Shows
The Urban Exodus PodcastE70: Live to Learn, Learn to Live: A world explorer plants roots on his ancestral homelands, and hand builds an eco village where he teaches people how to shift towards more earth centric living | Joshua Kwaku Asiedu in GhanaThis episode is brought to you by Spoondrift Studio. Let website designer and brand specialist Nora Gray at Spoondrift Studio take the burden of all things design and website off of your plate so that you can focus on what you do best! Nora excels at listening to her clients immediate and long term needs - crafting engaging websites that bring your vision to life and set you up for success. It’s Spoondrift Studios mission to make your business shine and stand out from the crowd. Put your best foot forward and visit www.spoondrift.stu...
2024-03-221h 03
The Urban Exodus PodcastE69: Academics leave city life to build a regenerative sheep farm and eco retreat in the Australian bush | Lousie + David Glut of HighField Farm and Woodland in AustraliaThis episode is brought to you by Spoondrift Studio. Let website designer and brand specialist Nora Gray at Spoondrift Studio take the burden of all things design and website off of your plate so that you can focus on what you do best! Nora excels at listening to her clients immediate and long term needs - crafting engaging websites that bring your vision to life and set you up for success. It’s Spoondrift Studios mission to make your business shine and stand out from the crowd. Put your best foot forward and visit www.spoondrift.stu...
2024-03-0853 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE68: Decentralized Life: A hip London restaurant manager leaves city life to hand build a homestead in Belize with her family | Asli MohamedI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Asli Mohamed. Asli is difficult to describe because she does so many things, and has lived in so many different places. She is a mother, a world traveler, a doula, a farmer, and an entrepreneur among many other things. While Asli grew up in London, she was born in Somalia, and has spent the last few years living abroad back in Somalia, then Kenya, and now Belize. While in London, Asli and her husband both had very busy lives, working constantly, and unable to spend much time wi...
2024-02-2355 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE67: Fungi Future: A Boston couple’s road to recovery and Covid leap of faith leads to mushroom farming in rural Vermont | John Deloge + Lizzie Devane of Slipstream Farm in Newfane, VTThis episode is brought to you by Spoondrift Studio. Let website designer and brand specialist Nora Gray at Spoondrift Studio take the burden of all things design and website off of your plate so that you can focus on what you do best! Nora excels at listening to her clients immediate and long term needs - crafting engaging websites that bring your vision to life and set you up for success. It’s Spoondrift Studios mission to make your business shine and stand out from the crowd. Put your best foot forward and visit www.spoondrift.stu...
2024-02-0949 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE66: A tech entrepreneur’s climate and Covid motivated move from San Francisco to her husband’s home state of Maine allows for time to reflect, reconnect and start a new chapter rooted in purpose | Grace Chen in MEI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Grace Chen. Grace is a big thinker, product engineer, former tech CEO, musician, mother and self confessed pickleball fanatic. After studying Management Science and Engineering at Stanford, Grace began working in the Silicon Valley tech world. She worked at several large companies before co-founding Common Networks - a start-up aiming to bring affordable, high-speed internet to the masses. Several months into the pandemic, Grace and her husband Ryan decided to go visit his parents in rural Maine so that they could escape the wildfire smoke, stay at ho...
2024-01-261h 18
The Urban Exodus PodcastE65: An astrocartographer taps into the wisdom of the cosmos, trading New York City for a slower paced, digital nomad life in rural France | Helena Woods in rural FranceThis episode is sponsored by Maine Women Magazine. As a Maine-based entrepreneur, I can’t say enough good things about Maine Women. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Maine Women is a printed quarterly and an online publication focused on sharing news and stories that highlight innovative women making waves in the state of Maine and beyond. When you subscribe, you’ll find a myriad of articles exploring Arts & Culture, Activism & Social Issues, Health & Wellness, Business & Entrepreneurship, and much more! Maine Women is going through an exciting transformation and wi...
