Welcome to another episode of the Willoughby Hills podcast!
On today’s episode, I speak with Vancouver-based author, journalist, and professor J.B. MacKinnon.
I stumbled upon J.B.’s book The Day the World Stops Shopping and was immediately intrigued by the premise. It’s a simple thesis: gaming out how society, economies, and our lives would change if consumer culture disappeared overnight. When the global pandemic shutdown happened in 2020 though, suddenly the thesis had a real world example.
J.B. is also the author of books right in the bullseye of this podcast and newsletter, including The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating and The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be.
In today’s conversation, J.B. and I discuss intentional consumerism inspired by Indigenous people in the Kalahari and Amish Pennsylvanians, consuming quality over quantity, and the simple pleasures of eating seasonally.
I hope this episode will be a jumping off point for you to explore more and think more intentionally about consumerism, capitalism, and consumption.
If you enjoy this interview, you may also like my twice-weekly email newsletter about our changing relationship to home, work, building, shopping, eating, and more. Subscribe to have it delivered to your inbox, plus get notified when new podcast episodes are posted:
Related Episodes:
120. Designer Francisca Gajardo on Fixing the Fashion Industry's Waste
81. Journalist and Made In China Author Amelia Pang (Quarantine Creatives)
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129. Author J.B. MacKinnon on Stopping Shopping