The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

As we begin to see some countries relax their pandemic restrictions and allow the general public back into society at varying levels, naturally our attention turns to what that new version of daily life might look like. In this host-only chat, Ben and Brooke discuss what they hope the 'new normal' might entail, whether we should simply be re-entering or re-booting society, and what each of us can...

Lots of airtime has been given to the stress that parents and carers of young families are currently under, juggling working from home or job loss with remote schooling and caring for kids too young to understand why everything is different. Amongst all of that there has been little time given to the question of how people in single-person households are faring, so in today's episode Brooke sits d...

Undoubtedly we are living in times of heightened stress. Uncertainty, fear, anxiety, living in close quarters, loneliness - they're all stressful experiences and in some way or another, we're all grappling with them as we live through the Covid-19 pandemic.  Today's guest, Ellen Carr, is a holistic coach and yoga teacher who believes that Ayurveda - the ancient sister science of yoga - offers...

Remote learning is one of the biggest changes many of us are facing as lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders continue, and Brooke and Ben know they're not alone in finding the transition challenging. Today’s guest Sarah is a high-school science teacher from Sydney who has some incredibly helpful, practical tips on how we can make this learning-from-home experience a little less stressful for...

This week, Brooke is joined by return guest and permaculture expert, Robyn Rosenfeldt, for a fantastic conversation centred on the vital role of community in times of crisis.  Robyn talks about the devastation of the summer bushfires and how that crisis highlighted the issue of food security in her community, before sharing the similar impact the Covid-19 crisis is now having on local superma...

Season 6 coming in hot!  After some feedback and lots of questions about slow living in the time of Covid-19, Brooke and Ben decided to bring forward the new season. There are so many ways  slow living might be able to help as we all adjust to the weirdness of isolation, but even more importantly as we all start to think about what we'd like our 'new normal' to look like on the other sid...

And just like that, the end of Season 5 is upon us.  In today's hostful episode, Brooke and Ben spend some time answering the most common pandemic-related questions as asked by you, as well as tackling some lighter topics to try and provide some much-needed balance to not only this episode but also their own mindset.  It's undoubtedly been an incredibly difficult few weeks for everyone,...

Season 5 has thus far been a pandemic-free zone (mostly because all episodes previous to this one were recorded before the world turned topsy-turvy) but that changes today.  After having a couple of weeks to process some of the changes in their own lives and the world at large, Brooke and Ben chat about where they're at right now and the huge shift in pace that's happened. Ben shares the impa...

In another 'pre-pandemic’ yet very timely episode, Brooke and Ben dig deep in to ’self-care’ and all it represents, as well as how they apply it in their own lives.  Slow living and self-care have kind of become synonymous in the mainstream, featuring a lot on Instagram and in books and blogs and magazines. There is undoubtedly a lot of crossover between the two, but there i...

Is slow living anti-tech? In today's episode Brooke and Ben dig deep in to their relationship with technology, which was one of the most requested topics for this season of the podcast. Tech strategies and boundaries are something Brooke and Ben have spoken about before but as their work has shifted and their kids have grown, their approach has changed over the past couple of years. In this show t...

In this week's episode Ben and Brooke get talking about community. The sense of place or home or belonging that strikes us when we truly feel seen.  In part this episode was prompted by their own experience of searching for and finding community, and in part due to the many questions they've received about how and why they settled in their new community after travelling for 18 months. Brooke...

In what feels like a very natural progression from last week’s episode on Stuff, this week Ben and Brooke talk about their efforts to reduce waste in their home. From food, to clothes, to cleaning Ben and Brooke talk about where they started out on their waste reduction journey and where they find themselves now. This week they talk through:  Where the shift from simple living and declu...

Since returning to Australia and moving in to a new home, Brooke and Ben have found that there's a lot of curiosity about their stuff. Have they bought a whole heap of it? Are they still living out of suitcases? Are they still minimalists?  So in this episode they decide to dive deep in to their current relationship with stuff and how they view the accumulation or letting go of it through a s...

