The Slow Home Podcast With Brooke Mcalary

Hello, and welcome to the Slow Home Summer series! For 5 weeks over December and January we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2017, so we can walk the walk and slow down during the Christmas break. Also it turns out podcasts, just like fine wine, really do get better with age. Whether you missed them the first time around, or are having another listen, we hope you enjoy these poggies as much as we did! ==== Tim Silverwood is one of Brooke’s environmental role models. He maintains that he’s just an ordinary guy who somehow found himself at the forefront of environmental activism in Australia, but his passion and knowledge means that while he may be an ordinary guy, the impact he’s having on the growing environmental movement in Australia is anything but ordinary. As one of the founders of Take 3 for the Sea and a powerful voice in the movement away from single-use plastics, Tim is having a massive impact both in Australia and around the world. In today’s episode

Hello, and welcome to the Slow Home Summer series! For 5 weeks over December and January we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2017, so we can walk the walk and slow down during the Christmas break. Also it turns out podcasts, just like fine wine, really do get better with age. Whether you missed them the first time around, or are having another listen, we hope you enjoy these poggies as much as we did! ==== In today’s episode Brooke sits down to chat with Rebecca Sullivan - founder of the ‘granny skills’ movement, serial entrepreneur, food lover and sustainability advocate. In what can only be described as an utterly delightful conversation, Brooke and Rebecca talk about traditions, heritage and the importance of intergenerational connection, as well as how to make the perfect blush for less than $1. After coming to the realisation that she was completely removed from the process of creating and growing her own food (something to do with cheese and maggots in a small

Hello, and welcome to the Slow Home Summer series! For 5 weeks over December and January we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2017, so we can walk the walk and slow down during the Christmas break. Also it turns out podcasts, just like fine wine, really do get better with age. Whether you missed them the first time around, or are having another listen, we hope you enjoy these poggies as much as we did! ==== Have you ever had a conversation that changes your entire outlook on the world? One that shifts your worldview in monumental ways? That challenges and invites you to think about your choices in terms that are entirely different? In today's episode, Brooke chats with the utterly wonderful Annie Raser-Rowland, co-author of The Art of Frugal Hedonism and experiences one of those conversations. Annie and Brooke speak about the book and all that it covers: life and pleasure and scarcity and ego and many other things. Nailing the art of frugal hedonism is about considering things, but al

Hello, and welcome to the Slow Home Summer series! For 5 weeks over December and January we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2017, so we can walk the walk and slow down during the Christmas break. Also it turns out podcasts, just like fine wine, really do get better with age. Whether you missed them the first time around, or are having another listen, we hope you enjoy these poggies as much as we did! ==== In today’s poggie Brooke speaks with Katy Bowman, a biomechanist, founder of Nutritious Movement and all-round activity advocate, about the curse of convenience in modern life and what it is costing us in terms of movement, the food we eat, our health, our relationships and the larger structure of our society in general. They also talk about the infiltration of technology into the lives of both adults and kids, as well as some really practical ways of lessening the impact technology has on our days, and how to deal with the inevitable complaints from kids (and maybe some adul

It’s the last (new) episode of the year! Today’s hostful was going to be a “year-in-review” type affair, but Brooke is officially sick of talking about their plans, and so instead it’s a wrap up of Brooke and Ben’s favourite things from 2017!  There are mixed emotions in the McAlary house as they finish the school year and start to have that nostalgic appreciation for a place you know you’re going to be leaving soon. So they kick things off light, starting with their favourite TV shows, small details and movies of the year. Brooke and Ben end up sharing the same favourite movie as it was the only time they went to the movies this year - together, without the kids, in the middle of the day. “It felt strangely wrong but awesome at the same time”, said Ben of the experience. They then move onto their favourite new destinations, books (featuring a suspicious amount of Stephen King, no surprises there) and discovery of the year. Then it’s on to favou

