In this episode, we dig into the real-world tools for communicating and coordinating without cell towers or cloud services: Meshtastic mesh radios, ham radio via Winlink and JS8Call, GMRS repeater networks, and the more radical vision of Reticulum — a cryptographic network stack built for a post-internet world. We also cover the surprisingly active landscape of community mesh networks already running in cities like New York and Philadelphia, and why building decentralized infrastructure now is mutual aid, not just prepper fantasy.

Offline Wikipedia via Kiwix, self-hosted media libraries with Jellyfin, Calibre, and Audiobookshelf, and knowledge preservation archives like Open Source Ecology and Appropedia can turn a Raspberry Pi into a local server that keeps your community informed, entertained, and capable.

Communications

Meshtastic — https://meshtastic.org
Reticulum Network — https://reticulum.network
Winlink (email over radio) — https://www.winlink.org
JS8Call — http://js8call.com

Local networks

NYC Mesh — https://www.nycmesh.net
Philly Community Wireless — https://phillycommunitywireless.org
People's Open Network (Oakland) — https://peoplesopen.net

Entertainment / media

Jellyfin — https://jellyfin.org
Kiwix — https://kiwix.org
Internet-in-a-Box — https://internet-in-a-box.org
Calibre — https://calibre-ebook.com
Navidrome — https://www.navidrome.org
Audiobookshelf — https://www.audiobookshelf.org

Knowledge preservation

Survivor Library — http://www.survivorlibrary.com
Appropedia — https://www.appropedia.org
Open Source Ecology — https://www.opensourceecology.org
Farm Hack — https://farmhack.org
Precious Plastic — https://www.preciousplastic.com

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