Welcome to Season 2 of The Initiation. We’re beginning this new season with a conversation that is both deeply grounded and quietly radical – a look at what it truly takes to build a different way of living on this planet.

In this opening episode, I speak with Vincent Daranyi, founder of Neos.life, a 1000-acre village and retreat center in the Alentejo region of Portugal, designed as “a village for a new way of being.” Neos.life is envisioned as a living blueprint for a new form of civilization: regenerative by design, close to nature, and rooted in inner work, community, and ecological responsibility.

Vincent shares the long and often difficult road from early vision to actual place: finding the land, holding the project through uncertainty, navigating regulation and planning, raising capital, and slowly assembling a team and community around a shared commitment to regeneration and transformation. Today, Neos.life is becoming a self-sufficient village and transformational ecosystem - with independent water and energy systems, organic agriculture, a well-being and healing center, educational facilities, and a retreat hotel, all nestled around a large lake in Alentejo.

We talk about:

• 
  

  Why Vincent felt called to build a place like this in the first place - and what problem he believes Neos.life is really trying to solve.

  
  


• 
  

  The inner journey of the founder: doubt, persistence, near-failures, and the psychological cost of carrying a big, long-term vision.

  
  


• 
  

  The practical realities of community building: governance, money, land use, village design, and the difference between idealistic sketches and what actually works on the ground.

  
  


• 
  

  How Neos.life weaves together retreats, regenerative education, and residential living into one ecosystem - a “center for a new humanity” and a potential prototype for future villages.

  
  

If you’re interested in land-based projects, intentional communities, regenerative villages, or simply the question of how we might actually live differently on this planet, this conversation offers a rare, honest look behind the scenes of a very ambitious experiment.

-

If you’re new to The Initiation, you may also want to explore Season 1, where I lay the foundations for the entire series. Across the first nine episodes, we dive into the core themes shaping our moment in history – from the rise of artificial intelligence and the breakdown of our monetary system to the climate crisis, geopolitics, and the breakthrough forces pointing toward transformation. Season 1 offers the wider context for everything we’ll explore this year.