2024-01-121h 00
The Urban Exodus PodcastE64: Wanderland Wonder: A tech exec finds healing in nature & builds a place where people can reconnect with the wild | Jonathan Weston of @wanderlandusa in Rising Fawn, GAI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Jonathan Weston. Jonathan is a serial entrepreneur, a father of four, a technology executive, the author of Camping is for Everyone and the founder of Wanderland Campground and the Wanderland Society in Rising Fawn, Georgia.Jonathan felt called to 72 acres of land near Lookout Mountain in Walker County. It is a magnificent site of hilly and steep terrain with views across the lower Appalachian Mountain range. He has intentionally steward the land as a primitive event space, keeping the ecosystem intact. In an era where camping is be...
2023-12-291h 07
The Urban Exodus PodcastE63: A scientist’s backyard growing journey blossoms into a mission to advocate for greater food security through home & community gardens | Ashlie Thomas of The Mocha Gardener in NCThis episode is brought to you by Taproot Magazine. Now is the perfect time to rediscover the joys of snail mail! Published in Portland, Maine, Taproot is a beautiful print publication that celebrates food, farm, family, and craft through six ad-free issues a year. I've been a subscriber for years now and am always so excited to find my next issue in my mailbox! I love how there's a little bit of everything in this magazine. Each issue features seasonal recipes, tutorials, craft projects, and stories inspiring readers to live more intentionally and connect...
2023-12-151h 16
The Urban Exodus PodcastE62: A Modern Shepherd: A Queer musician and textile artist leaves academia for agriculture | Diana Anastasio in CAI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Diane Anastasio. Diane grew up in the rural reaches of the Connecticut suburbs. From a young age she was planning her escape to the bright lights of the city. Right out of high school she moved to New York City for college. After she graduated, she moved to San Francisco and worked for a music magazine. City living agreed with Diane, she loved the culture, diversity and easy access to community, especially as a queer person and musician. She never in her wildest dreams thought she would live in a...
2023-12-011h 10
The Urban Exodus PodcastE61: Twin sisters of @busyhomebodies homestead in a city apartment during Covid & manifest their self-sufficiency dreams | Mary + Magdalene of Busy HomebodiesI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Mary and Magdalene (M & M for short) - the identical twin sisters behind Busy Homebodies, an urban homesteading focused Instagram account. Here, the sisters share the ins and outs of their journey towards greater self-sufficiency. In only several years, these two ambitious siblings have learned how to can and cook food from whole ingredients, raise, breed and harvest quails and rabbits and a myriad of other homesteading skills. Before homesteading and working in content creation, M & M worked for many years in childcare and teaching. Wh...
2023-11-1750 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE60: A writer leaves the tech world for a small island in the Puget Sound and creates rewilding retreats to reconnect with nature | Hillarie Maddox of Black Girl Country Living in Puget Sound, WAI am excited to invite you to my conversation with Hillarie Maddox. Hillarie is a writer, creator and life-long learner. She is founder of Black Girl Country Living. Hillarie studied social work in college, but realized that a social worker's salary would barely cover her school loans. Instead, she got hired at a big tech company and began her successful climb up the corporate ladder. Although Hillarie enjoyed her work and her contribution to her company, the birth of her first child made her start to rethink her career path and work/life balance. She felt like...
2023-11-031h 10
The Urban Exodus PodcastE59: Susana Zaldivar of @Home.Coop.Garden reflects on her healing journey homesteading in her in-laws backyard | Susie Hernandez ZaldivarThis episode is sponsored by Maine Women Magazine. Maine Women is a printed quarterly and an online publication focused on sharing news and stories that highlight innovative women making waves in the state of Maine and beyond. When you subscribe, you’ll find a myriad of articles exploring Arts & Culture, Activism & Social Issues, Health & Wellness, Business & Entrepreneurship, and much more! Maine Women is going through an exciting transformation and will be soon offering Maine-made goods, classes, networking events, and retreats. You don’t want to miss out, sign up for a membership today! Learn more...
