The Story Behind Serenbe Stories Podcast

We can’t believe that Serenbe Stories podcast launched its’ fifth season this week! Where does the time go? Our in-house team planted this seed of an idea in 2018 and quickly got to work learning how to record, produce, and edit a podcast from scratch. The first season launched in 2019, and quickly gained an audience. We wanted to to reach people across the world in a new, deeper way on what is still a growing platform, and we’re thrilled to say it has been a blast. We’ve successfully produced five seasons, creating content that covers everything from nature, to community building, wellness, organic farming, biophilia, and more. Now, we’re sharing stories directly from the source, Serenbe residents.

Kicking it off in Season 1, we feature Serenbe visionary and founder, Steve Nygren, as he and host Monica Olsen went back to the beginning, to his life and career and in Serenbe's history, to tell the in-depth story about how this community just outside of Atlanta came to be. We began with how the family discovered the property, and one popular episode features Steve’s three daughters, Garnie, Kara and Quinn as they share their experiences as young girls moving from the city center to a farm in the countryside.

If you haven’t heard Season 2 yet, click here to listen. You'll hear from many of the people that were integral to Serenbe's creation and development and their Serenbe stories. We talk with John Lanier, the Executive Director of The Ray C. Anderson Foundation about how impactful his grandfather was to Steve's going after the vision. You'll hear from Richard Louv, bestselling author of Last Child in the Woods, Tom Reed, the Mayor of Chattahoochee Hills, the city that Serenbe sits within, and Dennis Creech, founder of Southface. We also have Phill Tabb on, who is Serenbe's land planner, professor and architect, Robert Rausch who Steve met via Ryan Gainey in Atlanta, Col. Mark "Puck" Mykelby, who was a Serenbe Fellow and inspired Steve to create the Biophilic Institute, as well as many more.

Season 3 brought new challenges as the pandemic hit and we transitioned to virtual recordings during lockdown. We all made Zoom accounts, booked guests remotely and moved beyond Steve's story to talk with people who have experienced Serenbe - people who have visited, reported on or have deep relationships over the years with us. Our guests were journalists, influencers and entrepreneurs and all believe in a more hopeful future with nature at its core. As lockdown progressed and we were all spending more and more time indoors, we felt there had never been a better time to talk about living a well life connected to the natural world and our guests all agree.

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The fourth season explores biophilia, what it is, why it's important and who are the leaders doing the work to grow this essential movement. Never heard this term before? It means humans have an innate tendency to connect with and a love for nature. We dive into wellness, regenerative agriculture, public education, climate advocacy, equity and environmentalism, we'll ask what makes a biophilic city and more.

And finally, we’re moving into Season 5, where we’ll hear stories from the people who really make up the community, Serenbe residents As we were brainstorming on where to take the podcast next, we thought, what better way to share the life here than directly from those who choose to spend their lives here. We’ll explore how they discovered the community, why they chose to move or raise their families here, what their favorite part of life is, and their personal Serenbe stories.

You can find Serenbe Stories wherever you listen to podcasts, please join us and subscribe, and do rate us and give us a review. We enjoy hearing what you think and reviews help us grow the show and share stories with people all over the world.

Happy listening.

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