The Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative Movement

by Robert McGarvey There are maybe 400 worker owned co-ops in the US today.  How many will there be 10 years from now? Ask Michael Peck, a founder of 1worker1vote, and he says there will be...

This podcast initially appeared the CU 2.0 Podcast series. It appears here as a for instance of a community coming together and creating a cooperative to meet local needs. Quick now, what c...

Update: Maine Harvest now officially a new credit union. Hard work makes miracles happen. This podcast initially appeared the CU 2.0 Podcast series. It appears here as a for instance of a community co...

by Robert McGarvey Co-op housing: a better way for seniors?  Where to house the ever expanding numbers of American seniors? Ask Dennis Johnson, president of the Senior Cooperative Foundati...

Put Brel Hutton-Okpalaeke in your contacts if you are a college student searching for affordable housing. That’s because he is the director of development services at NASCO,  North American Stud...

Go ahead, tell me you don’t think of Arizona when the conversation is about cooperatives. You would be right. The Grand Canyon State is not Wisconsin or Minnesota or Vermont. But your podcaster ...

Talk to Cathie Mahon, CEO of Inclusiv, and it’s a fast ride into what mission makes a credit union special, distinctive and in her mind the answer is clear: serving the underserved and usua...

By Robert McGarvey Corruption. Greed. Ignorance. Racism. Sexism.  Words you don’t usually hear spoken about cooperatives.  But brace yourself because in the next hour you will as The Coopera...

If you live in the sticks and want broadband, Chris Mitchell is the man to know. If you are a cooperator and want to hear a co-op success story, Chris Mitchell also is the man to know. That’s be...

Need a loan? You want to know Christina Jennings, Executive Director of Shared Capital, a Twin Cities based loan fund that is itself a cooperative and makes loans only to member cooperatives and the...

by Robert McGarvey You want to know about community development financial institutions? Cliff Rosenthal is the man you want to talk to.  He literally wrote the book on CDFIs and also the longstanding...

Bulk buying means lower costs. That’s a fact of life in the US and it also works to the detriment of smaller, community oriented institutions – think churches, charter schools, various non...

For many of us, our warmest, most intimate connection with a cooperative is our local grocer and at the National Co+Op Grocers the business of that co-operative is helping its 145 members, each a cons...

Call this podcast a deep dive into platform cooperatives and more broadly the sharing economy. That’s what Neal Gorenflo, executive director of Shareable in San Francisco, spends his days noodl...

“Everything for Everyone” – that’s the title of Professor Nathan Schneider’s book that looks at many kinds of innovative co-ops and it’s a book that gave me optimis...

by Robert McGarvey Mark your calendar. Late June is when Marquette Brewing in Michigan is slated to open, making it one of around 10 cooperative breweries in the US. That number isn’t...

From the Ukraine to Ireland and Dominica, this podcast travels the globe with Mike Reuter, executive director of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, as he shares stories of the challenges face...

No country produces the agricultural bounty that the US does. We eat better, at lower costs, than anywhere else – and most of that food is produced through farmer owned cooperatives. That’...

Want to control what you eat? Of course you do. Join a food co-op and become a member-owner. Across the country there are maybe 350 to 400 food co-ops and, said Stuart Reid, executive director of th...

Alex Stone’s business is this: helping new cooperatives to start and helping existing ones to mature and do better. That’s the core mission of CooperationWorks! where she serves as executi...

Worker owned businesses just are better. Don’t believe me. Believe Frank Shipper, an emeritus professor at Salisbury University in Maryland and editor of a book, Shared Entrepreneurship. Sh...

The deep dive into Workers Cooperatives continues in the Cooperators Podcast.  Last week we talked with Esteban Kelly of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. This week it’s...

Owning a mobile home park is like owning a Waffle House where the customers are chained to the table. That quip is attributed to a leader in the mobile home industry.   It’s a thought ...

Presented by Robert McGarvey. Listen in here That sound you hear just may be a tidal wave of worker owned cooperatives. At least that’s what Esteban Kelly, executive director of the U.S. Federa...

Listen to Daniel Smith talk about cooperatives in the states where his Cooperative Network operates – Wisconsin and Minnesota – and you might think this has to be the promised land. Just a...

After 26 years at the legendary Union Cab co-op in Madison WI, John McNamara headed west to pursue a new mission: helping new co-ops come to life and also helping existing co-ops to survive. What̵...

Buckle up for a fast journey into the world of cooperatives with branding guru Robert MacDonald who will tell you why she is optimistic about a world where cooperatives are delivering local – ...

http://www.mcgarvey.net/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CU2.0-Podcast-0-Mixdown-2.mp3...