Now this is a cracker of an episode...
I ummed and ahhed about whether to publish  this one now (in the run up to Christmas), or to wait until the New Year, but decided to go with now. Because this episode is all about shopping, or rather stopping shopping, and it feels like now might be a time when we’re all perhaps uber aware of just how much extra we’re buying at the moment.
The intention is not to make you feel guilty in the run up to Christmas, but just to start the conversation and the thought processes – please don’t hate me!

Consumption has overtaken population as the number one driver of the climate and ecological crisis, and has actually sky rocketed in just the last 20 years. We’re consuming more than we ever have before, quicker than ever before. And it’s having a profound impact on the planet’s health and our own health, both physical and mental.

So what would happen if we just stopped shopping?

This is the question posed by environmental  journalist and author J.B. Mackinnon his new book The Day the World Stops Shopping . And this is what JB and I dive into in this episode.

Enjoy!

• J.B. Mackinnon
  - Website
  - Twitter
• The Day the World Stops Shopping 
  - Bookshop
  - Hive
  - World of Books
• Right to Repair website
• Buy Me Once - website of goods curated for longevity and repairability
• Why buy nothing new? (blog post)
• 10 top tips for buying nothing new (blog post)
  
• The Sustainable(ish) FB group

• It feels really wrong saying this after an episode proposing stopping shopping, but do bag yourself a copy of The Day the World Stops Shopping - ask your library if they have a copy, or use one of the links above for more ethical alternatives to Amazon
• Slow down your own consumption - could you cut your spending by 4% in 2022...?
• Share your outfit repeats, your secondhand finds, your mends, your battered old mobile phone on your social media feeds - start a conversation about consumption and slowing down
• If you have something that breaks, and can't get parts or spares, e-mail the manufacturer and ask why