

We also mention a beautiful innitiave between Chateau and Burgas Coliving, the Wellness Coliving Experience for the digital nomads who love their lifestyle but struggle to make -Life-Work-Community work in a health and sustainable way!

https://burgascoliving.com/wellness/

*Apologise for the background noises on this episode, it's worth pushing through as Christy's passion is contagious. Christy in her own words:

I am the creator of To Hani Coliving: A rural coliving in a restored historic building based in Cyprus.

To Hani is the first coliving space for digital nomads on the island.

Back in 2017, I had the opportunity to live and work in many corners of the world, leading Unsettled retreats and being part of building a community that refuses to settle in their pursuit of growth, meaning, and purpose.

As life happens and COVID hits (I know everyone has a COVID story!), I settled back to Cyprus... I knew exactly, that if I was to settle here, and call Cyprus my home, I had to connect, feel inspired, learn, and create a multicultural like-minded community, and so, To Hani was born!

To Hani started as an experiment, and now hosts 9 people from all corners of the world, creatives, entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and remote workers, that are looking to find a home whilst on the road...

More about To Hani: https://www.instagram.com/tohani_coliving

Ana in her own words:

I define myself as a connector who is passionate about nature and ‘all living beings’. I’m passionate about creating networks and communities that collaborate and deeply believe that a just, interconnected, and regenerative world is possible. In 2018 I stopped joining different sustainable projects around the world: an organic farm in Tasmania, an ecovillage in Vancouver Island, natural building space in New Zealand, etc... to join WEAll - Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Building bridges among those who believe a well-being economy is possible and supporting the local work through our WEAll Hubs, gives me the energy and hope I need every morning. Sharing values, philosophy, dreams, and projects in the company of these communities, it’s the reassurance that we’re on the right path. On a more personal note, since 2022 I’m living in a rural coliving in Galicia, northwest of Spain, to fully embrace my rural lifestyle. I’m determined to bring equality to rural areas and communities and raise awareness of their contribution to the changes we need to make.

More about Ana: https://www.instagram.com/bigana_1/?hl=en

More about WEALL: https://www.instagram.com/weall_alliance/

More about Anceu Coliving: https://www.instagram.com/anceu.coliving/

I met Anja through 2 online communities we are both part of: Coliving Hub, an association sharing knowledge around coliving spaces for Digital Nomads, and Nomad Haven, a Nomad Female Entrepreneur online community.

We quickly realized we shared similar interests and values... bringing people together under one roof being one of them.

I got lucky and was asked to interview Anja as part of my work for Coliving Hub, and I turned it into an opportunity to record a podcast episode!

More about Anja in her own words: I am a slow-traveling nomad, moving my base from different countries within Europe.

I am excited about sustainable and slow travel and a deep connection to local culture and community.

I have lived in a few community/co-livings and eco villages and just launched my own coliving project in Italy.

I love to explore. I believe in community, continuous learning & growth, and sustainable living in harmony with nature.

I am driven by establishing an alternative, but still integrated lifestyle and opening new possibilities to the way we live and support each other in society.

Check out Anja's beautiful project, Agaia Coliving: www.agaia-coliving.com

And follow them on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agaia_coliving/

Zoē & Yello are a couple of lovely people interested in personal development, music, and community living. Self-confessed as going through a mid-life crisis/awakening, they're in the process of re-aligning work life with their passions, and living arrangements with their core values. They've just had their first experience of co-living at Selgars, and are interested in co-housing for their long-term plans.

Keep up with Zoē https://www.instagram.com/lesscitymorehippie

Meet Sole, in her own words:

 Hi, I'm Sole a digital nomad from Spain. I've lived in various colivings around the world and noticed the need for a platform that makes it easier for colivers to connect and find new nomad colivings. That's why Ramon and I created Mapmelon, an app that helps people find and connect with colivings community that fit their interests.

With Sole we spoke about how she discovered colivng and remote work and went against her first insticts that was...that she did not want to live with people.

We share about what truly matters, people, and community and how to continue to move around the world all the while deepening and strengthening relationships.

Check out Mapmelon Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mapmelon_app

And website https://www.mapmelon.com/

It has been a long break this winter. Longer than intended.

I had a good excuse though. I led my very own pop-up coliving for 2,5 months in the British countryside with my partner, at www.selgars.org

It was unexpected and challenging. But it was also amazing.

Now that things have calmed down a bit, I am back behind the mic with more testimonials from people like Pablo, who believe in the power of Community.

