Podcasts about stuffocation

Thanks to a visit from Mr Claus, you might be feeling a little more surrounded in stuff than you were on December 24th. “Stuffocation” is that feeling you get when you have to fight through piles of stuff you don't use to find the thing you need. Sound familiar? We've got some tips to help you declutter your space and your mind.   LINKS  Follow @novapodcastsofficial on Instagram     CREDITS  Host: Casey Donovan @caseydonovan88  Writer: Amy Molloy @amymolloy  Executive Producer: Anna Henvest Editor: Adrian Walton   Listen to more great podcasts at novapodcasts.com.au   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are continuing our series following the book Fully Alive by Elizabeth Oldfield. This week, Dave spoke about “avarice”, and how moving from an attitude of relentless consumption to gratitude and generosity can unlock more fully aliveness in us. You can join in our services by visiting us in person at One Church Brighton, Florence Road, Brighton, or by heading to our YouTube channel at YouTube.come/onechurchbrightonchannel If you'd like to know more about One Church Brighton, head to onechurchbrighton.org, or, if you'd like to get in touch with us, email info@onechurchbrighton.org.

Discover the unexpected link between decluttering and mental well-being that changed one mom's life forever. You won't believe how this simple act transformed her entire outlook and even landed her a new job. Find out how she turned chaos into clarity, and why she's offering a free call to help others do the same. Stay tuned for the full story! In this episode, you will be able to: ·       Discover the surprising connection between decluttering and mental well-being.  ·       Uncover the essential first steps to kickstart your home decluttering journey.  ·       Explore the benefits of donating versus selling items you no longer need.  ·       Learn effective decluttering strategies tailored specifically for busy moms.  ·       Unlock the secrets to achieving a minimalist wardrobe with practical decluttering tips. The key moments in this episode are:            00:00:04 -                          Introduction to Decluttering                      00:04:17 -                          Emotional Attachment to Items                      00:10:15 -                          Challenges and Lessons from Decluttering                      00:15:01 -                          Simplifying the Wardrobe                      00:18:49 -                          Challenges of Letting Go of Books                      00:21:03 -                          The Impact of Technical Books                      00:22:24 -                          Decluttering the Bathroom                      00:25:27 -                          Less is the New More                      00:27:43 -                          Seeking Support and Offering Help                      00:34:58 -                          Overcoming Shame and Seeking Help          

Many of us live out our lives while tied to our careers, our homes, our families and our friends. This can be joyous, but for some it is stifling.Ray Martin lived that life and achieved great success, even being named Daily Telegraph Business Leader of the Year in 2002 as the CEO of a company that developed business leaders.But when his personal life changed dramatically, he realised his work was not making him happy and he set out on a mission to discover his authentic self.Now, as the author of Life Without A Tie, Ray tells the story of a journey of exploration that took him to 28 countries and saw him launch a global foundation, become a marathon runner, act in a play and turn himself into a coach whose clients have included more than 100 people across Asia.In this episode of The Coach's Journey Podcast, Ray describes how he learned to serve people who are trapped in a life that others expect of them, and how he allowed his inner voice to return and guide him to a life of possibility, fulfilment, and greater self-awareness. In this episode, we talk about:The confirmation signals we need when making decisionsHow acts of service can lead to personal breakthroughsHow we become the actor, scriptwriter and director in our own livesThe shift from materialism to experientialismThe power of intention to deliver the work and life you wantThe freedom that comes from feeling less attached to each possibilityRay shares wisdom about the cycles of desire and craving that don't always lead us to what we need, and offers sage advice on the tools that can guide us to a place of authenticity.To learn more about me, visit https://www.robbieswale.com/, and to learn more about Ray, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymartin/ or https://lifewithoutatie.com/.For information about my wider work, my writing or to buy my books, visit www.robbieswale.com.Music by My Good Man William: listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4KmeQUcTbeE31uFynHQLQgTo support the Coach's Journey, visit www.patreon.com/thecoachsjourney and to join the Coach's Journey Community visit www.thecoachsjourney.com/community. Things and people we mentioned (that you might be interested in):- Life Without A Tie https://lifewithoutatie.com/ - The Better Bolder Braver Podcast https://betterbolderbraver.com/ - Robert D'Aubigny and Exegesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exegesis_(group)- The Landmark Forum https://www.landmarkworldwide.com/the-landmark-forum - Henrietta Nelson on The Coach's Journey Podcast https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-46-henrietta-nelson-nobody-else-can-put-a-feeling-in-you - Sydney Banks https://sydneybanks.org/- Wait But Why https://waitbutwhy.com/homepage - Stuffocation by James Wallman https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/07/stuffocation-living-more-with-less-james-wallman-review - Joseph Campbell and The Hero's Journey https://www.skillshare.com/en/blog/the-heros-journey-stages-and-structure/ - Bernadette Russell https://www.bernadetterussell.com/ - Undefended Love http://www.undefendedlove.com/ - The Hoffman Process https://www.hoffmaninstitute.co.uk/about-the-process/ - Ray's blog https://thedailyexplorer.com/blog/- Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches https://apacoaches.org/- Robbie's appearance on the Leadership Live podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsdH23Nm4o - Coach in a Box https://www.linkedin.com/company/coach-in-a-box- Robert Stephenson on The Coach's Journey Podcast https://www.thecoachsjourney.com/podcast/episode-41-robert-stephenson-the-scaffolding-of-change-and-when-to-discard-it - Steve Biddulph https://www.stevebiddulph.com/ - The Sabbatical Project https://thesabbaticalproject.org/- The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer https://untetheredsoul.com/- Quote from Marcel Proust https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270761/

Thanks to a visit from Mr Claus, you might be feeling a little more surrounded in stuff than you were on December 24th. “Stuffocation” is that feeling you get when you have to fight through piles of stuff you don't use to find the thing you need. Sound familiar? We've got some tips to help you declutter your space and your mind.  LINKS Follow @thespace_podcast on Instagram    Watch @thespace_podcast on TikTok   Follow @novapodcastsofficial on Instagram    CREDITS Host: Casey Donovan @caseydonovan88 Writer: Amy Molloy @amymolloy Executive Producer: Anna HenvestEditor: Adrian Walton  Listen to more great podcasts at novapodcasts.com.au  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It is no longer enough for governments to measure GDP, they should finally use knowledge of sociology and psychology to figure out how to measure the quality of life. And part of these metrics should be about the value of experiencing rather than possessing things. Together with James Wallman, the author of “Stuffocation” and “Time and how to spend it”, and a co-founder of the World Experience Organization, we dig into the topic of how to measure experiences, and how to use these metrics to provoke organizations around the world to be more experiential. We wonder if it's possible to create an equivalent of a B-Corp certification and certification for experience and how it should differ with respect to the final solutions and culture. We also wonder how to capture the subjective assessment of experiences and turn it into a reliable guideline. And we dive into the meaning of boredom, the rabbit hole of creative work, and the idea of trying out our different selves.LINKSWXO websiteB-Corp websiteSelf-determination theory“Stuffocation” by James Wallman“Time and how to spend it” by James Wallman“Rest” by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang“Shorter” by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang“On Writing” by Stephen King“Time traveler's guide to medieval England” by Ian Mortimer“The wire” by David Simon and Rafael Alvarez“Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets” by David Simon“The science of storytelling” by Will Storr“What a dog saw” by Malcolm Gladwell

James Wallman is a best selling author, world class speaker, and an extraordinary entrepreneur. He brings a wealth of knowledge to the show, demonstrating for us how to improve life by designing better experiences. We cover a range of topics from consumerism to heuristic learning and everything in between. He is currently the CEO and founder of WXO, The World Experience Organization, whose mission it is to solve the problem's that exist in today's experience economy. He is also the best selling author of "Stuffocation" and "Time and How to Spend It." Listen in as James Wallman joins us in the therapy chair.

