Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life

Written by Kristen R. Ghodsee

Narrated by Lisa Flanagan

A “fascinating” (The Wall Street Journal), “spirited and inspiring” (Jacobin) tour through the ages in search of the thinkers and communities that have dared to reimagine how we might better live our daily lives.

In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras—a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics—founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.

Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby.

One of those startlingly rare books that upends what you think is possible, Everyday Utopia provides a “powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project, but also a political one” (Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad). This “must-read” (Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality) offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781797156132

Kristen R. Ghodsee

Kristen R. Ghodsee is a professor and chair of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the critically acclaimed author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, which has been translated into fifteen languages. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and she’s appeared on PBS NewsHour and France 24 as well as on dozens of podcasts, including NPR’s Throughline, Vox’s The Gray Area, and The Ezra Klein Show. She lives outside Philadelphia.

Reviews for Everyday Utopia

[Patricia Delfin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book brings the philosophy and fundamentals of where, how and why we should be bravely moving forward as a society.

[Natalie Jennings · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The author explicitly says that when she says “woman” in this book she only means cisgender women. She sees trans women as being a different gender than other women. It is valid to talk about the particular feminist struggles of cis women who grew up being exploited for labour in ways that trans women are usually not. But she excludes us from being “women” at all. It’s not right. Could not continue. This book made me want to cry.