Oswald Horowitz | The Last Free Place
"I will die at sea for sure. I'm not going back..."
Latest Episode
176 - Why Everything Feels Broken | James Price
3 April 2026
“When Starmer came in in 2024, how many people across the entire British state changed jobs?
Two hundred.
One hundred ministers… and one hundred special advisors… And that’s it. And everybody else in that deep state stayed exactly the same.”
-
Timothy Allen sits down with James Price, former UK government adviser and political commentator, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it’s really like inside the machinery of the modern state.
Drawing on his experience at the heart of government, James offers a candid perspective on why many institutions are increasingly struggling to deliver, how political incentives shape decision-making behind the scenes, and why problems that appear local to the UK may in fact be symptoms of a much broader systemic shift.
The discussion explores the growing gap between what governments promise and what they can realistically achieve, the pressures created by cultural and demographic change, and whether traditional models of governance are equipped to handle the complexity of what’s coming next. Along the way, they touch on the limits of reform, the role of public perception, and what all of this might mean for those looking beyond the nation-state for alternative ways of organising society.
Enjoy the conversation.
-
New ArkPad Seasteading Resort in Próspera: https://tinyurl.com/ArkPad
-
LEAD SPONSOR: Veritas Villages: https://www.veritasvillages.com/freecities
Veritas Villages are building off-grid, energy self-sufficient communities for freedom lovers in Latin America. Bitcoin is accepted at all villages, including for the purchase of property.
-
Previous interviews with Patrick Hiebert, Founder of Veritas Villages:
- EP 156: https://fountain.fm/episode/66NqAclTBh7FByIX7lCq
- EP 107: https://fountain.fm/episode/Fh6uGwZvVtPsYsR53pTI
-
DONATE Bitcoin to the Free Cities Podcast: bc1q5jun0nzxzqepch84rqk0jnv0rd8uvns28df7mg
-
DONATE fiat currency to the Free Cities Podcast: https://buy.stripe.com/5kQ9AT90zeeY5JX7Jv4ow00
-
Listen on Fountain.fm to subscribe for BONUS episodes & EARLY ACCESS:
https://fountain.fm/show/xudG4tsYH5TimGLfAmqn
- All the Podcast Links: https://linktr.ee/FreeCitiesPodcast
- Free Cities Telegram Community: https://t.me/+im6c6r4jQkUzMjU0
- Free Cities Conference: https://freecitiesconference.com/
- Free Cities Foundation Newsletter: https://free-cities.org/subscribe
-
Podcasting apps that support Value-4-Value Bitcoin payments: https://podcastindex.org/apps?appTypes=app
-
TIMESTAMPS (Audio Version Only)
0:00:29 - Episode introduction
0:07:02 - Start of Conversation
0:08:36 - What is the real problem with modern government?
0:15:20 - Only 200 people change when governments change
0:16:46 - Why nothing works anymore and legitimacy is breaking down
0:19:03 - Bureaucracy as the real power: ministers as “viruses”
0:24:30 - Civil service incentives and resistance to change
0:29:00 - Government vs business: why execution fails
0:33:30 - Centralisation vs decentralisation
0:38:00 - Political cycles and economic reality
0:42:30 - Freedom vs control trade-offs
0:47:00 - Immigration and pressure on the system
0:51:30 - Democracy and loss of public trust
0:56:00 - The administrative state vs elected power
1:01:00 - Why reform keeps failing
1:08:00 - What replaces the current system?
NOSTR:
- Timothy Allen: npub1gcf9ltaeu42f4tr20z3avkas04dezlx3jaudqsuu87gvmh686xasrvqjg0
- Free Cities Foundation: npub1lsj8pmgedqqamt89c27tzjjnlf0wn7q7udjm7j2cl9xxz97eacns2mwpee
-
LEGACY SOCIAL MEDIA:
- James Price: https://x.com/jamespriceglos
- Timothy Allen: https://twitter.com/MrTimothyAllen
- Free Cities Foundation: https://twitter.com/freecitiesfound
-
OTHER LINKS:
- James's Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/jamesedwardprice
- Veritas Villages: https://www.veritasvillages.com/freecities
- Invest in ArkPad's Próspera Resort: http://tinyurl.com/ArkPad
- Free Cities Foundation: https://free-cities.org/
- Become a resident or business owner in Próspera: https://prospera.co/r/freecities
Showing 12 of 176 episodes
Patrik Schumacher | The Architecture of Spontaneous Order
"Land use should not be prescribed by any planning regime. People come together into the city by seeking out very particular connections and a multitude of connections. And they have to find each other. There needs to be the degree of freedom to associate and self-organize what I call the co-location synergies."
Mailyn Salabarria | The Hidden Path to Tyranny
"You can vote your way into socialism, but you can only shoot your way out. They're never going to leave power."
Joe Quirk | The Ultimate Exit Strategy
"The golden age of voluntarism, anarcho-capitalism has already emerged. It's all over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. It's completely flourishing. It's long since entered its golden age. We've already proved that it works because it emerged naturally on the sea. It's called the cruise ship industry."
Lotta Moberg | The Truth About Special Economic Zones
"There were probably a lot of brown envelopes on the table involved - they said, okay, have this zone then."
Tim Stern | Leaving Europe Is The Rational Choice
"I want to be back in my tribe. I want to have strong people which I can rely on, which I can do business with, which I know, which have my back and I have theirs. That's exactly what I want to have. And if we are building this place right now, why would I fill it with people I don't know and I don't give a shit about?"
Mitchell Suchner | The First Operational Seasteading Resort
"If I can sell someone something to buy, they might buy it. If you can sell someone something that they can live in, they're likely to buy it. If you can sell someone something that they can live in and also generates passive income for them, they're very likely to buy it."
Vikram Bharati | At the Intersection of Free Cities & Network States
"The free cities community seems very much more buttoned up and more pragmatic - real estate, free cities, development, SEZs. You need lawyers, you need bankers. And then the network state community, there's a lot more dreamers, young dreamers who want to do pop-up cities. But there's a convergence in between where you have a group of people who are a bit of both. And I think that middle group of people are people that are going to do some very interesting things."
Mikkel Thorup | The Global Freedom Map Is Changing
"How do you get out of this? How do you separate yourself from your government today? How do you protect your wealth and your ability to provide for your family today?"
Christoph Heuermann: You Can Live Tax Free Almost Anywhere
"Why do you need Free Cities if you can live tax-free everywhere?"
Rahim Taghizadegan: Exit Is More Powerful Than Voice
"Politics is overrated, generally."
Mason: The Last Piece in the Puzzle for the Sovereign Individual
"We didn't design a boat. We designed an apartment and made it float."