Dan Harden deliberates with futurist and Stuffocation Author James Wallman on what matters most in design today. They dissect a range of issues, from how the pandemic pushed us into an experience economy to how we can design more meaningful experience-driven innovations that value time above materialism. Episode TranscriptDan Harden 0:06Hello, and welcome to PRISM. PRISM is a design-oriented podcast hosted by me Dan Harden, like a glass prism that reveals the color hidden inside white light, this podcast will reveal the inside story behind innovation, especially the people that make it happen. My aim is to uncover each guest's unique point of view, their insights, their methods or their own secret motivator, perhaps, that fuels their creative genius.Dan Harden 0:34Today, I'm talking with James Wallman. It's such a pleasure to have you, thank you so much. You are a best-selling author, entrepreneur, futurist, keynote speaker and government advisor. That's interesting. I'd like to hear about that. I'm gonna say government, right?James Wallman 0:49Yeah, I'm also a dog walker.Dan Harden 0:50You're a dog walker! Why is this not the first thing on your bio?James Wallman 0:55It didn't used to be my thing. But you know, and also pick up dog poo therefore. But as you know, I gave a talk yesterday. And you know, when someone introduces you, and you always hear these kind of list of things that you've done, and you always think, oh, wow, listen to that. That sounds good. And then you kind of have, especially, you know, since we've entered the kind of zoom world of working from home, you know, during this COVID time, you think, Well, actually, I'm at home, and we're all at home during our days, trying to get through this thing.Dan Harden 1:23It's so good to bring it down to a human level. Isn't that?James Wallman 1:26Yeah, yeah, that's why. But I do do those other things as well. That's true.Dan Harden 1:30Okay. You have done some significant things, that's why we wanted you on this program. You've also written two best selling books about the experience economy,James Wallman 1:39YesDan Harden 1:40Stuffocation, which I read, when I met you; and Time And How To Spend It, which the Financial Times named one of the must read books of 2019. You also run this strategy, innovation and futures consultancy, The Future is Here. It'll be interesting talk about that. And your opinions have appeared in so many different places, New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, Wired etc. And let's see what else here. You advise the British government and your role as sector specialists for the experience economy. There's a lot of interesting stuff to unpack here with you.Dan Harden 2:18And the reason I invited you is the things that you think about are things that I think industrial designers like me and the people that will be listening to this should hear about, you know, it's like, why are we designing? What is the context of our work? What is the definition of prosperity? You know, ever since the founding of industrial design, over 100 years ago, its primary business objective has been to sell more product, because the corporate rationale was that if you made your products better looking back, then they would be more marketable. And they were, you know, those early industrial designers, they proved that, and their design help to catapult these companies like General Electric, and John Deere, and IBM, and all these amazing companies that they, you know, became. But since then, design has certainly evolved into a much more sophisticated and multi dimensional professional that considers not only product appearance, but the entire user experience. Where we're really just trying to optimize, you know, starting with the initial brand exposure all the way to product disposal. So nowadays, almost every aspect of the product is researched and tailor made for a desired market effect.Dan Harden 3:39But one key and I'm coming to your major question here, one key factor remains the same. The core purpose of especially industrial design is to sell more product and fuel prosperity. Specifically, its purpose is to fuel prosperity as defined by our capitalist model, which means making more money. And it's all about profit, cost reduction, shareholder value, and going in number one, right? But what about what about people? You know, what if? What about experience design? And how can we evolve this model of prosperity to be more of a humanistic nature? What about wellbeing? What about happiness? What about the things that you write in your book? What are your opinions about this? And then even, maybe, maybe insert some of your more recent thoughts because I think in regards to what we now consider prosperity, I think after the pandemic, maybe we would all question, What does prosperity mean to me? What do you think about these things?Dan Harden 4:48I think a lot about these things. I think that is an incredible, an incredibly good, rich question. I feel like I feel like you set me up here to kind of, I could riff from what you've just said for probably three to four hours.Dan Harden 5:03I love it.James Wallman 5:06Nobody wants to listen for that long and that's, that's fair. But it's such a it's such a rich point that you've been I've been thinking about. In fact, I was really looking at. I don't know here, you're probably a fan of the Atlantic.Dan Harden 5:17Of courseJames Wallman 5:18In 1927, you may or may not know this, there was a wonderful essay published by a guy called Earnest Elmo Calkins called Beauty the New Business Tool. Have you come across that is that? Is that like a famous piece that people know about? Because it's such an important, important turning point is exactly what you were talking about there, in terms of what first came out. So actually you can see it in cars as much as anything. So first of all, you have, you know, the Industrial Revolution produces these, Henry Ford produces these cars. And he makes that crazy statement about how once somebody has one of his cars, they should never need to buy another one, I can't remember they've about verbatim quote or something like that. Okay. And that seems to him like a good idea because he keeps selling cars. And then along comes Alfred Sloan, and others like Alfred Sloan, in particular, General Motors, who does something incredibly simple, he sort of changes a few details and some colors. By season, he borrows an idea which originated back with Louis the 14th, actually, in the time of Louis the 14th, in the luxury industry, with the idea of the seasons, which is where we will borrow these ideas from. Right, so you can go way back to Louis the 14th for this, but the people that really got it right. They were of course, the Americans, and you can see this in the car thing.James Wallman 6:35And so in the 1920s, you had this wonderful situation where the problems of making stuff that was good, had sorted now. I mean, of course, we've evolved since then. But you know, there were good toasters, there were washing machines that were cars that worked. But in order to, what you needed to do is to get people to buy more and to keep buying. And there was a debate at the time about whether this was the problem of overproduction, or as it also was seen as under consumption. So this was the real moment.James Wallman 7:05The 1920s was the flex point, the shift from an industrial economy to a consumer economy. And for the first time ever, we saw of rising standards of living, that have been sustained over pretty much a century, which is incredible. And of course, the Americans did it first. And then the Brits, the other countries copied it, because what this led to was this consumer driven materialistic economy where people would buy more stuff than they need. And of course, consumer engineering was both in terms of not changing the the function of the product but is the aesthetic of the product, exactly as you're talking about there in terms of industrial design, or one at one element of it, but also consumer engineering in terms of credit.James Wallman 7:53Well, the thing is, if people don't have money to buy a car, they won't buy a car. But if you loan them the money to buy a car, if you give them credit card, they will go and buy that car, and they will buy these houses, etc. And what that does is it fuels the economy. And what that's led to is an incredible, unprecedented rise in standards of living that humans didn't have till then. It's really easy.James Wallman 8:18You know, lots of these millennials today. Now I'm sounding old, but will really kind of be cross about what's happened, you know, obviously, what's going on the environment is terrible. We have, we have real problems. But they forget that until, from the point of the 1920s, really, that the masses for the first time, got a chance to have really good standards of living.James Wallman 8:39I've given talks where I stood up at the beginning and said, who's had a shower here today? Yeah, and of course, you know, yeah, you have a few people that go, you can see them that maybe this in the UK that go a bit red, but generally everyone laughs and then I say, okay. Imagine, think about Queen Victoria for a moment. Now, you know, geographically the British Empire was the most successful ever. I think you covered about 20 something percent of the world's mass. You could you could go around the world pretty much without leaving. Was it Queen Victoria? Yeah, Queen Victoria. Yeah, without leaving Queen Victoria's land. There's a very wealthy woman and I say to people, what do you think her shower was like? Okay, do you think she had a good shower? Now think about the shower that you used this morning? Who's shower do you think was better now? Now not in terms , of course, she probably had some pretty amazing mosaics, right? In her shower. But think about the ability to choose the water temperature and the water pressure that you had. Chances are, Dan, you had a better shower this morning than Queen Victoria had for the whole of her life.Dan Harden 9:39Is all, everything you just talked about, you know, the rise of consumerism and product and materiality and conveniences. Yes, they make our life. We feel better, perhaps in the moment. Do you think it makes us happier? All this consumption and stuff and materiality and even design? I mean, I think it does. It's so hard for me to like, place myself back in like 1880. Would I be as happy as I am now in 1880? Or how much of what we have done with after the industrial revolution has contributed to my happiness?James Wallman 10:15Yeah. Hey, I'd say it's a brilliant philosophical question. The thing is living that, you know, we go back to Aristotle, for the idea of living the unconsidered life is not worth living, and consideration is design. So whether you're thinking about the design in the design is choices, right? So whether it's the design of a car design of a home design of a life, design of how you spend your time, this is designed design is about choices, I think. So therefore, yeah, there's loads of stuff that's come with materialistic consumerism and the Industrial Revolution, which I think has been terrible for us. But one of the things that's come with it is the ability to have health care, which means that we live longer lives. So we've got a lot of, we've got a lot more time to be miserable in, at which point, we can make some choices. And I think that too many people have got caught up in the bad sides.James Wallman 11:05There's a wonderful book by a guy called, oh, forgive my memory for a moment. But the book is called The High Price of Materialism. And he's at Knox University, it's a brilliant book. And the problem with being materialistic is really bad for your well being. If you think you're going to find happiness in stuff outside of you. And this is one of the problems that came with materialistic consumerism was that we ended up thinking that if you get the girl the guy, the car, we'll say the job right? There was a there was an incredible shift in the 20th century from ideas that were internal, and thinking that happiness was about being honest. And, you know, having integrity to being much more the culture of personality rather than character. So everything is about outside and you'll find happiness outside of you. And that is, has been really negative. So and that's when my work comes in.James Wallman 12:01I refer to Earnest Elmo Calkins piece, partly because I think that in the same way that that essay of his, Beauty is the New Design Tool, I want to write a piece of the Atlantic called Experience, the New Design Tool, The New Business Tool, forgive me. Because I think that we're at a point today where products are good, services are good. If you go with the concepts in the book, The Experience Economy, about the progression of economic value. Of how we've risen from agrarian to industrial to service, and now to experience economy. All those things that have come before have become commoditized. And the great example for this reason, and this is borrowing from Joe Pine, and Jim Gilmore, who wrote this book is coffee. If you think about the value of coffee beans. They're not worth so much, right? If you think about the service, industrial goods, so you think about buying. You guys have Nescafe?Dan Harden 12:58Yes.James Wallman 12:59Right. Okay. So you know, if you buy Nescafe, you know, instant coffee from your local store, that's I don't know what that costs about $4 or something. But per cup, it's probably like 25 cents a cup. And then you get a coffee, service good in a local cafe, maybe that's where that's going to be like 3, $4 per cup, right? And then you go to Starbucks, when you go to you go to Starbucks, it's probably gonna be what, five $6 for a venti, latte, no real milk, you know, some sort of special thing, you can spend six $7 on a coffer. Or you go to a speciality place and pay even more as well, right. So you can see each level here, what's happened is the previous incarnation of the economy, the the previous thing, in terms of the progression of economic value has less and less value, and it's become commoditized.Dan Harden 13:54SureJames Wallman 13:54And so if, as a designer, if as a business, you want to stand out, if you want to connect with customers, and where customers are seeing value, and you want to move beyond being commoditized. So you can charge a premium to be successful, you need to think about the next level here. So you can't make money from commodities. It's hard to make money from products, it's hard to make money from services, and really where you need to play where you'll make creating the greatest amount of value and therefore putting yourself in a position to capture the most value is through the experience.Dan Harden 14:29Absolutely. I think even what we're doing right now, you know, I have a lot of hardware around me, these commoditized products, they're good ones. But what we're doing now is something far more than that. It's the services and the software. It's enabling us to communicate that we are the way that we are. This is the experience economy happening right now. What we're doing right now.James Wallman 14:51Yeah, I saw this in China actually statistic and it said that something like 93% of people there said that it was a choice between their iPhone or Wechat. They ditched the iPhone.Dan Harden 15:02Yeah. Ironically, there's a parallel drive happening because there's still this insatiable desire to consume amazing design, right? We're seeing this everywhere. design has become commoditized. Yes. But more people appreciate it. More people see it, they want that identity, they want the brand association. But what I'm seeing is this insatiable drive is creating this disposable economy, of course. People are consuming product, the way that they watch TikTok, it's so fast. You know, people will buy something and look at my cool new headphones. And, and yet, it becomes a fad. And they might put it down after a month. And it's, it's, it's gone. They're on to the next thing. So how do we reconcile this dichotomy of Yes, we understand the experience economy one up, but we also want more hardware, there's a lot of want, isn't there in society today?James Wallman 16:05Well that's funny. I mean, again, this comes back to the structure of the design. And I think it was Victor Lablow, who wrote fantastically on this in the 1950s. And at the heart of the consumer project is consumer dissatisfaction. Somebody has to think what they have isn't as good as the next thing that comes along. And I'm not anti that because that's, that's also called progress. And the fact that so many people not just have this insatiable desire to have better things, but that it is available to them that it's possible to them. And this just wasn't possible for our ancestors in the masses. But I'm not going to fully agree with you that this insatiable drive exists for more and more products. And it is about the brands because take these headphones that you can see I'm wearing here, these are their Sony's ones, and I've got them in New York when I was there just before the pandemic, and they are awesome. I did some research. But my brother did some research, he got a pair by it wasn't Sony, it was some other firm. But you know, they're the great noise cancelling headphones, they work, they do a really good job. Of course, what happens here, you know, somebody figures out a way to do this, like Tesla, for example of how to do, you know, electric cars, and it's amazing, and you get that innovator, and then someone else figures out how to do it too. And then it becomes not quite commoditize yet, but that will happen.James Wallman 17:26My work as a trend forecast I've been doing since 2004 is understanding how things change through our societies. And this is data that I may have told you this when we were drunk in Vegas that time. So stop me here if this is too much. But the way this works, and this is based on work originally by a sociologist at the University of Iowa in 1962. And it's something called the Diffusion of Innovations. It was originally the back end of his PhD thesis, but it became this book. And this observes how ideas spread through any community and it works. It works everywhere. It's also people call it the Technology Adoption Curve. Nowadays, I've seen it called that. But it's all borrowed from Everett Rogers, the sociologist to figure this out, it basically works in a way that you've seen. It's it's this smooth S curve of adoption, you get the innovators who try something first, early adopters, early majority, late majority. And then the laggards the ones who you know, the people that still have landline phones.Dan Harden 18:24Right, rightJames Wallman 18:25Actually. Yeah, my mom still has on but not many people have them anymore.Dan Harden 18:29Yeah, you're almost extinct. Yeah, yeah. Right. Or the classic adoption curve, that we're all, especially as designers are all familiar with that. That we try to extend lengthen and elevate that curve. We try to control that curve, that adoption curve. But we're not very good at it. I would argue.James Wallman 18:53When you say control it surely as a designer, the idea is to push it steep as possible to get as many people as buy your product. Yeah, okay, fine. We, you know, you're you're an expert.Dan Harden 19:03For a more timeless experience. And we really seek that. The opposing force, of course, is technology because even those headphones that you're wearing now, as good as they are, and I think you were trying to convince me that that no, I'm that is a good product that is lasting, and I am satisfied, and I'm gonna stick with it. But I'm gonna guess it in a year or something better is gonna come along and you're gonna want that. So the technology is working against that curve. So maybe it's okay to have cyclical adoption curves where you have a wonderful experience with a product and then you have another one after that.James Wallman 19:43Just I know that this is for a podcast, but you can see me on this screen. Can you see how old this iPhone is?Dan Harden 19:50Oh my gosh, you actually have a real button on the bottom.James Wallman 19:54It does what I needed to do. And I also don't have email on my phone. So I make it I don't have email on my phone. I don't have Twitter on my phone, because I've done the research on what you should do in order to be happy. And this is partly this thing about to about this, this move. I'm not talking about it yet. But this move I believe from materialism to experiential ism is to do with the fact that we've reached it. It's not anti materialism, it's more kind of Super. And I mean, super with the Latin term on top of materialism.James Wallman 20:22Now we have enough things. What we should look for. The smart person who's just stopped for a moment. And let's use, Ferris Bueller as the great philosopher. Life knows pretty fast, you should stop and look around him once a while otherwise, you're gonna miss it. What you want out of life is not to die as the person with the most toys in the graveyard.James Wallman 20:46Winning nowadays, I think is changing. You want to get the most out of the existence you have you want to live a long and healthful life. Look at look at the push towards healthiness. I mean, in the old days, you live a certain time you do your job, you get your gold watch, and you'd have a short retirement and die. And that's why all those systems made sense. But now people are living longer. And we're much more conscious of of what life is going to be like when we're in our 70s and 80s in our 90s. Because obviously, there's just been a knock to our life expectancy