Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle with Alexis Zeigler

Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle with Alexis Zeigler

As we deepen our understanding of the existential challenges facing humanity, the path from our industrialized lifestyles to ones that respect planetary boundaries can often feel unclear and overwhelming. However, there are already individuals and communities who have transformed their way of life to do just that. What are the lessons they've learned along the way, and how might we use them to transform our own lives?

Today, Nate is joined by Alexis Zeigler, a founding member of the cooperative community Living Energy Farm, to take a peek into the Farm's unique daily life and explore their innovative systems for using electricity and technology in ways that are far less consumptive than the average American. Alexis also explores the benefits of shared resources, how social norms have made modern housing designs inefficient, and the crucial role community-building plays in creating truly effective off-grid lifestyles.

What practical steps can individuals take to shift away from the hyper-consumptive lifestyles popular in industrial societies? Why is it important to mix technological innovation with social and collaborative transformation? Most of all, how could we replicate and adapt the Living Energy Farm model across different regions and cultures in order to increase the number of humans living sustainable and fulfilling lives?

About Alexis Zeigler:

Alexis Zeigler is a self-taught activist, builder, mechanic, writer, and orchardist. He has organized numerous successful campaigns focusing on political, environmental, and economic localization issues.

Since 2010, he has been working to build and grow Living Energy Farm, a zero-fossil-fuel and mostly self-sufficient farm that prioritizes collective living principles. Their mission is to serve as an example and actively promote lifestyles and technologies that are truly sustainable, and to make these sustainable technologies accessible to all persons regardless of their income or social position.

Their minimalist website, www.livingenergyfarm.org/, has more information about the technologies they use.

(Conversation recorded on March 5th, 2025)

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on YouTube

Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.

---

Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future

Join our Substack newsletter

Join our Discord channel and connect with other listeners

Episoder(358)

Technology and Wealth: The Straw, the Siphon, and the Sieve | Frankly 119

Technology and Wealth: The Straw, the Siphon, and the Sieve | Frankly 119

In this week's Frankly, Nate explores the relationship between technology and wealth when viewed through a global biophysical lens. He uses the visualization of a straw, siphon, and sieve to describe ...

16 Jan 28min

Why the West Can't Defend Itself: How Material Scarcity Is Reshaping Global Power with Craig Tindale

Why the West Can't Defend Itself: How Material Scarcity Is Reshaping Global Power with Craig Tindale

For decades, the West has outsourced its own material production to other countries, in favor of lower costs and short-term returns over more expensive, long-duration investments like mining and manuf...

14 Jan 1h 41min

The Things We Take for Granted | Frankly 118

The Things We Take for Granted | Frankly 118

In this week's Frankly, Nate shares reflections on what we take for granted in life at multiple scales: from personal health to meaningful work to relative ecological stability. The things that keep o...

9 Jan 22min

How We've 'Drugified' Our Entire Existence: Dopamine & Addiction In the Digital Age with Anna Lembke

How We've 'Drugified' Our Entire Existence: Dopamine & Addiction In the Digital Age with Anna Lembke

Dopamine: the most famous neurotransmitter that regulates pleasure, motivation, and (perhaps most importantly) addiction. When examining  why our society is hooked on consuming more and more of everyt...

7 Jan 1h 36min

Behavioral Thermodynamics Part 1: Beyond the 4th Law?

Behavioral Thermodynamics Part 1: Beyond the 4th Law?

In this week's Frankly, Nate takes thermodynamics out of the physics classroom, utilizing its principles to explain the invisible forces behind growth, competition, and complexity in our world. Compet...

19 Des 202530min

End of Year Reflections: Four Years of The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

End of Year Reflections: Four Years of The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

In this week's episode, Nate reflects on four years(!) of the podcast by answering listener-submitted questions, which cover a broad range of topics related to The Great Simplification. He invites sub...

17 Des 202527min

Sunk Cost and the Superorganism | Frankly 116

Sunk Cost and the Superorganism | Frankly 116

In this week's episode, Nate unpacks the pervasive behavioral pull of sunk cost as a force shaping our material reality, identities, and collective expectations about the future. Past investments – in...

12 Des 202523min

Fighting for a Livable Future: Exploring Frontier Climate Interventions with Kelly Erhart

Fighting for a Livable Future: Exploring Frontier Climate Interventions with Kelly Erhart

While current conversations about global heating tend to center around a few well-established pieces of science, we don't often hear about the scientists and leaders working at the frontier of what is...

10 Des 20251h 6min

Populært innen Vitenskap

fastlegen
tingenes-tilstand
jss
rekommandert
rss-rekommandert
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
forskningno
sinnsyn
villmarksliv
fjellsportpodden
rss-paradigmepodden
dekodet-2
tidlose-historier
grunnstoffene
diagnose
vett-og-vitenskap-med-gaute-einevoll
noen-har-snakket-sammen
rss-overskuddsliv
rss-nysgjerrige-norge
rss-skogkurs-podden