Welcome back to another season of the Slow Home podcast!  Season 5 of the poggie has a new format, with each episode comprising of two parts. In the first part Ben and Brooke will be diving deep into an area of slow living that listeners want to know more about (think topics like self-care, waste reduction, tech and their relationship to stuff). The second part of the episode will be a dedica...

Brooke and Ben are busily preparing for the Season 5 launch of the podcast (next Thursday!) and sat down earlier this week to record a quick catch-up episode, to share where they're at after a strange and awful summer. They chat about the bushfires, the amazing efforts of the Slow Home community in helping support a local wildlife rescue organisation and how they're moving forward. They also share...

Welcome to the fifth and final episode of our Summer Series (Winter Warmies!) Throughout all of January, we’ll be sharing some of your favourite episodes from 2019, to keep you company on the beach (or slopes!) Often on the podcast we dance around the topic of technology - usually viewing it as something that gets in the way of our efforts to slow down and live a more mindful, sustainable li...

Welcome to the third episode of our Summer Series (Winter Warmies!) Throughout all of January, we’ll be sharing some of your favourite episodes from 2019, to keep you company on the beach (or slopes!) In this episode Brooke asks her guest, Kali Gray, if there's a link between the rise in consumerism, the endless advertising messages that assault us thousands of times a day and the increase i...

Welcome to the third episode of our Summer Series (Winter Warmies!) Throughout all of January, we’ll be sharing some of your favourite episodes from 2019, to keep you company on the beach (or the slopes!) Platonic sparks fly in today’s episode, when Brooke sits down with Meg Berryman of Beyond Being Well. Meg is a women’s coach, mum, yoga teacher, empowerment educator and fabulou...

Welcome to the second episode of our Summer Series, where throughout all of January, we’ll be sharing some of your favourite episodes from 2019, to keep you company on the beach (or slopes!) As we head not only in to a new year but also a new decade many of us are looking to make positive changes to the way we live by reducing plastic and reducing waste. Today's episode not only gives you so...

Welcome to the first episode of our Summer Series (Winter Warmies!) Throughout all of January, we’ll be sharing some of your favourite episodes from 2019, to keep you company on the beach (or the slopes!) In this episode Brooke sits down with goals coach, co-founder of Rock Your Bliss and incredible public speaker/human Jacki Carr. Brooke did some work with Jacki in 2018 before embarking on...

And just like that, we arrive at the final episode of 2019. It’s been quite the ride folks, and in the last hostful of the year, Brooke and Ben look back over what has undoubtedly been a massively transformative year for them both. They talk about the transition from travelling to putting down roots, end of year burnout and their thoughts on the future as a new year (and a new decade) peeks...

Can you live slow if you’re someone who enjoys being busy? What if you’re a Type A, go-getter? Or someone who prides themselves on setting goals and kicking them every single time? In today’s episode (the second-last of the season!) Brooke speaks with Elisa, who has spent the past year shedding many layers of her life and self-beliefs, but now finds herself stuck on how to distil...

If you’ve ever tried to reduce the amount of plastic or food waste going in to your bin, if you’ve ever tried to cut back on packaging or unnecessary products in your shopping trolley, or if you’ve ever tried your hand at Plastic Free July and found yourself overwhelmed and frustrated at the lack of realistic low-waste options in your home town – this episode is for you. To...

This week we meet another wonderful listener, Sara, who has found herself in a place many of us can relate to: she's gradually reduced the commitments in her life in order to do more of what lights her up but has found other requests and demands on her sneaking in and is finding it difficult to create boundaries and say no. Sara has been transitioning to retirement over the past couple of years bu...

Slow living has positive applications for everyone – no matter their age, life circumstance or work situation. All too often however, it’s presented from the perspective of people in their thirties and forties who are well-established in their careers, relationships, family and home situations, who are making changes in order to slow down (usually after burning out or reaching a crisis...