The Humans Inside The Pods

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/

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/ 

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

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. 

In this first episode of the second season we're chatting with Katia who's partner unexpectedly inherited a french castle from the 12th century in Normandy. Both Katia and her partners have been "slowmads"for the past 10 years, taking their work and cat with them as they establish themselves in a new location every year or so. They like to create roots for a little while, build a routine and get to know people and the culture of their new temporary home. When the Castle came into their lives, their whole world changed. How would they make a "Chateau" fit their minimalist lifestyle?Then came COVID and a coliving experience.... Listen until the end and get a little surprise! Learn more about Chateau Coliving Follow them on Instagram.

Did you notice that people nowadays tend to come together when there is discomfort, something to fight against or survive from? What happens when things go "back to normal", why do we retreat then to the secluded comfort of our private homes? This is one of the question Lynn Morstead, co-founder of Cohousing Houston, asked herself and one of the reason she decided to jump into the cohousing adventure: "to find desaster free neighbourliness". Check out the progress of the project on their Website and Instagram. Read more about The Humans Inside the Pods

In this episode I chat with Fanny Caloz, a serial entrepreneur, co-founder Swiss Escape, a coliving and coworking space in 2016. Over the years, she has hosted thousands of entrepreneurs from all over the world, gotten inspired by their energy and ideas. Last year, she decided to leave her role at Swiss Escape to evolve the coliving into an incubator to help young professionals start their own business.  Swiss Escape Incubator was born in early 2021, helping millenials turn their dreams into an impatcful business. I'm lucky enough to be working with Fanny remotely on several projects and it's was great fun to dive deeper into her personal experience of coliving and entrepreneurship and how those 2 topics are so linked and intertwined in her personal and professional journey. We talk inspiration, education, the power of community, coliving for a living and the lessons and challenges it brings, that feeling of never being enough, failure, and of course, turning dreams into reality. We hope you enjoy it! More about Fanny. More about Swiss Escape. More about Swiss Escape Incubator. 

Join our Humans in your inbox newsletter. Follow us on Instagram Follow Linn I'm particularly excited to share this episode as it is going to be part of a bigger project. Linn who moved into K9 in February as agreed to let me follow up on her as she goes through her intentional coliving journey. This week we are sharing her "Intro-onbarding" interview and we will touch base again a few months to see how things are evolving. It's been such a lovely chat I cannot wait to hear more about her life in a an intentional Community. But a bit about Linn first, she is a very creative and outgoing 29 year old swede who works as a Learning and Development partner in Stockholm. After a year living on her own she realised this was not the life for her. So she made the conscious decision to leave her flat and moved into a bedroom in a house with 50 other people. We talk about what makes her feel at home, how she came to the conclusion that living alone was not for her, she shares the rollercoaster that the past few months have been, getting used to the processes and the constant flow of energy that both brings magic and challenges! Stay tuned, we will be back in a few month for more. 

Today I share my conversation with Dani, one of the most recent addition to the K9 family in Stockholm. Dani is from the US originally but spent the biggest part of the past 20 years in the south of France. She works on water, climate and sustainable development issues, she is a musician and now, a coliver. She shares her story of moving to a new country for work amid the pandemic, the decision of leaving her family in France and the joy and confort of getting a "built in" community as she joins K9. We talk about embarking on a life change at the mid-century mark of her life, the joy and growth we get from helping others, the first few days in the house, music and the concept of Wabi sabi... We hope you enjoy it!

Today I'm sharing a conversation I really enjoyed recording with seasoned coliver, digital nomad and coliving consultant Leah Ziliak. We get into lots of different topics. We compare living on a boat with coliving life, talk about the difficulties of making friends "in real life" after being used of living in a coliving, the experience of long and short term coliving, pros and cons, the impact of the pandemic on her lifestyle , making real connections and empowering the residents to create genuine communities rather than over servicing and turning into a hotel. We hope you enjoy it. If you want to know more about Leah and work with her to create a thriving community you can find her on Instagram or via her website.