Ben loves goals, Brooke doesn’t. Will they be able to find a way around this and continue in life, love and podcasts? You’ll have to listen to find out! Like florals to spring are goals and New Year’s resolutions to the end of the year. Today Brooke and Ben talk about their recent discovery that Ben is way more goal oriented than Brooke. Like a lot more. The nature of Ben’s work is project-based, with distinct start and end dates - he’s used to end-points and moving on to the next thing, both professionally and personally. Whether it’s learning a new song on the guitar or painting the front fence, Ben feels like his life is like this, and Brooke feels like hers is not. Brooke’s natural tendency is not to be goal-oriented at all. While she does need structure and to-do lists to tame her “panster” ways, goals actually make her feel claustrophobic. As soon as a goal is down on paper, no matter how SMART it is, she instantly wants to rebel against it, a habit

In today’s episode Brooke talks to the awesome Cait Flanders, mindful money extraordinaire, author and slow living advocate. The last time Cait was on the show was way back in episode 22 in 2015, so the two had a bit to catch up on! Excitingly, Cait’s first book The Year Of Less is about to be released (on 16th January 2018). Brooke has read the book and absolutely loved it. At first glance it might seem to be about a girl who stopped shopping for a year, but it’s actually about so much more. Cait did complete a year-long shopping ban from 2014-2015, and while the book is about that, the ban also provides a framework for her to talk about a lot of other things - drinking, relationships, money (of course) and more. The book is deeply personal and honest, so a lot of excavation was involved in the writing. Cait speaks about the writing process (including self-imposed isolation and extended Airbnb stays) as well as the feeling of finishing her biggest creative project to date. Brooke also asked

Slow by name, slow by nature is the topic for this Monday episode. After last week’s Facebook Live hostful and the end of the very first Live Life Simply online retreat, Brooke and Ben felt like they were hearing a lot of people come to the realisation that they’d been trying to rush their way to slow as quickly as possible, and that it wasn’t going to work. So they thought it was time to address this paradoxical approach to slowing down and remind us all (including themselves!) that the only way to do it really is slowly. Slow living has been packaged and sold as a solution to all of the problems we face in our modern world, but people are coming to understand and accept that living a slow life is a slow process, not a quick fix. If you’re living a life of “I’ll be happy when”s (I’ll be happy when I have less stuff, when I’ve paid off my credit card, when I’ve got a weekend with nothing on) it’s hard to appreciate and be present for those mome

Coming to you live from Facebook, this week’s hostful episode sees Brooke and Ben talk all things life updates, travel, 2018 plans and more. First big piece of news? They’ve sold their house! Exciting times, especially after a hectic few weeks that saw a couple of episodes missed. Brooke and Ben talk about this, and the fact that it really was a time of intense tilting (almost horizontally, according to Ben!), very much a “going fast to go slow” period. Brooke remembers when these times used to make her feel like a “slow imposter”, but now she’s able to recognise and become intentional when life gets hectic, and especially when it returns to a more sustainable pace (January and February are looking super slow for these guys). They come back to the idea of long term balance versus the illusive everyday balance, and working towards the big picture rather than stressing out everyday over the unattainable. Mindset also comes into it, and remembering that you’re choo

It’s the 27th of November, and if anyone listening is already on holidays, Brooke and Ben salute you. It’s one month til Christmas, and the craziness/silliness/festiveness has well and truly begun. This is the last episode in the Slow Holidays Monday series, and in the spirit of trying to find pockets of slow in these full and exciting weeks, today Brooke and Ben talk about the importance of holiday traditions. They both agree that traditions are really important, especially at this time of year. However they acknowledge that traditions change and evolve over time, and that there’s no need to stick to something that doesn’t serve you. Ben challenges Brooke about a couple of their holiday traditions (e.g. getting a real Christmas tree every year and decorating the house with what he terms “clutter”, much to Brooke’s objection) and asks if they still align to their values. Brooke maintains that she still values fun, and that the most important part of these traditions (

