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Free Cities Podcast

Free Cities Podcast

Written by: Timothy Allen
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The Free Cities Podcast is the leading podcast covering alternative governance, new jurisdictions, and the global movement to build freer societies.

Hosted by Timothy Allen, the show features long-form, in-person conversations with the people building autonomous jurisdictions and real-world pathways to more freedom. We focus on what actually works, the legal structures, incentives, economics, and business models that turn freedom from an idea into a way of life. Builders and skeptics welcome.

Free Cities, Charter Cities, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Network States, Startup Societies, Pioneer Communities, Intentional Communities, Popup Cities, Governance Innovation, Competitive Governance, Governance as a Service, Regulatory Innovation, Polycentric Governance, Geopolitics, Seasteading, Homesteading, Digital Nomadism, Flag Theory, Freedom, Liberty & Bitcoin.

We are the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation. New episodes every Friday.

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Episodes
  • 182 - Jailed for a Tweet | Lucy Connolly

    182 - Jailed for a Tweet | Lucy Connolly
    May 15 2026
    12 Months in Peterborough Prison for One Deleted Post Lucy Connolly is a mother and childminder from Northampton. On the evening of the Southport murders in July 2024, she fired off an angry tweet, regretted it within hours, and deleted it. A week later, two police officers knocked on her door. Twelve and a half months later, she finally walked out of HMP Peterborough. Timothy Allen sits down with Lucy for a conversation about what happens when an ordinary mother becomes a national headline, the deleted tweet, the dawn raid, the magistrate's court video link, the women she met inside, the husband she came home to, and the country that locked her up while telling itself it still had free speech. Lucy is on license until March 2027, which means she has to watch every word she says, including in this conversation. She's not bitter. She's funnier than she has any right to be. And she has a lot to say about what Britain has quietly become. In this conversation: The Southport murders, the deleted tweet, and the week between writing it and the police arriving at the doorWhy Lucy is convinced her arrest was a political takedown of her husband, a Conservative councillorSection 19 of the Public Order Act 1986 — and why a tweet became a 31-month prison sentenceHMP Peterborough, run by Sodexo, and how a private prison compares to the state-run HMP Drake HallThe women she met inside, including Virginia McCullough, who murdered her parents and lived with their bodies for four yearsThe case of Peter Lynch, the grandfather who died at HMP Moorland after being jailed for the Southport disorderRicky Jones, the Labour councillor who called for protesters' throats to be cut and walked freeWhy the police, in Lucy's view, have become politically captured and why serving officers are leaving in disgustFree speech, the First Amendment, and whether Britain has a way backWhy she's not bitter, and why the worst thing that could happen to her had already happened years before Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (audio version, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:30 - Introduction to episode0:07:26 - Start of conversation0:09:18 - The night of the Southport murders and the tweet0:11:00 - What the tweet actually said, and how the media doctored it0:13:50 - Why Lucy believes this was a political takedown of her Conservative councillor husband0:17:30 - The first knock at the door, and the first arrest0:20:46 - Section 19 of the Public Order Act 19860:23:30 - Released on bail, then re-arrested four days later0:24:40 - Mr Khan, the complainant, and the second batch of tweets0:27:30 - Charged, refused bail, video link to Crown Court0:30:00 - Why Lucy refuses to accept her tweet was incitement0:30:50 - Straight to HMP Peterborough and 12.4 months without going home0:32:00 - The judge who said he didn't care about mitigation0:36:00 - What prison is actually like, once you settle in0:39:46 - HMP Peterborough (Sodexo) vs. HMP Drake Hall, why the private one was better0:41:43 - Virginia McCullough, the woman who tried to buy Lucy's leggings0:43:46 - "Pussy politics" and the unspoken rules of women's prison0:46:13 - How prison changed her view of who actually ends up inside0:48:21 - Was anyone actually radicalised by tweets? Or were the rioters always going to riot?0:50:38 - Why Keir Starmer's response made it worse0:53:23 - Authoritarianism, COVID, and the long shadow of 20200:55:39 - Real-world support vs. social media hate and the messages from prison0:57:15 - Free speech, the First Amendment, and the Americans watching Britain in disbelief1:00:55 - Probation, license, and being told she can't travel abroad1:02:00 - Two-tier justice, Ricky Jones, and the case of the Labour councillor who walked free1:04:30 - Why the police, in Lucy's view, have become politically captured1:06:21 - The new hate crime departments and the resources Britain found for them1:07:25 - Why she's not bitter1:10:00 - Free speech as a non-negotiable1:11:00 - Whether Britain has a way back Guest: Lucy Connolly — X / Twitter The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of Free Cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages — Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Offers: Become a resident or business owner in Próspera | ArkPad Próspera Resort Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities ...
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • 181 - Brazil's First Free City | Paloma Lecheta

