The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

This is the last one of the slow learning poggies, and this week it’s all about informal learning. If you’re someone who will spend a long time researching online or taking informal courses this is probably something you can identify a lot with. An informal learner sees learning everywhere. They like to do it anywhere and at anytime and they’re often heavily focused on using tech...

If you enjoy gardening (or perusing gardening photos on social media!!) permaculture is a term you may have heard bandied around. It’s most commonly attached the food production, and is a philosophy that results in better soil, better food production and higher yield. What is less often mentioned is that permaculture doesn’t stop at food production. In fact, much like slow living, the...

This week Brooke and Ben continue their look into the different types of learning and how understanding personal learning styles will help us develop ways to adopt even more slow-ness and mindfulness to our lives. Today’s poggie is all about collaboration - probably the most well-known type of learning. Brooke identifies a lot with this kind of learning (though during today’s episode s...

In today’s poggie Brooke speaks with Katy Bowman, a biomechanist, founder of Nutritious Movement and all-round activity advocate, about the curse of convenience in modern life and what it is costing us in terms of movement, the food we eat, our health, our relationships and the larger structure of our society in general. They also talk about the infiltration of technology into the lives of b...

Brooke and Ben have taken a bit of a departure for these current Monday episodes, as they’re talking about learning - a topic that sits more at the periphery of slow living rather than the centre of it. Last week they began by talking about how we learn and the impact it has on how well we make changes to our lives, and this week they begin looking at the specific modes of learning and why s...

Today Brooke chats with Justin Morrissey, the founder of Toolo, the Blue Mountains’ first tool library and co-op. As you probably know, a huge part of slow living is based in both community and environmental stewardship, and tool libraries are a big step in the right direction. In this episode Justin and Brooke get really practical, as he explains how he began the library (and what drove him...

We’ve got something a little different lined up for the next four weeks, and while at first glance it might not seem to be too closely related to the practicalities of slow living, Brooke and Ben think that anyone currently struggling with certain areas of slow living is going to benefit from it a lot. The next few weeks they're going to explore slow learning. Why?   One of the com...

This will probably come as a surprise to exactly no-one, but Brooke used to really over-complicate things (and sometimes still does). She would over-engineer solutions and spend huge amounts of time trying to get right down deep in to the specific thoughts, behaviours or actions that were causing problems. And while she believes we sometimes need to ruminate on things for a while before clarity co...

This is a bit of a departure from the usual themes of the Monday shows, but Brooke was involved in a fascinating Twitter conversation a few weeks ago that got her thinking about simplicity writers, their gender and why the most popular ones are overwhelmingly male. Brooke and Ben talk through the genesis of the conversation, as well as the fact that Brooke has noticed this trend for quite some tim...

Tim Silverwood is one of Brooke’s environmental role models. He maintains that he’s just an ordinary guy who somehow found himself at the forefront of environmental activism in Australia, but his passion and knowledge means that while he may be an ordinary guy, the impact he’s having on the growing environmental movement in Australia is anything but ordinary. As one of the founde...

Most of us have heard of (and experienced) FOMO at some point. FOMO is the Fear of Missing Out and it strikes at the heart of modern life. We do things, attend things or buy things in order to avoid it, but there will always be things we miss out on. So why do we struggle with it so much? A couple of weeks ago a friend of the show (Mr Andy McLean - you may know him from such programs as Episode 12...

The lovely Linda Esposito, Brooke’s favourite psychotherapist, returns to the poggie today! Linda can always be relied on to cut through the BS that occasionally attaches itself to conversations about health, mindfulness and wellness, and today’s conversation is no different. Recently Linda posted on Instagram about the overcomplification of mindfulness and why we need to bring it back...

On last Thursday's poggie Brooke and Ben went deep in to some upcoming changes in their life and have been completely blown away by your support and generosity as a result. From emails and travel suggestions to guest introductions and offers of accomodation, it's been incredible.  In today's show they talk briefly about that support, as well as the underlying thought that has been part of man...