Here is more about Pablo, co-founder of Vivarium Coliving, in his own words:

Since very young I have been a searcher and soon I realized that my quest: facilitating change (whether individual or societal), wasn't possible without strong and committed communities. At 21 years old I dropped my engineering studies (where I was being pretty successful) to embark on a journey that changed my life: traveling through Latin America with one sole purpose, to find communities, learn from and with them and create projects together that left a positive mark in the places I visited. When I came back to Valencia to continue my studies, I realized through conversations with people of my generation, that a lot of them could be benefited from this kind of experience, so after I finished college The Nomad Academy was born and I started organizing international learning expeditions and traveling with small groups of diversely talented individuals to different places in the world and creating small projects together. However, I was young and inexperienced and I became more and more aware that I needed to gain more experience and surround myself with people that knew more than I did. It was for this last reason that I decided to undertake a change, put the entrepreneurial path on stand-by, and work for and with other more established projects. Since then, I have worked for various companies, designing, managing, and collaborating on various projects in corporate and entrepreneurial environments, always with a clear vocation towards real and tangible transformation, sustained on continuous learning, community, and innovation. Last summer, after spending 6 months in a coliving community in the mountains I decided it was the right time to go back to the entrepreneurial path and I founded Vivarium, an experimental coliving space where I live now.

Follow Vivarium Coliving: https://www.instagram.com/vivarium.coliving

Website: https://www.vivariumcoliving.com/

In this episode we talk with Ben, the founder of The Living Room Co Working in Malaga, Spain.

Ben shares his journey from Austria to Spain on an Erasmus exchange that never ended and how his need for a community led him to co-found a co-working space that feels like a home away from home.

Ben discusses the importance of creating genuine connections in a workspace and how The Living Room fosters a sense of family among its 150 diverse members from over 30 nationalities. He also talks about the unique challenges and joys of building a community-focused co-working space, emphasizing the significance of setting expectations and creating a welcoming atmosphere from the start.

We also dive into the transformative power of community on mental and physical well-being. Ben shares his personal journey with yoga and the Wim Hof Method, explaining how these practices have not only enhanced his life but will also very sson be integrated into the offerings at The Living Room.

Join us as we explore the intersection of work, community, and personal growth, and discover how a shared space can become a sanctuary for creativity and connection!

This is an episode recorded a month or so ago with Alex Chau, another K9er.
Alex was born in Melbourne about 33 years ago, he moved to Sweden about 7 years ago and has been at K9 for the last 3 of those.

Alex and I share a lot of similarities in our Swedish and coliving journey: we both came to this country for our partners, both separated on the way, moved into K9 and found something we did not really know we had been missing and looking for.

We talk about his personal experience sharing a home for 3 years with 50 people, sharing a bedroom with a stranger who will soon turn into a great friend and co founder of the now famous Studio 54.
We discuss expectations , responsabilities and roles in a self run community and the importance of being willing to take the challenges such a lifestyle throws at you in order to truly grow and ripe the benefits of shared living.

Keep up with Alex: https://achau.xyz/
Check out K9 coliving: www.k9coliving.com 

A slightly special episode this week which was not planed but fits perfectly.

Anton and I met in 2017 in K9 Coliving and are now married and living in London with our dog Zuko.
It's safe to say coliving has impacted both our personal and professional lives tremendously.

In this episode Anton takes us from his K9 experience all the way to our brand new and exciting project: Selgars. A place for retreats and gatherings in nature as well as my very own personal dream: Life at Selgars, a 2-3 months coliving in the heart of Devon!

We talk about:
www.opendoor.io  West coast based coliving in the US.
www.k9coliving.com the magical residential self run coliving in Stockholm, Sweden
www.hotspaces.org the nature inspired event space Anton opened 2 years ago in East London
www.selgars.org our new event and retreats in nature venue in Devon
www.selgars.org/lifeatselgars our little dream slow coliving home for January-February 2023 (join us!) 

