The Slow Home Podcast With Brooke Mcalary

In today's poggie, Ben sits down to chat with Dr Monty Badami, who has what can only be described as the most varied and fascinating resume ever!  Monty is an: Anthropolgist Civil Marriage Celebrant Justice of the Peace Jazz Singer English Teacher Tai Chi Instructor Youth Worker Bouncer… and is training to become an officer in the Australia Reserve! To say that Monty leads a busy life is an understatement. Ben first met Monty at Dr Arne Rubenstein's leadership camp back in July, and today they chat about the importance of community and what it means on a very fundamental level to be part of a community. Monty shares a beautiful story about his research travels in South India where he visited the Paniya, a marginalised indigenous ethnic group, who were slaves until quite recently and what that taught him about being accepted and valued in a community. In a very articulate way, Monty also challenges the concept of the ‘broken community’ in Western culture and what he believes we need t

In this second episode in the social media series, Brooke and Ben take on Instagram (Ben’s favourite social media channel!), and talk about how they make it work for them in their business as well as personally, while still living slowly . First up they talk about the expectation that when you have a business online, you’re always accessible. Being mindful of social media use and setting boundaries around the amount of time spent on social media can feel like the opposite of all the business advice you read and hear. And that’s OK! They discuss the evolving strategy for The Slow Home Podcast, with a dedicated Instagram on its way as their team grows. Brooke also shares some tips that she uses for managing her Instagram while still being present in everyday life. She rarely posts in real-time, and doesn’t post everyday (mainly because she thinks her life is too boring!). She also recommends that businesses prepare and schedule content where they can. As a self-employed person, it’

Last week Brooke and Ben attempted to answer a listener question about dealing with eco-anxiety. That is, the pressure or frustration we feel when even our best intentions to minimise waste and tread lightly on the earth are thwarted by an errant plastic bag or forgetting to ask for no straw. In today’s episode Brooke chats with Erin Rhoads, who is undoubtedly more qualified to answer this question, as a zero-waste advocate and creator of The Rogue Ginger - a website that has both the coolest name and the most accessible and practical tips on living a zero-waste (or low-waste) life. Brooke and Erin go back to the moment (the movie, actually) that changed Erin from a mindless consumer to conscious advocate and why her journey towards zero waste began with very small and gradual changes (and why she believes yours should too). Erin answers a few questions that Brooke is consistently asked when it comes to living plastic-free, specifically: How can we avoid plastic wrapping when buying cheese? Is there an

Quite often Brooke and Ben are asked about social media and slow living. That is, how have they managed to build a business that relies of social media to spread the word and build a community (namely Facebook, Twitter IG) without letting it encroach on their time.  So rather than try to cram a lot of information in to one hostful answer they've decided to spend the next few Mondays talking through the various social media platforms they use, and the strategies they employ for each of them.  Today it's Twitter, which has shifted a lot over the past couple of years. While both Brooke and Ben still use it personally and often rely on Twitter to keep on top of the news, it's become less central to their business.  Twitter itself is now a bit of a "let's shout our opinions at each other" space and that's made it a far less enjoyable way to communicate with people. Plus, the changing vibe of Twitter means a lot of slow living folk are no longer hanging out there anyway, so letting it dry up has been

It's hostful time again, and this week Brooke and Ben answer three very different listener questions and launch the big, exciting project they've been working on for the past few months. It's a good day all round! First up, Rachael asks about coping with eco-anxiety - a great term which encapsulates the frustration that results when we try to make positive changes to our home and the waste we create, only to be constantly reminded by how imperfect our efforts are. It's an obstacle that many people come across and Brooke and Ben give their insights in to how to let go of the perfectionism and embrace smaller, more consistent changes.  Brooke then puts on her ranty pants as she and Ben discuss the inanity of tit-for-tat holiday gift giving. You know the gifts for the extended family and friends, the office Christmas party, the neighbourhood get-together? Those ones really grind Brooke's gears and today she and Ben talk about how to best opt out of those gift giving arrangements if at all possible, and what

Happy 200th! The Slow Home Poggie is now 200 episodes old and in today’s show Brooke and Ben talk through some of the lessons they’ve learnt over the past two and a half years. Interestingly, the biggest lesson has directly impacted today’s episode, which was going to be a big, spectacular, complex show. Brooke and Ben wanted to do something significant to celebrate and thought that needed to be different to the normal poggie, but the past couple of weeks travelling and the previous two months of book promotional touring has taught them the importance of flexibility and fluidity in their expectations. And there-in lies the lesson. We need to let go of the self-imposed expectations and pressures. We need to simplify rather than complicate. And we need to understand that while there are things (many, many things) out of our control, there are also many other things we can control, to say no to, to let go of. So instead of featuring voicemails and call-ins and loads of interesting insights from

