WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 I want you to picture a specific feeling. You've 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:04.719 just finished a long day at work. You're in a 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:08.339 major city, maybe London, Seoul, New York, or, 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.919 you know, even just a rapidly densifying suburb. 00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:13.939 Right. You swipe your key card to get into your 00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:16.239 building. You step into an elevator with three 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:19.420 other people. You are standing shoulder to shoulder, 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:22.579 physically closer to these strangers than you 00:00:22.579 --> 00:00:24.940 would be to a lover in a double bed. And you 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:29.230 say nothing. You ride up 30 floors in total silence. 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:32.869 You get off, walk down a long, sterile hallway 00:00:32.869 --> 00:00:35.590 that smells like industrial carpet cleaner, unlock 00:00:35.590 --> 00:00:38.469 your door, and you are completely, utterly alone. 00:00:38.829 --> 00:00:41.450 It is the defining paradox of modern urbanism, 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:44.030 isn't it? We have never been physically denser, 00:00:44.030 --> 00:00:46.600 yet socially. We have never been more distant. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.039 Exactly. And for so long, we just accepted this 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:50.960 as the tax on city living. It was the price of 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:52.700 admission. If you want the job, if you want the 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:55.000 culture, you pay the loneliness tax. Right. But 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:56.799 looking at the stack of research you've brought 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:59.740 in today, that contract seems to be, well, it 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:02.200 seems to be breaking down. We are seeing people 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.219 and architects actively trying to hack the system. 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:09.319 We are. We are witnessing a radical reimagining 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:12.370 of the domestic environment. But what's so fascinating 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:16.629 to me is that this radical new future is actually 00:01:16.629 --> 00:01:19.489 just a recycling of some. very, very ancient 00:01:19.489 --> 00:01:22.430 pasts. OK, so today on the deep dive, we are 00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:25.730 looking at the stack. We have a mountain of sources 00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:28.349 here. We're covering the history and the current 00:01:28.349 --> 00:01:31.090 state of student accommodation, which, spoiler 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:33.930 alert, is way wilder and older than I ever thought. 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:36.310 Much older. We're also looking at co -housing, 00:01:36.489 --> 00:01:39.390 which is a sort of democratic, intentional village 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:41.349 model. The high effort model. The high effort 00:01:41.349 --> 00:01:43.430 model. Yeah. And then we're looking at co -living, 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.030 which is the sleek, corporate, we'll handle it 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:48.799 for you. Service model. And our mission today 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:51.959 is to really untangle these terms because people 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:54.079 use them interchangeably all the time. Co -housing, 00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:56.739 co -living, communes. But they mean fundamentally 00:01:56.739 --> 00:01:59.140 different things. Right. And the stakes are high, 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:01.760 aren't they? Are we actually witnessing a return 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.140 to village life or are we just watching the, 00:02:04.180 --> 00:02:06.299 I don't know, the commodification of having roommates? 00:02:06.579 --> 00:02:09.199 That is the central question. It's a tension 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:12.800 between community, which is messy, and takes 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.680 work and convenience, which is clean, but it 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.340 costs you. It costs money. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:18.340 --> 00:02:21.340 this. And to understand where we're going, we 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:22.979 have to look at where we started. And I think 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.439 for most people, they probably assume student 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:28.939 housing or dorms are a relatively modern invention, 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:31.500 maybe something that popped up with the Ivy Leagues 00:02:31.500 --> 00:02:34.500 or, you know, Victorian England. That's a very 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:37.300 common misconception. But the link between learning 00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:39.620 and living together is one of the oldest architectural 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:42.020 traditions we have. If we go all the way back 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:43.599 to the 5th century. To the 5th century, we're 00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:47.080 talking... 1 ,500 years ago. 1 ,500, 1 ,600 years 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.960 ago, yeah. We have records of the Nalanda Mahavihara 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:52.819 in India. Nalanda. Historians argue this was 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:55.719 the world's first residential university. Now, 00:02:55.740 --> 00:02:58.039 when I say residential university, don't picture 00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:00.580 a few dorms next to a classroom. We are talking 00:03:00.580 --> 00:03:04.039 about a massive, sprawling institution where 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:06.419 living on -site was integral to the learning 00:03:06.419 --> 00:03:08.680 process. So it wasn't a commuter school. You 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:10.659 couldn't just show up for class and go home. 