August 2022 was supposed to be a month without any travel. Life is what happens when you are busy making plans. Suddenly I found myself in Belgium, in this wonderfully magical eco-village called L'Arbre Qui Pousse (the growing tree), taking part in the first Hopestation of La Matrice, Multiversity Campus for Hope and Regeneration. A project within a project within a project born out of the dream, talent, skills, and hope of people like Pierre Alexandre and Emily. After 4 days of beautiful exchanges, we recorded some thoughts in a 2 part episode on what pushed them to 'jump off' as they say from the city or 9-5 career and brought them to the countryside: a craving for belonging, more hopeful narratives, less competition, and more cooperation. PA and Emily share very openly and with great authenticity about their journey and the challenges that arise bringing together 80 people around a school, a bakery, a vegetable garden, and many other projects.  A slightly longer episode that is worth taking the time to fully dive into if you are interested in new ways of living together.  Check out La Matrice Campus https://www.lamatrice.space/. Check out L'Arbre qui Ppousse https://larbrequipousse.org/  

Episode 2 is my conversation with Denisa, a UX Designer originally from Prague, working for a crypto startup. She is a digital nomad and outdoor sports lover. 

We e-met through Swiss Escape coliving, one of my clients, where she stayed earlier this year.
It took us a while to organize the recording but we finally managed to find the time in the summer, just when I was visiting Swiss Escape myself. 

During this chat, we talk about the difference between remote workers and digital nomads, expectations vs reality of this lifestyle as well as the difference between the 'real' colivings and the places overusing the name but not delivering on Community.
Denisa has experienced both and shares her thoughts and insights. 

We also spend some time discussing the 'Digital Nomad Afterlife' as she calls it: what happens when you are ready to slow the traveling down but do not want to lose the feeling of community? 

Follow Denisa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisabrichtova

We are finally back! After a much longer break than planned (because life happens) we are back with the first episode of Season 3.

We start with Jho again. Jho was my very first guest on the podcast back in August 2020, when we agreed to be my guinea pig for the idea I had to talk about community and record it somehow.
Two years later Jho moved out of K9 where we first met and now lives in Switzerland, in another residential coliving.
We met face to face in a destination coliving, Swiss Escape where we spent a few weeks with other digital nomads and of course, talked about Community, the life after experiencing powerful, seeking belonging again, and searching for ourselves within all of it. 

The residential Coliving in Switzerland is called TomoDomo https://en.tomodomo.ch/
The residential Coliving we met at in Stockholm is K9 Coliving.  www.k9coliving.com
The destination coliving we spent time at together is Swiss Escape. www.swissescape.co

Listen to the first episode with Jho here.
Get my book Have Your Cake and Share it Too

Ending with a bang. This is what we said when we realised this episode would be the last of the second season. Mo interviewing Moh felt like a good closing of the circle. In his own words Moh used to be half Moroccan, half Egyptian, but now he added Swedish to the list. His favorite hobby is seeking and trying new technologies. He enjoys sci-fi and lately he's also been into philosophy. All the while, he's been living at K9 Coliving in Stockholm (where we met back in 2018), for the past 4 years. Moh opens up very honestly during this conversation, sharing about the good but also the bad of living with 50 people, in a self run community. We reminisce, talk about the consistency of change, the unexpected intimacy and, as always with Moh, we laugh. More about K9 Coliving: www.k9coliving.com

This week I am happy to finally be sharing my face to face conversation with Marta. We met back in May when we both got invited to the pop up opening month of beautiful Burgas Coliving in Bulgaria. I opened up about my podcast project and Marta volunteered :-) I am so glad she did because her story is worth sharing! It is an inspiration for anyone looking to start their digital nomad journey on their own. Marta is an IT Project Manager and Full-time Digital Nomad for 3 years now. She started working remotely and traveling before the pandemic - or how she likes to say: "before it was sexy";) . She loves traveling and she has always dreamt of being able to do it every day. In 2019 her dream became possible once she started freelancing and working remotely for the US company. At the same time she was intensively taking part in Erasmus+ projects which enables you to travel for free around Europe. After couple of months she decided to take a deep leap and see if she could equally well manage her work and travels from more remote destinations - and so she went to SE Asia where she spent 7 months traveling and, of course, still working remotely : ) Last year she discovered the world of colivings and immediately fell in love with the concept. For her colivings are all about the people - the great community of digital nomads, who share similar values, are open-minded, curious about the world, and who inspire her to develop both both professionally and personally. At the moment she is living a life that she has always dreamt of, and  she is proud to say that she created this life by herself and is the happiest that she has ever been. : ) Follow Mara's journey: https://www.instagram.com/karkosikmarta/ Erasmus + programme: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects Burgas Coliving: https://burgascoliving.com/

