Joshua and Ryan discuss emergency items, preparing for emergencies, and when it’s appropriate to hold on to certain just-in-case items, and they answer the following questions:
How do we prepare for chaos? (04:33)
What are the three types of emergencies? (05:49)
What do you keep in your car? (08:02)
How do we reconcile what we actually need with what we want? (12:12)
What is the most important thing in an emergency? (14:36)
What essentials should we keep in a first aid kit for both home and travel? (19:18)
What is the difference between an emergency item and a just-in-case item? (25:50)
How do you differentiate between just-in-case items and just-for-when items? (31:42)
What are “b.s. emergency items”? (36:36)
What books, websites, podcasts would you recommend as resources for information regarding emergency preparedness? (43:27)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
Support The Minimalists: minimalists.com/support
Joshua and Ryan discuss the relationship between minimalism and environmentalism with author and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and they answer the following questions:
What is our biggest environmental problem, and is it too late to fix it? (01:38)
Since environmentalism is an idea that I cannot back down from, compromise on, or see from both sides, at what point is it dangerous to keep saying there are no ‘shoulds’? (04:33)
Why are landfills more prominent in the United States compared to Europe? (09:28)
How can we make individuals and companies more environmentally conscious? (11:47)
What is your opinion regarding the policy of the United States to ‘leap-first, look-later’ regarding environmental chemicals? (23:29)
What is the Toxic Substance Control Act? (27:36)
What are PFAs? (29:46)
Why have we seen such an increase in chronic diseases among children? (30:53)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
Support The Minimalists: minimalists.com/support
Joshua and Ryan talk about the problem of busyness and how we can better manage our time, and they answer the following questions:
Why can’t we ever seem to get ahead of our to-do lists? (01:43)
What lists do you find helpful? (02:13)
What is “busyness”? (06:42)
How do we gain more discretionary time despite the onslaught of modern obligations and responsibilities? (11:25)
Is striving for work-life balance a fruitless endeavor? (13:58)
Are there any tools that can help with our overwhelm? (16:06)
What is the fear related to busyness? (17:24)
What can someone do if they feel they’re too busy to figure out how to become less busy? (25:30)
Would you be doing what you’re doing today if you only had six months left to live? (28:28)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
Support The Minimalists: minimalists.com/support
Joshua and Ryan talk about hoarding—the clinical definition, the statistics, the causes, the symptoms, the common types, the risks, the recovery—and they answer the following questions:
What is the clinical definition of “hoarding”? (03:00)
What is “spartanism”? (03:35)
What are the common types of hoarding? (05:43)
What is the difference between hoarding and collecting? (09:30)
What is the “sunk-cost fallacy”? (11:02)
What are the symptoms of hoarding? (21:56)
What are the causes of hoarding? (23:30)
How is hoarding diagnosed? (27:51)
Do children hoard? (29:41)
When do obsessions become unhealthy? (31:38)
What are the five levels of hoarding? (32:04)
Are there affluent hoarders? (43:17)
How does one become a hoarder? (45:16)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
Support The Minimalists: minimalists.com/support
Joshua and Ryan talk about alternative living options—communal living, throuples, combined families, long-term singlehood, nomadic living—with the CEO and cofounder of Nourish Balance Thrive, Christopher Kelly, and they answer the following questions:
What is ancestral health? (03:20)
What has likely caused our overall decline in health? (05:08)
Is our current status quo of living arrangements in detrimental conflict with the natural order? (07:28)
How do people continue to help the paradigm of the nuclear family work? (10:40)
How do we set appropriate boundaries with roommates and ensure those boundaries are not crossed to prevent theft, property damage, and tense co-living environments? (11:59)
What is Christopher’s communal living arrangement? (12:38)
Why did Christopher adopt his communal living arrangement? (13:53)
How does Christopher manage living with several different families? (15:34)
What is ‘helicopter parenting’? (20:53)
What is your definition of “commune”? (22:59)
What are the pros and cons of unusual living arrangements in cultures that wholly embrace them? (28:36)
What does the “WEIRD” acronym represent? (30:56)
How do you define “solitude”? (32:40)
What is Joshua’s living arrangement? (33:51)
What is the ‘sweet spot’ regarding how many people you can live with? (35:25)
Who created the monogamous nuclear family? (38:40)
At what point does a group become a cult? (48:50)
Detailed show notes: minimalists.com/podcast
Support The Minimalists: minimalists.com/support