Last episode Brooke and Ben went deep in to the idea of mindfulness - what it is, what it's not and how we can create opportunity for living more mindfully without having to add ever more tasks to our endless to-do lists.  It makes perfect sense then, that in this episode Brooke sits down to chat with the utterly delightful Rachael Kable, creator and host of one of the most uplifting mindfulness podcasts in the world, The Mindful Kind.  Brooke and Rachael chat about the meaning of mindfulness and the genesis of Rachael's personal discover of mindfulness. We also talk about mindful living and teenagers, a topic I'm asked a lot about, and Rach has some excellent tips on how to bring mindfulness in to the lives of a stressed out, highly connected teenager.  They also look at the intersection of mindfulness and kindness, which is evident as soon as you begin to listen to the way Rachael encourages not only self-compassion but also the multitude of ways she personally serves others. It's a really in

Over the past few weeks Ben and Brooke have been looking at some of their favourite ideas from SLOW, and have left one of the biggest for last. Mindfulness. Interestingly, mindfulness is facing a bit of an over-saturation backlash these days, as Brooke discovered in the writing of SLOW. And while she was at first surprised that an idea as gentle as mindfulness could ever be sneered at, she also hadn’t realised just how over complicated the idea of mindfulness had become and how the meaning of mindfulness has been diluted and lost in a sea of products, apps and programs. Brooke, however, is a huge advocate for mindfulness, knowing that it has changed her life in a multitude of big and tiny ways. Not because of a specific app or a mindfulness colouring book, but because it has taught her to pay attention. So how do we bring mindfulness to our daily lives without over-complicating it? What does that look like? And how do we find the time for it when life is already full and busy? In this poggie Ben and Bro

Today’s episode is a little different. It’s hosted not by Brooke, and it’s not hosted by Ben either. It’s hosted by their mate Mike Campbell from Live Immediately, and in a strange turn of events, he actually interviews Brooke. Mike and Brooke have a fantastic conversation about life at the moment, and how Brooke is dealing with the wobbly balance between the busy-ness of launching a book and the importance of maintaining a slower pace of life over all. They also talk about the messy and imperfect process of learning to be emotionally available, why it was so stunningly uncomfortable to do so, and the impact Brooke has felt on her relationships, self-worth and the direction her life has taken since. They talk about softening in to the unknown, and the importance of allowing ourselves time to come to decisions. Mike also talks about some big possibilities he and Inga are weighing up at the moment as well as his (very sensible) approach to making those big decisions. That is, once a choi

Technology is an inevitable part of even the slowest of modern lives. This podcast, news sites, social media, blogs, forums, videos… even if you’re being intentional it can (and will) be overwhelming at times. This week Ben and Brooke talk about what we all stand to gain by disconnecting regularly and why it’s so important to reconnect with what matters, without the distracting blare of notifications and devices vying for our attention. The biggest question we face though, is how? How do we learn to untether ourselves from our devices when the expectation is that we are always on call? Brooke talks about the important first step of understanding what we stand to gain by having more in-person connection (things like time, humanity, action and peace) as well as the boundaries she and Ben have established at home. Some of the simple boundaries they talk about include: screen-free bedrooms no screens at the table pockets of screen-free time every day (the first and last hours of the day, for e

A few weeks ago Ben and Brooke flew over to LA to speak at a podcasting event. And while they figured they’d probably meet some interesting podcasty folks, they had no idea that in a random session they’d sit down next to a slow travelling couple from Canmore, who’d turn out to be today’s guests. Ryan and Amanda are the World Wanderers and they love slow travel. In today’s episode Ben chats with them about their travel philosophy, why they like to travel slowly and what drove them to give up their 9-5 jobs to live and work around the world. They discuss managing the expectations of family, friends and colleagues as they continue to travel, and how to convince people that full-time travel is a valid lifestyle rather than just a “bug”. They also chat about when to pull the pin on a trip and how to make the re-entry less difficult, as well as some of the lessons they’ve learnt about themselves (and each other) over the past few years. It’s a really fun, slow

Brooke first discovered the idea of deowning via Joshua Becker and initially found it quite challenging to understand. Surely isn't decluttering the same as deowning? Letting go of the excess is the same as no longer needing to own them, right? Not quite. Turns out it’s more about letting go of the need to own things at all. And tied up in that idea are things like ego and convenience, expectations and habits, boredom and discontent, advertising and status. In this episode Brooke and Ben talk about their own realisation that decluttering and deowning are related and yet quite different, as well as some of the ways they’re learning to deown even now.  This includes sharing, hiring and borrowing things, and thinking outside the box when it comes to needs versus convenience. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/194 for the full blog post and excerpt from SLOW. Enjoy! ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to

It’s been a couple of months since Brooke and Ben announced their plans to head off in to the wild and spend 2018 travelling, and quite a lot has happened since then. So they decided (somewhat foolishly, perhaps) to sit down, hit record, and just… talk. No notes. No plans. No idea. In a looser, more conversational episode, Brooke and Ben share a clear insight into life at the moment, including the preparations for their upcoming trip (or rather, their lack of preparations) as well as the first couple of weeks of book launch life. Brooke talks about the vulnerability hangover of the book’s release and the beautiful (and not quite as enthusiastic) feedback she’s been receiving over the past couple of weeks. They also talk about the importance of creating and honouring their personal boundaries at the moment, and Brooke’s ongoing project of learning to say no more often. Ben thinks this is the loosest poggie they’ve recorded in a while, and isn’t sure whether that&rsquo