Elspeth is a storyteller, food fanatic, and avid traveller. She loves learning about the people behind the places she visits, about the details that make up a community. She works full-time as a Marketing Manager in the travel industry, but her passion is her side hustle where she writes for brands and entrepreneurs she is passionate about. I "e-met" Elspeth when she first came to Swiss Escape this winter with her partner Ari. We had a call so I could interview her about her stay and that is when I thought her story would make a great podcast episode. Indeed Elspeth is taking half a year to explore the freedom offers. We talk about community of course, our need for it no matter what stage of life we are in but we also discuss if we define ourselves as digital nomads, remote workers or anything else. We talk about the image of digital nomads social media send out and how it can actually be a lifestyle embraced by anyone. Finally we share our thoughts on navigating being women in their 30s trying to live their best lives, in today's society, still full of injunctions. Learn more about Elspeth and her work https://www.elspethchalmers.com/ Learn more about Swiss Escape www.swissescape.co 

Gianluca is the founder of AI Academy, a company specialized in Artificial Intelligence education without code. He is the current chairperson of Nest, a non profit coliving space in Copenhagen.

After traveling from Italy to Belgium where he discovered entrepreuneurship and then to the US for his studies, Gianluca came back wanting to recreate that feeling he had built there, a sense of community with the people he lived with. Serendipity brought him to Copenhagen and that is were he found is new Home, Nest.
Being an intentional self run community of 21 residents, Nest has gone through a lot since it opened 8 years ago, from "Startup House" to "simply" a Home, but it is still thriving thanks to the care, love, personal effort and dedication of its residents and their share committment to a life filled with curiosity and belonging.


Check out Nest's website and Instagram.
More about Gianluca and his work. 

I am really glad to finally be sharing my conversation with Agustin who I had the pleasure to meet in person during our Creative week in Romania for the pre-opening of Cobana Coliving in March. After more than 7 years of being a location independent worker, Agustin decided to start a coliving space in Galicia, the region where he is from.   That is how Anceu coliving was born. From the start , Anceu was thought of as a way to stop the rural exodus in Galicia, focusing on community and local impact. We hope you enjoy the conversation and want to discover Galicia one day! Follow Anceu Coliving on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/anceu.coliving/
Learn more about Anceu here.https://anceu.com/ 

Have you experienced Positive Peer Pressure? Then you havent colived before.

We explore how living with others can bring the best out of us through gentle pressure.

Read the piece here.

I met Maddie when I went back to K9 almost 2 years after moving out to London. We were both waiting for the coffee to brew in the first floor kitchen. I introduced myself and someone immediately talked about recording an episode. We didn't get around doing it face to face that week but eventually managed to book a time online. There is something quite surreal and magical about having someone tell you about the place you once called home. Maddie was born and raised in the southern part of Sweden,  in a town called Ängelholm, “Angel town”.   She has been living in Stockholm for 8 years now. She has a background as a assistant nurse and always had a huge interest for health and wellness. She recently finished a education in Selfhealing therapy and Functional medicin yoga... and a few month ago, coliving crossed her path... Follow Maddie Follow K9

Finally, a long chat with Philip who has been living in the pods at K9 for a while now, pods the podcast are actually name after. I guess you could say Philip is one of the Original Humans!

Philip is a resident at K9 co-living in Stockholm and a person so curious and passionate about human connection and relationships that he started his own company to design and develop tools that help us humans to more conscious and meaningful contact, Relate.

He is a fascinating human and listening to his reflextions and thoughts on his life at K9 made me reflect on topics I thought I had already exhausted... the proof that coliving makes you go deeper and deeper with each conversations.


Check out Relate
Their question game for deeper conversations or their self assessment test to find out if you are ready and have the self knowledge needed for a conscious and healthy romantic relationship! (in Swedish)
Check out K9
Follow Philip's journey. 

Yes, another K9er on the podcast. As long as K9 lives I will make it my mission to talk with as many residents as possible. Each story is similar and different at the same time and I always leave the conversation with new things to reflect on.

Abhi moved in a bit after me and we've grown to become close friends, despite what he might say. We have debated K9 more times than I can remember, in our rooms, around the kitchen table, in the corridors, at the house meetings. We have also laughted until we cried and been there for each other when the tears were of sadness.
In this episode Abhi shares his own K9 story, moving from India in "search of a better life" as he explains it, focusing on his studies at first until he started looking for something that had been missing since he left "home", this feeling of belonging to something/somehwere/some people?
We talk about the ups and downs in a self run community, the progress the house made since I moved out 2 years ago, the importance of structures and how they can be source of conflicts themselves, the role of interior design, the fragile balance of "give & take" and, of course, the meaning of home.

Follow Abhi's adventure on Instagram here, and K9's here.

