You don’t build a new jurisdiction with ideas. You build it with deals, capital, and leverage. Here are 8 hard truths from one of the OGs of the Free Cities ecosystem.

Free Cities Podcast • 178 - 8 Hard Truths from 25 Years of Investing in Free Cities | Patri Friedman • Watch on Fountain

Why Most Free City Projects Fail & What Actually Works After more than two decades investing in charter cities, seasteading, and governance innovat...

I've got Milton's grandson, a Free Cities OG on the pod this week. Subscribe for early access..

Free Cities Podcast • 178 - 8 Hard Truths from 25 Years of Investing in Free Cities | Patri Friedman • Watch on Fountain

Why Most Free City Projects Fail & What Actually Works After more than two decades investing in charter cities, seasteading, and governance innovat...

Music recommendation: This isn't gonna be for everyone, but I reckon Meshell Ndegeocello's music is excellent:

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. https://fountain.fm/episode/6z7Iezt9eMsfXHRy1KSm

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

"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.

Free Cities Podcast • 176 - Why Everything Feels Broken | James Price • Watch on Fountain

“When Starmer came in in 2024, how many people across the entire British state changed jobs? Two hundred. One hundred ministers… and one hundr...

“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.”

Free Cities Podcast • 176 - Why Everything Feels Broken | James Price • Watch on Fountain

“When Starmer came in in 2024, how many people across the entire British state changed jobs? Two hundred. One hundred ministers… and one hundr...

On the podcast this week, I join Oswald Horowitz for one of the wildest frontier stories you'll ever hear. https://fountain.fm/episode/if1YcDueqXZxIaKX9Z2i

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.

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...

It's an intense one this week. Patrik Schumacher is one of the most important and controversial voices in architecture today. - Early access for subscribers TODAY...

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...

Episode 173 is out: Mailyn Salabarria. If you think tyranny only arrives overnight, this will change your mind. She’s lived the “hard mode” version and explains the “slow mode” version. Top line: “same dog, different leash.” Listen now: https://fountain.fm/episode/gSnY6oQPUDolaXJYgXhF

“You can vote your way into socialism, but you can only shoot your way out.” Subs on @Fountain get early access right now... https://fountain.fm/episode/gSnY6oQPUDolaXJYgXhF

“‘They’ll stop you!" is usually a reflex, not a refutation. Incentives protect alternatives more often than people think.

Free Cities Podcast • 172 - The Ultimate Exit Strategy | Joe Quirk • Watch on Fountain

"The golden age of voluntarism, anarcho-capitalism has already emerged. It's all over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. It's completely flourishin...

Very popular returning guest on the show this week. Early access for subs on @Fountain until tomorrow...

Free Cities Podcast • 172 - The Ultimate Exit Strategy | Joe Quirk • Watch on Fountain

"The golden age of voluntarism, anarcho-capitalism has already emerged. It's all over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. It's completely flourishin...

Special Economic Zones are marketed as “sandboxes for reform”. Lotta Moberg says that’s often the wrong story. In this episode we talk incentives, why failing zones can get more funding, and why free cities like Próspera might be a different category entirely. WATCH: https://fountain.fm/episode/kTVFzEz5YL0pMjWf6DPi

An exit tax is a government admission of failure: they couldn’t make the place attractive, so they make leaving expensive. Tim Stern is on the podcast this week. We talk incentives, capital flight, and why places like Margarita Island become magnets.

Free Cities Podcast • 170 - Leaving Europe Is The Rational Choice | Tim Stern • Watch on Fountain

"I want to be back in my tribe. I want to have strong people which I can rely on, which I can do business with, which I know, which have my back an...

"Get out of Europe". Tim Stern on the pod this week. Early access today for sub's on v4v...

Free Cities Podcast • 170 - Leaving Europe Is The Rational Choice | Tim Stern • Watch on Fountain

"I want to be back in my tribe. I want to have strong people which I can rely on, which I can do business with, which I know, which have my back an...

Seasteading only scales if it exports something the world wants. Mitchell Suchner (ArkPad) makes the case for “economics first” and lays out an incremental path: aquaculture as early cashflow, tourism as a demand engine, and later ocean industries (mineral extraction from seawater, offshore data infrastructure, autonomous logistics). We also get into stability/storm design and the governance implications of flags and jurisdiction at sea. Listen:

Fountain: Podcasts & Music

Free Cities Podcast • 169 - The First Operational Seasteading Resort: Reef Resort | Mitchell Suchner • Watch on Fountain

"If I can sell someone something to buy, they might buy it. If you can sell someone something that they can live in, they're likely to buy it. If y...

Seasteading isn't just a fad. Early access to this week's pod for subscribers on @Fountain

Fountain: Podcasts & Music

Free Cities Podcast • 169 - The First Operational Seasteading Resort: Reef Resort | Mitchell Suchner • Watch on Fountain

"If I can sell someone something to buy, they might buy it. If you can sell someone something that they can live in, they're likely to buy it. If y...

So many infinite pizza peeps coming out of the woodwork recently.