expectancy because of this pandemic.James Wallman 21:22But I think it's not just about gathering things, but thinking, Okay, I've got this four score years and 10, and hopefully, you know, more kind of thing. But I want to live a healthy, fulfilling life, and I want to have this sense of life satisfaction. And within a consensus, I think a consumer society gives us that opportunity. We're lucky one of the magical things is spare money spent on healthcare.Dan Harden 21:48But how do you retool our description of what gain in one's life means, you know. It just seems like society is on this, this drive to consume all the time. And I agree with you, we don't need all that stuff, you really don't when you think about it. I even have to force myself at the end of the day, you're probably around eight o'clock at night, I just decided I'm not going to look at my phone anymore. I will listen to music, play the guitar, do some art. And I feel this pull. You know, I feel the pull that I really should be in contact or what if I miss this? And I have to just tell myself? No, you don't need to do that. But what if you know, I think there are a lot of people that maybe don't realize that they have these choices, and are we conditioned? Are we conditioned as as people to, to over consume? I think I think we are. And how do we deal with that?James Wallman 22:48That's a superb question. I think we are conditioned to consume. The problem is no one tells us how to stop because that's what the system is based around. And that's the reason for the success of our system. And I think this is why this book Time and How to Spend it has had some resonance and caught on with some people. The FT liked it because one of the things that it looks at is that we've taught to consume, but we're not taught how to spend our time. Everyone want everyone wants to learn the skills of production. But you know, we want to get an MBA, you want to learn how to do social media, you want to learn how to code, but no one wants to learn the skills of consumption of how to manage your time. It's interesting that you have that pulled down as someone who's really successful when you talk about listening to music. I'm guessing you've got a record player, you got record player or no?James Wallman 23:34I do yes. Ah, nice. And the joy, right?Dan Harden 23:38The crackle, the pops. Yeah. Listening to some old albums. You know from when I was 16.James Wallman 23:47My kids just got into the Fresh Prince of Bel Air or my daughter, she's just about to turn 10. And I'm like, you know, I've got a record of that guy's, before he was on the TV. She is like super impressed. Now what we need to do is not just think about the skills of production, but the skills of consumption, the skills of living. A friend of mine, a guy called Brian Hill is at Brigham Young University in I guess it's in Salt Lake City, but it's in Utah. And his is the most popular class. He has, like 700 people come to his class, and he's an experienced design professor. And he takes the learnings from how to design experiences and translate that for people into so this is what you should do with how you spend your time. And I'm nudging him actually, I think he's gonna write a book, which is great news. And that's what I did with Time and How to Spend it.James Wallman 24:40I talked to people much smarter than me at places like BYU and Stanford and MIT and LSE in London and Oxford and Cambridge, in Tokyo. And I took their ideas and I sort of formed it into something simple that people can use to think about how they spend their time. And the same structure, Dan, I'm sure I've pitched this too many times. So forgive me, but can be used for any designer who's designing somebody's time when you think about designing experience. Your design is quite responsibility because you're designing, when you design experience, you're designing somebody's time my first book Stuffocation, looked at how should you spend on how should we spend our money? And the answer was, spend less on stuff, spend more on experiences, it will make you happier. And the follow up was a was a response to the question that people would say to me, this is great James. Spend on experiences. Great. So what kind of experiences should I choose? I didn't know the answer. And the answer, when you think about it is okay these are the experiences you should choose, which is really saying, this is how you should spend your time. And if you think of the currency of the first book, Stuffocation was money, how you spend your money, stuff, or experiences, the currency of experiences, yes, it's money. Yes, if you fly to Vegas for the weekend, if you you know, go to Hawaii, if you I don't know, you know, go to an amazing restaurant, or you go to a theme park or whatever you do with your time. But the most important thing you're spending his time because you can go get more money, you can get a higher paid job and getting other clients. And you can stretch your time a little bit. If you restrict the calories, if you go jogging, if you do weight training, you know, these things will make you live a little bit longer. But you're going to die. And you won't you can't buy another week very much. But you can get more money. So when you think about your experiences, you really ought to make the right decisions. Because I'm borrowing from the American writer Annie Dillard, how we spend our days is, she says, of course, how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. And so from a personal point of view, knowing how to spend your time, if you don't know how to do that you're a full. From a designer's point of view, if you're designing sometyhing to suck time. If you're designing an experience, and that could be EX for employee experience, it could be a product because a product will come with the time you spend with it. It could be the experience at a theme park, it could be the experience in a restaurant, in a in an airport, it could be in a retail store, in a mall, wherever. That's one a hell of a responsibility actually.Dan Harden 24:40You bet.James Wallman 24:40Especially the more successful you are, the more people you reach, the more that your product scales, you have a responsibility to those people, I think. But you have an opportunity, you can help them live a better life. Or you can waste their time and drain it away in a negative way. And then you can wake up the next day thinking I sell cigarettes, or I do something that's good for people.Dan Harden 27:33Do you have advice for designers on on how they can absolutely make sure that they are imbuing these qualities of time in their solution? In other words, should designers build in affordances in a design that make people aware that they are consuming their time on something of value? Or should a product have more of an ambient presence so that you can think more about just the general experience and the product? The thing, the materiality, it's just there. I wrote something called the Disappearing Act of Good Design. Because sometimes, you know, like, well, I'm sitting on an Aeron chair, when I look at the chair, it's a very beautiful thing, right? Well, it's not beautiful. I don't think it's beautiful. But it there's a function.James Wallman 28:27Functionally it's amazing.Dan Harden 28:28Yeah, it is. But when I'm using it, I'm not thinking about it, because it's supporting me, and it's doing its job. But when I step away from it, I look at it, then I start to appreciate it for what it is. But during the consumption, it's ambient. So that's related to my question. So how should designers design in this element of time, in your opinion. Because we all need to be a little bit more consciously aware, especially when I see kids like on video games, now there's something that's design presenting something to them. They're enjoying it, they're engrossed in it. But how does that apply to more everyday consumer products?James Wallman 29:14Such a deep and interesting question, I want to come back to what you're saying about affordances. And whether a product is good or bad for you, I'm going to wander a little bit, if you don't mind. First, though, is the difference between a service and there's a distinction between a service and an experience as an economic offering, but also as a thing. And what I mean by that is in terms of, there are certain things that should be seamless and get out of your way. Like booking an airline ticket, like going through an airport, or you know, if you're flying commercial rather than flying private, right? You want it to be as smooth and you don't want to notice it. Or managing your taxes. Guy on the call yesterday from Sweden, but a British guy, actually. Brilliant UX designer. You come across some guy called Joe McLeod. He's written this wonderful cool stuff on engineering about the design of the endings of things. Super interesting.Dan Harden 30:05Yes. I've heard of him.James Wallman 30:07Okay. He was saying that so taxes. I don't know how painful taxes are for you in the in the US, but taxes in the UK are a real pain, right?Dan Harden 30:17I can guarantee you there. They're more painful here.James Wallman 30:20Okay. So you know, there are companies that have come in to try and make it easier for us because we all have our, you know, yeah, we have accountants to help us, etc. But apparently, in Sweden, it's a joyful experience. I don't even understand what that means yet, okay, I'll be absolutely honest. But we get to investigate it. And one of my writers is going to speak to him, we're going to get a piece together on this, although he's a great writer, too. That said, of course, in during the pandemic, because we had the NHS, I feel very happy to pay my taxes, because it kept us all alive, lovely people.Dan Harden 30:54Paying taxes can be joyful, that gives me hope that many things in this world can be solved.James Wallman 31:01And that's where great design count. And it's a really good example, you know, I think good design is really good design, you often don't notice it, because it's so damn good. Right? As you say, you mentioned your chair, you just don't don't, I mean, that's the point of that chair.James Wallman 31:14But then an experience is different in that you should notice it because a service should be intangible, and seamless and simple. But experience. Now there's a difference between every day. But you know, big experiences should be noticeable because they should be memorable, meaningful and possibly transformational. So there are different moments in the journey of a person might have with a product or with a service or with an experience that has different. And I'm borrowing it from a guy called Mike Lai, who is run something called Tango, Tango, UX or something. I should know that in Shanghai, but he's like an American Chinese guy. And he was talking about the journey of any kind of experience through something and there are different moments where you want it to be perfectly smooth or really good service, and you want the product to work. And there are other moments where you need it to be a really amazing experience that is meaningful for you.Dan Harden 32:15That's an interesting point. In some ways I want I want my service to be minimal. And my experience to be maximal.James Wallman 32:23Yeah, okay, thank you, I'll borrow that.Dan Harden 32:27But I don't even know if maximal was a word.James Wallman 32:30Oh, no it is. Yeah, yeah. We, you know, we talked about omega Mart. Omega Mart, the new thing from Weow Wolf that's just opened in Vegas. And those guys come from Santa Fe. And they talk about maximalism and being maximalist because they want their stuff to be noticed in a world that has been homogenized. A world that's been commoditized. And but everyone's like, artists be minimal, which is all about exactly what you said. Maximum. Welcome back. Man. maximalism in the right place.Dan Harden 32:59Yeah, but the service what I mean by service thing minimal is, you know, something like Amazon, for example, comes to mind, you know, five years ago, when you bought something on Amazon's Oh my God, I gotta get my credit card out. And though they didn't remember me from the last time dot dot dot. Now I just load things in my cart, and I press buy now, and it's all automated. Right? That's a service that works well, for me. Then even receiving it lands on my porch. It's minimal.James Wallman 33:28That's a great example of a service. I would describe that as a service, not an experience. Would you mind if I come back to that affordances point you're asking them? It's very interesting, I think, from the point of view of the designer, is, you know, the starting point is the end of what's the impact this is going to have on a person's existence and their time. And I'm going to borrow here from a guy called Michael Brown, Gardner Brown, who's the guy who came up with the concept of the circle to circle and the circular economy. Michael Brown Gaught the chemist. And I remember talking, we were both giving talks at some conference in Belgium or Luxembourg or something, he talks about how everyone talks about the idea of reducing their carbon footprint, reducing their footprint. And he said, let's just flip that around, why not increase your footprint, but have a positive footprint instead? So instead of thinking about your products, let's say I mean, you know, you can think about what Tristan Harris has done here in terms of technology. And, you know, the ethical point of view that lots of these things are designed to keep us on our phone and you know, they talk about TOD, time on device, which is obviously where they can make money and this is what's happening in Vegas with the slot machines, etc. And that's what these things have become their skinner boxes, of course for people, right, they're designed to keep us there again and again and again. And of course, when you're doing that, you know that you have a negative Human footprint, you're having a negative footprint on that person's existence. So if you look at the product you're making and you recognize that it has that you have to maybe look at yourself in the mirror and think okay, am I basically a tobacco seller? Am I one of these people and can I go to bed and I feel okay, that's what I'm doing to people in which case you go ahead. You know, mine the planet, destroy the place and see if you can look your children in the face and be happy with what you do. Or, maybe if you recognize that this is fun, but only so much fun. Let's take alcohol is a great example. Right? There's a difference use and abuse. It's exactly the same technology, the addiction stuff, if you look at Adam Outers, you know, Adam Outers of NYU, with it, fantastic. He's work he's done most recent book Irresistible, and he compares addiction to devices exactly like addiction to drugs like alcohol. You know, having a drink is great. Using alcohol is fantastic. There's data that shows that a bit of alcohol makes you happy. Who doesn't love a beer on a Friday afternoon. Who doesn't enjoy that first glass of champagne or, you know, or mojito on a beach or whatever. But there is a point of diminishing returns, you know, it's go back to Jeremy Bentham, when he talks about his first cup of coffee in the morning gave him this much pleasure. And then the next less pleasure, etc. It's the same with so many things, right? So if your product. If the diminishing returns kicks in soon, and it ends up being really negative for a person. Gambling, drinking, maybe you know certain games on your phone or whatever, maybe the responsible thing to do is go Okay, fine. Let's try and figure out a way to make money. Because this is addictive and well done to us ensure these people have a good time, but do it in a way that supports them to like. You know, let's drink some beer and some champagne. But let's not do it for taste and taste fine, because that's bad for us. And then if you flip that around, so instead of being concerned that your product or service or whatever thing you produce, has a has the potential to have a negative human footprint, if it has a positive human footprint. Let's take running as a great example. Let's take the, you know the Spartan Race or something like this, if you know it's got a positive for people, go for it. Get them hooked. Think about sports, sports is fantastic. Whether people are playing sports or watching sports, the positives that are associated with sport. Why not turn those people into sports addicts? They're called fans, which fans is another word for consumers. But it's a word for consumers who love it so much. They keep coming back, you know?Dan Harden 37:47Yeah, I love the idea of building in these mechanisms within a product solution, a design solution where it can be responsive. So if there is a waning of the experience, if the experience is falling off, if that third cup of coffee isn't doing it for you anymore, you know, as an analogy to a product to have something in that product, and some software does this, where the where the product begins to adjust itself for a changing condition. There's something interesting there.James Wallman 38:21That's so awesome. Are you designing something like that at the moment? Is that something you're working on? Or is it just I love it?Dan Harden 38:28No, it's just more of a thought picking up on what you just said. And certainly in software, you know, we tried to do that, you know, good, good UX design does that automatically. But in product, it's harder to do, because so many things are, you know, these tangible, material requirements and functionalities, you know, it's like you can't expect your drill to change. And for the contractor that has carpal tunnel syndrome.Dan Harden 38:59I also want to come back to this thing you said, about the starting point is the end. And I think more industrial designers need to think about that. First of all, as an industrial designer, you are automatically a futurist, because you're trying to do is think about, okay, I'm drawing something now I'm CADing something now. But what you need to do is project out into the future, and place your product in the hands and minds of that end user. And will it have the desired effect a year from now or two or five years from now when this finally hits the market? That I think it should have now when you're designing it? And too many designers are designing for the now like they make themselves feel good. They sometimes even feed their ego by creating some something that is satisfying to them. Without thinking about that endpoint. That endpoint is so far in the future sometimes, and the future keeps changing. By the time your design hits the market, it might be irrelevant. It might be like, Oh my gosh. And some designers are often surprised, like, Well, I didn't expect it to be received like that. And it could be either negative or positive. You know, sometimes you just get it right by luck. But the starting point, being the end, there's something there's something really fascinating there.James Wallman 40:22As a trend forecaster and futurist this is the moment I try and pitch my services. Well telling the future, to figure out what's going to happen is, of course, it's the great unknown. There are things you can do. You know, if you think about Schumpeter, the idea of destroying, you know, creative destruction, or you think about the magic of the marketplace means that all sorts of people create all sorts of things, and some of those things flop and fail terribly, and some of them fly and take off. And, and who knew and, you know, it's not when something's created, when someone's created a business model around it that makes it work, you know, innovation is, you know, I guess it gets taught nowadays, and people get it, it's not just having a great idea. It's everything that comes with it. And you know, sometimes people just miss that point so badly. You think about flight is a wonderful example. It wasn't until 1903 that flying literally took off. It was the 80s that has started to reach the masses. You know, it took a long time to affect war, you know. First of all, but wasn't particularly impacted by flying. But of course, the Second World War was crucially around flying. So, I mean, when I try and advise people on doing this, so the way that the way that I work in terms of thinking about what the future is going to look like, it's using this diffusion of innovations. So it's looking at what the actually the structure that I use, it's about the seed in the soil. And the seed is the innovations that I see happening around and the soil is the macro environmental factors that exist. And I mentioned diffusion of innovations, I base my work around Everett Rogers his work, but also using what the RAND Corporation came up with in the 60s and stuff that I've added to this over time. But one of the things that's really interesting, I think is here is that if you look at Everett Rogers would look at five different things to figure out if a innovation was likely to take off.James Wallman 42:22And you can remember there's because BECOS, and the B is for is it better? And better, just to be really clear, is a really moot point. Better could be functionally better, it could be economically better. You need to understand the target market very well.James Wallman 42:41The E though, is it easy to understand? Because things that are complex, just throw people overseas. Is it compatible with how we do things now? So you can think about the ideas that people have for new versions of transport back in the 80s, there was something in the UK called the Sinclair c five, which is this sort of like cross between us a go kart and a car, and it