The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

It might have been the after effects of a tumultuous, emotional week or possibly the fact that they had to record this episode twice (no word on whose fault that is, Brooke) but this hostful gets a little emotional.  As usual, Brooke and Ben answer some listener questions about various elements of slow living, but considering the events of the past week and the subsequent media frenzy, t...

This is the second full week of the November Slow Home Experiment of daily play, and in today’s episode Ben and Brooke talk about their progress. Brooke’s been feeling a little insecure in her attempts this week as she’s not naturally as playful as Ben and has been wondering if she’s doing it ‘right’. Her and Ben talk about the things they have been doing, inclu...

In another deep-dive episode, Brooke chats with Mel Tually, the co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution in Australia and NZ.  Fashion Revolution was started in response to the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh, where more than 1,100 garment workers perished. The tragedy shone a bright light on the garment industry and the substandard conditions many of them are fo...

A new month rings in a new Slow Home Experiment, and after the fairly heavy workload of last month’s decluttering experiment, in November Brooke and Ben have decided to go for something more playful. In fact, as they explained in last week’s episode, they’re experimenting with daily play! (Or random silliness, playfulness, wonder, non-task-oriented things, call it what you will.)...

In today’s episode Brooke chats with Jaimee Edwards, who, as a professional fermenter, has one of the coolest job titles ever. Fermenting is having quite the resurgence in popular culture now - think kombucha, miso, kim-chi and sauerkraut - but in today’s chat Jaimee and Brooke talk about food trends and why some disappear while others grow and shift, becoming movements that appeal to...

Today marks the final day of the October Slow Home Experiment of daily decluttering, and the big question is - how did they go after last week? Brooke and Ben talk about their final efforts, what clutter they let go of and whether they made the #minsgame total of 497 items each.  They also talk about the upcoming November experiment of playfulness, and why they decided to go with something th...

This week's episode is such a treat, as 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 of choice is a game-changer in how we choose to spend our days, and the hugely traumatic event that led Jonathan to quest...

This month’s Slow Home Experiment is proving to be quite the emotional roller coaster for Ben and Brooke! After a strong start and a shaky Week 2, last week felt good, while this past week has been a real stretch. Brooke tries to talk Ben down from his decluttering-related tantrum while remaining stoically upbeat, but even she has to admit this week has been tough. It’s also important...

Brooke chats with the wonderful Kyrstie Barcak - a passionate gardener and educator - about the slow living benefits of growing even one edible plant, and why her personal goal is to see every home growing one thing they can incorporate in to their cooking. Kyrstie and Brooke talk about information overwhelm, garden comparisons, time and the steep learning curve of growing your own food, and why s...

In last week’s episode Ben and Brooke spoke about how tough they’d been finding this month’s decluttering experiment, and how they’d gone from confident to concerned in the space of a few days. This week sees them back in confident mode after a significant shift in their attitude towards their stuff. Brooke realised she’d been making a lot of assumptions about the thi...

In last week’s hostful, 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 feedback was one about zombies. As big fans of The Walking Dead and other zombie/apocalyptic TV and movies, Brooke and Ben had a lot of fun br...

Brooke was feeling quite optimistic at the beginning of this month’s decluttering experiment, certain she could find 500 items to let go of between the beginning and end of October… Turns out she might have been a tad over-confident. Ben and Brooke talk through the past week and their efforts in continuing the Slow Home Experiment, and while so far so good, they’re both concerne...

Today is another hostful episode and Brooke and Ben try their best to answer some cracking good questions. Including: I'm a 20 year old university student and a big advocate of slow living, but I feel like a lot of the content out there is targeted towards a different age group. What advice would you give to your 20 year old selves regarding slow living and what would you have done differently at...

It's the beginning of a new month, which means the start of a new Slow Home Experiment. In today's episode Brooke and Ben talk about their decluttering experiment, why they wanted to go back to their simple living roots, and the rules of the #minsgame they're following this month, as a motivator to let go of some of the clutter that's crept in over the past year. Essentially though, they're l...

Last week you heard the first part of Brooke’s chat with Carolyn Tate - founder of The Slow School of Business and founding member of Conscious Capitalism Australia - and today she returns for Part 2! In this episode they go deep into the issue of hyper-consumerism and whether Carolyn feels a sense of ownership of it - considering her background as a marketer. This leads into a really intere...

“You will never regret being kind.” Turns out, not only is this an internet-friendly quote thrown around online a great deal, but it’s also actually true! This month’s random acts of kindness experiment has been both eye and heart-opening for Brooke and Ben, and this week they talk through some of their favourite moments. They also talk about the vulnerability of kindness,...

Today Brooke chats with Carolyn Tate, co-founder of The Slow School of Business and Conscious Capitalism Australia. She’s an ex-marketing executive who ‘flicked on the slow switch’ in 2010, after a massive realisation about the life she’d been living. Brooke and Carolyn talk a lot about her personal journey, what changes she’s made over the past 6 years, what she...

More than halfway through this month’s Slow Home Experiment and Brooke is discovering that the impact a random act of kindness can have stretches further than only the receiver, and even beyond the giver, to sometimes impact the people who simply witness it. And while it wasn’t necessarily the intention when they began, her and Ben have realised that putting kindness into the world in...

It’s time for another listener chat on the pogpast, and Brooke’s guest Joshua is a warm and generous delight of a person whose openness left both Brooke and Ben feeling incredibly inspired.  When she first heard his story in the Straight and Curly Facebook group a few weeks ago, Brooke knew she needed to talk to Joshua about his journey back from overwhelm, and how he and his fami...

Brooke and Ben knew that the Random Acts of Kindness experiment would shift the way they viewed the world, but what they didn’t expect was the huge levels of support from all of you! Today they talk about why it’s struck such a chord with people, as well as the different ways they’ve both tried to spread kindness over the past week. This experiment isn’t about big, audaciou...

When they started The Slow Home Podcast 18 months ago, Brooke and Ben had no idea it would work out the way it has. More than 1.2 million downloads, named one of the best shows of 2015 by iTunes, and an amazing community of like-minded people has them routinely shaking their heads in wonderment. Today marks the 100th episode of the poggie and it’s a fun one. Brooke opened up an AMA (ask...

This month’s Slow Home Experiment is only a few days old and Brooke and Ben are super excited to see how many people have decided to join in on the daily kindness experiment. In today’s episode they talk about how they’re feeling a few days in to this experiment, what’s been challenging, what’s been surprising, and what small acts of kindness they’ve undertaken...

As Brooke and Ben prepare for the 100th pogpast episode next week, they thought it would be fun to take a look back at the very beginning. Not for the awkwardness (although it IS awkward) and not for the laughs (although it IS cringeingly funny) but so you can see how much things have changed over the past 18 months. One of the things Brooke is most passionate about i...

The end of the month is near which means it’s time to wrap up the August Slow Home Experiment and introduce a new one for September. This month’s screen-free bedroom experiment has been one of the simplest and most effective changes Brooke and Ben have made all year, and in today’s episode they talk about its challenges and benefits, as well as some of the reasons people didn&rsq...

In today’s episode Brooke chats with the utterly lovely Margy Heuschele - a teacher-librarian from Toowoomba in Queensland - who has gradually shifted her life from one of stress and overwhelm and perfectionism and control, to one of slowness, contentment, simplicity and joy in the tiny moments. There are so many things to love in this episode (not least Margy’s amazing book recommenda...