    181 - Brazil's First Free City | Paloma Lecheta
    May 8 2026
    The Free City That's Been 45 Years in the Making Paloma Lecheta is a Brazilian entrepreneur and co-founder of Founder Haus, a hub for what she calls healthy entrepreneurship in Jurerê Internacional, a private neighbourhood on the island of Florianópolis. After accelerating around 1,800 startups across Brazil, she is now part of a small group of founders trying to do for Brazil what Próspera is doing for Honduras, turn a quietly functioning private development into a formally recognised Free City. Timothy Allen sits down with Paloma in Honduras for a conversation about the 45-year-old Brazilian neighbourhood that has been running its own water, sewage, security and urban planning since 1980, the visionary banker who built it from raw beach scrub, and the new generation of founders now trying to give it the legal autonomy to match. The result is a story of a Free City that already exists, mostly hiding in plain sight, and the people quietly trying to formalise it before the rest of the world notices. In this conversation: The story of Péricles de Freitas Druck, the Brazilian banker who built a private city in 1980 with no reference points and 45 years before the charter cities movement existedWhy philanthropy often fails to solve the problems it claims to, and why business may be the better toolHealthy entrepreneurship: why founder burnout is a business problem, not just a personal oneHow Jurerê Internacional privatised water, sewage, security and urban planning while staying within Brazilian lawThe brain drain problem: 1,200 millionaires left Brazil last year, and why most of them didn't want toFloripa 10, the proposed Digital Economic Zone that would give Jurerê formal regulatory autonomyIpê City, Brazil's first pop-up city, and how Founder Haus, Peerbase and Tools for the Commons are stacking experiments on top of each otherWhy the difference between crazy and visionary is just execution Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (Audio version only, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:29 - Introduction to episode0:08:18 - Start of conversation0:13:00 - Ciudad Morazán and why making money is part of doing good0:17:00 - Why nonprofits can't pay well, and why the talent goes elsewhere0:18:30 - The new wave of founders: DAOs, protocols, and rethinking what a company even is0:20:08 - Ipê City and Jean Hansen: Brazil's first pop-up city and its first network state0:22:30 - Founder Haus and the move to Florianópolis: building a hub for healthy entrepreneurship0:28:30 - The story of Péricles de Freitas Druck: the banker who built a private city in 19800:31:00 - How Jurerê Internacional works: open neighbourhood, private services, contractual governance0:36:00 - Running a city without taxes: how Habitasul funds infrastructure through services0:39:00 - Becoming a Latin American node: 1,800 founders through Founder Haus in three years0:46:00 - Floripa 10: the proposed Digital Economic Zone and why Brazil needs to compete0:50:00 - Why 1,200 millionaires left Brazil last year, and why most of them didn't want to0:53:00 - Lula, elections, and navigating governments without waiting for permission0:58:00 - You don't choose your cards: founder strategy in a hostile jurisdiction1:03:00 - Stacking experiments: Tools for the Commons, Peerbase, and the open-source approach to building cities1:09:00 - Lessons from Próspera: legal framework, local community, and government revenue1:11:00 - Why governments are people, and people respond to incentives1:14:00 - The difference between crazy and visionary is execution1:17:00 - The 45-year head start: Péricles as Brazil's pre-charter-cities visionary1:25:00 - Why founders should be building cities now, and why timing matters Guest: Paloma Lecheta - LinkedIn | Founder Haus The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of free cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom-minded people in Latin America. Bitcoin accepted for property purchases. Offers: Become a resident or business owner in Próspera | ArkPad Próspera Resort Follow: Timothy Allen on X & Nostr | Free Cities Foundation on X & Nostr
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    1 hr and 57 mins
  • 180 - Why Bad Ideas Persist | Crémieux

