Screw This, Let's Try Something Else!
The old way of doing things isn't working. This new podcast from Antidote gives us tips and steps for creating the new economy right in our neighbourhoods, right now.
I posted a reel about this podcast and went to bed.
Woke up to my phone just...
Well, have a look:
🔥🔥🔥Screw this! 🔥🔥🔥
Notification after notification, hundreds of them, all saying the same two words: “Screw this.”
Which made me laugh out loud, because yes. Exactly. That’s the whole point.
The podcast is called Screw This, Let’s Try Something Else.
It’s made by my friend and collaborator Matt Golding, and it is, without question, one of the most important things you can listen to right now if you want to stop feeling helpless about the state of the world and actually understand how people are building the alternative.
Not someday.
Now.
In real communities, with real results.
Brian Eno called it “a podcast of hope-filled stories that could genuinely change the world.”
Yes, that Brian Eno!
Matt and I have been working on the same mission from different angles. I do short-form storytelling, these newsletters, the reels that go viral.
Matt makes beautifully produced, long-form content, visiting real places and sitting with real people, capturing HOW they pulled something off, not just that they did.
Both of us are trying to answer the same question: what does it actually look like when communities stop waiting for someone else to fix things?
This podcast answers it six times over.
In episode one alone, you hear how a community of 3,500 households in Bristol knocked on every single door, asked three questions, and used the answers to rewrite their local housing policy, end a food desert, and build the biggest community-owned wind turbine in England. It nets them £100k a year. Owned entirely by the neighbourhood.
They also changed their local housing rules so it’s now illegal to build a home without electric car charging points and proper insulation.
Illegal.
That’s what people can do when they decide to actually do it.
And that’s just episode one.
Six episodes, five communities, five proof points that the world we want is already being built by people who got fed up waiting for permission.
And one episode entirely dedicated how you can do this too.
Matt and his co-host, storytelling expert, Maryam Pasha, visit Fordhall Farm, Co-operation Hull, East Marsh United, Carrick Greengrocers, CIVIC SQUARE, and Ambition Lawrence Weston.
Each episode pairs the story of what happened with an expert making the case for what it could look like if that idea scaled nationally.
That’s the combination that matters.
Story plus scale.
Proof plus possibility.
It’s what changes minds, and inspires others to do the same.
Check out this preview from Maryam and Matt 👇
They also built a postcode search tool so you can find community-led projects within five miles of your house (UK, but check out our US and Global maps too).
Because inspiration is great, and proximity is better.
Go listen. Share it with someone who needs a practical reason to believe things can change.
Then subscribe to Matt’s newsletter to follow along as he walks through each episode.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Find projects near you: postcode search tool (UK)
Follow Matt: Matt Golding
And read the article and subscribe to ANTIDOTE here.
Ready to get started? Let us know in the comments, and become a member for access to resources, support, community and tools to help you along the journey.
Jessica Friday is a wellbeing economist and culture strategist. With a community wealth building story that’s been cited in Scottish Parliament and millions of views on her content worldwide, she coordinates hundreds of movements worldwide ditching the economy we have now for one that works for all of us.
To follow her journey, find her on the socials here.