The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

Whether it’s food, beauty products, or the state of our home, describing something as ‘clean’ also implies there is ‘dirty’, an idea that carries a lot of guilt and shame. In this week’s episode, Brooke and Ben dig into a new duality by looking at food, home, green-cleaning and more. Ben talks about the brosphere — specifically the rise of ‘clean eat...

Prompted by a listener question, this week’s episode is about Brooke and Ben’s relationship with alcohol and how it’s changed over the past five years. Brooke shares why she never really wanted to use the word ‘sober’ to describe herself and how healing helped her let go of rigid ideas on drinking vs not drinking. Ben discusses the role drinking culture has had on his...

In today’s episode, Brooke and Ben dive into different ways of thinking — open and closed, fixed and fluid and whatever exists in between. They discuss their different approaches to rule-following, how they deal with opinion chameleons and why finding common ground is one of the most effective ways to have a constructive conversation. Ben also explains why he loves playing the devil&rs...

When it comes to age and youth, body image takes a beating at both ends. Can we find a gentler way through the years? In today’s show, Brooke and Ben discuss the duality of wrinkles & pimples — i.e. the visible elements of youth and aging — and how they are literally in the middle of it right now, with both wrinkles and pimples (and grey hair and stiff backs in the morning)....

fast & slow | Is there a middle ground between the two? Or are we destined to wrestle our inner-tortoise and inner-hare forever? In the first episode of the tortoise & the hare, Brooke and Ben revisit slow living one last time (no, really!) to see where they exist on the spectrum of speed today and why they decided to keep the slow living reference in the new show’s name. Initially,...

Listen to the tortoise & the hare preview now. The first episode drops 20th August 2026! Fast and slow. Young and old. Hard and soft. Open and closed. Real and fake. Hide and seek. Pleasure and pain… Life is full of dualities and extremes and pick-a-sides. But most of our days are spent in the messy middle.  the tortoise & the hare is a weekly show from Brooke and Ben McAlary,...

Instead of the usual conversation between Brooke and Ben, today's episode is simply a reading of the final ever edition of The Tortoise newsletter.  Take a listen, and please know that it has been an absolute pleasure to be heard by you over the years.  https://brookemcalary.substack.com/p/sometimes-life-surprises-us   Much love and thanks for listening, Brooke and Ben xx Join The Tortoise Communi...

A more accurate title for this episode might have been: The Myth of Work-Life Balance, because both Ben and Brooke think it’s fundamentally BS, but that was too long a title, so Balance it is. In this episode, they look at the idea of balance through a post-lockdown, new-workplace lens, in an effort to make sense of why it feels harder to achieve now, and what we might be able to do to create it....

In this month's episode, Brooke and Ben dig into the topic of body image. How do we see ourselves in the world? How does that inform our choices and beliefs? What inputs have the most impact on our self-image?  What began as a conversation about "hot rodent men" became an exploration of how we take up space in the world, the comments, trends, beliefs and expectations we internalise, how those thin...

Pleasure. Just the word brings a little shiver to the spine, doesn't it? Defined as “ a feeling or experience that involves enjoyment or satisfaction,” in today’s episode, Brooke and Ben dig a little deeper into what pleasure is in real terms, what it means to them personally and why expanding our individual definitions might be the key to unlocking a whole new way of experiencing life. For Brooke...

If you spend any time on TikTok, you've probably seen the #softlife trend pop up over the past couple of years. Brooke and Ben aren't on TikTok, so are late to the party as usual, but wanted to dive into the sister movement of slow living anyway. In today's episode, they look at what soft living is, where it began, how it relates to slow living, and why it's following a similar trajectory as that...

You know the feeling. Life is motoring on in much the way you expected it to, you’ve got plans, you’ve got goals and then — BAM — a curveball gets whacked your way. Suddenly the plans, the goals, the vague idea of what we thought life would look like are shaken.  In this month's episode of The Tortoise, Brooke and Ben are talking curveballs, trying to answer the question of how to navigate the une...

