On this episode of Crafting Human™, I sit down with David Leventhal, founder of Playa Viva, a regenerative luxury destination resort, for a conversation about regeneration, adaptability, and what it means to design business as a living system.

What began as a conventional real estate development shifted course after the 2008 financial collapse. Instead of simply trying to repair a broken model, David and his team stepped back to ask a deeper question: What future are we actually trying to create?

Drawing from decades of work in conservation, hospitality, and systems thinking, David shares how Playa Viva evolved into a regenerative destination built on stewardship, community partnership, and whole-systems design. We explore how land, economy, culture, and environment are not separate concerns and why meaningful regeneration requires addressing social and economic realities alongside ecological ones.

Together, we reflect on creative adaptability and the courage to release a plan, to listen deeply to place, and to allow a paradigm shift to unfold.

Crafting Human™ is a space for conversations that go beyond design and business strategy to explore what it means to create, to lead, and to remain deeply human in a rapidly changing world.

In this episode:

– What regeneration really means beyond sustainability
– The paradigm shift from scarcity to abundance thinking
– Why you can’t regenerate land without addressing economic poverty
– How adaptability shapes both design and business
– Building toward a shared future instead of solving isolated problems

You can explore David’s work here:
Playa Viva: playaviva.com

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