101 PODCAST: Clay Eugene Smith on Life, Community and The Conspiracy Of Beards

For the past several months, I have been trying my hand at interviewing some of the fascinating and wonderful people that I meet on my travels. Let me say first and foremost that I have a long way to go on my interview skills. I will be the first to admit it. After doing a couple of these, I have realized that I need to be more prepared and do a bit more research when I sit down and interview someone. So far, most of my interviews, like this one, have been spur of the moment and off the cuff. Thanks for bearing with me, I promise it will get better.

That said, today I am in Oakland, California and my guest is Clay Smith. He and his wife, Sara have made some very practical and unique lifestyle choices which I happen to greatly admire. Clay is also the production manager for the Bay Area’s very own all-male a cappella chorus singing only Leonard Cohen songs: The Conspiracy Of Beards.

I visit Clay, Sara and their 2 year old son, Wilder, whenever I am in the Bay area and it always feels like a family homecoming. I sat down with Clay and had an informal chat about Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We got into the perks and pitfalls of being part of an intentional community, being a stay at home Dad and what its like to manage 30 singing beards on a cross country tour.