2023-10-201h 08
The Urban Exodus PodcastE58: A Sydney-based creative couple's journey into ranching and climate activism in New Zealand | Nicola Harvey & Pat Ledden of Slow Stream Farm in Aotearoa, New ZealandThis episode is sponsored by Marvelous, is a software platform that has everything: courses, bundles, memberships, live streams, community, integrations, a mobile app, and live tech support from real humans. It is the world's most beautiful and easeful teaching platform. Check it out at: heymarvelous.comI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Nicola Harvey and Pat Ledden. In 2017, Pat and Nicola relocated from Sydney, Australia to take over her father’s land lease, north of Taupo in Aotearoa New Zealand. It was here that...
2023-04-071h 08
Belonging: Conversations about rites of passage, meaningful community, and seasonal livingWhat It Takes to Move to the Country with Alissa HesslerIf you daydream about purchasing land and relocating to a tiny town far from city life, this episode is the gentle invitation and reality-check you need before taking the leap.Today I’m joined by Alissa Hessler, an author, podcast host, and former corporate tech employee who left the big city to move to a rural community for love.In this episode, we discuss common reasons people choose to leave cities, the importance of being as prepared as possible before moving, and some things to expect if you’re thinking of relocating.We also...
2023-03-2750 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE57: Community, Music & Art: A professional musician and artist relocate to Woodstock with their two young kids to have more space to create and grow | KT & Marco Benevento in Woodstock, NYThis episode is sponsored by Marvelous, is a software platform that has everything: courses, bundles, memberships, live streams, community, integrations, a mobile app, and live tech support from real humans. It is the world's most beautiful and easeful teaching platform. Check it out at: heymarvelous.comI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with KT and Marco Benevento. KT is a metalsmith, jewelry artist and t-shirt designer and Marco is a pianist, songwriter and record producer, who has been a fixture of the New York ex...
2023-03-2453 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE56: Rural Schools Matter: The community and economic impact of public schools in rural communities | Mara Tieken, author & educator in METhis episode is sponsored by New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region. Home to five state parks, thousands of acres of pristine lakes, a flourishing arts scene, and Mount Monadnock, the most climbed mountain the U.S. Natural beauty and bustling downtowns await, just a two-hour drive from Boston. Every Urban Exodus begins with an urban escape, and yours is Within Thriving Distance. Visit MonadnockNH.com today.I am excited to invite you to my conversation with Mara Tiekan. Mara is an Associate Professor of Education at Bates College. Her writing and research foc...
2023-03-1055 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE55: Van Life: A poet and power plant operator's nomadic shift fosters joy, creativity and community | Renaldo Holmes of HolmesFindsFreedomThis episode is sponsored by Marvelous, is a software platform that has everything: courses, bundles, memberships, live streams, community, integrations, a mobile app, and live tech support from real humans. It is the world's most beautiful and easeful teaching platform. Check it out at: heymarvelous.com I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Renaldo Holmes, Holmes to all who know him, he is the person behind HolmesFindsFreedom on Youtube and Instagram. Holmes is a talented poet, educator, farmer and nomad. Holmes says th...
2023-02-241h 02
The Urban Exodus PodcastE54: Finding Paradise: A journalist and her family's Covid motivated move from Toronto to rural Costa Rica provides a shift in perspective and better quality of life | Mallika Viegas in Costa RicaThis episode is sponsored by New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region. Home to five state parks, thousands of acres of pristine lakes, a flourishing arts scene, and Mount Monadnock, the most climbed mountain the U.S. Natural beauty and bustling downtowns await, just a two-hour drive from Boston. Every Urban Exodus begins with an urban escape, and yours is Within Thriving Distance. Visit MonadnockNH.com today.I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Mallika Viegas. Mallika was born in Goa, India, and moved to Canada with her family at age...
2023-02-101h 06
The Urban Exodus PodcastE53: Dirt Road Revival: A young politician works to rebuild rural politics by tackling polarization through conversation | Maine Senator Chloe MaxminThis episode is sponsored by New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region, home of Keene Pride week; the Monadnock Arts Open Studio Tour and the Radically Rural Summit. Natural beauty and bustling downtowns await, just two hours from Boston. Every Urban Exodus begins with an Urban Escape, and yours is Within Thriving Distance. Visit MonadnockNH.com today.I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with State Senator Chloe Maxmin. At 28, Chloe Maxmin is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate. She was elected in 2020, after unseating a two...