made all sorts of sense for the city. But it was so far removed from what people thought about, it just didn't make any sense.Dan Harden 43:11The segway is a good example. But it was supposed to change our lives. It wasn't compatible with sidewalks.James Wallman 43:18Okay. I mean, it also makes you look like an absolute idiot, which is the O. The O is it observable Now, the thing about the Segway, what's kind of interesting actually is observable because we've all seen tourists looking like idiots on Segway. So segway found the nice, but observable a really good example. Is those city bikes or you have lime scooters where you are presumablyDan Harden 43:41Yes, yeah.James Wallman 43:42Okay. So we don't, we don't really have them so much around here, because they're illegal in the UK. I used when I was in Bordeaux awhile back. The reason that scooters are taken off for adults. I mean, I'm old enough to think that it makes people look silly, but still, is they sold the last mile problem so well. I know last mile is in terms of delivery, but they sold that kind of, you know, if you live in a city, you want to get a short distance away. But you see other people on it, you see that it's convenient way to get about it looks kind of handy and easy.James Wallman 44:13Okay, we're coming to the S actually I got the E and the S are quite simple. The E is easy to try. And the S is simple to understand. So forgive me, the S is simple to understand the E is easy to try, is it right there. And then if you think about Lime, for example, is you put your credit card in and you can take it you can have a go. It's a really easy way to try things. Where this is kind of interesting, I think so Everett Rogers identified these factors. Back in the 60s. And a guy called BJ Fogg at Stanford. He may come across, he's the guy who's known for his tiny habits. He set up the behavioral design practice at Stanford. He's fairly famous for one of his classes that became known as I think the Facebook class because from about 2006 or 7 or something a bunch of people that were in his class used everything he was teaching they about behavioral psychology, and they went on to become, you know, like the growth marketing person at LinkedIn and, and the head of this at Facebook and the head of that, and one of the people in his class set up Instagram, you know. So basically, they took all his tools on how to design behavior, and they used it on humans. It turns out, you can create very addictive products and BJ likes to distance himself from that work as well. And if you've come across Neil's work so Neil studied with him, you know, the guy who wrote Hooked. If you look at PJ focusing, which is B equals M A T, so behavior equals motivation, plus or times ability, and the tears triggers and the A about ability as he talks about the six simplicity factors. So, you know, motivation, we all know what that means. But simplicity factors are the stuff that makes it either easy or hard for you to do something and the six map almost precisely with the BECOS stuff that Everett Rogers figures for ideas that take off.James Wallman 46:12And the six simplicity factors, if I remember them are one is what's the cost, and the cost can be the, the the actual price cost. But it could also be the physical effort involved, or the mental effort involved. He talks about I'll be non deviant, which is like compatible. So for the sake of argument, there was a time when sending somebody a message on LinkedIn or set or looking somebody up on LinkedIn was considered a weird, but now it's fine to do that. He talks about are they simple to understand? Are they easy to train and all these things that might get between you and actually trying this thing? A non routine is one thing that he talks about as well. So if we are not in the habit of doing something you may not do again? Is it better? So you know, is it easy to try? Is it simple to understand? Is it compatible? Is it observable? Do you see what I mean? You can, you can look at the thing that you are creating, and you can run it through this mill. And you can compare it to like I say, this is the seed. So we're analyzing the innovation, the product, the thing that you're making, and you compare that with the soil. I talk about the seed in the soil, because if you can imagine, I don't know how much gardening you do Dan. But if you put a sunflower seedDan Harden 47:31I'm a terrible gardenerJames Wallman 47:32Okay, most of us are nowadays right? We buy plants, we buy seeds. But imagine in those old days you'd buy a sunflower seed, you'd want to get a decent sunflower seed that wasn't dried out and cracked and you know, a week saved from poor stock or whatever. And then you want to put it in to rich alluvial soil, you know, decent compost and then you've watered well etc. And it's exactly the same with any innovation. So any innovation needs to be a decent seed in the first place, but the soil it lands and needs to be appropriate for it as well. So instead of it being dry desert like soil it needs to be rich alluvial soil. And so the way I remember this is BECOS. And the structure here is das steeple is I remember it because there's a dust boat, the German movie, there's a fantastic movie. But DAS is kind of my addition steepness standards. UYou may have come across Pest or Pestle or Steeple, classic at business schools. You probably come across you know, this is about socio cultural trends and economic trends and technology and environment, politics, legal. So you can think about the takeoff of marijuana here. Or you can think about actually what's going to happen with the takeoff of psychedelics in the States. You can see that the innovators, you can see is it better? Maybe I'll come back to this. And that is demographics, aesthetics, and science, which I think have been overlooked in the in the classic Pest Vessel Steeple way of thinking about things. Science is a great example. Until 1964, the consumption of cigarettes in the United States. You can see the graphs, it's amazing. We went up and up and up and up and up and up and up. In 1964, the US Surgeon General made the very clear statement that smoking leads to cancer and then what's happened is smoking is going down and down and down and down.James Wallman 49:18And you can see this in marijuana. It turns out that people that smoke marijuana Do not turn into murderous crazies they just sit around and end up eating a lot of food or whatever right. You can see this is psychedelic so I'm a real believer in that psychedelics will follow a similar path to marijuana. Even though it st seems really weird for people that have never, you know, taken LSD or DMT or whatever and you know, they are quite weird things to take. But if you look at the BECOS side of this. So are they better? Well, they're really good for post traumatic stress disorder. Research in the UK and the States. In the UK, a guy called Robin Carhartt Harris has found that for people with really bad depression, it's really hard to solve people with depression, particularly people with basically on their way to dying. It turns out that this has an impact. It's like 85%, successful, insane numbers. If they could put this in the water. They would you know, it's incredible. So is it better? Is it easy to try? I mean, he's gonna take, yeah, it's scary. It's scary for people, which is holding people back. But yes, it's easy. But it's not that difficult. And it's, you know, there are ways, you know, obviously, it's illegal at the moment too. Is it compatible with how we do things now? Well, we take drugs. Drugs are a thing that people take to make them better, both legal ones and illegal ones. There's the O, is it observable? What's really interesting here, is once you know, somebody who has, I've got a very good friend of mine who used psychedelics to go from having major alcohol and cocaine issues and being a really depressive person. And he, through somebody else, I can't remember who he, he ended up taking it, and he's become happy. Wow, this stuff, you know, it's amazing.James Wallman 51:16And you know, so you guys got the problems of fentanyl in the States. Yeah, that stuff is really bad. So this stuff is actually positive. And then is it simple to understand. Well here's how it works, you take it, in a controlled environment. Michael Pollan's written that fantastic book, how to change your mind about this as well. So you can see how the viewing on this is changing, and why it makes sense. And a few counties in the states are kind of legalizing to make it possible. There are countries that do it too, anyway. And then you can compare and think about, so I mentioned, it was a science that was talking about. So you can take this kind of BECOS structure and the star steeple competitor and think, is my product service experience likely to be relevant in the future? Yes, especially if you use the diffusion of innovations curve, to look at what the innovators are doing today. And maybe even the early adopters, and you can point the ways to the future.Dan Harden 52:12You know, you just said in the last 10 minutes, so many fascinating things that I didn't want to interrupt you. But this BECOS, seed to soil, your notions of simplicity, dos. You know, so many designers, innovators, entrepreneurs, etc, we're looking for, we're looking for tools of understanding, I think, you know, and how do how can we ensure that we're going to create something successful and meaningful and impactful to society and individuals and sustainable. All these values that we always try to instill in our creations?Dan Harden 52:16In foretelling the future, do use something like the BECOS better, easy, compatible, observable, simple as kind of a filter to know whether or not something is more likely to either take hold, like, like your analysis of psychedelic drugs, for example.James Wallman 53:17Yeah.Dan Harden 53:22I love that. And so many things like seed the soil, you know, to designer, the seed would be, you know, the innovation itself, and the soil would be the consumption model. And like, in our case, you know, the construct of capitalism and consumerism, that's our soil, right? So we don't necessarily think see the soil, but it's happening. It's a really great way to think about it.Dan Harden 53:48And simplicity, and your descriptions of simplicity, and breaking it down into cost and effort and being non deviant and non routine. Simplicity to designers is, it's kind of like one of our, our doctrines. You know, we strive for it, it's hard to achieve. Sometimes it's it's so elusive, because the harder you try as a creator, sometimes you're adding complexity, not simplicity. It's so hard to get back to the root of what's really good and really meaningful. And sometimes it is something just utterly simple. And the simplicity. Why is simplicity so beautiful? I don't know what is that? What is that? What's going on psychologically about simplicity? Do humans crave simplicity? Why is something simple beautiful?James Wallman 54:02Wow, I wish I knew the answer to that. I'll be honest, I don't. My wife will quote to me, I'm trying to think of the British philosopher who'd said that beauty always has something strange within it, which I think has a truth in it, because then you remember thinking about that idea of experience versus service. But in terms of simplicity, I think about the Coco Chanel thing about when just before you go out, you take one thing off, you know. What can you remove? But there's research conducted by is it Joseph Goodman, that's shown that people want their stuff. And there's actually a guy called David Robson. He's a science writer and a friend of mine. And he's written something for the BBC the other day about innovators and the great innovators. What you're saying, though, is interesting is the ones that keep going. That we believe that after while going through brainstorming or coming up with ideas that after all, our ideas will tail off. And actually, the research shows the opposite is true. I think about a quote, I used to use talking about this kind of stuff from Johnny Ive about how hard it is to create simplicity. And I think that Dan, I can't. I don't know how many people have you interviewed for jobs with your firm through the years, which is, insane.Dan Harden 55:11Oh god, hundreds, probably thousands you knowJames Wallman 56:04And how many try to impress you with designs, and you just feel Oh, my God, it's too much. And it's only going to be those who can boil it. Think about Jacques Rometty, you know, the, you know, the artist. How he takes away everything that it isn't. And I think maybe that's one of the things we should do with life. And maybe that's one of the problems with consumerism is because all these all this noise, you know, all this incoming noise. With ideas, and this stuff that people are trying to sell us and trying to be this, be that, be the other thing. Maybe that's why Zen Buddhism, and that kind of approach to things and simplicity and minimalism appeals to people. But just to be really clear, I'm not a minimalist at all. Because if you're a maximalist. And this is from a design point, I'm going to borrow what you said there about I want my services to be minimal. And I want my experiences to be maximal. I think we want our lives to be maximal, but in the right ways.James Wallman 57:08So I want complex, interesting conversations with sophisticated interesting people. Yeah, you know, I was looking at hiring someone the other day, and it ended up being really complicated. And it was that moment, I said, Oh, this is a red flag. I sent a really nice, as nice of an email as I could to say, Let's leave this. But I want complex, challenging. You've made me think of so many things that I haven't pulled out of the back of my mind for ages. So thank you for that.James Wallman 57:35But I think he may maximalism in our, you know, in our weekends, in our vacations, in our products. But only the stuff that's really good. If you think about a meal, really simple food cooked really well, is good. I think about some of the best restaurants, the most successful restaurants don't do the fancy food, they don't do the El Bulli kind of you know, crazy stuff. There's a restaurant in London called Jay Shiki. That just does simple food really well.Dan Harden 58:14I think there's a lot to be said about essence. Essence of experience. Essence of expression. You know, it reminds me of Roi Ku, you know, just like so few words. So few intonations so much meaning. And in today's society, it just seems like so many people are distracted with so much stuff. People sometimes lose sight of the fact that some of these simple essential things that life has to offer, they're there for the taking. But it's it's almost like it's so ever present these opportunities to experience the goodness of life. And yet you can't see it. It's almost like radio waves passing through us right now. I can't see it. But there's so much of it coming through us right now even as we speak. Why is that? Maybe there's just so much offered. And it's hard to get the attention of people to really understand Hey, you know what, it's okay to experience the essence. It might be a simple meal. It might be taking 10 minutes to look at a single painting where you start to feel something after not not 10 seconds because everybody wants that that instant, like Hey, where is it? Where's the punch line? You know, like a Rothko. It does not connect with you until you're sitting in a dark room with a Rothko, in a dim light. And after about 10 minutes, all of a sudden you realize oh my god, I'm feeling something. This almost like a deep vibration and understanding of visual vibration. turns into an intellectual vibration. All of a sudden, so much more is offered to you. That's what I find, to be the real meaning of essence. And it's so hard for people to absorb, to first see the essence. And to truly feel it and benefit from it.James Wallman 1:00:21I like what you said. I agree with you. I think that we are essentially tick box travelers. And there are many people who are tick box travelers through life. Who just want to get that thing. And they've done it. You know, if you talk to those people that do a two week, I guess you probably get to do a two week vacation in Europe. And they kind of go to Spain, Italy, Greece. And they're like, yeah, I think the other people that went into our country, they say I did that.Dan Harden 1:00:47Yeah, well, they step out of the tour bus. They take the pictures they get back on the tour bus. It's not the picture, it's experience.James Wallman 1:00:57Yeah, yeah. And maybe it's not their fault. It's definitely not their fault. But the problem is, if you watch too much TV, and you spend too much time online, and you're one of those people who's like, you think about a pinball machine. I think lots of people live their lives like they're in a pinball machine. And they're getting knocked here and pushed there. And, you know, maybe this is about like being on the ocean and pushed by the waves. Yeah, let's go to surfing as a way of thinking. You know, those people just get pushed around, they'll just go wherever. And then there are those people that would fighting against maybe the wave to get out. And then they'll get in there, right? The thing and maybe that's the… I'm warming to this idea of surfing as a metaphor for life. And I'm going to play here. You know, you know, the guys…Dan Harden 1:01:07Play with that for a minute.James Wallman 1:01:43Yeah, because maybe those people haven't learned that if you stop. The way you describe that Rothko picture. And obviously, you have a few in your home, Dan, who doesn't, right?Dan Harden 1:01:59Um, not real Rothko's. Those are all like 40 million a pieceJames Wallman 1:02:04Yeah, but too many people just want to see something and have been there done that tick the box. They think that's life. But the problem with that approach is because you've not paused long enough to appreciate something. And realize…Dan Harden 1:02:22I got to interrupt you because I love this idea of surfing because a surfer knows that that wave is here for about 20 seconds, you know. The good part of the wave. They appreciate that and they see it coming. They nail it. They ride it. The joy is, they know, it's very temporary. And if more people would view life like that, that it is very temporary. There is impermanence everywhere. Certainly in a wave. And every condition around it. You don't know if you're going to hit a rock. You don't know if you're going to be bitten by a shark. Yeah, life is the same way.James Wallman 1:03:05Yeah, there's a guy that taught me to surf. I was in Byron Bay, Australia, writing a piece for a magazine. I think it was not GQ, Esquire magazine. And he taught Elle Macpherson on the same board I was learning on for Elle, I have been in the same place not at the same time, regrettably, but laying down and then standing up. And I remember he said, When a wave would come in, and I am a pretty poor surfer. He was like, right, you know, I caught the first wave. He was like Oh, wow, okay, you're, you're British. And yet, you can actually do this a little. Big surprise. And I jumped off the wave, because I caught the good venues. Like, hold on, that wave has come all the way from the middle of the Pacific. Where was I? Oh, yeah. So that's the Atlantic. Come from the middle of the ocean, you ride it till you can't ride it anymore. And I thought that was a really interesting idea. But I'm totally with you.James Wallman 1:04:02When I give talks about this, this book time and how to spend it, I'll often start by by pointing out. I used to say, I can't think how many seconds it is now. I think it's only 64,000. Whatever it is, there's this idea of the time bank through a French guy. And if somebody gave you $64,000 every day, and at the end of the day, your bank account went to zero. What would you do is the question and the numbers not exactly that. And the answer, then I don't want to jump in is you;d spend as much as you could. Because otherwise, the money's gone. And that's what life is like. You get these 24 hours every day and it's gone. So how you spend it. It's not just about… I guess it's not just about the quantity of that time, but it's the quality of that time. And I think what you're talking about there is about focusing. And you know, Joseph Campbell, who wrote the book, The hero with 1000 faces about the hero's journey, really. He moved From the hero's journey, I think much more into this idea of being the vitality and a bit of feeling alive. And I think way too many people is that what is that wonderful zombie movie from like, late like late 70s, early 80s about that kind of that uses zombies as a kind of as a metaphor for consumerism. Dawn of the living dead, I think it is.Dan Harden 1:05:24Right, right.James Wallman 1:05:26And, you know, too many people are basically living their lives as they've been, you know, turn on the TV, go to work, drink coffee, come home…buy the things you're supposed to buy, you get your better time off. And we, of course, we are alive in moments, but we're too often asleep. And the key is to use our short window that we have to do something and to think about what we're doing.Dan Harden 1:05:51Yeah.James Wallman 1:05:52And that involves stopping in enjoying those moments, rather than moving on to the next moment.Dan Harden 1:05:57James, we've just come out of probably, well, definitely in the last 100 years, one of the strangest periods of time. With this pandemic, and all the fear and uncertainty in our society. And all this discussion about the future and maybe rethinking the ways that w

