Neighboring Tip: Strike Up a Conversation With a Neighbor

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This week, Matt and Adam are joined by Kristopher Swanson for a new Neighboring Tip which is to strike up a conversation with your neighbor. For some people, this may be a very obvious tip. It is spring, people are out and about, it makes sense to strike up a conversation! For others that may think this is a harder tip to execute, be intentional about saying hello and being open to a conversation. If you can't remember your neighbors name, name the awkwardness and ask! And remember to write your neighbors name down for next time. Perhaps on a piece of paper OR a block map magnet that you can purchase at our store HERE.

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David Burton: Missouri Extension Office

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This week, Matt and Adam are joined by David Burton from Springfield, Missouri who works for the University of Missouri Extension in community development. David shares his experiences with neighboring, what caused him to begin advocating for neighboring, as well as the pilot program they launched in March and what lessons they are already learning from that.

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Matt and Adam BACK ON THE FRONT PORCH

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This week we have a JOYFUL celebration of an episode because Matt and Adam are back on an actual front porch! We've got birdsong, we've got trains in the distance, we've got the creak of the porch swing AND we've got Adam and Matt doing what they do best- playing live music and talking about taking the time to enjoy the little things that mean the most to us as we come out of the season of Covid.

Editors note: I left this episode pretty raw! I want to invite you to take a minute and image yourself pulling up a chair onto Adam's porch to listen in on this conversation. I invite you to share in the laughter and joy of this episode!

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John McKnight: Attributes, Roles, and Culture

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This week, Adam and Matt are joined by John McKnight to discuss the six (possibly even seven) attributes of a culture of contribution, how these characteristics in a community could foster peace, and then continues with the roles that we play within our neighborhood.

The six attributes discussed: Cooperation, Hospitality, Generosity, Kindness, Accepting Fallibility, Forgiveness, (and the seventh, Spirituality.) 

  • What would you do to make these manifest?

  • The people who love you, which of these attributes would they say YOU have?

  • And look at your neighbors. What attributes do you see them living into? We want to hear your stories.

  • How do we tell these stories in our neighborhoods?

The roles that people perform in a community: Healers, Conscience, Artists, Conveners, Bridgers, Connectors, Voices, Visionaries, Executors, Tuck Pointers.  We would welcome your thoughts on this list. 

  • Which of these do you feel like is a role that gives you joy?

  • Is there a role that you would add?

  • And think about your neighbors. Do you see them embodying a role listed here? If so, what does that look like?

  • Are there missing roles you would add to this list?

You can learn more about John McKnight HERE and a link for The Learnings of John McKnight can be found HERE.

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Nathan Hansen: Apartment Neighboring

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This week, Adam and Matt are joined by Nathan Hansen who shares with us his experience of neighboring in an apartment complex. We love talking about neighboring through the art of storytelling and Nathan has some great ones this week!

This week, Adam and Matt are joined by Nathan Hansen who shares with us his experience of neighboring in an apartment complex. We love talking about neighboring through the art of storytelling and Nathan has some great ones this week!

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ReCycle Part 2: Reveal

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This week, hosts Matt and Adam continue their discussion about the ReCycle process. (Part 1: The Act of Remembering aired on December 22, 2020.) In Part 2: Reveal, we move from the thinking and reflection portion of the process to the Action piece- Or to loosely quote Adam, just go out and try some *stuff* and see what happens!

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…

This week, hosts Matt and Adam continue their discussion about the ReCycle process. (Part 1: The Act of Remembering aired on December 22, 2020.) In Part 2: Reveal, we move from the thinking and reflection portion of the process to the Action piece- Or to loosely quote Adam, just go out and try some *stuff* and see what happens!

Amy Notbohm: Gifts Economy

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This week Adam and Matt are joined by Amy Notbohm from Arizona. Amy found the Neighboring Movement through some mutual friends and started listening to the podcast, then jumped onto a Community Call and we immediately fell in love with her energy and started including her in all the things so that she could begin sharing her knowledge with us!

In this episode, Amy references two books:

"Doughnut Economics" by Kate Raworth. You can find out more information about that book and "the doughnut" at https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/.

"Women in the Gift Economy" by Genevieve Vaughan. You can find more information about this book at http://www.gift-economy.com/womenand.html

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…

This week Adam and Matt are joined by Amy Notbohm from Arizona. Amy found the Neighboring Movement through some mutual friends and started listening to the podcast, then jumped onto a Community Call and we immediately fell in love with her energy and started including her in all the things so that she could begin sharing her knowledge with us!

