The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

In today’s episode Brooke and Ben are wrapping up the simple rituals series with a poggie all about gratitude. Brooke believes that gratitude gets a bit of a bad wrap, because we see it as an attempt to Pollyanna ourselves out of challenging situations, or to avoid dealing with negative feelings. But she’s a convert to the power of gratitude, and today she and Ben talk about how making...

It’s Hostful time! And, like every single month, in today’s episode Ben and Brooke answer some super insightful listener questions: What impact did slow living have on your finances? How do you judge if something is necessary and "valuable" enough to warrant purchase? As your items start to get a bit tatty, when do you replace them? Or do you keep repairing or mending instead? How does...

In today's episode, Brooke and Ben talk through the 'three things' idea. That is, limiting our to-do lists to three main tasks every day, rather than the dozens of items we often put on our lists, despite knowing we will not be able to get them done.  Brooke used to be a big list maker, overwhelming herself with far too many tasks every day, leaving her feeling defeated before beginning, and...

A few years ago Jessica Murnane was on the verge of major surgery, a last resort to help manage her endometriosis. After a friend recommended her trying a plant-based diet to alleviate some of the pain, Jessica figured she had nothing to lose. Weeks later she was already feeling better than she’d felt for years and the surgery was put on the back burner. Over the past few years Jessica has t...

You know those days where there are too many thoughts, too many ideas and too many tasks zooming around the confines of your brain, all wanting your attention but never sticking around for long enough to be acted upon? Those days where the competing thoughts, ideas, projects, problems, grocery items, packing lists never stop rolling around your head, leaving you tired and prone to procrastination?...

In May 2016 Ben and Brooke completed a month-long daily meditation experiment, which proved to be one of the most positive changes Brooke made last year. She’s still an (almost) daily meditator and will talk to anyone and everyone about the massive benefits to be gained from making it a regular part of their day. But she finds there is a handful of common reasons why people don’t want...

In today’s episode Ben and Brooke look at a very simple daily ritual that can help you break the habit of constant connection. Learning to unplug regularly not only breaks the social media/procrastination loop, but it also turns our attention elsewhere - to the people nearby, the conversations, the trees, the light, the breeze, the feelings, the sensations. It can also help us sleep more sou...

Since launching the podcast almost two years ago the hostful Q&As have grown to be one of the most popular each month. Not only does it give you the chance to ask us questions about slowing down, or getting us to dig deeper in to a topic we’ve covered before, but it also gives Brooke and Ben a chance to explore ideas or perspectives they’ve not considered before. Today is the first...

Welcome to the first Monday show of the year! As Brooke and Ben mentioned last week, these Monday episodes are going to be a little different in 2017. Instead of running one slow living experiment each month, they will be introducing one simple, easy, accessible slow living idea every week. The hope is that it will either give you something to do or something to think about in the days after. In t...

We’re baaa-aaaack! After taking some much-needed time off to disconnect/reconnect after a busy 2016 though, Brooke and Ben are back in the pogpasting chair and ready for a cracking 2017. In the first new poggie of the year, they talk about their recent trip to Japan and the unexpected lessons they received in the art of slow living. In this chatty, light-hearted poggie Brooke and Ben talk ab...

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THE PAST TWO YEARS. James Wallman is an ex-adman and trend forecaster - which doesn’t necessarily sound like Brooke’s typical guest - but when you learn he is also the author of Stuffocation and the person who coined the phrase ‘experien...

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THE PAST TWO YEARS. In this super enlightening episode, Brooke chats with Gretchen Rubin, the New York Times best-selling author of Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. This show starts out as any other - a regular conversat...

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF 2016. Brooke is a long-time reader of Paul Jarvis’ Sunday Dispatches and long-time listener of his Invisible Office Hours podcast, so she was super delighted to sit and chat with him about simplicity, writing our wills, Netflix and priorities. They...

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF 2016. In Episode 108 Brooke and Ben answered some excellent listener questions about birthday presents, advice for their 20-year-old selves, and how they manage to balance home duties while also working from home. But the question that got the most f...

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF 2016. In today's episode, Brooke sits down with Jonathan Fields - founder and host of The Good Life Project, author, father, life-long learner and all-round wonderful human. Brooke and Jonathan talk about what it means to live a good life, why the power o...

For years people would ask Brooke what her biggest decluttering regret was and she never had a good answer because she genuinely couldn’t think of anything that she missed. That was, until the day she realised her beloved Hobbit poem (a reimagining of Tolkien’s epic tale that Brooke wrote as an 11-year-old and was ridiculously, if somewhat unfoundedly proud of) had been accidentally de...

In today’s poggie, a special ‘year in review’ kind of hostful, Brooke and Ben talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of 2016. They look at the Slow Home Experiments - which ones have stuck, which ones have fallen by the wayside - and which ones they’ve learnt the most from. They also talk more about the year that was, their personal highlights, the biggest challenges the...

This is the final Slow Home Experiment episode of 2016 (next Monday is Boxing Day and there’s something a little special planned for you!) and Ben and Brooke take the opportunity to wrap up their Slow December experiment. They’ve taken December super easy by adding little pockets of peace and slow to their days and in today’s episode they talk about the different things they&rsqu...

In today’s episode - the last non-hostful conversation of the year - Brooke has the pleasure of chatting with Caro Ryan, whose story is an amazing reminder that there is always choice and always another way, we just need to be ready to see it. Having recently moved from a hectic, fast-paced life in Sydney to a much more intentionally paced life in the Blue Mountains, Caro talks about the cat...

After the slightly hectic end to November, Ben and Brooke decided to make their final Slow Home Experiment of the year a simple one - to make time for slow every day. They probably took the theme a litte too far last week when they completely forgot to record a Monday episode, but the experiment remains nonetheless! Today they look at the different ways they've uncovered pockets of slow (most) day...

Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the…month. It’s hostful pogpast time, and as is now customary, Brooke and Ben answer some incredibly insightful and wide-ranging listener questions in today’s hostful, that cover questions like: How do you view the relationship between creativity and stuff? That is, how does simplifying impact a creative person’s ability or desire...

One of the things you requested from our recent listener survey was that Ben take the reigns and do more poggies featuring conversations with other men.  The good news is, you’ve spoken and we’ve listened!  Following his chat with Dr Arne Rubinstein earlier in the year, this week Ben sits down to have a chat with freelance content creator, ocean swimmer, meditator, Dad, Shake...

This has been an unexpectedly challenging experiment for Brooke, and while she and Ben originally chose the theme of ‘play’ as a respite from the previous month’s decluttering work, this one has proven to be much more taxing in ways they hadn’t expected. Brooke, admittedly, has been feeling the pinch of some big deadlines, and getting sick mid-month certainly didn’t h...

Bele Masterman returns for her fourth appearance on the poggie, and this week she and Brooke sit down face-to-face and talk about the realities a very big tree-change.  Having recently moved from a large family home in the inner-city to a tiny cabin on riverfront acreage, Bele talks about the process of moving, the challenges and pushback she's had to overcome, and the surprising benefit...

Three weeks in to this month's play-centred Slow Home Experiment, and yet again, Brooke and Ben get a little emotional. Brooke has had a tough couple of weeks and talks a little about the reasons she's feeling burnt out, as well as the realisations she's arrived at during this month's experiment. Ironically, it's turned out to be one of the most challenging they've ever done, when it was initially...