Discover how you can find more to life by having less. How often do we associate happiness with material possessions? Okay, maybe most of us understand that money can’t buy us happiness, but does that still deter us from wanting the latest model of that cool car, or the bigger house in the nicer neighborhood, or the latest television or cell phone? Our society has become ingrained into thinking that we need the newest models, some of us even believe success comes in the possessions that we hold. This has led to a destructive way of life which author James Wallman calls Stuffocation. As we accumulate material goods, we clutter our houses damaging our mental health and putting our lives in danger. Luckily, society is largely moving away from the consumerism of our past, but how can we become happier while still boosting our economy? Wallman has the solution to cure us of stuffocation while simultaneously contributing to the economy. Keep reading to find out how stuffocation can lead to serious mental illness, how we became so materialistic in the first place, and lastly, how to cure yourself and find a lifetime of peace and happiness. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries.

Tænk hvis det affald eller de restmaterialer, din produktionsvirksomhed smider i containeren hver uge i stedet kunne bruges af en anden virksomhed? Og at dette kunne ske til gavn for miljøet og bedre udnyttelse af de ressourcer, vi har? Det er ikke utopi. For det sker allerede hos virksomheden Upcycling Forum. Mød CEO og Owner Rasmus Falkenberg, som er gæst hos Steffen Max Høgh til en snak om, hvordan de vil revolutionere den måde vi tænker på affald og restprodukter på. Det som vi i dag ser som affald og restprodukter, skal vi i stedet se som ressourcer. Men hvordan gør vi det? Ved at sætte affaldet/restmaterialerne i system og ind i en database, som arkitekter, designere og udviklere kan kigge i for at finde restprodukter til at skabe ting af, fungerer Upcycling Forum som en slags ”supermarked” for affalds- og restmaterialer,. Men de har også partnerskaber og er en slags matchmaking mellem de virksomheder, der har restmaterialer, og de virksomheder, der har brug for materialerne. Du kan høre om: • Hvordan Upcycling Forum griber opgaven an • Hvordan Steffens firma HOLMRISB8 faktisk godt kunne bruge Upcycling Forums database, når de for eksempel får 500 brugte bordplader ind • Nogle spændende cases Upcycling Forum er i gang med, hvor COWI og Arkitema har hyret dem til at finde materialer til to byggerier, hvor kravet til det ene er, at 65% skal være genbrugsmaterialer • Om ”vanens magt” der er svær at bryde. Der skal nytænkning til for at arkitekter, designere og udviklere begynder at tænke restaffald og genbrugte produkter ind, når de skal bygge nyt baseret på genbrug • Om det er billigere eller dyrere at bruge restmaterialer p.t. Nævnt i episoden/Nævnt i denne podcast: • Upcycling Forums hjemmeside https://www.upcyclingforum.dk/ • Buy Less Movement – Livstil hvor man køber meget få ting eller ingenting • 1MillionWomen: https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/ • Stuffocation: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/stuffocation.html Tips, idéer eller ønsker? Skriv til mig på LinkedIn Du er velkommen til at skrive til mig på LinkedIn, hvis du har idéer til emner jeg skal tage op i podcasten Bæredygtig Business. Find mig her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffenmax/ Ros og konstruktive forslag modtages også gerne. Og hvis du vil give Bæredygtig Business en god anmeldelse i din podcastapp vil det være fantastisk.