Don't miss an episode: join our monthly newsletter Today I share my conversation with Gina Joseph who has lived at Haven Coliving in LA for the past 6 months. We talk discovering coliving and learning about yourself, setting bounderies and the impact of community living (and covid) on well being. We discuss her experience starting her Digital Marketing business, a BIPOC-led social media creative agency that helps brands & influencers elevate their content,  while living at Haven. Gina also shares very honestly and openly about her personal experience as a black woman in coliving as we discuss diversity and inclusivity. A very inspire and powerful episode! Make sure to check our instagram stories this week as Gina is offering a 1h Digital Marketing consultation to 1 person who will answer our question correctly :-) Make sure to follow Gina on her personal account as well as Digital Babe's account and website www.digitalbabeofficial.com More about Haven Coliving here. 

Make sure not to miss an episode Im excited to share my conversation with Lea Hermanns co-founder of Poha House in Germany. This chat is what happens when two coliving geeks meet. Lea and I both discovered long term coliving and fell in love with it, so much that it has defined our career.  After living abroad and experiencing different type of community living, Lea came to Germany to start her own with her family. We dive into her personal experience, the need for different options and longer term stay, the importance of the vocabulary you use when talking to your residents and how much space impacts community. Lea shares the questions that follow her daily as the CPO and the values that are guiding her and her team to deliver the best possible product. We hope you enjoy it! This is Poha House and their Instagram

Never miss an episode - Today I share my conversation with Oksana Okhrimento, Business tramsformation consultant and co founder of the online (and hopefully soon, offline) community Joyty, bringing together those who love to explore, ask questions, create and find their own path. We take a deep dive into Oksana's roots and background. She is "only" 25 but has lived many lives in 6 different countries and knows where she is going in life. We follow her through Germany, Austria, Japan and more as we explore the different type of communities one can encounter and how to find your place and maybe make your own. We questions quite a few things, we talk about the creation of Joyty of course and Oksana keeps on sprinkling knowledge. We hope you enjoy it! If you want to know more about Joyty, check out their Instagram @joyty.co and Website.

Make sure not to miss an episode! Today I share my conversation with Franziska Spoddig, my firt digital nomad on the podcast. Franziska is a digital nomad who is launching her own startup around coliving & communities. She is an advocate of real and deep talks. During this conversations we talk about her passion for traveling the world on her own but never feeling lonely, discovering communities in the places she visits. We go through the diferences between couchsurfing, staying in hostels and coliving spaces, between backpacking and being a digital nomads and the evolving needs from traveling as a student to becoming a remote worker. We also talk Online vs. reality and the importance of communication & privacy while constantly pushing your boundaries. Learn more about Franziska via her instagram Her startup Social Bookers Read her articles on Linkedin  Apologizes for the sound quality which isn't at its best in this episode. 

Never miss an episode, join our monthly newsletter! Axelle Seutin is a french/chinese language teacher turned entrepreneur who spent several years in Asia and actively looked for a community after coming back to France. She was one of the very firsts coliver at The Babel Community in Montpellier in the South of France. She shares her experience of feeling like a stranger in your own country after a long period abroad and of looking for that "Erasmus feeling" again. After a year at Babel, Axelle talks about the learnings and small conflicts that in time, turn into personal growth. Today Axelle is the Digital Magazine Editor of Doona Intelligent Business,on which she interviews Experts in Education and Entrepreneurship. You can read the interviews (in French) of successful entrepreneurs at https://emagdoona.wordpress.com and follow her Instagram @emagazine.doona

Never miss an episode, get our monthly news! Today I share my conversation with Josh,  founder and CEO of No Static Projects and former coliver at Haven Coliving in LA. In this episode we reflect on the Josh's coliving journey that is one that a lot of people experience:   Moving in for the services and amenities, staying for the community and ending up living in search of more privacy. I love Josh's honesty in sharing his experience, exploring life in community in time of COVID and learning about himself. We talk minimalism, relationships, coliving management and storage issues! We hope you enjoy it. More about Josh: Josh Litchman is the Founder and CEO of No Static Projects, a multi-service talent/creator management company based in Los Angeles, CA. Josh has a passion for the intersection of data and design and enjoys reading, working out, photography, architecture, and his new foster dog Grit! Josh is always looking to connect with other entrepreneurs and artists to help take them where they want to go in their careers. Personal Instagram: @thelitchman Business Instagram: @nostaticprojects Website: www.nostaticprojects.com

