Sustainable Minimalists

After World War II Americans became bonafide consumers. And yet conditioned consumerism sneakily hijacks our time, money, and mental bandwidth. It also harms the planet.

The system is entrenched, the marketing is omnipresent, and it's all designed to keep us buying until we die. But there IS a way out. On today's show author and former marketer Ashlee Piper pulls back the curtain on modern marketing so that we may hop off the addic...

From a young age, many of us were exposed to messages linking financial success with personal value. Advertisements, media, and even family conversations equate wealth with achievement and social status.

Not surprisingly, this constant reinforcement creates strong associations between money and self-worth.

Although our culture tends to regard money (and fancy job titles, for that matter) as symbols of success, my guest todays argue...

Cultural messaging and suggests you should be happy all the time. But your "happy chemicals"—dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin—evolved to motivate survival behavior, not make you happy.

In fact, unhappiness is your brain's default state.

On today's show Dr. Loretta Breuning argues that you can manage your happy chemicals when you know how they work in the state of nature, and she's here to show us how.

Here's a...

Every purchase you make has an impact on the world. If you aren't careful, your shopping choices contribute to climate change and social injustice. But when you align the contents of your shopping cart with your personal values you slowly but surely shape the market.

Influencer marketing is a case study in how easy it is to sell things to followers who trust their favorite online personalities. But offering that elusive 'personal recommendation' for EVERYthing has normalized both inauthentic endorsing and impulse shopping. It has normalized the buying and selling of your precious attention, too.

Here's a sneak peak of today's episode for subscribers. Listen to the whole episode by becoming a pa...

There are few things more satisfying than completing a proper spring cleaning. Deep cleaning when the weather warms is a biological imperative that's rooted in centuries of tradition because the practice lightens moods and improves health. It also symbolizes renewal as we come out of hibernation and back into the sunshine.

You aren't alone in your seasonal desire to deep clean. On today's show: Opening the windows, deep-cleaning th...

When we let go of what doesn't serve us, we remove weight that holds us down. On today's show we turn to Zen Buddhism for wisdom on letting go of anxiety about the future, grudges, stuff, dead relationships, and more.

Here's a preview:

[4:00] Insanely anxious about the future? (Me too!) Don't spend your energy worrying; do this instead

[12:00] Think of decluttering not as throwing stuff away; think of it instead as setting your stu...

Women have been targeted for decades with the message that shopping is recreation. It’s a way to relax and unwind, sure, but recreational shopping also contributes to the climate crisis, supports the worst of shareholder capitalism, and creates an awful lot of unnecessary waste.

Enter Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy, a hard-hitting new Netflix documentary that forces viewers to look at our waste-related woes. On today’s show produ...

Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without a trash can?

Here in the US, we don't think much about what happens to stuff once we're done with it. Indeed, American infrastructure isn't equipped to properly handle waste, and our wonton wastefulness on the cultural level exacerbates the climate crisis.

It's entirely possible to take matters into your own hands by stepping up as a change maker. On today's show acti...

Does it feel like there’s something hypocritical about New Year’s resolutions? They run counter to the idea that we should accept who we are. That we should give ourselves grace.

Resolutions shouldn’t be so grand that we set ourselves up to fail; they shouldn't attempt to "fix" what we've been told is broken, either ("I should be skinnier! I should make more $$!"). There’s a way to work towards personal developm...

Have a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear? While capsule wardrobes are often touted as the singular solution to closet overwhelm, many report that they can be restrictive, boring and, frankly, unrealistic in practice.

A minimalist closet is best served by first identifying the outfits needed to live YOUR unique life. On today's show podcaster Lauren Morley shows us how to streamline our wardrobes, say goodbye to clutter, an...

In Scandinavia, daily interaction with nature has helped turn many people into passionate advocates for the environment. But there are forces at play in American society that divide humans from nature. To name just a few? Schools cut recess to make more time for academic instruction, cities boast sprawl over walkability, and our societal reverence for cleanliness prevents many Americans from getting outside and getting a little dir...

What is the "holiday season", really?

Savvy marketers have inserted gingerbread lattes, blow up lawn decor, and lots of gifts as synonymous with December. But we aren't in some made-up season of buying; instead, we are approaching the Winter Solstice. And when nature is our guide, living seasonally is less about shopping hauls and more about existing in pace with the changing seasons.

In a world where we can buy just abou...

Denim jeans were once the preferred trouser for cowboys in the American west; some decades later, they became a symbol of rebellion for non-conformist teens. These days jeans are all about comfort and casual style, and the average American woman owns 7 pairs.

And yet blue jeans also happen to have one of fashion's biggest environmental footprints. On today's show Sarene Alsharif reveals the harsh realities associated with jeans prod...

We Americans may indeed be "rich" in material terms, but we suffer from what Mother Teresa calls a poverty of spirit. As we chased economic growth we closed ourselves off. We abandoned interconnectedness with other people, beings, and things. We also abandoned ourselves.

Many of the problems in our world today are visual manifestations of such abandonment. If the world isn't looking the way you want it to look right now, author Jef...

Many of us shy away from the word 'activist' because the term brings to mind a very specific type of person. But if you're regularly taking action to make the world a better place? Guess what my friend, you're already an activist (yes, really!).

What matters is not the size of the action, nor how vigorous the action is. It's all about consistency. On today's re-air author Omkari Williams helps us find the kind of social justice enga...

Capitalism has transformed the world, sure. But at what cost? (Immense environmental ones, of course.)

Americans, it's high-time we accept that the Golden Age of capitalism is long gone. On today's show: A frank discussion with sustainable finance visionary Kara Perez about insulating ourselves from late-stage capitalism's most damaging effects with individual and collective action.

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[6:00] Money is a tool for change...

Cyberpsychology is an emerging field that examines the ways in which technology influences human behavior. On today's show we discuss what happens to our purchasing habits when psychology, sociology, and 21st century tech collide.

Here's a preview:

[1:30] Who you think you are is influenced by others (hello, looking glass self!)

[8:30] It's human nature to compare and compete: Here's how and why we internalize social media messaging

[1...

Our culture is marked by both comparison and overconsumption, and we are constantly urged to hustle for something bigger, better, or more expensive because (supposedly) happiness lies within the next purchase or achievement. But what if the key to living a more satisfied life is to simply slow down and listen to your intuition?

On today's show: A conversation with best-selling author Stephanie O'Dea about breaking free from hustle c...