Screw this…Let’s try something else

Jon Alexander, author and community organising advocate who helps people shift from consumers to citizens. He lays out five practical steps to get started in your place. Topics include finding others and building small teams, listening widely and starting with strengths, creating a shared vision, choosing a tangible first project, and learning by doing.

When his town was falling apart, Billy Dasein decided to take make a radical choice and go home. So what happens when we stay where we are, reach across the divides and learn to love our place? For two communities, East Marsh United in Grimsby and Cooperation Hull in the North East of England, this simple act started a journey that not only led them to a revolutionary housing model, food club and energy project, but also to a mission to fix our broken democracy and rewrite the political rules for the majority. Dozens of communities like these are now feeding into a growing call to reboot the 1830’s charter movement and fix our flailing 21st century democracy, and Oli Whittington of Our House, and Jon Alexander, walk us through the growing call to do politics differently. Featuring: Josie Moon, Rachel McWilliam, Billy Dasein, Catherine Vulliamy, Oli Whittington, Jon Alexander,  Has this podcast changed how you feel? Take our hope survey: https://tinyurl.com/k4spjx43 Use our AI postcode search tool to find 5 examples of powerful collective action within 5 miles of your front door >> https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you Follow us on Instagram @antidotelive or TikTok @antidote_live or Linkedin To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ Find links to things mentioned in the show here: East Marsh United: https://www.antidotelive.studio/east-marsh-united Cooperation Hull:  https://www.antidotelive.studio/cooperation-hull  References from the show: Hull - UK’s crapped town: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3158298.stm Grimsby voter turnout: https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/your-council/elections-and-voting/election-dates-and-results/local-elections/> UK Voter turnout at last election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_Kingdom_general_election https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/A-System-out-of-Step-The-2024-General-Election-ONLINE.pdf Trust in each other vs trust in politicians: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/trustingovernmentuk/2023#trust-in-government-and-institutions Tree cover street level cooling effects: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298675-trees-cool-the-land-surface-temperature-of-cities-by-up-to-12c https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0l4j8wkrw7o  Paris Citizens Council info: https://www.fairvote.ca/01/09/2022/the-paris-citizens-assembly-where-citizens-write-the-law/> https://demnext.substack.com/p/how-a-permanent-citizens-assembly?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.buergerrat.de/en/news/paris-city-council-adopts-citizens-proposal/ https://www.feantsa.org/epoch-files/Homelessness-Strategies/France/Homelessness-Strategy-France-Original2024.pdf https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/03/24/parisians-back-garden-roads-project-in-record-low-turnout_6739472_7.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When it comes to designing a neighbourhood fit for the future we face, Ladywood in Birmingham may seem like an unlikely place to be rivalling billionaires plans to live on Mars, but their results might be more appealing to the majority of us who like Earth, and are partial to oxygen. Inspired by past neighbourhood solutions that have since spread nationwide - like the NHS and welfare state - Civic Square are coming up with practical ways forward on climate, housing and resilience that could scale countrywide and create a collective future we all want to live in. We then talk to Kate Raworth (tbc), founder of Doughnut Economics - on how the economic model behind this work could transform our future.  Featuring: Immy Kaur, Kate Raworth Has this podcast changed how you feel? Take our hope survey: https://tinyurl.com/k4spjx43 Use our AI postcode search tool to find 5 examples of powerful collective action within 5 miles of your front door >> https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you Follow us on Instagram @antidotelive or TikTok @antidote_live or Linkedin To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ Find links to things mentioned in the show here: https://www.antidotelive.studio/civic-square CIVIC SQUARE plans: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Et1Uk9opbbZn2slwcXFQQ_AtTLYb8EVS/view Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We head to Shropshire, where siblings Charlotte and Ben Hollins brought together 8000 strangers to buy their organic farm back from the jaws of big agriculture. They’ve gone on to prove a new community ownership model that recent research suggests could work better, not only for farmers but all of us too. Now they’re exploring how it can expand nationwide. