The Voluntary Life

Meet the gold bugs! An international discussion among friends who all invest in precious metals. The discussion covers some important questions that all private investors face: Which do you invest in, gold or silver? If you hold both, do you have a strategy as to how much gold vs silver you hold?What percentage of your overall portfolio do precious metals have?How will you know when to sell your precious metals? In the discussion we refer to the book "Guide to Investing In Gold and Silver" by Michael Maloney. Podcast Episode

This episode is about the amazing value that comes from tracking your business. Whereas 'business plans' are really just 'business guesses' and can often be a waste of time, tracking the reality of your business is always incredibly useful. The data that you have about each aspect of your business (your sales opportunities, your contacts, your cash-flow and many other aspects) is the most valuable asset that you have. Podcast Episode

This episode is about investing inside the Euro zone as an independent individual investor. It is an interview with Marc de Mesel, who runs a blog on investing in Europe in dutch and also an investing blog in english. Marc talks about his experience applying the Permanent Portfolio strategy in a European context. He also provides his thoughts on speculating in gold and other precious metals. The episode is provided as food for thought to encourage critical thinking and independent decision-making in regard to investment: it is opinion only and should not be considered any kind of financial advice. For more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio see Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing". You can also hear more about the Permanent Portfolio concept in this previous episode. The book that Marc mentions in the episode is "Tomorrow's Gold" by Mark Farber. Podcast Episode

Part 2 of the interview with Paul Rosenberg about his novel "A Lodging of Wayfaring Men". Paul shares his thoughts on many of the other themes covered in the novel: sexuality, relationships, the unconscious mind and religion. He explains his view on intellectual property and why he chose to release the novel using the creative commons license. He also gives an insight into his upcoming books. Podcast Episode

This Part 1 of an interview with Paul Rosenberg, author of "A Lodging of Wayfaring Men". Instantly named Freedom Book of The Month and a major influence in the Cyber-underground, A Lodging of Wayfaring Men is the story of freedom-seekers who create an alternative society on the Internet - a virtual society, with no possibility of oversight or control. It grows so fast that governments and "leaders" are terrified, and fight to co-opt this cyber-society before it undermines the power of the governing elite. In this interview Paul talks about his intellectual development, his influences and the background to writing the book. He discusses the parallels between the novel and recent developments in crypto-currency, such as Bitcoin. He shares his thoughts on the current state of the internet, prospects for liberty and the potential for developing communities of people with shared values. Podcast Episode

This episode is about the freedom in adult life that is gained by achieving financial independence from parents. Jake talks about some of the findings of the book "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stanley. Dr Stanley surveyed people in America who had become millionaires within one generation and collected data on many aspects of their lives.  One finding that he identified was that adult-children who continue to receive economic subsidies from their parents tend to be much less successful in developing wealth within their own lives. Those who don't receive "economic out-patient care" end up wealthier and also have better relationships with their parents. Podcast Episode

A podcast for entrepreneurs about getting your business to profitability and making it more and more profitable once you get there. The title of this podcast comes from the saying "turnover is vanity and profit is sanity". Some of the topics covered in the episode include: The unjustly-bad reputation that profit has in our culture and it's originsThe other motives (unrelated to profit) that entrepreneurs have and the problems that they cause for their businessProfit as the truly rational measure of how healthy your business isTwo approaches cutting expenses to increase profitThe value of measuring profitability at the project or product levelThe necessity of measuring all aspects of operations to find out where you make a profit and where you don'tPodcast Episode

In this podcast, Jake talks about the most important responsibility you will ever have as an entrepreneur: selling. He talks about how to overcome the barriers to selling that most entrepreneurs face:  the cultural prejudice against sales, ignorance about what selling really is and the psychological barrier to selling (the fear of rejection). Stages of Selling To Learn More About: ProspectingContactingQualifyingPresentationHandling ObjectionsClosingReferrals Checklist for New Entrepreneurs: Have you started selling yet? Are you setting aside specific time within each day or week devoted only to selling?Are you measuring everything that you can measure about your selling activity? Show Notes: Glengarry Glen Ross (great movie, but also an example of how negative the representation of selling is in our culture) How to Master the Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins (a recommended book). Podcast Episode