Never miss an episode by registering to our monthly news! In this episode I chat with Sami a martial art instructor and software developer who, as I like to say "colives for a living". Indeed, Sami is both Vice President of Product Experience AND a resident at Homefully a german based operator with 240 flats across 8 cities and 2 countries. It is the first time that I get to hear from the resident's point of you but through the eye of the operator as well. A very interesting way of putting yourself in the shoes of your customer! We talk tech, mindest, processes, design, genuine community building, the crutial role of communication, the subtle art of matching people, the role coliving is playing to promote diversity and fight prejudices and more. Sami switch from one hat to another effortlessly and it's a real pleasure to learn from his experience! Check out Homefully for more info on what they do and where they are!

Ludvig and I met at K9 in 2017 but before that he had already experienced life on his own in a 55m2 flat and coliving in a 12 people shared house in the heart of the old town. Ludvig is a tech entrepreneur who left a safe job to start his own business...more than once, so it was not such a strange move for him, to go explore beyond the frontiers of his comfort zone. After 5 years of community living and with all the learnings and challenges that brought, moving back to live on his own allowed him to find a balance that finally perfectly fits him. Ludvig is the CEO of Narratory, a smart bot builder.

Make sure to never miss an episode or join as a guest here: http://www.lifeonfifth.com/podcast In this episode I talk to first canine of K9. @k9coliving Riley and his humans moved in at the same time as I did into the 50 people collective in Stockholm. Today the 3 of them share about their experience as dog owners and a couple in a House full of people. We talk about the power of food, the joy of helping others, the kindness and trust that gave people wings in the house. We discuss the importance of learning how to communicate and the difficulty of making friends after moving out from such a place. And of course we dream about a future living with others. Follow Riley's adventures on instagram @rileyvoff  Check out Per's design work @Formtale Check out Bella's love for stationary and taking notes @insponote

In this episode I chat with Josefin, a nomad, a psychologist and a new K9er. We get a bit more personal this time around, perks of interviewing a psychologist, somehow you become the one being interviewed at some point! We talk about the interconectedness of it all, the importance of timing in life, about the social norm and its pressure, concerns about moving in and life in a coliving in time of Corona. Tune in. Never miss an episode by registering to our newsletter Make sure to follow us on @thehumansinsidethepods

A podcast by a passionate coliver, with real colivers for...anyone interested in the power of true Community. Join our mailing list so you don't miss an episode www.lifeonfifth.com/podcast In this conversation she shares about her life as one of the 13 housemates of Hus24 , (https://www.facebook.com/hus24)  the very first coliving that opened in Stockholm in 2011, which has been her home for the last 10 months. Through that experience as well as her life as a bit of nomad, Kiana has wonderful insights about communal living. We talk communications, boundaries, structures as well as the reason why we wish to live this way, the need for more diversity of people and ages in our lives and a deeper connection to nature... Kiana's ceative work explores the relationship between humans, nature and the cosmos, and it shows in her reflections. It's a beautiful talk and I'm happy you guys get to hear it. As well as visual art, she writes poetry and prose and is currently working on her debut poetry book to be published in spring 2021. Make sure to check out her website,  https://kianaangalia.com/and her Instagram accounts: Poetry @kiana.angalia.poetry & Art. @kiana.angalia.art