2023-01-271h 01
The Urban Exodus PodcastE52: A NYC fashion/art icon returns to her home country of St. Lucia to farm, create and build a life on her own terms | Shala Monroque in St. LuciaI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Shala Monroque. Shala is a Saint-Lucian native who chased her big city dreams to NYC in the early 2000s. Shala was a verifiable “it-girl “of the art and fashion worlds - glossing the pages of numerous magazines and street-style blogs. She was a creative director at Garage, an independent fashion magazine, and also worked as a consultant for Prada. Shala was by all accounts on top of the world, but in reality she battled burnout, depression, and an unshakeable homesickness.In 2012, Shala returned to St. Lucia after her bro...
2023-01-1353 min
Cidiot84. And It Worked (Season 5 Finale)Cidiot closes out Season 5—the show's biggest yet—with reflections on what worked and what's ahead.
Thank you for making Cidiot one of the Hudson Valley's biggest and most loved shows. Stay warm catching up on past episodes and watching the Cidiot anthem video, available here, via Cidiot.com, and on YouTube.
Thank you for our sponsors and partners this season, including El Sueco and the Don, Greig Farm, Hudson Valley Kitchen Design Center, Hudson Community Incubator, Taconic Toastmasters Club, Sunflower Market in Woodstock and Rhinebeck, and Scot Hastie of Pardee's Agency (A World Company).
2022-12-2314 min
The Urban Exodus PodcastE51: Three Years in a Tent: A digital strategist & her family slow build a homestead on a remote Canadian island | Rachel Segal, Cortes Island, BCI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Rachel Segal. Rachel is a digital strategist, and has spent more than a decade working with some of the largest brands in the world on their social media and content marketing programs. In 2012, burnt out with the pace of city life, Rachel and her partner Scott moved to a remote island in British Columbia. Moving to the country was a revelation - they were instantly lighter, happier and really enjoyed the pace of balancing remote freelance work with raising animals and growing food. When the option presented its...
2022-12-161h 11
The Urban Exodus PodcastE50: Be the Change: From healthcare to farming, a food activist is born | Ivy Walls in Houston, TXI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Ivy Walls. Ivy is a farmer, entreprenuer and food justice activist located in Houston, Texas. Before farming, Ivy worked as an epidemiologist for the CDC and later became an infection preventionist for a hospital in Houston where she worked closely with COVID-19 patients. During the pandemic, Ivy witnessed firsthand how the virus further exposed the inequities faced by her Sunnyside community – including higher rates of infection and mortality. Ivy already had experience gardening for herself, but felt called to grow food for her community when she realized there w...
2022-12-021h 07
The Urban Exodus PodcastE49: Hometown revival: She left the LA ad world to help her rural hometown community thrive | Melissa Hughes in Western NYThis episode is sponsored by Visit LivCo. Livingston County, New York is the heart of the Genesee River Valley, home of Letchworth State Park, and westernmost gateway to the Finger Lakes. Make LivCo your basecamp for one-of-a-kind hiking, dining and more. Plan your escape at www.visitlivco.com and follow along on Instagram @visitlivcoI am excited to invite you to my conversation with Melissa Hughes. Melissa and I met through Urban Exodus, as she was a dedicated reader in the...
2022-11-251h 14
The Urban Exodus PodcastE48: Ancestral Homecoming: From corporate life in NYC to traditional living in rural Honduras | Luisa Batiz in HondurasI am excited to invite you to my conversation with Luisa Batiz. Luisa grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn but her family is from Honduras. When Luisa was a child she spent her summers living off-grid with her relatives in a small village in Honduras.Luisa was the first in her family to go to college, and by all accounts she had “made it,” building a successful career in education administration. Although she had reached a level of financial success, she didn’t feel happy or fulfilled in her work. She started questioning the way she was living, the th...
