The Voluntary Life

This episode is about where you choose to live and the impact that this choice can have on your level of freedom. Many people who have written about personal and political liberty have suggested a link between where you choose to live and how free you are. In the podcast we explore 3 different ideas about this choice: The ideas in "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau: finding freedom by living self-sufficiently alone in a rural setting The idea of 'Galts Gulch' in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand: finding freedom by living in a small community of like-minded people (again in a rural setting with an emphasis on self-sufficiency) The idea that 'City Air Makes You Free' (expressed by writers such as Jane Jacobs): finding freedom in the division of labour and diversity that cities provide. Arguably, the benefits of self-sufficiency have been overestimated in books like Walden and Atlas Shrugged, whereas the benefits of interdependence in cities have been under-appreciated by previous writers on liberty. It is suggested that Galt's Gulch wouldn't actually work in real life because it would lack the division of labour of a big city that is necessary to support the kind of advanced and specialised roles of it's inhabitants. In contrast, living in a city can provide many opportunities for greater work and personal freedom because of the benefits of the division of labour in cities. Show Notes Origin of the phrase City Air Makes You Free The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Previous episode of The Voluntary Life about Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

This episode is a review of the book "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Tim Ferriss. It is a skype conversation with a group of friends. The ideas that we discuss include: taking mini-retirements and getting out of a one-track career mentality extended travelling testing new entrepreneurial ideas with sales pages on the web before starting outsourcing tasks to a virtual assistant Tim Ferriss' personality and how it influences the style and content of the book

This episode is about how you as an individual can help alleviate poverty in a non-political, principled way. It's an economic view of how you can reduce poverty through economic development and the wealth that it generates. Jake presents ideas of the economist Ludwig Von Mises about how you can create economic progress and development, focussing on three key activities: creating technical innovation, which helps to make everything cheaper for everyone within the economy being an entrepreneur, which creates new value and wealth in the economy being a saver and investor, which provides resources for the future economic development (either of your own business or that of others) The podcast discusses how each of these activities help reduce your own poverty and that of the world as a whole. Show Notes Ludwig Von Mises The Anti-capitalistic Mentality Stephan Kinsella Against Intellectual Property

This episode is an interview with Kristov, an application security specialist, about what kind of measures individuals can take to ensure a level of security and privacy for their computers and their online life. In the interview, we cover security and privacy for a range of topics including: email use web browsing malware and viruses password managers data storage  use of torrents VOIP and chat application security for entrepreneurs

The second part of the interview from the Becoming Who You Are Podcast. We talk about a whole range of topics including: The fear of criticism that can come up when putting creative work out there The challenges of being yourself at work The future of The Voluntary Life podcast The difference between abstract business planning and being conscious of what's really happening in your business now The balance between having dreams and staying in touch with reality Getting support from the people in your life Doing what you love  

This episode is an interview with Marc de Mesel, who was previously on the show talking about investing in Europe. Marc runs a blog on investing in Europe in dutch and also an investing blog in english. In this episode, Marc talks about the hidden tax that is inflation. We discuss the difference between official inflation figures and the real loss of purchasing power that ordinary people experience. We also talk about ways in which an individual investor or saver can cope with inflation, including the advantages and limitations of precious metals as an inflation hedge. The discussion is opinion only and should not be considered any kind of financial advice. For more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio mentioned in the discussion, see Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing". You can also hear more about the Permanent Portfolio concept in this previous episode.

This is a repost of the latest Becoming Who You Are Podcast, where I was interviewed by the lovely host of BWYA, my partner Hannah.  In Part 1 we talk about how The Voluntary Life began and about feeling free to be yourself in your friendships.

This is a short spontaneous speech by Jake taken from the Porc Therapy appearance in the previous show (see episode 66). It is about alternatives to political activism for getting more freedom in your life. I hope you enjoy it!

This is a repost of an episode of Porc Therapy hosted by Stephanie Murphy that Hannah and I appeared on. "My friends Jake from The Voluntary Life and Hannah from Becoming Who You Are join me today for this fun podcast-only show where our discussion centers around living free – now! We begin with a PorcFest 2012 wrap up, then talk about connecting over shared values, immigration issues, the Free State Project, civil disobedience and political activism (and our disagreements with both), Jake’s amazing impassioned speech on living free!, intentional communities, permanent tourism and heading south to find freedom, living on a boat, someone who made his own island out of soda bottles, division of labor/going “off the grid,” and Leonid Rogozov’s famous self-appendectomy."

This episode is a review of "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand. It is a group discussion and the guests include Stephanie Murphy from Porc Therapy and other friends. Here are some of the things we cover in the discussion: The book's gutsy title and the controversy surrounding it. The pros and cons of Ayn Rand's morality and her own moralising. Aspects of the book we found unconvincing, such as her dismissal of voluntaryism and her idea that no conflict of interest is possible between rational people.  Rand's convincing takedown of ethical lifeboat scenarios. The fact that Ayn Rand is ignored in universities. The impact that some of Ayn Rand's contradictions (on intellectual property and on non-aggression) have had on the objectivist movement's development, especially it's pro-war stance on foreign policy. Her deconstruction of other moral theories that were around during her time. Plus, we have a lot of fun talking about her strange views on tapdancing and morality!