Vehicle Living and the Future of the American Dream: NOMADLAND vs. Real Life

The film NOMADLAND portrayed Americans turning to vehicle living as a way to survive increasing economic instability. In this episode, my guests Lauren and Noah share their real-life story of transitioning away from traditional housing, converting an old bus into their home, and traveling across an America that's under strain from multiple systemic pressures. They speak candidly about the many challenges, logistical hurdles, and unexpected moments of beauty and joy they've encountered along the way.

We also explore the deeper themes of collapse awareness, community resilience, and how their lived experience overlaps with, or diverges from, what NOMADLAD depicts. Topics we discuss include:

• The rising unaffordability of housing
• What it means to be "collapse aware"
• Community resilience and lessons from surviving the destruction of Hurricane Helene
• The tensions of ecological values vs. the realities of life on the road
• The surprising, unexpected joys of simple living
• How their experiences compare with NOMADLAND
• Helpful stories vs. unhelpful stories amid transformational change
• Signals of hope and building parallel structures
• Plus: a surprise cameo from Indy the cat 😸 

 

⚠️ Spoilers: Nomadland (only from the 40:45 to 55:15 timemark, no spoilers at any other time)

✅ No Spoilers: All other fictional works mentioned 

 

Books mentioned by Lauren or Noah:

• The Limits to Growth by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/
• The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More by Annie Raser-Rowland and Adam Grubb https://frugalhedonism.com/
• Work Won’t Love You Back by Sara Jaffe https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/work-won-t-love-you-back-how-devotion-to-our-jobs-keeps-us-exploited-exhausted-and-alone-9781568589374/new

 

• Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leafe Christian https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/creating-a-life-together-practical-tools-to-grow-ecovillages-and-intentional-communities-9780865714717/new

 

Resources mentioned by Lauren:

• otherWise https://otherwise.one/

 

Resources mentioned by the Pop Mythologist:

• Institute for the Future https://www.iftf.org

 

• Foresight Essentials https://www.iftf.org/foresightessentials/for-individuals

 

• Urgent Optimists https://urgentoptimists.org

 

Outro music: "It’s the end of the world… shhh don’t tell the kids" by Shy and the Fight  — licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/