A few weeks ago I was connected through a common friend with Hugo, the co-founder of Vine 21, a co-living and coworking space, located in the hearth of Bucharest. We exchanged a few messages and jumped on a call. Half way through we realised we were both born in Paris...we had been speaking english until then. Sharing a good laugh is a great way to bring people together, especially when you are laughing at your own silliness!

I enjoyed hearing Hugo's experience as a founder who had also spent a lot of time as a resident in his own space and of course, I invited him to join the podcast. This is Hugo's story. From Lyon, France to Bucharest Romania. From not knowing what he wanted to do to running a succesful coliving and coffee shop which quickly became a place for people from within and outside the coliving community, internationals and locals to connect, meet, exchange and collaborate.

Learn more about Vine21 wvw.vine21.ro
Follow Vine21 on Instagram: @vine_21_bucharest

Yoav and I could have gone one for a few hours. We tried to combined it under an hour but our passion for community living and the meaning of Home is one of the many things we seem to share.
We've never lived under the same roof and yet, we feel like we belong to the same tribe. That's coliving done well for you.
Yoav is a never ending source of knowledge and inspiration when it comes to community building, shared experiences, story telling and just beautiful companionship.
He is now traveling Europe (the world?) with his exhibition "Home: between a shelter and a cage".
He has also created a digital version of it that you can explore right here. 

The second episode of 2022 is with Lies who is the concept creator of Coaliving, a beautiful short and long term coliving space in Belgium.
Chatting with Lies was an absolute pleasure and felt like being back in my own community, around the kitchen table, discussing the pros and cons of shared living.
Coaliving was design in an old building that used to be the home away from home of immigrants coal miners, people who worked hard and missed their families abroad. For them then and for the coaliving colivers today, that building is a place that offers safety, shelter and connections.
Lies tells us about how important it was for them to honor the story of the space and those who lived their before all the while embracing this "new age" of community living, multigenerational living and sustainable living.
We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording!

Learn more about Coaliving
Learn more about Lies and her work. 

Guys, I wrote a book.

But enough about me:

Ally is from Ecuador but has been living and studying in Argentina for the past 2 years.
Arriving in a new country at 18, she wanted to find her new home in an environment that would feel safe and well located. That is how she discovered Casa Campus, a company offering appartements and coliving spaces in Argentina and Peru to students, young and young at heart professionals.

Ally's energy spreads throughout the episode and I was impressed by how open and honest she was about her experience: the different challenges she encountered in and outside of the home, her empathy for the community manager who has the difficult role to balance "feeling of home and logistics", and of course, the perks of living closer together, especially in the midst of the pandemic. 

Learn more about:
Casa Campus
Ally

Wilhelmina Ford is a single mum to two young children, and the Founder of ShareAbode. A platform that allows single parents to connect with one another for the purpose of reducing rent and expenses and benefiting from practical support and friendship.

Children and shared living is not a topic that comes up a lot here on the podcast and Im so glad it finally is! Multigenerational shared living is definitely part of my vision of the future and I am so glad more intiative around the world (Willo is in Australia) are pushing forward.

Check out Shared Abode's website and follow their instagram!

PS: My book is out!

Andreea is a 27 years old  freelance Social Media Manager who can work from everywhere. She has decided to finally take that leap of faith and head to one of her biggest and scariest dreams: start traveling around the world with almost no money, but with a lot of courage!

Dive with me into Andreea's story which started at Anceu Coliving in Spain but has already taken her to a new country, Switzerland and soon, France... Andreea is embracing the nomad life one coliving space at a time, sharing her hard and soft skills and learning about herself on the way!

We talk about giving ourselves time to follow our dreams, learning from experiences, about accepting to listen to our inner voices telling us there is another way than the one Society seems to impose on everyone, about different ways of being a leader...and more!

Follow Andreea's journey on her Instagram and Youtube Channel. https://www.instagram.com/andreea.rrusu?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreeaIuliaRusu

Cohousing for a living ;-)

Joeri is a 46 year old psychologist interested in people and real estate who has been an enthusiastic cohouser for the past 15 years.
He enjoys working and living together with other people and unleashes his creativity developing cohousing projects through his company HEEM. When he is not working on cohousing you'll find him in the air, paragliding.

HEEM based in Flandres, Belgium. They are pioneers when it comes to cohousing projects!
They see cohousing as the housing of the future and one of the answer towards sustainable housing through sharing more, strenghtening social cohesion and making ecological constructions and renovations more feasible.

