What happens when you decide to travel to all seven continents without spending any money?
That was the challenge Shantanu Starick set himself after stepping away from a career in architecture. Trading nothing but his photography skills for food, shelter and transport, he created The Pixel Trade — a three-and-a-half-year journey built entirely around exchange, trust and the people he met along the way.
But living without money comes with its own challenges. What does it actually cost to rely on other people? And what happens when the journey ends and you have to reintegrate into a world that still runs on money, responsibility and bills?
In this conversation, we explore the value of trade, the relationships that grow from it, and why the best exchanges are the ones where both people feel they’ve come away with the better end of the deal.
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Explore the Pixel Trade Project and discover the trades that made this journey possible:
http://thepixeltrade.com/trades
00:00 — Teaser & Introduction
02:22 — The Pixel Trade: Trading Photography for Food, Shelter & Transport
19:33 — The Squarespace Hosting Trade
20:40 — New York, Tumblr & Inter-Trading
29:12 — What Makes a Great Trade?
40:40 — Burnout & Reaching Antarctica
41:41 — How He Got to Antarctica
48:40 — The Pixel Trade as a Life Apprenticeship
50:00 — What He Learned About Money 51:40 — Returning to a World That Runs on Money