The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

It’s been a few months since Brooke and Ben shared their 2018 plans with you and thought it was time for an update, because, well, things have changed . Head back to Episode 193 if you’re curious to hear all the previous details, but in a nutshell next year the plan is for Brooke and Ben to pack up their lives in the Blue Mountains and head off on an adventure. First stop will be Canad...

Continuing the Slow Holidays theme, in today’s episode Brooke and Ben talk about valuing presence over presents as the year comes to an end. This chat follows on nicely from episode 210, which was all about clutter-free gifts, but goes a step further to really question why it is that we choose to show our love through the giving of stuff. Brooke and Ben talk about the emotional connection we...

In this episode Brooke sat down to chat with mindfulness expert and advocate for awareness of postnatal depression Chelsea Pottenger. Chelsea works with organisations to develop mindfulness and wellbeing programs for their staff, is studying to be a clinical psychologist, and works as an ambassador for R U OK? and the Gidget Foundation, an incredible organisation that offers a range of services fo...

This Slow Holidays episode is all about The Pre-Holiday Catch Up, and includes complimentary Christmas puns, now even earlier in the year! We all know the drill: “Oh, we must catch up before Christmas”, says your well-meaning long-lost friend/colleague/distant cousin/neighbour. Text messages are flying back and forth, and everyone you run into makes the same suggestion. Sometimes you e...

They’re happy, they’re delighted, they’re back. This week Brooke chats with the founder of Folk Rebellion, AKA Chief Rebel Jess Davis. Jess is an unapologetic advocate for getting the hell off our devices and getting into life. This episode follows on nicely from the recent Monday series about social media and is a continuation of the theme of the relationship between technology...

It’s the most wonderful (exhausting?) time of the year… and it’s almost upon us. Considering we’re now well in to November, Ben and Brooke wanted to spend the next few weeks talking about how you may be able to reduce the stress, overwhelm, expense, clutter and expectations we all feel when the silly season arrives, and today they begin by going to the heart of the matter...

Today's episode is such a treat. Courtney Carver, one the first ever guests on the show (Episode 10!) returns to chat with Brooke about her story of simplicity, and how the changes were born of an incredibly difficult time.  So often the idea of simplifying life is presented in a fairly dogmatic, unemotional way. Initially the focus is on stuff and the process of letting it go, then the focus...

Over the past few weeks Ben and Brooke have been talking about social media and how they utilise it while still maintaining a slow(er) paced life.  They spoke about Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and finished last Monday's episode with a challenge - to delete social media apps of our phones for the next month.  That was supposed to be the end of the discussion, but then Brooke read an a...

Brooke's book tour has given her the opportunity to speak with hundreds of people over the past few months at libraries and bookstores around the state, and the experience has been brilliant. Not only has she been able to talk about the process of writing SLOW , but she's also been able to meet so many poggie listeners and get a real sense of the questions and struggles people face as they underta...

In this final episode of the social media series, Brooke and Ben talk about the behemoth that is Facebook. Ben’s only just returned to Facebook after many years away, and is keeping it at arm’s length, only using the platform to help Brooke run the pages for the podcast and the online retreat. Brooke, on the other hand, has been using Facebook for more than 10 years and has a distinct...

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...

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 setti...

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 q...

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 t...

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 crea...

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 t...

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 mindfuln...

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 ha...

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 l...

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...

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&rs...

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, expec...

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,...

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...

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 wel...