As our work has become more flexible, our working days have lengthened. While this is fine to hit a short-term deadline, prolonged exposure to stress can create mental health issues and burnout. In today's episode we explore practical ways to manage our technology and develop healthier stress and recovery cycles in our daily lives.   We'll hear more from the neuroscientists Dr. John Coates and Prof. Vincent Walsh about the brain benefits from downtime, and leading athletes, such as former footballer Eniola Aluko and ballerina Victoria Marr, about prioritising your wellbeing. We also find out some great insights about self-awareness from Rugby coach Stuart Lancaster and bestselling author of ‘Stuffocation', James Wallman.   Become a Member Get 50% off the first month of Sporting Edge Membership. Simply visit http://www.sportingedge.com/membership (www.sportingedge.com/membership) and enter the code PODCAST50. Within seconds you'll have 24/7 access to over 600 insights and high performance strategies to help you to reach your potential. We look forward to welcoming you. Links to upcoming webinars and programs: https://sportingedge.com/services/digital-coaching-programmes.html (Digital Coaching Programs) https://sportingedge.com/services/remote-teams-collection.html (Remote Teams Collection)   Resources mentioned: https://www.amazon.com/Hour-Between-Dog-Wolf-Transforms/dp/0143123408 (‘The Hour Between Dog and Wolf' by John Coates) https://blog.rescuetime.com/screen-time-stats-2018/ (RescueTime - Report) https://www.amazon.com/Stuffocation-Living-More-James-Wallman/dp/0241971543 (‘Stuffocation' by James Wallman) https://www.amazon.com/Busy-How-Thrive-World-Much/dp/1455532983 (‘Busy' by Tony Crabbe) https://www.amazon.com/Rest-More-Done-When-Work/dp/1541617169/ (‘Rest' by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang)   Connect with Jeremy Contact hello@sportingedge.com LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnape/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnape/) Twitter https://twitter.com/thesportingedge (https://twitter.com/thesportingedge) Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TheSportingEdge (http://www.facebook.com/TheSportingEdge) Websitehttps://sportingedge.com/ ( www.sportingedge.com)