2022-11-181h 02
The Urban Exodus PodcastE47: Seeds, Sacrifice, and Service: A veteran's journey to healing through the soil | Jon Jackson of Comfort Farms in rural GAI am honored to invite you to my conversation with Jon Jackson. Jon is a former US Army ranger who served six deployments in Iraq and Afganistan. In 2014, he built and founded Comfort Farms – A 20-acre farm in rural Georgia, as a place to help veterans on their journey of reintegrating into society. Readjusting to civilian life was a challenge for Jon, who suffers from a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He did not find hope or help in the traditional systems serving veterans. Each year in the US, thousands of veterans die by suicide. In...
2022-11-111h 11
Cidiot79. Urban ExodusLet's talk more broadly about this movement to the country and the experience for each of us. I speak to artist and photographer Alissa Hessler, founder of Urban Exodus, a project and podcast. She is also author of Ditch The City and Go Country: How to Master the Art of Rural Life From a Former City Dweller, which is how I first found out about her. You can already tell she's a role model for me.
From her studio in Maine, Alissa talks about her move to the country, what she's learned, the impact on her life...
2022-10-2733 min
The Black Duck Revival Podcast#32 - Alissa HesslerEpisode 32 features Maine based photographer, multimedia storyteller and creator of Urban Exodus, Alissa Hessler.
https://www.urbanexodus.com/
https://www.alissahessler.com/about
https://www.hesslercreative.
Black Duck Revival
://www.blackduckrevival.com/
Title Track Music
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-304540684
2022-07-121h 08
The Urban Exodus PodcastBONUS EPISODE: Founder Alissa Hessler on her Urban Exodus journeyIn this bonus episode, my producer Simone turns the tables and interviews me on the show. I speak largely about my very own Urban Exodus journey, how the idea for sharing these stories began, and what impact this project has had on my life over the past ten years.We talk about the myth of making “it" in the city, my journey from Seattle to Maine, the process of creating Urban Exodus, what I've learned from interviewing hundreds of people for this project, the healing power of living close to nature, the pandemic’s effect on rural space...
2022-06-021h 10
The Urban Exodus PodcastE46: A teacher raises $200k for a school garden to reconnect kids with nature & alleviate food insecurity | Sonya Harris of Bullock Garden Project in NJI am very excited to close this season of the podcast with Sonya Harris. Sonya is a special-ed teacher turned garden educator and philanthropist. In 2017, she established the nonprofit Bullock Garden Project to share the joy of gardening with her community and help alleviate food insecurity. She teaches kids and adults to grow their own food. Her tireless work and enthusiasm has inspired many of her former students to pursue careers as future green industry leaders. Sonya’s work in garden-education began when she was looking for creative ways to teach her students math. As a teacher, she...
2022-05-271h 03
The Urban Exodus PodcastE45: A photographer leaves Boston academia and builds a successful art career from the wilds of Maine | Cig Harvey in Midcoast, MEI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Cig Harvey. Cig is an award-winning fine-art and commercial photographer. She has published five sold-out books and her photographs and books are in the permanent collections of museums across the world. Cig and her partner bought a crumbling farmhouse in Midcoast Maine in 2007 and moved there full time in 2011. She left a tenured track teaching photography in Lesley University in Boston to pursue her artistic practice full time. While Cig had established the beginnings of her career in the city, the high cost of living was a bar...
2022-05-201h 15
The Urban Exodus PodcastE44: A professional musician leaves Seattle after two decades on the road & builds a new chapter farming and making art in rural New Mexico | Cory Murchy in COI am excited to invite you to my conversation with Cory Murchy. Cory is a professional musician and fine artist who spent nearly two decades playing bass for the Seattle-based indie-rock band Minus the Bear. Cory reached a level that most musicians only dream of - being able to support himself entirely off of his music. He toured all around the world, playing sold out venues from New York to Japan. In 2018, the band played its last show and he had the opportunity for a major life change. Cory and his wife Annie decided to throw caution t...