Today’s episode is all about joyful living. What it is, what it isn’t , how to get more of it and how it differs from happiness. Stemming from Brooke's intention to try and find more joy in 2024, this conversation is delightfully and unexpectedly wide-ranging, and in it Ben and Brooke explore: the definition of joy, and why it means so many different things to so many different people why much of...

Welcome to Episode 10 of The Tortoise - the p(l)odcast all about the possibilities of slow. In today's show — the final one for 2023 — Brooke and Ben look back over the year that was and walk through their personal Top Ten list. That is, their favourite: TV show Small detail Movie New destination Book (you know I failed to limit this one) Discovery Album New listening (podcast or otherwise) Meal E...

This month's episode digs into the topic of addiction (and more broadly, obsessive behaviour) for things like tech-use, busyness, food and consumption. If you need help with addiction or mental health, there's a list of resources over at The Tortoise .  In today's show, Ben shares his experience with tech over-use and the links he sees between it and the hustle-grind-capitalism-productivity cultur...

Today Brooke and Ben are talking about hard times. Or more specifically, how to deal with the emotional heaviness that comes from living through really difficult things. Digging into this feeling of heaviness, they discuss how they're trying to acknowledge and accept the challenges, as well as the tools they use to help them move forward. They also talk about practical ways to protect ourselves wh...

In this month's episode, Brooke and Ben dig into the topic of seasonal living. Not only the calendar kind of seasonal living, but also the other seasons that exist in life too. The ones that don’t change every three months. The internal seasons, the life seasons, the in-built cycles and rhythms that — whether we realise it or not — have a profound impact on how we live, how we grow, how we show up...

For a term we throw around a lot, self-care is not all that well defined. It’s attached loosely to the ideas of wellness, self-help, relaxation and mindfulness, and so often comes to us packaged, commoditised and ready to be bought/sold. Ben and Brooke start today’s episode by trying to define self-care, and eventually land on one that is as broad and inclusive as possible: Self-care can be anythi...

For our kids (and adults as well), there is barely a part of life that isn't somehow connected to smartphones, social media or screens, and they're starting to feel the effects of being constantly connected.  In today's episode, Ben and Brooke talk about their experience raising two high school-ages kids (12 and 14) and the constant negotiations around tech boundaries. They also talk about the bro...

It's a phrase we hear a lot about — the mental load — but what does it actually mean? And how can we navigate life while carrying it?  Brooke and Ben discuss their differing definitions of mental load and how it plays out for them personally. They also dig into the broader conversation (Is a heavier mental load a gender issue or one of personality? Is it about convenience? Does it differ across ge...

If you're feeling squashed between competing needs - raising kids and caring for parents while trying to work/live/look after yourself, for example - then this episode is for you.  Brooke and Ben talk about what it means to be a part of the 'sandwich generation', and why, for them, it represents a transition rather than a challenge to be overcome. They discuss what being sandwiched could look like...

What exactly is "wellness" anyway? We hear it tossed about as an umbrella term covering health and fitness and diet and mental well-being and any number of topics, but what does it mean to try and achieve wellness? And what does any of it have to do with slow living? In today's episode, Brooke and Ben dig into wellness and social media - the good, the bad, the quackery, the evidence-based and the...

Welcome to the first episode of The Tortoise - a podcast that digs deep into the power of slow.  Brooke and Ben are back with the first full episode of The Tortoise, and it's a good'un. They start by talking about what you can expect from the ploddie, and then dig in to today's juicy topic: is a four-day work week feasible?  This is a hot-button issue right now, as many companies around the world...

We're so excited to introduce you to The Tortoise - a podcast (plodcast!) that digs deep into the power of slow.  Ben and Brooke are back with a new iteration of their slow living conversations, and the first full episode will be released very shortly. Until then, take a few minutes to get reacquainted, learn why The Slow Home Podcast is no more (RIP) and hear a little about what's in store for Th...

After 8 years and 400 odd episodes Brooke and Ben discuss closing the door on the Slow Home Podcast and announce an exciting new iteration...The Tortoise Links Subscribe to The Tortoise for weekly slow-living blog posts and newsletters Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.