It’s been a few months since Brooke and Ben shared their 2018 plans with you and thought it was time for an update, because, well, things have changed. Head back to Episode 193 if you’re curious to hear all the previous details, but in a nutshell next year the plan is for Brooke and Ben to pack up their lives in the Blue Mountains and head off on an adventure. First stop will be Canada for a few months before heading to the United States for a book tour to celebrate the release of SLOW. After that, they really don’t know. (And that part, at least, hasn’t changed). Up until recently the plan was to rent out their house, work remotely and home school the kids while attempting to travel in a slow way, living like locals wherever possible. It was going to allow them to travel, experience the world and still have somewhere to come back to at the end of the trip. Now? Some of those plans have changed and some of them have become clearer, and in today’s episode Brooke and Ben give you a

Continuing the Slow Holidays theme, in today’s episode Brooke and Ben talk about valuing presence over presents as the year comes to an end. This chat follows on nicely from episode 210, which was all about clutter-free gifts, but goes a step further to really question why it is that we choose to show our love through the giving of stuff. Brooke and Ben talk about the emotional connection we feel to giving things, and the fact that it can sometimes come down to feelings of guilt or obligation. If you haven’t been there for a loved one throughout the year, you might feel the pressure to give them a whizz-bang gift come Christmas time to show them you care. But if you flip it and reverse it, and start with time, maybe there’s another way. For Brooke, slow living means more time for the people in her life, and investing in relationships. The reason we give gifts is to show love, but what other ways can you show love? Giving presence is giving time and energy and turning up for people throughout

In this episode Brooke sat down to chat with mindfulness expert and advocate for awareness of postnatal depression Chelsea Pottenger. Chelsea works with organisations to develop mindfulness and wellbeing programs for their staff, is studying to be a clinical psychologist, and works as an ambassador for R U OK? and the Gidget Foundation, an incredible organisation that offers a range of services for new mums who are experiencing (or think they might experience) postnatal depression. This week is actually Postnatal Depression Awareness Week, so it’s a perfect time for an honest, very open chat about this often-hidden disease. Chelsea and Brooke have had parallel experiences into new parenthood, both of them suffering from postnatal depression and then using it as a vehicle to improve their mental health across the board, as well as their lives and work. Soon after her daughter Clara was born Chelsea started to experience symptoms of postnatal depression (including anxiety, insomnia, hypersensitivity to so

This Slow Holidays episode is all about The Pre-Holiday Catch Up, and includes complimentary Christmas puns, now even earlier in the year! We all know the drill: “Oh, we must catch up before Christmas”, says your well-meaning long-lost friend/colleague/distant cousin/neighbour. Text messages are flying back and forth, and everyone you run into makes the same suggestion. Sometimes you even find the dreaded words coming out of your own mouth. Work winds down and our social lives ramp up at this time of year. But the reality is, we put so much pressure on ourselves to commit to all these social engagements in such a short window of time that it can make this period a lot more frantic than it needs to be. Of course there will be end-of-year concerts, assemblies and catch-ups that we have to (and want to) commit to, but now is a great time to start to alleviate the pressure on ourselves before the silly season starts. Brooke and Ben outline some great steps to take to start to make changes: Accept tha

They’re happy, they’re delighted, they’re back. This week Brooke chats with the founder of Folk Rebellion, AKA Chief Rebel Jess Davis. Jess is an unapologetic advocate for getting the hell off our devices and getting into life. This episode follows on nicely from the recent Monday series about social media and is a continuation of the theme of the relationship between technology and distraction. Folk Rebellion is a call to arms for all of us to get off our phones, look people in the eye when we talk to them and live an analog life; do things with our hands, go hiking, start making, listen to a whole album on vinyl. While working as a digital brand strategist, Jess started to realise the impact her tech dependent life was having on her brain. She found herself losing focus, struggling with memory and feeling disassociated, and went to see doctors about these issues. After a tech intervention by her husband on a holiday to Hawaii, she felt a shift. Eight days of no technology meant she started

