Life Without Us artwork

Life Without Us

19 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago -

On the Life Without Us podcast, Valery Navarrete shares stories about community and connection to inspire more of us to have more "us" in our lives. Valery is a Strategist, Facilitator, and Community Builder who catalyzes people and organizations dedicated to social change to make better decisions, have greater impact, and co-create deeper connection. She believes deeply that we need to re-centre interdependence in order to thrive.

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Episodes

Karim Rizkallah and Valery Navarrete on Founding Community

November 29, 2022 12:00 - 45 minutes - 31.1 MB

“I think that going in with something imperfect and running with it is what made the following five years possible, and the following five years had so many great things.” — Karim Rizkallah Like most founders, Valery and Karim didn’t know what they didn’t know. In the last episode of Season 2 of Life Without Us, they celebrate the five year anniversary of kickstarting the Clarens Commons community through a look back on their experience as founders.   In this episode: * Valery and Karim’s...

Pete Bombaci on Guidelines for Human Connection

November 22, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MB

“In 20 years, we’re going to be much more conscious about the importance of social connection to our health and wellbeing.” — Pete Bombaci How much human connection do we need? Pete Bombaci is the Founder and Executive Director of the GenWell Project. He joins Valery to talk about why connection guidelines similar to those that exist for food could be one key to happier, healthier lives. In this episode: * Why people come together in a crisis — like in the early days of the pandemic, or d...

Pete Bombaci on Guidelines for Human Connection

November 22, 2022 12:00 - 33 minutes - 22.8 MB

“In 20 years, we’re going to be much more conscious about the importance of social connection to our health and wellbeing.” — Pete Bombaci How much human connection do we need? Pete Bombaci is the Founder and Executive Director of the GenWell Project. He joins Valery to talk about why connection guidelines similar to those that exist for food could be one key to happier, healthier lives. In this episode: * Why people come together in a crisis — like in the early days of the pandemic, or d...

Luisa Ji and Luc Lalande on Community Futures

November 15, 2022 12:00 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MB

"We need community now more than ever” — Luc Lalonde Luisa Ji is a multi-disciplinary creative, designer, and strategist. Luc Lalande is the Innovator-in-Residence at the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre. They join Valery to unpack the topic of ‘Community Futures’ from unique, but complementary perspectives.  In this episode: * The barriers to community-building innovation found in many existing institutions  * Why local, low barrier opportunities to engage in innovation and f...

Indi Madar on Building BIPOC Community

November 08, 2022 12:00 - 30 minutes - 21 MB

"The things that our members and participants share with us, we consider all of those things to be really sacred. So we're not going to share people's teachings and knowledge, cultural knowledge, with just anyone.” — Indi Madar As the Communications and Community Engagement Lead with Brown Girl Outdoor World (BGOW), Indi Madar knows first hand the barriers to outdoor adventure that many of the women of colour in the BGOW community experience. She joins Valery to talk about what ‘intentional...

Tanya Cothran on Conscious Friendship

November 01, 2022 11:00 - 34 minutes - 24 MB

"I wish people would start talking about their friendships with their friends" — Tanya Cothran Tanya Cothran is a friendship animator and writer of the newsletter, Platonic Romance. She joins Valery to talk about how to navigate the impact of major life changes on friendship, like one friend becoming a parent or another one moving, and what models of conscious friendship can look like. In this episode: * The (literal) moves that led Tanya to centring friendships in her life. * The positi...

Steve Fick on 25 Years of Living in Community

October 25, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MB

"This didn’t feel like much of a community when we moved in. And now everybody says ‘Ah, this is such a great place to live!’" — Steve Fick Steve Fick has lived at Terra Firma, one of the Ottawa-region’s only cohousing communities, for more than 25 years, and is one of its founders. From shared meals, to shared tools, to neighbourhood-wide street parties and art tours, his insights from a lifetime of centring community are the inspiration we all need to seek more “us” in our lives! In thi...

Craig Ruttan on Navigating Neighbourhood Change

October 18, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 26.7 MB

"It's not possible in this day and age with the challenges we're facing to say ‘No,’ and try to keep neighbourhoods preserved in amber." — Craig Ruttan Public policy leader and co-home owner Craig Ruttan returns to the podcast to talk about how reality is stacking up against the vision for his cohousing community that he shared with Valery a year and a half ago. On the doorstep of the October 24, 2022 province-wide municipal elections, they also talk about the path to the missing middle and...

Valery Navarrete on The Time We Have, The Time We Lost

October 11, 2022 11:00 - 9 minutes - 6.83 MB

A year after the conclusion of season one of the Life Without Us podcast, Valery introduces “Time” as the theme of season two while sharing a tribute to her greatest community- and connection-building influence: her mom, Sandy.  In this episode: * Why so much time passed between seasons one and two of Life Without Us * What loss can teach us about the importance of having more “us” in our lives * Guests and topics to look forward to as season two episodes are released each Tuesday this...