Welcome to episode 21 of the humans inside the pods. For this very last epissode of 2020, I m really excited to introduce Shireen Langan! She is a radio host, a podcast pro and the cofounder of The World Media Lab.  She is also my very first guest who is not a current or former K9er!  Last year she spent 4 months at  Haven Coliving in L.A , a purpose driven wellness coliving community, home for 96 people. I was so grateful that she agreed to share her story on the podcast and that we ended up having such a relaxed and open conversation despite not knowing each other at all. Shireen shares her experience as an expat arriving in a new country, doing her best to meet people and create a sense of home for herself.  She tells us about her two different homes while staying in the States, first in a family as a rbnb guest, and then as a member of the Haven community. We talk privacy, built environment, community management, the ups and downs of living with many others, the little challenges and great learnings and of course, we wonder, what makes a home?  If you want to know more about Shireen and what she is doing now you can check out her work at The World Media Lab , her personal website, and follow her on Instagram.  if you are curious about Haven Coliving, check out their website and instagram as well. 

Sign up to The Humans Inside the Pods' newsletter! Arturo and I moved in to K9 practically at the same time and for a very long time our path intertwined. We were part of the same community and within it, the same family we created for ourselves. We shared friends, meals, great chats and a couple of transformative journeys. I felt privileged to be in the front row to witness Art turn from shy introvert to a very social one. From tip toeing around the kitchen to hosting a cacao ceremony for the whole house. I was there too when he seemed to fall out of love with K9 and that is where we chose different path to managed our frustration with the community. Art and I disagree on a lot of things but agree that we both care very much about each other and I am so happy we are able to have these type of conversations. During this episode he explains how he first mistaken work for community and how what was supposed to be a physical challenge turned into an almost spiritual epiphany, putting him on the path to community living. We reflect on our time in the House through the ups and downs and most of all, talk about the most difficult lesson of all, letting go.

At the time of our call Francisco is all the way across the world, back "home", in Chile. He's been gone for almost 2 years and I can still picture him in the house, and see his contagious smile. In this conversation Fran takes us through his decision to leave home behind for a while, to challenge himself and find his own path. He shares his thoughts on moving in a bedroom in with a stranger, having to make a life for yourself in a new country, in a language that is not yours. He observes that his year in Sweden was a balance between exploring his surroundings, and then within himself. He tells how K9 and the community encouraged him to explore different paths and connected him to a world he had no idea excited and he now gets to work in! Finallly, we reflects on the life outside the bubble again and the challenge of finding it elsewhere. Follow him on Instagram on @Fschuler94 Join our newsletter www.lifeonfifth.com 

At the time of our call Linnea has been an alumni for about 8 months. Just like me. It's a pleasure to catch up and we instantly fall back into the effortlessness of the discussions around the kitchen table. In this Episode Linnea takes us on the journey that took her to K9 where she settled for a while after traveling and living abroad. We talk about balancing the need for social and private space, the endless learnings of a life with others and the more open mind that comes with. She also shares her experience of moving into a collective in the midst of an economic crisis that left the community wounded but also, in some ways, tighter than ever. Join the Newsletter for more insight on a life inside the pods!

Another frenchy on the podcast ! Im not much of a nationalist but it makes me so happy  to see more French people experiencing the power fo true community,  knowing we grew up in a society that doesnt really embrace that. In this episode Maxime shares about his 2 colliving experiences , the similiarities and differencies, how he came to K9, in need for renewall and balance and how living with 50 people impacted him and helped on his quest towards what he wants and who he wants to be. On my personal quest towards a better sound, I am now finding myself sounding like a robot, I will do better next time, I promise. We hope you enjoy it anyway! If you are curious, here is Pearl Street , the Austin coliving Maxime stayed at.

For our 16th episode  I  meet up (online) with Lynn and Camelia, 2 great humans that make 1 wonderful couple. We did not have much time together in the house as they moved out a few months after I arrived but within the little time we shared our home, I saw what thoughful, caring and giving people they were. It was a pleasure to catch up with both of them at the same time and have them tell me all about their personal journey with K9. From moving in out of necessity to become essential members of this newly opened collective back in 2016. They share about their experience of finding balance between social exhaustion and privacy.   We all ponder upon what makes the magic happen, what it truly means to be part of a community nowadays, what it takes and what you get in return. They tell about their need to find another way to live than the one imposed in us by society, how stubbling upon K9 gave them the strength to trust they were on the right path and finally we dive into life after K9 and our constant need to feel that void. We hope you enjoy it, despite the audio being, as usual, quite crappy at times. One day I ll be rich enough to invest in professional gears. Promise.