To celebrate the release of SLOW in Australia and New Zealand this month, Brooke and Ben are spending the next few Mondays diving in to four central ideas in the book. It’s a way to share some of their favourite parts of SLOW with you, but also a way to say thank you for all your support over the past few years. In today’s episode Ben and Brooke talk about the importance of caring more and caring less. It can be really easy to become overwhelmed as we begin to walk the path of slowing down, with every blog, every podcast, every book telling us different things we need to focus on in order to do life right. And the hard part is that none of them is necessarily wrong. The key is to figure out what matters to you, and what doesn’t, then spend time learning how to care more about the former and less about the latter. Ben and Brooke talk about their personal take on this duality of caring, and what Brooke calls her Barometer of Caring. They also talk about how you can learn to care less about the

Today’s guest is Guido Verbist from The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre, and he is on a mission to make buying second hand normal. If you watched War on Waste, the recent series on the ABC, you may have met Guido already. He’s the Co-op Manager of The Bower, and he’s been doing a huge amount of work over the past few years to reframe the way we think about second hand stuff, as well as empowering each of us to take control of repairing the things we do own. Brooke sat down to chat with Guido in the workshop room of The Bower’s new Reuse and Repair Centre in Parramatta, and they got to talking about convenience, the stigma of buying pre-owned things, and the lost art of repair. The Bower aims to help minimise the amount of stuff going to landfill (and to date have stopped more than 1.3 million kilograms of stuff from ending up in the ground) and they do this by: reselling unwanted goods to people who need them fixing items and reselling them to people who need them testing and tagging un

This is the last one of the slow learning poggies, and this week it’s all about informal learning. If you’re someone who will spend a long time researching online or taking informal courses this is probably something you can identify a lot with. An informal learner sees learning everywhere. They like to do it anywhere and at anytime and they’re often heavily focused on using technology as a tool in order for that to happen. There usually isn’t any kind of qualification at the end of this kind of learning, and more often than not it leads the learner in to further research, deeper thinking, or a new direction. For example, when Brooke first started learning about simplifying life, this was her go-to learning mode. She read endless blogs, books and articles on minimalism, simplicity and the myriad ways to adopt it. She took courses, enrolled in membership programs and listened to podcasts. What she didn’t always do though, was act on that information. And, much like the overwhelm w

If you enjoy gardening (or perusing gardening photos on social media!!) permaculture is a term you may have heard bandied around. It’s most commonly attached the food production, and is a philosophy that results in better soil, better food production and higher yield. What is less often mentioned is that permaculture doesn’t stop at food production. In fact, much like slow living, the permaculture philosophy extends to community, connection, family, relationships, business and how we view the world at large. It can impact on where we live and how we live there, as well as the things we own, the money we earn and the way we interact with those around us. In today’s episode Brooke chats with Robyn Rosenfeldt, the founder and editor of Pip Magazine - a magazine dedicated to spreading the ideas of permaculture far and wide. Pip is released three times a year and is packed full of both inspirational articles that dive deep in to permaculture, as well as the super practical information that will h

This week Brooke and Ben continue their look into the different types of learning and how understanding personal learning styles will help us develop ways to adopt even more slow-ness and mindfulness to our lives. Today’s poggie is all about collaboration - probably the most well-known type of learning. Brooke identifies a lot with this kind of learning (though during today’s episode she does start to wonder whether it’s the most helpful for her!) and a lot of you will likely identify with this mode as well. Collaborative learning is all about collective intelligence. This podcast is a great example of collaborative learning, or learning from one another in order to benefit the whole. There are so many ways to tap in to collaborative learning when it comes to slow and simple living: Online forums, chat rooms Facebook groups Mentoring groups (like the one Ben is involved in at the moment) Live calls (like the monthly Patreon catch-ups) The key here though, is that if you identify with this

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 adults) when they’re forced outside. They also talk about the massive benefits of spending more time outdoors and why Katy is lobbying for outdoor exposure to be classified as a nutrient. Katy shares her family’s journey towards minimalism and why it began with letting go of their couch, and how the root of their simplification lies in a desire for more movement rather than less stuff. Enjoy! ==== If you're enjoying the show

Brooke and Ben have taken a bit of a departure for these current Monday episodes, as they’re talking about learning - a topic that sits more at the periphery of slow living rather than the centre of it. Last week they began by talking about how we learn and the impact it has on how well we make changes to our lives, and this week they begin looking at the specific modes of learning and why some are more beneficial than others when it comes to making big shifts in life, such as learning to slow down and simplify. This week is all about the personalised learner. Someone who is the champion of their own destiny. They are highly individualised in the way they like to learn, preferring one-on-one coaching or tailored courses set up to deliver learning expectations that are unique to their own needs and circumstances. They don’t often thrive in communal learning situations or online courses aimed at a broad range of people, instead preferring their learning to be, well, personalised. For example, Ben ha