What motivates people to live off-grid in the 21st C? And how hard is it to survive out there?

This week, the HBS hosts are joined by Eric Mack, journalist and co-host of Our Uncertain Future podcast, who decided in 2020 to move his family “off-grid.” Currently residing in a 100% water- and energy-independent compound in the New Mexico desert, Eric chats with us not only about the skills and resources necessary for making a home off the grid, but also his (and others’) philosophical reasons for doing so. 

In this episode, we discuss the following thinkers/ideas/texts/etc.:

• Six Schizophrenic Brothers (MAX documentary series, 2024)
• Our Uncertain Future podcast (hosted by Eric Mack and his wife, Johanna DeBiase)
• Johanna DeBiase, “Naked in Nature” (at Our Uncertain Future blog)
• Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares?! (MAX comedy special, 2023)
• Eric Mack, “My Off-Grid Project: I Now Get My Water and Power Directly From the Sky” (CNET)
• Eric Mack, “I’m Still Surprised by the Benefits and Struggles of Life Off-Grid” (CNET)
• Eric Mack, “Here’s Everything You Need to Know to Live Off-Grid” (Our Uncertain Future blog, 2024)
• The Guide to Off-Grid Homes 
• “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP)
• Greywater Reuse
• Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
• How the mobile phone revolutionized Africa
• Eric Mack and Johanna DeBiase, “Decentralization: Applying the Off-Grid Approach to Everything” (Our Uncertain Future, 2024)
• On Las Vegas and Phoenix, see “Water Scarcity and the Climate Crisis” (The Invading Sea, 2024)
• DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) 
• Michel Foucault
• “Network States”
• States in which it is illegal to catch rainwater
• Food deserts
• Community gardens
• Open source alternatives to proprietary software
• Proton Mail (open source email alternative)