In this episode Joeri takes us on his journey from 'it would be nice to live with friends...' to running a 15 people team working on dozen of projects around the country, bringing people and buildings together!

It's always a real honor to speak with someone who has been 'living the talk' for many years.


Learn more about HEEM via their website: www.heem.be
Or their instagram: @heem_cohousing
Linkedin: HEEM Cohousing

In our latest podcast episode, we dive into the concept of home and community with Elena, a dynamic community builder and applied theater practitioner. Together, we explore the intricate ties between theatrer, community, and the feeling of belonging.
Elena shares her fascinating journey from a high school drama enthusiast to a professional in applied theater, a field that uses theater as a tool in non-traditional settings like schools, organizations, and even prisons. Her passion for theater is infectious, as she explains how it can be a powerful medium for self-expression, confidence building, and fostering creativity.

Episode 5 already. We are heading back to "the mothership", K9 which has been my home for 3 years and is has now been Delphine (and her dog Cherry)'s home for more than 3 months. She shares about her personal life growing up in different countries and cultures, deciding to move to Stockholm where she feels more balanced and embarking into the coliving life with Cherry. Delphine shares personal experiences and great insights on a life shared with others, communication, personal needs and boundaries as well as what makes a home. She also tells us about her work and how K9 is like a live lab research for her project!

Delphine is a third culture kid with French and Thai parents, who was born in Germany and considers her homes to be Paris, Singapore and Geneva.
Her mission is to advance humanity through social innovations that help elevate consciousness and deepen human connection. She excels at creating environments where people feel safe to be themselves, express themselves and welcome different perspectives, so that together, they can co-create the world we all want to live in.   

She currently works with Warmspace, a social platform that gets people in touch with their humanity through authentic connection with others and co-hosts Warmspace at Work, a show that explores how to authentic communication is key to making workplaces more human, connected and productive.   

Apart from studying and researching human connection, Delphine is passionate about growing herself, finding opportunities to laugh out loud, exploring new ways to move her body and performing on stage.

Experience Warmspace with a loved one using this link!
Follow Delphine on her personal journey.

María is an interior decorator who loves working with her hands (painting, restoring furniture, diy...).
She is from Galicia, northwestern Spain, and has been living at Anceu Coliving, a rural coliving in Spain, for the past year. She started her online business as an interior decorator 3 years ago, working remotely full time for the first time in her life. She loves the freedom it gives her but she also craves company so she is on her journey to find the sweet spot in between :)

It's been a real joy sharing and exchanging experiences with Maria.
We talk about the need to find balance between urban and rural surroundings, about the impact of short and longer stay on your coliving experience and on the community, about emotional safety and discovering ourselves more extroverts than we thought.
We also touch upon the slight anxiety of living such safe spaces, the power of community on personal and professional growth as well as the health benefit of being around others, as a single and as a couple!

Learn more about Maria's job via her website and her Instagram.
Discover Anceu Coliving: website & Instagram
Here is the Instagram account of the therapist, Esther Perel, Maria mentions.
And here is Grace Kim's Ted Talk about cohousing. 

Oleksiy came from Ukraine where he was a succesful entrepreneur to LA about 3 years ago and went from resident to Head fo Growth at SOTA Coliving, one of LA's main coliving operator with 5 locations from 24 to up to more than a 100 residents.

I woke up a bit earlier (I was on vacation, don't judge) and Aleksiy stayed up late so we could discuss the process of starting a coliving, surviving COVID when the applications stop for 2 months as the pandemic hits the US, how to cope with perfectionism when you are living where you work , the benefits of community for people starting over and how it can positively impact the wider community.

Olek is also the author of the first-ever TEDx talk without a single word & Forbes "30 under 30".
Learn more about SOTA Coliving. (Make sure to check out their blog with great articles)
Follow them on Instagram.

Cecilia started her own coliving house - Villa24 - a couple of years ago. She had been living with friends in Hus24, a coliving house located in the city center of Stockholm, for several years and it was time to take the step and move closer to nature and get more personal space. They "moved on with their lives" but made the conscious choice to take their community with them.
Cecilia works as a project manager at the Swedish bank SEB and has a background in computer science.
She has a boyfriend, dog and a horse. She discovered first coliving while on her first date with her partner Shea and never really left either ;-)

Cecilia shares her story from the urban coliving Hus24 to dreaming of more space and nature without giving up on the growth and joy coming from living with other people, Villa 24.


Discover Hus24.
Follow Villa24.