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Timothy Allen
timothy@nostr.com
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Chronicling the global movement to build freer societies.
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Timothy 3 days ago
Brazil has had a Free City for 45 years. Nobody noticed. Built in 1980 by a banker who'd never heard of charter cities... running its own water, sewage, security, and urban planning to this day. Paloma Lecheta is now trying to make it official. Full story on the new Free Cities Podcast 👇
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Timothy 1 week ago
Last year, 1,200 millionaires left Brazil. Most of them were founders. Paloma Lecheta is one of the people trying to give them a reason to stay. In my latest Free Cities Podcast episode, the Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus walks through: ▸ The 45-year-old private development in Florianópolis already operating like a Free City ▸ The proposed Digital Economic Zone (Floripa 10) that could give it formal autonomy ▸ Why the difference between crazy and visionary is execution WATCH:
Free Cities Podcast • 181 - Brazil's First Free City | Paloma Lecheta • Watch on Fountain
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Timothy 1 week ago
So, Gary's Economics has officially said he'll be voting Green. No surprises there of course but I'm genuinely looking forward to the inevitable interview he will have with Zak Polanski. It will be something to study and learn from. They'll use every socialist slight of hand in the book.
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Timothy 2 weeks ago
Just lost my Waymo virginity in Austin.
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Timothy 3 weeks ago
In 1967, a British WWII veteran named Paddy Roy Bates seized an abandoned North Sea fort and declared it the Principality of Sealand. A British court ruled it had no jurisdiction. His family has defended it ever since - against the Royal Navy, a German-led coup in 1978, and decades of a government hoping they'd disappear. Now the third generation has taken the reins. Prince Liam Bates talks about what comes next: building towers in the North Sea, reclaiming land to create an actual island and growing an e-citizen community that already spans 124 countries with 1.5 million followers. The family funded the operation for decades through a shellfish business. Noble titles and e-citizenship now sustain it. The plan is full sovereignty, physical expansion, and a permanent population. "That's the only way you can drive change. You can't ask to do anything. The world's regulated. They tell you no. So you just have to go and do it." https://fountain.fm/episode/wx2mWplRLVACJdGBJGrE
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Timothy 1 month ago
Music recommendation: This isn't gonna be for everyone, but I reckon Meshell Ndegeocello's music is excellent:
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Timothy 1 month ago
Three years ago, Próspera had one building and a hostile government that swore to destroy it. Today? Every metric is up and to the right. On today's show I sat down with co-founder Gabriel Delgado to hear the full story - and the master plan that's even bigger than I previously thought.
Fountain: Podcasts & Music
Free Cities Podcast • 177 - The Próspera Master Plan | Gabriel Delgado • Watch on Fountain
Inside Próspera's Survival, Legal Battle, and Vision for Governance as a Service Próspera is the world's most closely watched startup city - a Fr...
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Timothy 1 month ago
I went back to this older episode today and it feels more relevant now than when I recorded it. Not because it “predicted everything”, but because the core questions have only got sharper: Ukraine as a proxy battleground, migration as a destabilising force, Israel’s centrality in Middle East power politics, and how media narratives shape what the public is allowed to see. https://fountain.fm/episode/XIiKUFNCzaKkPNp4c1tt
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Timothy 1 month ago
"Just a bit of economic freedom can cause absolute miracles. It did in the past. It can do so again." In Episode 176 of the podcast, I sat down with James Price - a former senior adviser across five UK government departments including the Treasury and Cabinet Office. This isn't your typical political commentary. James has been inside the machine and explains, with remarkable clarity, how it actually operates. Some things that stood out: → When the UK government changed in 2024, only 200 people across the entire state changed roles. Everyone else stayed exactly where they were. → Civil servants are more likely to die in the job than be fired. → Special advisers are "constitutionally not allowed to tell civil servants what to do." → During the vaccine rollout, a minister had to tell civil servants to Google the logistics industry because they had zero experience moving anything anywhere. He breaks down how democracy got eaten from the inside by the people nobody voted for. How the blob digests every election and nothing changes. How Hayek and Burnham saw all of this coming 80 years ago. And why more people are starting to ask whether the nation-state is the problem — not the solution. This one's a masterclass in how the modern state actually works - and why it doesn't. https://fountain.fm/episode/tuZpY3c4GgvGqdbO8qnk
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Timothy 1 month ago
“When Starmer came in in 2024, how many people across the entire British state changed jobs? Two hundred. One hundred ministers… and one hundred special advisors… And that’s it. And everybody else in that deep state stayed exactly the same.” https://fountain.fm/episode/tuZpY3c4GgvGqdbO8qnk
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Timothy 1 month ago
Architecture is downstream from law. If your buildings are ugly, inert, overpriced, and impossible to build, the problem is not just aesthetic. It is political. This week on the pod: Patrik Schumacher on why bad governance produces bad cities.
Fountain: Podcasts & Music
Free Cities Podcast • 174 - The Architecture of Spontaneous Order | Patrik Schumacher • Watch on Fountain
"Land use should not be prescribed by any planning regime. People come together into the city by seeking out very particular connections and a mult...
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