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:13.520 Far from it. It was a self -contained city of 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:16.389 learning. At its height, it had thousands of 00:03:16.389 --> 00:03:19.129 scholars, monks, and teachers living in very 00:03:19.129 --> 00:03:22.509 close quarters. The architecture itself was designed 00:03:22.509 --> 00:03:25.370 to enforce the idea that learning doesn't stop 00:03:25.370 --> 00:03:27.770 when the lecture ends. So the conversation just 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:29.810 continues. You learn in the dining hall. You 00:03:29.810 --> 00:03:31.270 learn in the courtyard. You learn walking between 00:03:31.270 --> 00:03:35.370 buildings. The living was the class. The environment 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:38.330 was the textbook. So the concept of the dorm 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:41.590 is 1 ,500 years old. Essentially, yes. And this 00:03:41.590 --> 00:03:44.789 pattern. It just repeats across cultures. If 00:03:44.789 --> 00:03:47.669 you look at the Islamic world, say, between the 00:03:47.669 --> 00:03:49.789 10th and 13th centuries, you have the rise of 00:03:49.789 --> 00:03:52.210 the madrasa system. These weren't just schools. 00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:54.169 They were residential colleges, very much in 00:03:54.169 --> 00:03:56.569 that same vein. I was looking at the notes on 00:03:56.569 --> 00:04:00.389 the madrasa Ben Yusuf in Marrakesh. Now, this 00:04:00.389 --> 00:04:02.909 place was built later, in the 16th century. But 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:05.689 the design details are just, they're incredible. 00:04:05.849 --> 00:04:09.289 It had 134 rooms, all arranged around these small, 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:12.139 serene courtyards. But it was the lighting. The 00:04:12.139 --> 00:04:14.080 lighting that really caught my attention. The 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.300 architecture there is incredibly telling, isn't 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:20.019 it? It reflects a very specific and very sophisticated 00:04:20.019 --> 00:04:23.600 view of how the human mind works. Yeah, the description 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:26.079 says the rooms were designed with this specific 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:29.180 lighting trick. They had a reading area right 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.759 near the small window, so the brightest part 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.879 of the room, and then a wooden alcove for sleeping 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:38.100 tucked away in the darker interior. Think about 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:41.470 the psychology of that. it's light for work dark 00:04:41.470 --> 00:04:45.610 for rest it's so simple but so profound the architects 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:47.930 understood that to master complex theology or 00:04:47.930 --> 00:04:50.029 mathematics or whatever they were studying you 00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:52.769 needed an environment that physically triggered 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:55.350 the brain to focus and then physically triggered 00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:58.189 it to shut down It's literally designed to separate 00:04:58.189 --> 00:05:00.689 your brain modes, which feels so different from 00:05:00.689 --> 00:05:02.569 today where we just sit in a fluorescent box 00:05:02.569 --> 00:05:04.490 that looks exactly the same at two in the afternoon 00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:06.189 as it does at two in the morning. We've definitely 00:05:06.189 --> 00:05:08.370 lost some of that nuance. But the key takeaway 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:10.889 here is that for centuries, student accommodation 00:05:10.889 --> 00:05:13.350 wasn't a warehousing problem. It wasn't about 00:05:13.350 --> 00:05:15.829 just storing bodies. It was a pedagogical tool. 00:05:15.990 --> 00:05:18.529 You live together to learn together. So when 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:21.290 did that shift? Because when I think of student 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:25.350 halls, my mind immediately goes to the UK. You 00:05:25.350 --> 00:05:27.949 know, Oxford, Cambridge, that whole Harry Potter 00:05:27.949 --> 00:05:30.610 dining hall aesthetic. Well, the European evolution 00:05:30.610 --> 00:05:32.550 is interesting because it started out quite rough. 00:05:32.769 --> 00:05:35.930 In medieval Oxford and Cambridge, you initially 00:05:35.930 --> 00:05:38.430 had what were just called halls. Just halls. 00:05:38.670 --> 00:05:40.230 Yeah. And these were basically just boarding 00:05:40.230 --> 00:05:42.649 houses. They weren't endowed. They weren't wealthy 00:05:42.649 --> 00:05:44.850 corporations like the colleges are today. They 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:48.310 were just places to sleep, often run by a principal 00:05:48.310 --> 00:05:51.089 who is essentially just a landlord collecting 00:05:51.089 --> 00:05:54.199 rent. So it was. Purely transactional at first? 00:05:54.379 --> 00:05:57.120 Originally, yes. But by the 15th century, the 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.220 colleges started to take over. And a college 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:02.720 is a different beast entirely. It's a corporation. 00:06:03.100 --> 00:06:07.240 It has money, land, prestige. It becomes a community 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:10.180 that you belong to for life, not just for three 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.600 years. And physically, the accommodation changed, 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:14.720 too. This is where we see the invention of something 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:16.920 called the study bedroom. This is a crucial moment 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:18.839 in the history of privacy, a really important 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:21.540 innovation. I love that we have a date for this. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:25.019 The term was first recorded in 1842 at Durham 00:06:25.019 --> 00:06:28.639 University. So why is the study bedroom such 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:32.259 a big deal? It sounds so normal to us now. It 00:06:32.259 --> 00:06:34.439 seems like a small detail, but it's a huge shift 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.300 in how we view the individual scholar. Before 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:40.399 this, wealthy students might have a set or a 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:43.639 suite of rooms, one for sleeping, one for working 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.259 or entertaining. And poor students might just 00:06:46.259 --> 00:06:49.139 sleep in open bays or shared rooms, like a barracks. 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:50.860 So you either had a mansion or a barracks. There 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:52.980 was no in -between. Right. The study bedroom 00:06:52.980 --> 00:06:55.980 combined those functions into a single accessible 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:59.040 unit. It meant that every student, regardless 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.500 of their social rank, had a door they could close. 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:04.379 They had a desk and a bed in the same space, 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:07.139 a private world. It's the great -grandfather 00:07:07.139 --> 00:07:09.160 of every teenager's bedroom today, isn't it? 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.439 The desk and the bed in one room, poster on the 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.220 wall. Exactly. It democratized the private academic 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:16.959 space. It was a statement that said, you're an 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:19.079 individual scholar and you deserve a space for 00:07:19.079 --> 00:07:21.019 introspection. And then, of course, this idea 00:07:21.019 --> 00:07:23.699 migrates to America. You have the Harvard Indian 00:07:23.699 --> 00:07:26.420 College in 1650, which was the first residential 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:29.379 building in the U .S. But then in the 19th century, 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.360 you get a uniquely American twist on it all. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.019 The fraternity. The frat house. Yes. The first 00:07:36.019 --> 00:07:39.360 residential chapter house popped up in 1864 at 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.629 Williams College. And this changes the dynamic 00:07:42.629 --> 00:07:45.410 again. Now, housing isn't just about the university's 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:49.110 mission. It's about social status. It's about 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:51.949 exclusion. It becomes a club. A club with a roof. 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:54.800 And money starts to play a huge role here. You 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:56.519 mentioned Thomas Jefferson earlier in our prep. 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:58.860 He designed the Academical Village at the University 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:01.339 of Virginia. Which is architecturally stunning. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:03.579 I mean, those rooms opening right onto the lawn, 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:05.439 it's beautiful. It is beautiful architecture, 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.379 no question. But the sources point out that it 00:08:08.379 --> 00:08:11.259 was so expensive to build and maintain that it 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:14.079 made UVA the most expensive university in America 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:15.800 at the time. It became a significant barrier 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.259 to entry. So housing becomes a status symbol. 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:20.439 If you can afford the room, you get the education. 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:23.720 If you can't, you don't. Precisely. And that 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:26.860 tension, that push and pull between housing as 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.019 a utility for learning and housing as a luxury 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:31.740 asset is exactly what has completely exploded 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:33.740 in the last decade or so. Which brings us to 00:08:33.740 --> 00:08:36.179 the modern day. And honestly, looking at these 00:08:36.179 --> 00:08:38.320 sources, exploded is the right word. We aren't 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:40.080 talking about the quad anymore. We're talking 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.019 about the skyscraper. The verticalization of 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:45.340 student housing. It's a truly global phenomenon. 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:47.820 Let's just look at some of these stats. In Leeds, 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:50.240 you've got Sky Plaza. In London, there's Chapter 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:52.870 Spittlefields. But the numbers are just getting 00:08:52.870 --> 00:08:57.629 crazy. As of 2025, so just last year, the world's 00:08:57.629 --> 00:09:00.750 tallest student tower is 99 Washington Street 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:03.309 in New York City. That's a 50 -story tower. 50. 00:09:03.450 --> 00:09:07.250 50 stories. It houses 650 students. And looking 00:09:07.250 --> 00:09:09.929 ahead, London is planning a 48 -story tower at 00:09:09.929 --> 00:09:13.639 30 Marshwall that's set to open in 2028. We are 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:15.940 literally warehousing students in the clouds. 00:09:16.139 --> 00:09:17.940 And we have to ask why. I mean, part of it is 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.039 obviously land scare city in cities like London 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:22.139 and New York. You can't just build a sprawling 00:09:22.139 --> 00:09:24.399 low rise campus in downtown Manhattan anymore. 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:27.139 Of course. But a huge part of it is the financialization 00:09:27.139 --> 00:09:29.419 of the sector. Financialization. What do you 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:31.710 mean by that? Student housing isn't just a place 00:09:31.710 --> 00:09:34.710 to sleep anymore. It is a massive global asset 00:09:34.710 --> 00:09:37.529 class. These buildings are often not owned by 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:39.490 the university. They're owned by pension funds, 00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:42.649 by private equity firms, by offshore developers. 00:09:42.909 --> 00:09:45.870 So the students are just yield generating units 00:09:45.870 --> 00:09:48.649 in a spreadsheet somewhere. To a degree, yes. 00:09:48.730 --> 00:09:51.429 It's considered a counter cyclical asset. The 00:09:51.429 --> 00:09:53.509 thinking is, even in a recession, people go to 00:09:53.509 --> 00:09:55.950 university, so the rent keeps coming in. It's 00:09:55.950 --> 00:09:58.669 very, very attractive to large -scale investors. 00:09:59.169 --> 00:10:02.169 But sometimes this drive for efficiency and density, 00:10:02.269 --> 00:10:04.889 it goes way too far. We have to talk about Dormzilla. 00:10:05.190 --> 00:10:08.009 Ah, yes, Munger Hall, the cautionary tale. This 00:10:08.009 --> 00:10:10.570 story is wild. So this was a proposed project 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:13.389 at UC Santa Barbara a few years back. The nickname 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:16.210 Dormzilla was, I think, well -earned. The plan 00:10:16.210 --> 00:10:20.029 was to house 4 ,500 students in one single mass. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:22.840 block. And the design flaw that ultimately killed 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:25.960 it. Windowless rooms. The source says 94 % of 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:27.659 the rooms would have been windowless. They're 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:29.879 going to use artificial, quote, virtual windows. 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:33.399 4 ,500 students and almost none of them can see 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:35.879 the sun from their own room. Now, you have to 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.559 ask, why would anyone even propose that? It wasn't 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.350 just to save money on construction. The donor 00:10:42.350 --> 00:10:44.789 behind it, Charlie Munger, he actually had a 00:10:44.789 --> 00:10:46.889 philosophy. He believed that if you made the 00:10:46.889 --> 00:10:49.529 private rooms incredibly comfortable but windowless, 00:10:49.710 --> 00:10:52.370 students would hate being in them. Wait, the 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:55.389 goal was to make them hate their own rooms? The 00:10:55.389 --> 00:10:58.269 goal was to force them out, to push them into 00:10:58.269 --> 00:11:00.850 the common areas. It was social engineering through 00:11:00.850 --> 00:11:03.850 architecture. The idea was, if your room is a 00:11:03.850 --> 00:11:05.929 cave, you will go to the lounge and collaborate. 00:11:06.529 --> 00:11:08.909 That is, that's terrifying. It's like treating 00:11:08.909 --> 00:11:11.409 human beings like ants in an ant farm. We'll 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:13.129 just change the tunnels to make them go where 00:11:13.129 --> 00:11:15.429 we want. It triggered a massive backlash, as 00:11:15.429 --> 00:11:17.690 you can imagine. An architect on the university's 00:11:17.690 --> 00:11:19.669 design review board actually quit in protest. 00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:22.850 It really highlights the extreme end of that 00:11:22.850 --> 00:11:25.750 efficiency mindset. When you treat students purely 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:28.330 as units to be stored, you end up with windowless 00:11:28.330 --> 00:11:30.649 boxes. And the mental health implications. I 00:11:30.649 --> 00:11:33.230 mean, the sources mention isolation, circadian 00:11:33.230 --> 00:11:35.710 rhythm disruption. All of it. It was cited as 00:11:35.710 --> 00:11:37.899 a major concern. Thank goodness that project 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:40.179 was canceled. But even in the buildings that 00:11:40.179 --> 00:11:43.259 do have windows, does this vertical living actually 00:11:43.259 --> 00:11:46.679 create a community or does it just create proximity? 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.740 That is the exclusion problem. And we're seeing 00:11:49.740 --> 00:11:52.460 this distinct trend, particularly in the UK and 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:55.620 Australia. You have these shiny new towers. They're 00:11:55.620 --> 00:11:59.019 often called PBSA, Purpose Built Student Accommodation. 00:11:59.259 --> 00:12:03.129 PBSA sounds very... bureaucratic. It is. These 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:06.350 are often run by large private companies. And 00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:09.190 because of the price point, they have gyms, cinemas, 00:12:09.210 --> 00:12:12.169 concierges. They attract a very specific demographic. 00:12:12.509 --> 00:12:15.049 International students. Overwhelmingly, yes. 00:12:15.350 --> 00:12:17.409 They're often the ones paying full tuition and 00:12:17.409 --> 00:12:19.870 they're looking for a secure, serviced, all -inclusive 00:12:19.870 --> 00:12:22.129 experience when they arrive in a new country. 00:12:22.350 --> 00:12:24.809 Okay, that makes sense. Meanwhile, local domestic 00:12:24.809 --> 00:12:27.210 students, who maybe can't afford that premium 00:12:27.210 --> 00:12:30.049 rent or just prefer a different vibe, they stay 00:12:30.049 --> 00:12:32.409 in the traditional shared houses out in the suburbs. 00:12:32.610 --> 00:12:34.549 So you're physically segregating the student 00:12:34.549 --> 00:12:36.570 body before they even meet. The rich international 00:12:36.570 --> 00:12:38.590 students are in the tower, the local students 00:12:38.590 --> 00:12:42.120 are in the town. It creates parallel lives. You 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:44.639 completely lose that melting pot effect that 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:46.519 the old residential colleges were supposed to 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:49.620 aim for. You have the global mobile class living 00:12:49.620 --> 00:12:52.240 in a fortress and the locals living on the ground. 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:54.799 And there's a darker side to the money fueling 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:56.600 these towers, too, isn't there? This is where 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:58.799 it gets really interesting. When you follow the 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:02.039 money. Who actually owns these buildings? The 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:04.460 sources mention concerns about tax avoidance. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:07.519 Often it's offshore developers. Because these 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.220 are private assets, the profits are often funneled 00:13:10.220 --> 00:13:12.799 out of the country where the university is. There 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:15.320 have even been investigations into sanctions 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.980 evasion. For example, Russian money being parked 00:13:17.980 --> 00:13:20.799 in Western student housing developments because 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.539 it's seen as a stable, anonymous asset. Wow. 00:13:24.169 --> 00:13:26.809 That is a long, long way from the monks at Nalanda. 00:13:27.009 --> 00:13:29.570 We've gone from living together to reach enlightenment 00:13:29.570 --> 00:13:32.889 to living together to evade sanctions. It's the 00:13:32.889 --> 00:13:35.230 complete commodification of community. And that 00:13:35.230 --> 00:13:37.830 is the perfect segue to the next two models we 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:39.970 need to talk about. Because as adults, we're 00:13:39.970 --> 00:13:42.450 facing the exact same choice. Do we want to buy 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:44.750 a community as a service or do we want to build 00:13:44.750 --> 00:13:47.830 a community as a democracy? Right. So let's pivot 00:13:47.830 --> 00:13:50.230 from the students to the adults. Let's talk about 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:54.019 the build it model first. Co -housing. co -housing. 00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:56.639 Now, I want to be super clear for you listening 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.019 here, because this tripped me up at first. Co 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:02.389 -housing is not the same as co -living. They 00:14:02.389 --> 00:14:05.350 sound similar, but they're opposites in many 00:14:05.350 --> 00:14:07.850 ways. Correct. If you take one thing away from 00:14:07.850 --> 00:14:10.649 this deep dive, let it be that distinction. So 00:14:10.649 --> 00:14:13.269 co -housing is the democratic village. It is 00:14:13.269 --> 00:14:15.929 intentional. It's self -governing and it's cooperative. 00:14:16.210 --> 00:14:18.669 You don't just rent a room. You join a system. 00:14:18.750 --> 00:14:21.190 You have responsibilities. And it has a very 00:14:21.190 --> 00:14:23.769 specific and I think very charming origin story. 00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:27.580 It starts in Denmark in the late 1960s. I love 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:30.580 this story. So there was this widespread dissatisfaction 00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:32.940 with the standard single family house. People 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:35.379 felt isolated in the suburbs, the classic complaint. 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.860 And then in 1967, a woman named Bodle Gray wrote 00:14:38.860 --> 00:14:40.919 a newspaper article with the best headline I 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:43.580 have ever heard. Children should have 100 parents. 00:14:43.779 --> 00:14:45.940 Children should have 100 parents. I mean, as 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:48.200 a parent, that sounds both exhausting and incredibly 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.659 helpful at the same time. It tapped into a deep 00:14:50.659 --> 00:14:54.710 desire for the proverbial village. The idea wasn't 00:14:54.710 --> 00:14:56.649 that you give up your legal rights to your kids, 00:14:56.750 --> 00:14:59.309 obviously, but that the environment should be 00:14:59.309 --> 00:15:03.830 so safe and so communal that any adult instinctively 00:15:03.830 --> 00:15:07.029 looks out for any child. So this article sparks 00:15:07.029 --> 00:15:09.669 a movement. You have architects like Jan Goodman 00:15:09.669 --> 00:15:12.009 Hoyer getting involved and they start building 00:15:12.009 --> 00:15:14.529 these communities. But it's not just a commune 00:15:14.529 --> 00:15:16.649 where everyone sleeps in a big pile and shares 00:15:16.649 --> 00:15:18.350 everything. No, and that's the absolute key. 00:15:18.490 --> 00:15:22.070 In co -housing, you own your own private home. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:24.299 You have a kitchen, you have a bathroom, you 00:15:24.299 --> 00:15:26.080 have a living room, you have privacy when you 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:29.220 want it. But the site is designed to force interaction. 00:15:29.740 --> 00:15:32.059 The sources all mention the cars. This seems 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.419 to be a major design rule. It is. It's fundamental. 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:37.019 In a typical suburb, the car is king. You drive 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:39.059 into your attached garage, the garage door closes, 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:40.879 you walk into your kitchen. You might never see 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:43.559 a soul for days. Intel housing? The cars are 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:45.559 pushed to the periphery. You park on the edge 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:47.700 of the property. To get to your front door, you 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:49.669 have to walk. You have to walk through the green 00:15:49.669 --> 00:15:52.190 space, past your neighbor's front porches, past 00:15:52.190 --> 00:15:55.870 a playground. It forces the... Hello. It forces 00:15:55.870 --> 00:15:58.750 the interaction. And usually the kitchen windows 00:15:58.750 --> 00:16:01.169 are designed to face the pedestrian pathway. 00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:04.149 So if you're at your sink doing dishes, you see 00:16:04.149 --> 00:16:06.929 who is coming and going. The entire design is 00:16:06.929 --> 00:16:09.389 about eliminating anonymity. And the heart of 00:16:09.389 --> 00:16:12.129 it all is the common house. Yes. This is an extension 00:16:12.129 --> 00:16:15.200 of everyone's living room. It has a big industrial 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.879 style kitchen, a large dining hall, maybe laundry 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:22.519 facilities, a workshop, a playroom for the kids. 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:24.559 And the social contract is that you eat together. 00:16:24.779 --> 00:16:27.039 Shared meals are the glue that holds it all together. 00:16:27.179 --> 00:16:29.200 Maybe it's twice a week. Maybe it's every night. 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:31.879 It varies. But you sign up to cook for your neighbors 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:34.620 and in return, they cook for you. But here's 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:37.659 the rub. Who decides what you need? Who decides 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.399 when the lawn gets mowed or who fixes the broken 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:42.679 swing set? You do. All of you. It's collaborative 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:45.600 democracy. Residents decide everything, usually 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.059 by consensus. That sounds lovely in theory, but 00:16:48.059 --> 00:16:50.500 also, have you ever been to a condo board meeting? 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:52.960 It could be a nightmare. It's the condo board 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.500 problem on steroids. Because you aren't just 00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:57.679 deciding on fixing the roof, you're deciding 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:00.620 on the menu, the social rules, the shared values, 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:03.940 how to handle conflicts between neighbors. It 00:17:03.940 --> 00:17:06.240 requires a massive amount of what sociologists 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.900 call emotional labor. It's high effort, high 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:12.349 reward. Precisely. And this model. It migrated 00:17:12.349 --> 00:17:16.589 to the U .S. in the 90s. Two architects, Catherine 00:17:16.589 --> 00:17:18.990 McAmint and Charles Durrett, who actually coined 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:21.789 the English term co -housing, they built the 00:17:21.789 --> 00:17:24.670 first one, Muir Commons, in Davis, California, 00:17:24.910 --> 00:17:28.039 back in 1991. And is it still going? It is. And 00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:29.960 the model has spread. In Europe, they have a 00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:31.579 really interesting version of this called Joint 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:34.240 Building Ventures or Baugrupp in German. What's 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:36.519 that? It's the German model. A group of people 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:38.779 will actually pool their money together to build 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:41.220 an entire apartment building from scratch, completely 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:44.640 bypassing the developer. So you cut out the developer's 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.759 profit. You save a lot of money and you get exactly 00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:48.339 the building you want designed for your specific 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:51.359 needs. But you take on all the risk. If the contractor 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.660 goes bust halfway through, you go bust. See, 00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:55.720 that appeals to me on one level. You control 00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:59.559 your destiny. But it takes years of meetings 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:01.480 before you even break ground. The commitment 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:05.359 is huge. It is. It requires capital, time, and 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:08.319 very good social skills, which is why for many 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.640 people, co -housing is just too hard. They want 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:13.460 the community, but they don't want the meetings. 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:15.920 They don't want the work. And that's where the 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.900 market steps in. Enter co -living. The corporate 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:21.859 hack for city living. So if co -housing is a 00:18:21.859 --> 00:18:24.160 democracy you have to work at, co -living is 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:27.579 a service you subscribe to. It's space as a service. 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:30.039 Exactly. In co -living, you are a customer. You 00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:32.099 rent a room, usually a small private bedroom, 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:34.859 in a beautifully designed, often brand new building. 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:37.759 The utilities are set up. The Wi -Fi works from 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:40.400 day one. The furniture is there. And critically, 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:43.450 the community is provided for you. It's the plug 00:18:43.450 --> 00:18:45.029 and play model. You show up with your suitcase 00:18:45.029 --> 00:18:47.289 and boom, you have a home and a prepackaged social 00:18:47.289 --> 00:18:49.710 network. We tend to think of this as a very Silicon 00:18:49.710 --> 00:18:52.730 Valley invention. You know, digital nomads, tech 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.710 bros, the we work of sleeping. But historically, 00:18:55.849 --> 00:18:58.609 it's not new at all. Right. The sources point 00:18:58.609 --> 00:19:01.349 to the Isocon building in London all the way 00:19:01.349 --> 00:19:04.539 back in 1934. The Isocon was fascinating. It 00:19:04.539 --> 00:19:07.220 was this modernist experiment. Tiny, minimalist 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:09.880 apartments, but with a shared kitchen and services. 00:19:10.140 --> 00:19:12.079 And a famous resident. I saw that in the notes. 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:14.440 Agatha Christie. She lived there for a while. 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:17.619 No way. The queen of cozy murder mysteries lived 00:19:17.619 --> 00:19:20.319 in a modernist co -living experiment. She did. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:23.759 And then there was Kensal House in 1937. So the 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:26.680 idea of minimal private space, maximal shared 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:30.000 service is an old modernist dream. Silicon Valley 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.359 just rebranded it, optimized it, and built an 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:34.680 app for it. And boy, did they scale it. The expansion 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:37.400 in the 2020s has been absolutely massive. It's 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:40.019 a global boom. Asia Pacific is huge for this. 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:42.740 Singapore is a major hub. You've got brands like 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:46.559 Hamlet. Is that spelled H -M -L -E -T? Yes. Like 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:49.220 Hamlet without the A. Very startup -y. Of course 00:19:49.220 --> 00:19:52.079 it is. And the assembly place. In the U .S., 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:55.000 you had companies like Common, Ollie, Bungalow 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:57.839 that really took off. It was driven by the gig 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:00.839 economy. If you are a freelancer moving from 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:03.000 New York to San Francisco for a three -month 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.579 contract, you can't sign a 12 -month lease and 00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:07.180 buy a whole apartment's worth of furniture. You 00:20:07.180 --> 00:20:10.180 need co -living. It's housing for the commitment 00:20:10.180 --> 00:20:12.900 phobic, or maybe the commitment unalienable, 00:20:12.900 --> 00:20:14.759 given the economy. It's for the mobile workforce. 