A Practically Real Podcast
Ithaca Local
Economy Lab
The New Economy is already working, we just need more of it.
Ithacans aren’t afraid to try new ways of doing things, to experiment with old ideas in uncommon ways. The Ithaca Local Economy Lab takes you inside some of these experiments and shows you how the deals worked, what they cost, where they stumbled, and what others can learn.
Each episode brings results, receipts, and instructions so you can see how these ideas might work where you live, and start a conversation with your own neighbors.
Free Field Guide to Ithaca’s New Economy. Get the newsletter and a printable report for each full episode – including how you can participate!
Latest Episodes
All EpisodesHow to Live in a Housing Co-Op
Most people think homeownership means one household, one deed, and one set of bills. McKenzie Jones can say something stranger: “Technically, I own four houses in Ithaca because I’m an…
How to Own Your Power
Every month, money leaves the house for electricity, heat, and gasoline, and every month it is simply gone. Nothing accumulates. Paul Fenn has a name for that arrangement, energy rent,…
The Carbon Offset You Can Actually See – Sustainable Finger Lakes Climate Fund
There is an immigrant family somewhere in Tompkins County who bought their first home in the United States and spent the winter wearing their coats inside. There is a single…
Your Host
Meet Dia
Dia hosts the show from Ithaca, where she talks with the people actually running these experiments: a nurse practitioner who dropped insurance billing, a farmer who built a fiber collective from two goats, baristas who bought out their own coffee company.
Every conversation asks the same question: what did this cost, what worked, and could your town do it too?
Keep the show independent
Independently produced. Your support keeps the conversations going.