Today’s poggie is a hostful with a difference. This week it’s all about Brooke and Ben and the challenges they’ve been facing over the past few months, the changes they're making, what they mean for the show and what life is going to look like for them over the coming months. Ben and Brooke share that they’ve both been struggling, feeling overwhelmed and lost as they realis...

In today's poggie, Carolyn Tate returns to talk about purpose. And while the current iteration of "purpose" seems to involve quitting your job, becoming a digital nomad and freelancing your way through life (all of which are valid choices!) Carolyn is here to talk about finding purpose in your current work.  So often the conversation about purpose revolves around huge changes, or the fact tha...

It’s been a while since Brooke has had a listener chat on the poggie and today’s episode is a gem. Brooke chats with Louisa from Western Australia about her personal journey from a hectic suburban existence to a life lived in a slow-paced coastal town. They talk about Lou’s experience of overwhelm and anxiety, as well as her post natal depression and eventual bipolar diagnosis, a...

Ben and Brooke have spent the past few weeks discussing ways to reduce our plastics consumption. They've looked at doing away with single use plastics, talking to providers about non-plastic options and taking three for the sea every time we're out in nature. This week they round out this mini-series by encouraging you to re-think your purchases based on packaging.  Often we can find a simila...

In this week’s plastics episode, Ben and Brooke take their inspiration directly from an organisation they're very very fond of: Take 3 for the Sea. Founded by surfing enthusiast, Amanda Marechal, marine ecologist, Roberta Dixon-Valk and environmentalist, Tim Silverwood, Take 3 is based on the very simple idea that small actions can have a big impact. And considering Plastic-Free July has beg...

Last week Ben and Brooke introduced a new four-part Monday series dealing with plastics. Specifically, how to use less of them in day to day life. They covered the Big 4 - straws, drink bottles, takeaway coffee cups and plastic shopping bags - and offered a whole heap of solutions to help you live a Plastic Free July (and August, and September and so on…)  This week they’re encou...

In today’s episode Brooke sits down to chat with Rebecca Sullivan - founder of the ‘granny skills’ movement, serial entrepreneur, food lover and sustainability advocate. In what can only be described as an utterly delightful conversation, Brooke and Rebecca talk about traditions, heritage and the importance of intergenerational connection, as well as how to make the perfect blush...

Last year Ben and Brooke tried their hand at Plastic Free July. They tried to cut their use of plastics to zero for a full month, alongside tens of thousands of other counter-cultural, environmentally-minded souls. And… it was a bit of a bust. The truth is that they were vastly unprepared. They hadn’t really thought through their daily needs or systems, and hadn’t gathered the r...

Just so you know straight off the bat, today’s episode is BIG. It’s packed full of practical tips and it moves prettttty fast. But it’s valuable, practical and, even better, it’s going to help you have a positive impact on the planet and your bank balance. Big talk, eh? But this is a big show. In a little under an hour Ben and Brooke offer you 50 ways to reduce food waste i...

Today is the third and final episode in our meditation basics series and Kevin Janks is back for one final, insightful meditation mini-workshop. In today’s workshop Kevin talks us through the notion of present moment awareness. That is, what it looks like to practice living specifically and solely in the present moment, by training ourselves to pay attention to each of our senses, one at a t...

In this episode Brooke chats with Helen Hayward - an author, freelance writer and psychotherapist who lives on a beautiful old property in Hobart and embraces a slow family life in almost every way. And while Helen’s most recent book, ‘A Slow Childhood: Notes on Thoughtful Parenting’ is, obviously, about parenting and raising a family, so much of what Helen and Brooke speak about...

Kevin Janks is back this week with the second mini-meditation workshop, and this week he’s helping you focusing on your emotions. In today’s mini workshop, Kevin he talks through the physical sensations of our emotions - where we feel things like love or anger or anxiety in our bodies - and how to begin to notice the thought commentary that comes along with those feelings, as being dis...