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a farmer, but don’t know how to start a tractor, join Maryam & Matt on this journey to reconnect us to our land, food and farming. Featuring: Charlotte Hollins, Ben Hollins, Sue Pritchard,  Has this podcast changed how you feel? Take our hope survey: https://tinyurl.com/k4spjx43 Use our AI postcode search tool to find 5 examples of powerful collective action within 5 miles of your front door >> https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you Follow us on Instagram @antidotelive or TikTok @antidote_live or Linkedin To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ Find links to things mentioned in the show here:  https://www.antidotelive.studio/ford-hall-organic Reports referenced in the show: http://www.uklanddirectory.org.uk/land-usage.asp  https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/17/who-owns-england-thousand-secret-landowners-author  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40544084/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lee Robb was fed-up of seeing her hometown – Carrick Fergus in Northern Ireland – divided, neglected, and still reeling from the troubles,  so she decided to buck the trend and… reach out to her fellow residents. When she did, she was surprised that people reached back, and working together they created something that put Carrick on the map for a different reason. Through their humble greengrocers, they’ve proven an appetite for locally grown food systems and revitalised their high street. Now they’re consulting with national government on how their model can create a blueprint for a food system that actually makes sense and could work everywhere. We then talk to Jon Alexander about how this approach could change not only our food system, but if we come together in our places, everything. As Jon says in his book Citizens ‘the key to fixing everything is all of us’.  (Thanks to Simon Wood at Ravenhill films for letting us use the Crowdfunder clip!)  Featuring: Lee Robb, Jon Alexander Has this podcast changed how you feel? Take our hope survey: https://tinyurl.com/k4spjx43 Use our AI postcode search tool to find 5 examples of powerful collective action within 5 miles of your front door >> https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you Follow us on Instagram @antidotelive or TikTok @antidote_live or Linkedin To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ Find links to things mentioned in the show here:  https://www.antidotelive.studio/carrick-greengrocers Reports referenced in the show: ‘The Money Trail’: https://nefconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/TheMoneyTrail.pdf City University of London farmer study: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/33491/1/sustainability-16-06851-v2.pdf ‘The False Economy of Big Food’ https://ffcc.co.uk/publications/the-false-economy-of-big-food Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over a pint in Lawrence Weston, Bristol, Mark Pepper and fellow residents decided they’d had enough of the community being ignored by politicians, the council and everyone else, so knocked on 3000 doors and asked their neighbours what mattered to them. Then, as a community, they set about delivering. In just a few years they have rewritten housing policy, brought a supermarket to a food desert and built a community-owned wind turbine that brings them an income, all creating a road map for self-built hope that could work anywhere. We then talk to David Tudgey about how the model proven by Lawrence Weston could work for communities everywhere.  Featuring: Mark Pepper, Donna Sealey, David Tudgey 🔗 Has this podcast changed how you feel? Take our hope survey: https://tinyurl.com/k4spjx43 🏠 Use our AI postcode search tool to find 5 examples of powerful collective action within 5 miles of your front door >>https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you 📲 Follow us on Instagram @antidotelive or TikTok @antidote_live or Linkedin 📩 To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ 📋 Find links to things mentioned in the show here: https://www.antidotelive.studio/lawrence-weston-energy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever find yourself wondering ‘Does everything have to be this broken?’ Join Maryam Pasha and Matt Golding, on a journey of the possible, to visit ordinary neighbourhoods doing something extraordinary. Each episode we’ll meet the folks who’ve had enough and are starting to say: “Screw this… let’s try something else” and are proving there are better ways to approach food, energy, housing and decision making – and then we’ll explore what the country could look like if these ideas spread. From a mission to reboot an empty high street in Northern Ireland, and people owned power in Bristol, to a Shropshire farm with 8000 community landlords, and a neighbourhood of tomorrow in Birmingham, come along on a road trip like no other, and get inspired. Because, even in our troubled times, real hope exists – if you know where to look.  Stay tuned for our 6th episode, where we’ll share tips on how to get started where you live - and invite you to take part in our survey - conducted with the University of Bristol - to see whether listening to this series has made you feel more hopeful. 🔗 Take our hope survey: <link tbc> 🏠 To find what’s happening near you - visit Antidotelive.studio/nearme - and use our postcode search tool 📩 To get stories like this to your inbox, join our mailing list: XXXXX 📲 Follow us on social media: @antidotelive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices