Videos
The Art of Asking
"Don't make people pay for music," says Amanda Palmer. "Let them." In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan. Amanda offers all of her music online using PWYC. |
Sacred Economics
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme - but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being. Film by Velcrow Ripper. |
Pay As You Can - An Inclusive business model
Judith Manshanden is a psychologist, former strategy consultant and social entrepreneur. During her corporate career she started to question the basis of our current economy: why do we strive for endless growth? Judith Manshanden uses a business model based on the idea of abundance. In her ‘pay as you can’ restaurant “GEEF! Café” (the GIVE! Café) healthy and nutritious meals are being served and people pay in cash or kind as they can. |
Karma Kitchens
What is the value of something that doesn't have a price? That is the fundamental question raised every week at Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-run restaurant in Berkeley. Based on an experiment in generosity, guests are presented with a $0 bill at the end of each meal. Founder and volunteer Nipun Mehta explains how the opportunity to pay it forward for the next person opens our innate compassion and builds true community. |
Karma Teachers Yoga - Pay it Forward
Meet the people behind the revolutionary Karma Teachers movement, where free yoga training is helping to change lives in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. |
541 Eatery and Exchange
Everyone loves a good meal and in downtown Hamilton, Ontario residents celebrated the grand opening of a brand new restaurant. But as Magdalene John found out, this new eatery has become a success very quickly and it all has to do with generosity and a whole lot of buttons! |
The Real Junkfood Project
Adam Smith is the founder and co-director of The Real Junk Food Project, a community interest company that aims to abolish waste food through a ‘Pay-As You-Feel’ concept. The cafes offer an alternative to the conventional payment system as there is no price on any product. The system transcends monetary transactions and liberates people to use their skills and attributes, as well as money, to pay for their meals. |
Daniel Suelo - The Physics and Spirituality of Gift Economy
For 15 years Daniel Suelo didn't use or accept money or conscious barter - nor did he take food stamps or other government dole. His philosophy has been to use only what is freely given or discarded and what is already present and already running. In 2015, he took a detour from this lifestyle to live with and assist his aging parents. His father has since passed away and Daniel is still caring for his mother. Here Daniel sums up the past two years of thoughts and introspection about his lifestyle and what he has learned from it. |
Never Get Tired (trailer)
The film NEVER GET TIRED takes as its focus the world’s first donation–based band, BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY! and its variously charismatic, depressive, big–hearted, and loudmouthed mastermind, Jeff Rosenstock. Jeff takes seriously his complex relationship to commerce, community and diy ethics: all the music is free, all shows are all ages and under $10, there is no merchandise. These practices, coupled with Jeff’s relentlessly positive us–versus–them mentality, has earned him the most ardently committed fan base in the punk scene. |
We've Stopped Trusting Institutions and Started Trusting Strangers
Something profound is changing our concept of trust, says Rachel Botsman. While we used to place our trust in institutions like governments and banks, today we increasingly rely on others, often strangers, on platforms like Airbnb and Uber and through technologies like the blockchain. This new era of trust could bring with it a more transparent, inclusive and accountable society — if we get it right. Who do you trust? |
The LivingRoom Community Art Studio
The LRCAS is a provides supportive opportunities for people to express themselves and connect with others through experiences of art making, skill sharing and dialogue. Studio services are offered for free in order to ensure that all members of the community - including those who are most marginalized - can take part. The studio's mission is to promote positive self-identities, strengthen and build relationships, and inspire community driven action through providing an inclusive, non-judgemental space for meaningful creative social interaction to occur. |
Designing for Generosity - Nepun Mehta Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations catered to our deeper motivations? This compelling TEDx talk explores this question and introduces the concept of Giftivism: the practice of radically generous acts that change the world. The video is charged with stories of such acts. With clarity and insight, it details the common threads that run through all these gift manifestations, and invites us to participate through everyday acts of kindness -- in an uplifting global movement.
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The Moneyless Manifesto
Mark Boyle's new book 'The Moneyless Manifesto' explores in-depth the social, personal, ecological and economic reasons why we may want to transition beyond money into a localised, gift-based economy. Film by James Light. |
Repair Cafes
This video shows what a Repair Café is, why volunteers participate, why visitors bring their broken items, and - last but not least - how you can start your own Repair Café. |
Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, sharing free vegan and vegetarian food with others as a way to protest war and poverty. Each chapter collects surplus food that would go to waste from grocery stores, bakeries, markets, and farmers, then prepares community meals which are served free to anyone who is hungry. |