2022-05-131h 01
The Urban Exodus PodcastE43: Bacon and Blooms: A farm advocate and environmentalist leaves the Bay Area to reconnect with her ancestral farming roots | Molly Nakahara in Grass Valley, CAI’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Molly Nakahara. Molly is a farmer and the farm institute director at the nonprofit Sierra Harvest, she has also worked to support farmers through the UC Cooperative Extension and as a member of the EcoFarm Board of Directors. Molly grew up in the Bay Area but moved with her partner to Grass Valley in 2010 to build Dinner Bell Farm, which offers certified organic flowers and pasture-raised pork. Molly’s paternal grandparents farmed lettuce and green onions in Salinas, before they were imprisoned at a Japanese internment camp durin...
2022-05-061h 05
The Urban Exodus PodcastE42: A writer and professional outdoorsman renovates an old church in rural Arkansas, building a safe space for all hunters | Jonathan Wilkins of Black Duck Revival in ArkansasI’m so excited to invite you to my conversation with modern-day Renaissance man, Jonathan Wilkins. Jonathan is a former firefighter and landscape designer turned professional hunter, outdoor guide, chef, podcaster, historian, musician, and writer. Currently, Jonathan operates Black Duck Revival, a hunting lodge in Brinkley, Arkansas, where he offers stays, excursions, and educational experiences. The business came out of a desire to bring together hunters of all backgrounds and experiences to support and learn from one another. Jonathan grew up in the city and started hunting, fishing and foraging as an adult. He immediately fell...
2022-04-291h 04
The Urban Exodus PodcastE41: A way forward: the paradigm shift of returning the self to nature, and undoing our collective narcissism to heal our planet | Jeanine Canty, PhD in CAI’m so excited to invite you to my conversation with Dr. Jeanine Canty. Jeanine is a writer, and professor with in the Transformative Studies Doctoral program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her teaching examines issues of social and ecological justice connected to the process of worldview expansion. She specializes in ecopscyhology, which is the study of how ecology and human psychology intersect and affect one another. It links mental health and illness to the health of the planet.Through her research and writing, Jeanine links the oppression of peoples and the earth together and disc...
2022-04-221h 03
The Urban Exodus PodcastE40: Reconnecting with a lost love and a surprise pregnancy inspires a move to the French countryside | Franchesca Hernandez in FranceI was so excited to reconnect with Franchesca Hernandez for this episode of the podcast. I met Franchesca on my Urban Exodus cross country roadtrip in the Spring of 2015. Back then, she was living in a yurt on her Whirlaway Farm in Garfield, Texas.When she first bought the property, it was little more than a scrubby 3-acre lot covered in weeds, but through sweat and hard work she transformed it into an abundant farm and homestead. She was recently engaged to be married and felt rooted to this forever-home in rural Texas. But since we last...
2022-04-151h 15
The Urban Exodus PodcastE39: A food sovereignty activist & self-trained chef leaves NYC and returns to her Native community to help build a digital platform to re-indiginize our diets | Mariah Gladstone of Indigikitchen in Northern MTI’m so excited to share my thoughtful and powerful conversation with Mariah Gladstone, the founder of Indigikitchen. Mariah is a community leader, food sovereignty activist, self-trained chef, digital entrepreneur, aerialist teacher and performer and so much more. She grew up on and off the Blackfeet Nation Reservation, located near Glacier National Park in Northern Montana. She moved to New York City to get a degree in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University and moved back to New York to attend the masters program at the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at Suny Syracuse. When the pandemic hit in...
2022-04-081h 13
The Urban Exodus PodcastE38: A corporate lawyer leaves Singapore and moves to Bali for a creative, slower & happier life | Jean Voronkova in Bali, IndonesiaI'm excited to invite you to my conversation with Jean Voronkova. Jean was born and raised in Singapore, but now lives with her husband Vitaly in Bali, Indonesia. Together, they have built passive income streams and investments to be able to live a slow, simple and fulfilling life in Bali. They have intentionally opted out of the workaholic 9-5 culture, and now prioritize joy and peace over the golden handcuffs of a corporate paycheck. By design, they have given themselves ample time to be creative and surf. One of their creative pursuits is running a popular Youtube channel, where...
2022-04-011h 11