My latest conversation was with Hugo, a 19 year old french  exchange student who joined K9 in 2019. Listening to his perspective on his life in the house  felt like a great lesson of maturity coming from the youngest resident K9 had at the time. He tells us about how he got into the house, how he found his place in the community, how much he has learnt and grown there. He reminds us that we all have prejudices and make mistakes, and he share vulnerable stories that meant a lot to him, as learning experiences in the house. As he puts it, k9 is a beautiful places with beautiful souls...but it's also full of humans.  We hope you enjoy this dive into Hugo's vision of Co-living. Today Hugo is finishing his studies in France and is also involved in tones of activities and associations onthe side ! Keep up with Hugo's busy schedule by following him on IG.

I know it feels like I say that everytime but I also mean it each time. I was once again very excited to get my next guest on the podcast. Lemarc defines himself here as a cautious explorer and as lovely and true as it may be, it is also not enough to describe this wonderful person Igot to meet on my very first few days in the house. As you' ll hear, from meeting to friendship, it was a process. An intricate slow dance we disect during this conversation. Technology is not always on my side, I did my best to edit the mess and I hope what remains is a dive into social exhaustion, how friendhsip is built, the impact of high resident turn over, the way people experience a same situation differently, boundaries , letting people in, and how inviting yourself to events will take you on wonderful adventures! Something Lemarc didnt mention much is that he is a wonderful love (and I would like to say Life) coach and professional matchmaker , make sure to have a look at what he does, whether you are with someone or not, his advices are golden.  https://lemarcthomas.com/ We hope you enjoy it !

I have been waiting for this conversation with Staffan.  Not because he is such a busy guy we struggled a bit to find a time to do this, but mostly because of his essential role in the house from the very start, at the person who got to fill the collective with the first 49 k9ers, setting the tone for the years to come. Staffan being a motivational speaker and professional dreamer, I knew our talk would have many topics and awesome quotes. I was right, and Im so happy to share it with you today. We jump from bullying to serendipity, we talk about purpose, passion m inspiration and philosophy of life. Staffan opens up with great vulnerability and honesty sharing how he got to colive for a living as K9's gate keeper for 3 years, how it impacted his professional life as well as his personal experience as a resident , he explains his seemingly effortless process and how he managed to sell a vision in a place that was still very much work in progress, He explained how he focused on people's kindness and sense of curiosity and trust we also mention the importance of boundaries and residents engagement. Finally he shares about how intense the last year has been for him, his american experience and his current situation, exploring life on his own. If you want to keep up with this professional dreamer, you can check out his instagram @Staffantaylor

Today i share my conversation with Therese. A stockholmer as warm and welcoming as her winters are cold. If that makes any sense. As she says herself Therese always felt like there was more to life than the path she was set on. And so after lots of traveling and questioning she decided to listen to her guts and get out of her bubble, to become a full time truth seeker, path explorer and fully enjoy the unknown. We talk about starting your own business, and breaking out of the hamster wheel, about identity, preconceived ideas and finding your place in your world. Therese shares how by moving to K9 she found a place she could call home from day one that fitted her need for constant inspiration and exploration. How living with others from different paths of life reoncilied her with the idea of becoming an adult on her own terms. We hope you enjoy it. Curious about her new business? Keep on eye on www.ligthwork.se

Today I share my converstaion with emiliano. If you have listened to our previous episodes , EMiliano is Marica, my former roomate, 's boyfriend but as he says it, within a few days in the house he wasn't Someone s boyfriend anymore, he was a k9er. I had been looking forwward to our chat, not just because time with emilian ois always so easy going and fun but because I knew he had experienced coliving at a particular time and in particular circonstances and I wanted to get his insights of someone who followed a partner into a collective and moved in just as the pandemic hit. We talk about that in lenght of course as well as the importance of being proactive, the challenges, the learnings, the aftermaths, how to stay connected to the community even when you have left itas well as the power of onboarding an dintegrating someone in the right way...and many other little things. The sound quality is not as good as I would have wished but we had so many technical difficulties trying to record this talk I thin kthat is the best we will ever get. We hope you enjoy it!