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:18.420 And in Europe, specifically Spain, it's exploding. 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.700 Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, you have brands 00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:25.569 like Enso and Haus. As of last year, 2025, there 00:20:25.569 --> 00:20:29.049 were over 110 ,000 operational co -living beds 00:20:29.049 --> 00:20:32.190 in Europe. That is a lot of beds. But why now? 00:20:32.369 --> 00:20:34.250 I mean, aside from the flexibility of the gig 00:20:34.250 --> 00:20:36.089 economy. Two big reasons, and they're both things 00:20:36.089 --> 00:20:38.089 we've touched on. Loneliness and sustainability. 00:20:38.470 --> 00:20:40.829 The loneliness epidemic again. It always comes 00:20:40.829 --> 00:20:42.710 back to that. We started the show talking about 00:20:42.710 --> 00:20:45.609 isolation. Co -living companies explicitly market 00:20:45.609 --> 00:20:47.950 themselves as a cure for loneliness. Their ads 00:20:47.950 --> 00:20:50.829 say instant friends. You have a community manager 00:20:50.829 --> 00:20:53.109 on staff who organizes. It's like being a freshman 00:20:53.109 --> 00:20:55.630 in college forever, but with better paying jobs. 00:20:55.930 --> 00:20:58.349 In a way, yes. But for a 28 -year -old who's 00:20:58.349 --> 00:21:00.150 just moved to a new city and works from home, 00:21:00.230 --> 00:21:02.630 that is a very valuable service. You pay a premium 00:21:02.630 --> 00:21:04.789 on the rent, but you get a social life included. 00:21:05.069 --> 00:21:07.049 And the sustainability angle, how does that work? 00:21:07.269 --> 00:21:09.890 It's all about efficiency. It leads to a reduced 00:21:09.890 --> 00:21:12.170 per -person consumption of energy and space. 00:21:12.650 --> 00:21:16.089 If 20 people share one massive high -end energy 00:21:16.089 --> 00:21:18.609 -efficient kitchen instead of 20 people having 00:21:18.609 --> 00:21:22.230 20 mediocre, small, inefficient kitchens, you 00:21:22.230 --> 00:21:24.829 save resources, you buy fewer appliances, you 00:21:24.829 --> 00:21:27.869 heat less space. But, and there is always a but, 00:21:27.990 --> 00:21:30.130 is it all just taco nights and sustainability? 00:21:30.269 --> 00:21:32.490 Because when you have large corporations running 00:21:32.490 --> 00:21:35.130 residential housing, things can get tricky. This 00:21:35.130 --> 00:21:37.109 is where we hit the friction, the critical analysis 00:21:37.109 --> 00:21:40.150 from the sources. And the biggest criticism leveled 00:21:40.150 --> 00:21:42.930 at co -living is gentrification. How does co 00:21:42.930 --> 00:21:45.710 -living drive gentrification differently than, 00:21:45.769 --> 00:21:48.490 say, just a new luxury apartment building? Well, 00:21:48.509 --> 00:21:50.529 imagine a traditional apartment building in a 00:21:50.529 --> 00:21:53.470 historic neighborhood in Barcelona. It might 00:21:53.470 --> 00:21:56.049 have eight large apartments that house local 00:21:56.049 --> 00:22:00.329 families on standard long -term leases. A developer 00:22:00.329 --> 00:22:04.039 buys it. They realize. If I chop these apartments 00:22:04.039 --> 00:22:07.400 up into 32 microsuites and market them to digital 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:09.920 nomads from North America earning American salaries, 00:22:10.220 --> 00:22:12.400 I can triple the rent I get per square foot. 00:22:12.500 --> 00:22:14.779 So it pushes out the locals. It creates a huge 00:22:14.779 --> 00:22:17.000 displacement effect. It replaces long -term residents 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.559 with a transient professional class. It completely 00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:22.599 changes the fabric of the neighborhood. The local 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:24.859 bakery that's been there for 50 years becomes 00:22:24.859 --> 00:22:27.220 a matcha latte spot. And cities are fighting 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:29.380 back. They are. Barcelona and Berlin have been 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:31.579 very aggressive on this. They've introduced new 00:22:31.579 --> 00:22:34.039 regulations that define minimum unit sizes for 00:22:34.039 --> 00:22:35.940 apartments. They're trying to stop what they 00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:39.079 call speculative use. They are basically saying 00:22:39.079 --> 00:22:41.019 you can't just build shoeboxes and call it co 00:22:41.019 --> 00:22:43.859 -living to bypass basic housing standards for 00:22:43.859 --> 00:22:46.180 our citizens. OK, so we have student housing, 00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:48.460 which is like the training ground for all this. 00:22:48.539 --> 00:22:51.180 We have co -living. the convenience service, 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.579 and co -housing, the democratic high effort project. 00:22:56.299 --> 00:22:58.839 But there is a fourth model that's popping up 00:22:58.839 --> 00:23:02.079 in our sources, co -home ownership. This is a 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:04.900 really interesting emergence in the 21st century. 00:23:05.180 --> 00:23:07.680 It sits somewhere in the middle of all of this, 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:10.259 between renting and owning in the traditional 00:23:10.259 --> 00:23:12.740 sense. How does it work? Is it just like a few 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:14.640 friends getting together and buying a house? 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.059 It's more structured and legally sophisticated 00:23:17.059 --> 00:23:19.099 than that. Traditionally, if you and I bought 00:23:19.099 --> 00:23:21.220 a house together, we'd be on one mortgage. If 00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:23.839 I lost my job and stopped paying my half, you 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:25.519 would be liable for the whole thing. It's a huge 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:27.759 financial risk. Right. It's famous for ruining 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:31.220 friendships. Exactly. But now we are seeing these 00:23:31.220 --> 00:23:34.680 new legal and financial models where multiple 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:36.839 buyers can purchase a single property together, 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:39.799 but they maintain separate mortgages or separate 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:42.220 legal equity shares. Wait, you can get separate 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:44.119 mortgages on one house? How does that even work? 