Moving Through Life Without Us

October 12, 2021 11:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MB

Inspired by the stories of the Life Without Us podcast’s season one guests, host Valery mics up with a surprise special guest to reflect on what we loved, learned, and are looking forward to as we wrap up the show’s inaugural season.   Episode available at lifewithoutuspod.com   In this episode: * Which stories of community and connection inspired the most reflection * Which guests most nudged us towards change . . . and what might that change look like? * Moments of discomfort on what ...

Hima Batavia on the Friendship Renaissance

September 28, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 44.1 MB

“I think part of the heartbreak is that we actually think friendships are going to last forever . . . You just think: why wouldn’t we be in each other’s lives forever?” — Hima Batavia Hima Batavia is a writer, artist, and cultural designer based in T’karonto. Her practice focuses on rewriting and weaving narratives for our collective liberation, and exploring aesthetics of care and well-being, across conceptions of time / space through collaborative processes and performance-based works. I...

Natalie Bay on The Magic Ingredient of Food

September 21, 2021 11:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MB

“Food creates a distraction . . . When you’re just talking to somebody one-on-one it’s hard sometimes to get out your ideas and open up your heart; but, when you’re distracted by the flavours and you’re excited and it’s drawing in memories, suddenly it’s just a lot easier to have the conversation flowing.” — Natalie Bay Like many others, Natalie Bay hit video call fatigue early on in the pandemic. Despite living alone and missing seeing people, she found the online version of pre-pandemic h...

Craig Ruttan on Housing Solutions

September 14, 2021 10:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MB

“The box is generally a two or three story single family home and that’s about it. I think knowing that we need to get a lot more creative about how we’re living means that we need to raise that bar and enable more of that creativity. Because cities should be a little messy. ” — Craig Ruttan Craig Ruttan bought his first home this year giving him a front row seat to the urban housing issues he was already familiar with as a public policy leader and community enthusiast. At the outset of th...

Louise Bardswich on Independence Through Community

April 27, 2021 13:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MB

“Taking control a little earlier and figuring out who you want to live with, what the rules are going to be, and how you’re going to deal with things I think is just sensible planning. And maybe with the pandemic people will be thinking a bit more in terms of, ‘oh look what can happen down the road.’” — Louise Bardswich Louise Bardswich is one of the four headline making (and legislation inspiring) Golden Girls of Port Perry and a sought after expert on how to re-imagine what aging in place...

Karim Rizkallah on Listeners' Questions

April 20, 2021 10:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MB

“You gotta be honest about your hard lines; but, also be as generous as possible, because when you live in a collective the goal can’t be getting your way and convincing everyone else you need to get your way. The goal ought to be finding something for the collective that is as good and as safe for everyone as possible.” — Karim Rizkallah Karim Rizkallah has a 21 year relationship with living in community and shares his most recent milestone in that journey with Life Without Us host, Valery...

Gillian Morris on How to Share Your Space

April 13, 2021 04:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MB

“We don’t have a lot of training in our culture for how to share your space with people that are [not] your family or your significant other.” — Gillian Morris Gillian Morris is the founder of Hitlist, a travel app that helps you find cheap flights, and co-editor of the Supernuclear Guide to Coliving. Gillian has been founding and living in coliving communities since 2015 and believes she is a better person because of it.  Host Valery Navarrete talks to Gillian about how to make living wit...

Adil Dhalla on The Feeling of Community

April 05, 2021 16:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MB

“What has affirmed my desire to be part of community is the feeling of pleasure that comes from a sense of being one, in service to something that is beyond yourself.” — Adil Dhalla Adil Dhalla is a community organizer and the Director of Community for Reset, a social enterprise that has been making pop up playgrounds since 2015. Adil’s past titles include Managing Director at Artscape Launchpad and Executive Director at the Centre for Social Innovation. Host Valery Navarrete talks to Adil...

Trailer: Life Without Us

March 17, 2021 02:00 - 2 minutes - 1.75 MB

In each 30 (ish) minute episode,  Strategist, Facilitator, and Community builder (and cohouse co-founder!) Valery Navarrete shares of community and connection to inspire more of us to have more “us” in our lives. Season 1 (2021) introduced the show, profiled a number of cohousing and coliving communities, and recognized that while not everyone is ready to live in community, there are people living into the value of deepening the number and depth of their connections everywhere.  Season 2 (...

Trailer: Life Without Us

March 17, 2021 02:00 - 2 minutes - 1.75 MB

In each 30 (ish) minute episode,  Strategist, Facilitator, and Community builder (and cohouse co-founder!) Valery Navarrete shares of community and connection to inspire more of us to have more “us” in our lives. Season 1 (2021) introduced the show, profiled a number of cohousing and coliving communities, and recognized that while not everyone is ready to live in community, there are people living into the value of deepening the number and depth of their connections everywhere.  Season 2 (...

Twitter Mentions

@genwellproject 2 Episodes
@crut 2 Episodes
@gillianim 1 Episode
@prentishemphill 1 Episode
@outdoorbrown 1 Episode