    180 - Why Bad Ideas Persist | Crémieux
    May 1 2026
    IQ, Institutions & Why Every Country Is Run Poorly Crémieux is a pseudonymous statistician and writer with a large following on Substack and X. He likes to take widely cited studies, reopen the data, and argue the conclusions don't always hold up. His readers include Elon Musk and JD Vance, and his work circulates widely in tech and policy circles. Timothy Allen sits down with Crémieux in Honduras, for a wide-ranging conversation about IQ, institutions, fertility, biotech, agglomeration economies, and why he thinks every country on Earth, even Singapore, is run poorly. The result is part interview, part real-time error-correction service: every casual claim Timothy makes gets gently audited against the data, and the answers are usually "harsher, less equal, and less comforting than people want them to be." In this conversation: Why complex problems get clearer with honest inquiry and why the answers are usually harsher than people wantThe IQ data nobody wants to talk about, and why most "special" groups aren't statistically special at allWhy El Salvador transformed without the people changing and what that says about institutions over geneticsHonduras as a case study in self-imposed poverty: severance taxes, FDI delays, and 80% informal employmentWhat predicts socialist tendencies (and why champagne socialists are a statistical blip)Voice vs exit: why Switzerland and Dubai work, and why one-world government would be a "global Honduras"The privacy-biotech tradeoff: Florida's Sunshine Genetics Act, China's biobank race, and the data we owe the futureThe unsolved problem at the heart of every charter city: how do you generate the agglomeration effects of San Francisco? Enjoy the conversation. Timestamps (Audio version only, includes Timothy's episode introduction): 0:00:29 - Introduction to episode0:07:26 - Start of conversation: ChatGPT, distilling a guest's worldview, and the macro view0:09:38 - Cremieux's philosophy: honest inquiry, good data, and harsher answers0:11:58 - The IQ question: simple models, predictive power, and conversations nobody wants to have0:13:19 - "Most things are not special": Nigerian immigrants, group differences, and what falls apart under scrutiny0:14:01 - The macro view of the human condition: heritability, institutions, and El Salvador before and after Bukele0:16:34 - Evolutionary biology vs evolutionary psychology, and the limits of data0:20:06 - Religion as social technology: the Catholic Church, cousin marriage, and the Hajnal line0:24:48 - Jordan Peterson, abstraction, and why getting too wacky means losing substance0:26:13 - Honduras governed like a socialist hellhole: severance taxes, informal employment, and the Washington Consensus0:30:06 - Property rights, El Zonte, and the development problem in Latin America0:31:30 - Why Singapore and Israel got it right when the rest of the third world didn't0:32:41 - What predicts socialism: poor mental health, downward mobility, and resentment0:35:55 - The champagne socialist deviation, and why hypocrisy isn't really the point0:38:27 - Paul Ehrlich, neo-Malthusianism, and how India sterilised more people in one year than the Nazis did in twelve0:40:09 - Some people are just correct: knowing better, the data, and the difference0:42:01 - ChatGPT modelling competing polities, and the IQ correlations of political ideology0:44:46 - Why libertarians lose: bad at marketing, bad at organising, and the few good rules worth following0:47:55 - Switzerland, Dubai, and exit over voice: "voice is annoying"0:51:13 - Democracy: not a fan, but currently necessary0:52:22 - "Every country is run poorly," even Singapore0:55:28 - Patchworks, conquest, and why one-world government would be a "global Honduras"0:56:50 - Privacy vs biotech: HIPAA, the Sunshine Genetics Act, and China's biobank advantage1:00:10 - Why Sweden trusts its government, and the limits of giving up privacy1:03:36 - Politicians lie: Robert Moses, LBJ, and whether good leaders can be liars1:07:24 - Latin America, Chile, and why everywhere should be rich1:08:20 - On Erick Brimen and Próspera: bullish, but agglomeration is the unsolved problem1:09:08 - The unsolvable problem at the heart of every charter city: how do you build the next San Francisco? Guest: Crémieux - Twitter/X | Substack The Free Cities Podcast is the official podcast of the Free Cities Foundation hosted by Timothy Allen. New episodes every Friday. Long-form, in-person conversations with the builders, investors, residents, and thinkers shaping the future of free cities, charter cities, special economic zones, network states, private cities, and governance innovation worldwide. Listen & subscribe: freecities.fm | All platforms | Fountain.fm (bonus episodes & early access) Community: Telegram | Free Cities Foundation newsletter | Free Cities Conference Support the show: Donate via Stripe | BTC: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg | V4V podcast apps Lead show sponsor: Veritas Villages - Off-grid, energy ...
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    1 hr and 15 mins
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