What Do Digital Nomads Tell Us About The Future? - Lauren Razavi (Executive Director, Plumia)

Lauren and I first talked when I was locked down in Taiwan in 2021.  It was amazing to connect with another nomad and writer after weeks of not seeing people.  I was also a bit stuck in my book writing process and she gave me a ton of helpful hints to take my book to the next level.

I was excited to interview Lauren because she just finished her own book, Global Natives about her own experience as a nomad (since 2013!) and also the past, present, and future of the movement.  I think she is one of the most thoughtful perspectives on the future of work and global mobility.

Currently, Lauren is Executive Director of Plumia, the mission to build an internet country for digital nomads at SafetyWing, a Y Combinator company that raised a $35 million Series B in 2022. She is also author of the book Global Natives and writes the Counterflows newsletter) about borderless living. She tweets @LaurenRazavi.

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Links Mentioned

• Path Role Model: Pia Mancini
• Minimum viable state
• Book Recommendation: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

Timestamps

• 2:01 Introduction
• 3:22 Lauren's Influences Growing Up
• 6:30 Lauren's Idea of Home
• 9:00 Paul on International Couples
• 10:24 Lauren on how she sees "place" & digital citizenship
• 12:44 Becoming a Digital Nomad
• 17:26 Paul's experience in Bali
• 19:34 Digital Nomads being self-reflective
• 23:51 The fear of asking questions about life
• 30:10 How everything changed in 2020
• 31:52 Why the remote work is here to stay
• 34:21 Asking better questions - Nomads and Settlers
• 43:52 Lauren's approach to writing - working with an editor
• 51:21 The most interesting experiments with countries/policies
• 58:23 The problem with the real estate
• 1:02:28 Rapid fire questions with Lauren

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