James has written for, and his opinions have appeared in, many of the world's leading publications, from the New York Times to the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, and Wired. He has appeared on some of the world's leading current affairs TV programmes, including ABC's The Drum, MSNBC's The Cycle and the BBC's Newsnight.His book Stuffocation was published in 2015 by Penguin. This seminal work is about what James believes to be the defining problem, and most important cultural trend, of the 21st century: we have too much stuff, and our culture's materialism has to change – and it is changing.—Recorded live at the global event in Cardigan, west Wales in 2015.Watch James' full talk here: www.thedolectures.com/talks/james-wallman-why-experientialism-is-the-new-materialism

Do you want more free audiobooks like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. Discover how you can find more to life by having less. How often do we associate happiness with material possessions? Okay, maybe most of us understand that money can’t buy us happiness, but does that still deter us from wanting the latest model of that cool car, or the bigger house in the nicer neighborhood, or the latest television or cell phone? Our society has become ingrained into thinking that we need the newest models, some of us even believe success comes in the possessions that we hold. This has led to a destructive way of life which author James Wallman calls Stuffocation. As we accumulate material goods, we clutter our houses damaging our mental health and putting our lives in danger. Luckily, society is largely moving away from the consumerism of our past, but how can we become happier while still boosting our economy? Wallman has the solution to cure us of stuffocation while simultaneously contributing to the economy. Keep reading to find out how stuffocation can lead to serious mental illness, how we became so materialistic in the first place, and lastly, how to cure yourself and find a lifetime of peace and happiness.