Cormac Russell: Part 5

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Welcome to the 5th and final part of our Cormac Russell interview! For the past 4 weeks, hosts Matt and Adam have broken down an hour long conversation they had with Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe. Listen in for the conclusion of this inspiring conversation. 

I really want to just have basically a transcript of everything Cormac says in this episode; there are so many profound, make you think, things packed into this short episode. But instead I will lead with this one quote and you will have to listen for the rest. "So if you want to breathe free, the starting point is to remember that the people who are most likely to enable that to happen, are you and your neighbors."- Cormac Russell

To learn more about Cormac Russell, visit https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/cormac-russell/ 

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…

Welcome to the 5th and final part of our Cormac Russell interview! For the past 4 weeks, hosts Matt and Adam have broken down an hour long conversation they had with Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe.

Cormac Russell: Part 4

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Welcome to Part 4 of 5 of our Cormac Russell interview! For the past 3 weeks, hosts Matt and Adam have broken down an hour long conversation they had with Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe. We are down to our last 2 parts of the conversation and oh friends, we are still very much in the depths of this rich, chocolate peanut butter pie!

This week, Cormac starts out by talking a little about economics of institutions and the neighborhood economy.

"Lots of liberals would say, "well thank goodness we've got the public sector and we've got charities because they don't operate that way..." Well actually, they do. So the structure of the institution is essentially I'm going to take your need in whatever form it comes and I'm going to structure it in such a way that it can be commodified... Two thirds of all the monies that are intended to go to the people living in poverty, to put an end to poverty, don't go to people living in poverty in the US. They go to people who are servicing people who live in poverty who are not poor."

"Many of the big churches are exactly the same, where they're harvesting people's misery and turning it into money."

Insert head explosion emoji here! Listen in to hear what Matt and Adam talk about in response to that band-aide rip!

To learn more about Cormac Russell, visit https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/cormac-russell/ 

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…

Welcome to Part 4 of 5 of our Cormac Russell interview! For the past 3 weeks, hosts Matt and Adam have broken down an hour long conversation they had with Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe.

Cormac Russell: Part 3

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Welcome to Part 3 of 5 of our Cormac Russell interview. Hosts Matt and Adam are joined by none other than Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe.

Welcome to Part 3 of 5 of our Cormac Russell interview. Hosts Matt and Adam are joined by none other than Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe.

To recap a bit, Cormac has been telling us about the 3 Lanes. The first lane is what communities can do for each other. The second lane is what citizen's can do WITH institutions, key word is "with." And the third lane is what institutions alone can do. And where we are now is we always tend to start in lane 3, without asking questions of lane 1 first.

This week, Cormac gives a couple of recent examples of lane one and how Covid has actually moved us back into lane one a bit.

To learn more about Cormac Russell, visit https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/cormac-russell/ 

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…

Cormac Russell: Part 1

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This week, hosts Matt and Adam are joined by none other than Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe. There are so many golden egg quotes in this interview, you would think it was Easter already!

This week, hosts Matt and Adam are joined by none other than Cormac Russell, the author of "Rekindling Democracy," a much sought-after international keynote speaker and Managing Director of Nurture Development, the leading Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) organization in Europe. There are so many golden eggs in this interview, you would think it was Easter already! 

To paraphrase Matt and Adam, this interview is so rich it's like a deep fried peanut butter pie, so we will break it down into 5 segments so that you can fully digest all of the great quotes and incite this interview has to offer. Here are few quotes from this week:

"...at times the function of the state is to create a dome of protection around associational life and if there is a predatory force that's doing the community down, I think it's quite helpful for them to be big, to fan out, but when there's a whole set of things like for example in a little while I'll go and have a meal with my family, I don't want the state governing how the salt gets passed."- Cormac Russell speaking on institutions and how proportionality and context matters.

"...recognize that democracy at whatever level or scale we think of it is something that has to be an embodied act, otherwise it's just a concept."- Cormac Russell

"...so the neighborhood is the primary unit of change in a democracy, so you think about it, what is the atomic element of molecular democracy?  It's the neighborhood."- Cormac Russell

To learn more about Cormac Russell, visit https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/who-we-are/cormac-russell/ 

Listen on any podcast platform! Here are links to the most popular ones…