Episode 10 of the HUmans inside the pods I chat with Selin. I was very impressed by the level of self awareness she showed, sharing about her experience in the house and how it changed her. Like many k9ers she mentions the honey moon period, the fomo and the feeling of burning out before finding the right balance. We talk about the importance of feedback and especially the impact positive feedback verbal or not have on us inside , and outside the house. We both agree that living in a colletive has made us aware of how much judgment we use to place on people and ourselves and how we felt curred of it through thte positive and empowering influence of the house of simply being noticed for who we are. We talk about COVID and how it also brought some good things in people 's life, allowing her to get deeper in her relationships and less of a workhaolic , we touch upon the impact of the physical environment on the way people interact and how living this way forces you to questioned yourlsef and your choices, and how it also gives you the strengh to stick to your own values. We hope you enjoy it

In this latest episode of the humans inside the pods I talk with another of the K9 alumni, Kaj, an explorer, a photographer and the most positive person I know. Kaj and I dive into his reasons for moving into k9, leaving it and moving back. His experience of all the different type of accomodation the collective has to offer, the beauty of instant friendship and the less obvious negative sides, what binds people together and the unspoken trust that make strangers make a home. How it feels to have been a resident and now be an alumni We talk a bit about cooking , men and women sharing private spaces and the positive peer pressure of living with others. Check out Kaj's amazing photography work @kajonthewall

My next conversation is with Lana. Lana played a special role in my story. We met 4 years ago. I was lost and in search for meaning, both personally and professionally. She ,opened those 2 doors for me. The first one quite literally as she was the one behind the desk when I first came in for my interview at the co-working space we ended up working at together. A year later, she mentioned this house she was moving into. It sounded weird. but she convinced me that s where I needed to be. And so I applied. I have never met someone who works as much as Lana while being so positive, passionate and willing to take on more challenges. Her's days seem to have 48h ,and Im so glad she could fit me in! As everything else Lana does, we have been quite productive in this episode. We start with how Stockholm and the community she found at k9 gave her the balance in life she needed after 7 different countries. We discuss having partners in a collective How the magic happens through people coming together, feeding off each others energy and ideas We talk about The wonderful sense of freedom, effortlessness and independance you gain when you do not have the stress and gilt of hosting since it is home for everyone. We touch upon the benefit of always having someone to do something with, discovering new ways to socialise She mentioned her brief experience in another collective and how it showed her the key role of recruitement, how amenties are nice but not what creates the magic. We actually talk quite a bit about that magic feeling , how it happens and how to recreate it We discuss givers and takers and how most challenges come from people s expectations and how they are or are not met Finally we talk about how living this way forces you to reflect on your life and how you live it , and how we want to live in the future.

In this episode of the Humans inside the pods I talk with Nivi A fun, strong, determined and very open minded woman. Nivi grew up an only child in India, in a conservative family And from a very young age, she decided there was more for her to explore. She left her family at 15 to studied ingenieering, which later on, took her to Sweden and soon after, to K9. Having lived with others all her life Nivi thought she would give living alone a try , in the country with the highest rate of 1 person houselold that was an easy fix. However she quickly realised it wasnt for her and her extrovert personality always seeking to learn and grow. She may have had the perfect job but she wanted the perfect home. She found it within the 50 people community of k9 where she lives in a room with her best friend In this conversation we address so many things, her family and background but also the type of rooms and their impact on well being, the safety one feels supported by a community, and the inspiration one finds in meeting people from different path of life, something that is so essential for her, in order to always, keep an open mind We hope you enjoy it !