An interview with psychologist and filmmaker Daniel Mackler about the subject of psychological freedom. Daniel shares his thoughts on what psychological freedom means: the healing from past psychological traumas. He identifies the root of trauma in unhealthy parenting and talks about his own journey towards more psychological freedom. Podcast Episode

Part 2 in a series of episodes on freedom from politics with special guest Stephanie Murphy, host of the Porc Therapy podcast. Show Notes: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" by GandhiPenn Gillette on politicsSchool Sucks Podcast on Ron PaulGeorge Carlin on Not Voting Doug Stanhope on Democracy"If Voting Changed Anything They'd Make it Illegal" by Emma Goldman Poster by Will Moyer Podcast Episode

Part 1 in a series of episodes on freedom from politics. Special guest is Stephanie Murphy, host of the Porc Therapy podcast, co-host of Free Talk Live and Prometheus Unchained, all of which are on the Liberty Radio Network. Show Notes: Hans Herman Hoppe on Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis Harry Browne's book How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World Stephanie's book Ron Paul: A Life of Ideas Freedomain Radio podcast Complete Liberty Podcast Podcast Episode

This episode is an interview with  Michael Fogler  about his book "Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook". Michael talks about his life experience, having reached the age of 58 without ever having had a single, full-time job. He talks about how his personal experience in "failures" a traditional career-job route led him to discover unjobbing as an alternative approach. He talks about how he came up with the name "unjobbing" and the influences on his ideas, such as Grace Llwellyn's book "A Teenage Liberation Handbook". Michael provides some tips on achieving personal liberation, including the issue of minimising expenses, saving and ensuring that you "act your wage". He talks about the importance of having other people around you who share your values, especially as the unjobbing approach is not considered "normal" by mainstream culture. Check out our previous episodes on Unjobbing. Podcast Episode

Vickie is the author of the Demand Euphoria Blog and Parent-Free By Choice Blog. In this interview we discuss the concept of "Parent-Free By Choice", which is the choice of some adults to voluntarily separate from one or both parents. Vicky talks about why this choice, although quite widespread, is viewed as a taboo subject. Vickie shares her thoughts on whether or not adults who choose to cease contact with their parents are "running away" from issues that they should stay and face up to: "There is this whole stigma about "running away from your problems". It starts with kids and bullying in school where everyone says running away from a bully doesn't do anything, you have to stick in there and face it. That carries over into our family relationships: this idea that "no matter what they do to you they are still your family" and you are supposed to toughen up, figure it out, forgive or whatever. I think that is unfortunate because it allows people to keep treating each other badly. I think running away from somebody who is treating you badly is actually a good thing because you deserve better and you shouldn't put up with it. I think removing yourself from a toxic situation is good for you." Here are Vickie's thoughts on the question of whether people owe their parents anything: "I have often thought about this concept of your parents giving you the "gift of life", but I always think about that word gift and think about how...if it is truly a gift then you don't owe them for it. If they gave you a gift then they shouldn't be charging you for it every day of  your life. A lot of parents call it a gift and then make you feel guilty for everything they do for you." Vickie's blog, Parent-Free by Choice, offers a supportive environment for people to anonymously share their own stories about their choices. As Vickie explains; "No matter what happened to them in childhood or how their relationship [with their parents] is now, if they feel like it's not a positive relationship then that is all that matters and they should have the freedom to get out of it." Podcast Episode

An interview with Dale Stephens, founder of the Uncollege movement. Uncollege represents a revolutionary approach to education: applying the principles of unschooling to higher education. In the interview Dale talks about opportunities to hack your education and go for self-directed learning. He challenges the notion that going to college is the only path to success and identifies the declining value proposition of traditional college education, as well as the potential of an alternative, self-directed approach. Podcast Episode

This episode is about how living and working abroad can bring more freedom into your life. Special guest on this episode is Jaime, a freelance writer living in Beijing. Jaime is the author of the blog It's Always Sunny in South Korea Beijing and is one of the co-authors of the Chinarchy podcast and blog network. Podcast Episode