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:47.640 In some jurisdictions, yes. Or you might have 00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:50.099 separate legal titles for suites within a single 00:23:50.099 --> 00:23:52.440 home. It allows you to build your own equity 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:55.259 independently of the other owners. And importantly, 00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:57.720 it gives you an exit strategy that doesn't blow 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:00.240 everything up. That's the key. If you want to 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:03.279 move out, you don't have to force everyone to 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:05.900 sell the entire house. You just sell your share 00:24:05.900 --> 00:24:09.200 or your suite to a new approved buyer. That's 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:11.420 really smart. Because usually buying a house 00:24:11.420 --> 00:24:13.539 with friends is a nightmare if one person wants 00:24:13.539 --> 00:24:15.220 to break up with their partner or move for a 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:18.559 job. Exactly. This model bridges that gap. It 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:20.920 makes ownership affordable for millennials and 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:22.940 Gen Z who are completely locked out of the market, 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:26.160 but it avoids that commune level of total financial 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:28.900 entanglement. So if we step back from all these 00:24:28.900 --> 00:24:31.759 models. What does this all mean? We've looked 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:34.619 at the history, the tech bros, the Danish families. 00:24:35.059 --> 00:24:37.539 What is the big picture here? I think we are 00:24:37.539 --> 00:24:40.759 witnessing the slow, undeniable breakdown of 00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:43.720 the nuclear family home as the default unit of 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:46.039 society. That is a big statement. Think about 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:48.859 it. The single family home with the white picket 00:24:48.859 --> 00:24:52.839 fence, that was a very specific mid -20th century 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:56.440 ideal. It worked for a particular economic moment, 00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:59.880 for a particular type of family structure. But 00:24:59.880 --> 00:25:02.440 for many, many people today, it's either completely 00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:05.640 unaffordable or it's socially isolating or both. 00:25:05.799 --> 00:25:07.960 So we are pivoting back to the village just in 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:10.099 different forms. We are looking for shared resources 00:25:10.099 --> 00:25:13.119 again, whether that's driven by necessity. I 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:16.339 can't afford rent, so I need roommates or by 00:25:16.339 --> 00:25:19.839 desire. I want 100 parents for my children. The 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:21.700 arrow is pointing toward more collective forms 00:25:21.700 --> 00:25:24.119 of living. But the divergence is in how we get 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:27.119 there, the path we choose. Right. And that is 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:29.200 the friction. That's the core of this whole deep 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:31.559 dive. We've gone from fifth century monks at 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:34.240 Nalanda living a life of shared purpose to Danish 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:36.420 families wanting a village for their kids to 00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:38.920 digital nomads in Singapore booking a room and 00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.119 a social life on an app. It's a whole spectrum 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:43.400 of connection from the deeply integrated to the 00:25:43.400 --> 00:25:45.819 purely transactional. And so for you listening, 00:25:45.940 --> 00:25:49.220 whether you are renting or buying or just feeling 00:25:49.220 --> 00:25:51.799 lonely in your apartment right now, the takeaway 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:54.039 is that the way we structure our physical space 00:25:54.490 --> 00:25:57.269 dictates our social lives. You cannot separate 00:25:57.269 --> 00:25:59.789 architecture from community. Winston Churchill 00:25:59.789 --> 00:26:02.089 said it best, didn't he? We shape our buildings 00:26:02.089 --> 00:26:05.589 and thereafter they shape us. Exactly. And here's 00:26:05.589 --> 00:26:07.930 a final provocative thought for you to chew on, 00:26:08.009 --> 00:26:09.930 something that really struck me from the sources. 00:26:10.450 --> 00:26:13.569 It seems that community is now something you 00:26:13.569 --> 00:26:16.130 can acquire in two ways. You can buy it as a 00:26:16.130 --> 00:26:18.950 product that's co -living, or you can work for 00:26:18.950 --> 00:26:21.630 it as a job that's co -housing. The question 00:26:21.630 --> 00:26:25.200 is, If we outsource the effort of community to 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:28.400 a corporate landlord, if we just pay for the 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:31.119 taco night rather than arguing about organizing 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:34.259 and cooking for the taco night, do we lose the 00:26:34.259 --> 00:26:36.140 very resilience we were trying to build in the 00:26:36.140 --> 00:26:38.859 first place? Is a community real if you can just 00:26:38.859 --> 00:26:41.180 cancel your subscription? Or is it only real 00:26:41.180 --> 00:26:42.859 if you have to fight with your neighbors about 00:26:42.859 --> 00:26:44.900 where to park the car and then make up afterwards? 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:47.799 Maybe the fight is the point. Maybe the friction 00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:50.380 is what builds the muscle of community. Something 00:26:50.380 --> 00:26:52.460 to think about next time you're in that elevator 00:26:52.460 --> 00:26:55.960 with a stranger. This has been The Deep Dive. 00:26:56.039 --> 00:26:57.700 Thanks for listening. Goodbye.