This episode, it is Chloe who shares her experience living at K9 for the past 15 months. Coming from the US, and Canada where she studied she dived right into the swedish coliving world starting with k9's smaller sister house, House 24 and eventually moving into the bigger community after 3 months. In this episode we talk about the different aspects and cultural ways of sharing, and how intense it can get. How important it is to find your balance before you can be ready to give without feeling empty or guilty, the adress the impact of your professional life on your level of interaction within the house. We discuss how easy it is to get lost in the diversity and quality of the group and how essential it is to be intentional with your friendships, even within an intentional community. Chloe also gives us an american perspsective on coliving and we briefly touch upon the impact interior design, archtectire and location have on how people enjoy themselves and interact with each other . You may notice our mics are a tad out of sync sometimes but we hope you still enjoy it ! ...... If you want to learn more about House 24 you can check out theirFacebook www.facebook.com/hus24 As for us, hopefully we meet again, next Wednesday for a new conversation with a coliver.

In this episode of the humans inside the pods I talk with Simon who I met living at k9 in 2018. Simon takes us on his journey: from growing up as a kid in a collective outside of stockholm, to rejecting this lifestyle 15 years later leaving ro explore life on his own in his early twenties and eventually , embracing his love for community, and quest for personal and professional growth by moving into K9. Loving it leaving it, moving back in. We go over the ups and downs of a collective life , the importance of trying new ways even if it is to go back to what we knew and the stereotypes that come with growing up in a community. We hope you enjoy it! If you are curious about the place he grew up in https://www.angsviksgarden.se/ And if you want to know more about Simon's business , check out https://nordictechinstitute.com/

In this episode of the Humans inside the Pods I talk with Niklas who like me is an alumni of K9, where we met in 2018. Today he shares his time between Finland and Sweden turning his passion project into a promissing startup. In this episode Niklas and I talk about the impact of the social norm, why we are taught to share as kids but only on our own terms as adults , and how experiencing coliving is the only way to truly get it. Niklas opens up about his deep interest for mental health, the positive impact a community can have and how sharing his idea with his housemates gave him the confidence and support to accomplish his goal and start working on his peer support app Oyama @becomeoyama . Finally we share about the importance of compliments and feedback and how much we still, even after moving out, canot stop talking coliving. Obviously. We hope you enjoy it.

In this 3rd episode I chat with sofie. One of the most bubbly graceful and biggest hearted person I know. Sofie is a dancer who moved into our coliving house with her mom and sister 2 years ago. We cover a lot During this conversation! we talk about how it is her mother who introduced her to coliving, how living in such a community teaches you about yourself, about giving, gifting and handling change. We both agree on how much the house has enabled us to do more and dare more to follow our hearts and be ourselves. We adress growth and questioning our ways, we also talk pricavy when sharing a bedroom with 5 other people, the honeymoon period of moving into a new home and try to figure out the ultimate housemate number. I realise there are 3 things that we mention that might not be obvious for some people. Sofie talks about borderland , Slack and K9 talks. borderland is a smaller and european version of the burning man festival happneing in denmark and slack is a channel based messaging platform to help teams to organising themselves. K9 talks are talks within the house inspired by the Ted Talks during which people share about their passions , experiences and skills.

One of the highlights of my 3 years at K9 was having Marica as a roommate. It's hard to explain, even to ourselves, how we clicked so well having quite different personalities but I can only assume our love for the house and beyond it our true passion for a collaborative way of life definitely had something to do with it. In this second episode of The Humans inside the Pods we talk about how she ended up in a shared house with 50 people, the difference it makes to be in an intentional community and not simply in a flat share, the power of laughter, the learnings and challenges of a life with so many, the impact of the pandemic on her and her housemates life and what the next step after coliving could be. We hope you find it inspiring.

"The way I grew up!" I could not think of anyone better to kick off this podcast than my dear friend and seasoned coliver, Jhonatan. Jho shares his experience of living 4 years in a coliving with 50 other people. The challenges and learnings and why he lives the way he does. Follow him on Instagram @Strugen Follow K9 @K9coliving