We discuss the importance of sharing and its many benefits with Tom Llewellyn, the Executive Director of Shareable, which collaborates with others to imagine, resource, network, and scale cooperative projects.

Tom helps communities develop Libraries of Things (LoTs) and other forms of low-cost, environmentally friendly social infrastructure that help people meet their material needs. Tom’s current work includes expanding these sharing initiatives into housing developments, universities, and post-disaster recovery areas.

He also serves as executive producer and host of the award-winning documentary film and podcast series The Response, producer of the Cities@Tufts Podcast, and communications lead for the Rural Power Coalition.

Tom has co-founded several community- and sharing-based initiatives, including: A PLACE for Sustainable Living, Asheville Tool Library, REAL Cooperative (Regenerative Education, Action & Leadership), and the worker collective Critter Cafe.

Shareable wants to see a just, connected, and joyful world where sharing is daily practice and communities flourish. Its current focus is on sharing hubs & infrastructure, Mutual Aid projects, and supporting and strengthening democratic, community-controlled cooperative businesses and organizations.

We covered a lot, and so the conversation is split into two episodes. In Part 1, we hear why Shareable has pivoted from storytelling to engagement and support for groups to replicate successful sharing solutions.

We discuss some of the key challenges and barriers to sharing, and what we can gain from sharing and other forms of mutual support

We talk about a few different types of sharing initiatives, including community infrastructure projects.

Tom explains the importance of storytelling, particularly in the context of disasters, and how the media often uses narratives that undermine our natural resilience and willingness to support each other.

In Part 2 (available now), we cover the How To Guides, which cover a vast range of topics from how to reduce food waste to starting mutual aid funds, and Tom’s tips on how to get things started. You can hear my takeaways at the end of each section.

International speaker, author and strategic advisor, Catherine Weetman helps people discover why circular, regenerative and fair solutions are better for people, planet – and prosperity.

Catherine’s award-winning book: A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business includes lots of practical examples and tips on getting started.

Stay in touch for free insights and updates…

Read on for more on our guest and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.

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Links we mention in the episode:

Links for our guest:

• Shareable’s website: https://www.shareable.net/

Shareable on social media:

• https://www.facebook.com/Shareable
• https://twitter.com/shareable
• https://www.instagram.com/shareable_gram/
• https://bsky.app/profile/share-able.bsky.social
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/shareable/
• https://www.youtube.com/@ShareableNet

Books, people and organisations we mentioned

• Episode 154 Loic Le Fouest of Clarasys: creating circular customer experiences https://www.rethinkglobal.info/154-loic-le-fouest-of-clarasys-designing-circular-customer-experiences/
• Rutger Bregman, historian and best-selling author is this year’s BBC Radio 4 Reith lecturer. Titled Moral Revolution, the lectures will delve into the current ‘age of immorality’, explore a growing trend for unseriousness among elites, and ask how we can follow history’s example and assemble small, committed groups to spark positive change. The Reith Lectures are available on your favourite podcast app, more info here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/v78MKsCWHxw0l0PwMn4R0R/bbc-reith-lectures-2025-moral-revolution
• Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind and others books: https://rutgerbregman.com/

Guest bio

Tom Llewellyn is the Executive Director of Shareable, an organization that collaborates with organizers and allies to imagine, resource, network, and scale cooperative projects. He helps communities develop Libraries of Things (LoTs)—low-cost, environmentally friendly social infrastructure that enables people to meet their material needs.

Tom’s current work includes expanding these sharing initiatives into housing developments, universities, and post-disaster recovery areas. He also serves as executive producer and host of the award-winning documentary film and podcast series The Response, producer of the Cities@Tufts Podcast, and communications lead for the Rural Power Coalition.

A dynamic speaker, Tom has presented at more than 200 events across five continents. He is the co-editor and author of several influential publications, including Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons (2018), The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters (2019), and Lessons from the First Wave: Resilience in the Age of COVID-19 (2020).

He has co-founded several community- and sharing-based initiatives, including: A PLACE for Sustainable Living, Asheville Tool Library, REAL Cooperative (Regenerative Education, Action & Leadership), and the worker collective Critter Cafe.

Tom currently lives in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, in Amah Mutsun Tribal Band territory, with his wife, Ellie, where they’re rejuvenating an old Boy Scout Camp into a community hub.

Shareable collaborates with organizers and allies to imagine, resource, network, and scale cooperative projects. We envision a just, connected, and joyful world where sharing is daily practice and communities flourish.

Shareable’s organizing work is currently focused on:

• Sharing Hubs & Infrastructure – We’re working to establish sharing hubs like Libraries of Things in every community. Whether it is a simple how-to guide; our comprehensive Library of Things Toolkit; incubating the Tool Library Alliance; or partnerships to scale Libraries of Things in universities and affordable housing, we’re developing useful tools so every community can create infrastructure for sharing.

• Mutual Aid – We’re working to build capacity and to network mutual aid projects across the US and around the world. Whether it is our popular how-to guides; sharing stories on our podcast The Response; our ongoing Mutual Aid 101 learning series and toolkit; or partnerships to build capacity for mutual aid disaster resilience, we’re developing resources and networks to build communities of care.

• Co-op Sector – We’re working to support and strengthen democratic, community-controlled cooperative businesses and organizations. Whether it is educational partnerships like the Social Co-op Academy; piloting food assistance co-ops; fighting to modernize and democratize local electric co-op utilities, the second largest co-op sector in the US; or restructuring our own organization as a worker self-directed nonprofit, we’re shifting the narrative toward cooperative governance.

Shareable continues to publish articles, podcasts, and how-to guides that amplify the people and ideas shaping a world where sharing is a daily practice and communities flourish.

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