It’s the most wonderful (exhausting?) time of the year… and it’s almost upon us. Considering we’re now well in to November, Ben and Brooke wanted to spend the next few weeks talking about how you may be able to reduce the stress, overwhelm, expense, clutter and expectations we all feel when the silly season arrives, and today they begin by going to the heart of the matter - gifts.   In this episode they offer you a few ways of changing your mindset when it comes to gifts and showing love, but also share a whole heap of practical and interesting gifts that won’t add to the endless clutter that comes with the seemingly endless gift giving.   Plus, they also talk about the benefit of experiences over things, homemade and consumable gifts and one of Brooke’s favourites - giving the gift of time and skills.   They also talk about the fact that, yes, Ben and Brooke do give Christmas gifts to their kids, and that rather than get lost in the Toy of the Year debacle,

Today's episode is such a treat. Courtney Carver, one the first ever guests on the show (Episode 10!) returns to chat with Brooke about her story of simplicity, and how the changes were born of an incredibly difficult time.  So often the idea of simplifying life is presented in a fairly dogmatic, unemotional way. Initially the focus is on stuff and the process of letting it go, then the focus moves to habit changes or health or food, and then it shifts to mental wellbeing or enviromental awareness. Very rarely does it begin with soul, and hardly ever is it shaped (in the beginning at least) by love.  But in this conversation and in Courtney's wonderful new book, Soulful Simplicity, love is everywhere. It's sprinkled throughout each story and lesson learnt, and it's love that Courtney returns to every time.  Soulful Simplicity is not your standard decluttering book. There is heart and soul and passion and vulnerability on the pages, and Brooke and Courtney go deep in to what it means to share fu

Over the past few weeks Ben and Brooke have been talking about social media and how they utilise it while still maintaining a slow(er) paced life.  They spoke about Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and finished last Monday's episode with a challenge - to delete social media apps of our phones for the next month.  That was supposed to be the end of the discussion, but then Brooke read an article on The Guardian that was so fascinating that they wanted to talk it over on today's show.  The article examines the 'attention economy' and the impact that social media platforms and, specifically the design of their apps, are having on the way we live, work, learn, vote, communicate and view ourselves and the world at large.  It is an article absolutely worth reading, and the link to it can be found in the show notes over at http://www.slowyourhome.com/208  Brooke and Ben also talk about some of the strategies and specific tools they use to combat the worst of these effects, and also what the r

Brooke's book tour has given her the opportunity to speak with hundreds of people over the past few months at libraries and bookstores around the state, and the experience has been brilliant. Not only has she been able to talk about the process of writing SLOW, but she's also been able to meet so many poggie listeners and get a real sense of the questions and struggles people face as they undertake their own slow journey.  So today's episode is a live recording from the recent book talk Brooke gave at the State Library of NSW, where Ben first interviewed Brooke about SLOW and then they both answered audience questions. As always, the questions were fantastic and covered a wide range of topics, including:  finding your purpose or Why encouraging friends and family to slow down with you how to keep extra-curricular activities to a manageable level  how to balance your needs with those of others in your home  It was a fun event to record and Brooke and Ben are excited to bring the tour to C

In this final episode of the social media series, Brooke and Ben talk about the behemoth that is Facebook. Ben’s only just returned to Facebook after many years away, and is keeping it at arm’s length, only using the platform to help Brooke run the pages for the podcast and the online retreat. Brooke, on the other hand, has been using Facebook for more than 10 years and has a distinct love/hate relationship with it. It allows her to build a wonderful community of podcast listeners, but the immersive, all-consuming nature of Facebook means she barely uses it personally. Today she and Ben talk through some of the strategies they’ve employed over the past year or so, to try and maintain a balanced approach to Facebook. Brooke talks about the decision she made a few years ago to only accept friend requests from people she knows in person, and that, paired with her decision to keep their kids and personal lives off Facebook means that it’s largely not a privacy issue any more. It’s ju