Are you into vintage shopping or second-hand style? Join the club. Whether you're glued to Depop, buying high end designer vintage or a committed charity shop trawler, secondhand has lost its stigma in fashion circles.  Recommerce is growing. According to Thredup preloved fashion is on track to eclipse fast fashion within a decade, while 64% of women have either bought or are open to buying used clothes. But... that doesn't mean the world isn't drowning in unwanted stuff.  This podcast goes live on Black Friday. On this holiday and sales frenzy last year, Americans spent $6.2 billion on Black Friday, up 23.6% on the previous year. Much of this haul will end up on the bin. We're still discarding clothing and other unwanted items at a record rate. So what happens to all our stuff when we’re done with it? Meet the recycling obsessive who grew up on a junkyard and now works for Bloomberg. Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet, has a new book out. This one's called Secondhand - Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, and to write it he travelled all over the world talking to the people who deal in trash. In this fascinating interview, we discuss everything from how metals get recycled to the politics of exporting our trash. LOVE THE SHOW? Please share on social media and consider rating and reviewing in your favourite podcast app. Find Clare on Instagram and Twitter, and at clarepress.com  

If the most precious thing we have is time, the most highly prized expertise should be knowing how to spend it well. Yet, busier than ever, do we really understand which experiences bring us joy and success, and which don’t? After all, we’ve learned how to spot the difference between junk foods and superfoods. When you discover the equivalent rules for time, it’ll change how you live your life. My guest on the show today is James Wallman, author of one of my favourite books, Stuffocation. And now in fact author of two of my favourite books, because James is back with his new book, Time and How to Spend It. In the book, James investigates the persistent problem of wasted, unfulfilling time, and finds a powerful answer ― a revolutionary approach to life based on the latest scientific discoveries. At the heart of Time and How to Spend It is the inspiring revelation that, when you play by the new rules, you can actively choose better experiences. This is one of my favourite podcast interviews to date, and that's saying something with more than 220 guest interviewed recorded for Informed Choice Radio. Listen out for James explaining why it's not a lack of free time that's the issue, but choosing to spend that free time on our mobile phones; and why charging your phone outside of the bedroom leads to better sleep and more sex. We talk about experience intelligence, biophilia, and how doing things for other people leads to more happiness, and success. Here's my conversation with James Wallman, author of Time and How to Spend It, in episode 429 of Informed Choice Radio.

On this show, we talked about getting started making money on the side and how you may be sitting on money without knowing it with Jasmine Birtles, author, speaker, well known UK television and radio presenter and founder of Money Magpie. Listen to learn about many money making opportunities you’ve probably never heard of! For the Difference Making Tip, scan ahead to 19:45. You can learn more about Jasmine at MoneyMagpie.com, JasmineBirtles.com, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For a copy of Stuffocation, click here. Please subscribe to the show however you’re listening, leave a review and share it with someone who appreciates good ideas.  You can learn more about the show at GeorgeGrombacher.com, or contact George by clicking here.

Simon Emmett discusses Simple Note 133 - Stuffocation with author Simon Tyler. Our own sense of purpose can become suffocated by the accumulation of purposeless stuff.

WELCOME TO THE SLOW HOME SUMMER SERIES! BROOKE AND BEN ARE TAKING A BREAK OVER JANUARY, SO WE'RE WE REVISITING SOME OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THE PAST TWO YEARS. James Wallman is an ex-adman and trend forecaster - which doesn’t necessarily sound like Brooke’s typical guest - but when you learn he is also the author of Stuffocation and the person who coined the phrase ‘experientialism’ it starts to make a lot of sense. Brooke and James talk about minimalism’s branding issue and why he thinks that experientialism is the way to make a life of less stuff more appealing to the mainstream. They also look at the overwhelming number of choices we all face each day and why experiences will almost always trump stuff. James also had some ridiculously straightforward advice for Brooke when she admits she sometimes feels so defeated by the rampant consumerism happening across the globe. Such a thought-provoking conversation, sure to raise as many questions as it answers. Enjoy! Head over to the blog for a full list of links and books mentioned in today's show. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/slow See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are a handful of books which have genuinely inspired me to live a better life. I've always thought that the measure of a good book is not how many times it is read or even recommended, but how many times you gift it and share the wisdom with others. My guest on the podcast today is James Wallman, author of the groundbreaking book Stuffocation: Living More With Less. Stuffocation is one of those rare books that makes a lasting impact, is regularly re-read, and I'm pleased to gift to my friends. James is a journalist, trend forecaster, speaker, and author. He has written for GQ, the New York Times, the FT, and advised clients such as Absolut, BMW, Burberry, and Nike. James wrote the futurology column in T3 magazine and was editor of The Future Laboratory's forecasting publication. In Stuffocation, James shares intriguing insights on psychology, economics and culture, resulting in a vital manifesto for change. The book has inspired those who have read it to be happier and healthier, and to live more, with less. In today’s episode of Informed Choice Radio, I speak to James about defining Stuffocation, the mental and physical health consequences of having too much stuff, some of the barriers preventing people from experientialism, buying things to facilitate experiences, whether the tide is turning for consumerism, and much more. Welcome to Stuffocation with James Wallman, in episode 165 of Informed Choice Radio. Some questions I ask: -How would you define Stuffocation? -What was the inspiration behind writing this book? -Are there mental and physical health consequences from having too much stuff? -What are some of the main barriers preventing people from experientialism? -Is the tide turning for consumerism? -What are some of the future trends that most excite you? Useful links mentioned in this episode: -Stuffocation: Living More With Less by James Wallman -James on Twitter -The Future Is Here Thank you for listening! To get new episodes of Informed Choice Radio sent directly to your device as soon as they are published, you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Your reviews on iTunes are incredibly helpful and really appreciated. We get notified about each one; please leave a note of your name and website URL so we can mention you in a future episode.

This week on Inspired Edinburgh we have Jamie Ramsay.  Jamie is a British endurance adventurer who in 2016 completed a circa 17,000 kilometre solo and unsupported run from Vancouver to Buenos Aires in aid of CALM, Macmillan and WaterAid.  Unfulfilled in his work, Jamie decided to quit his job and follow his heart. His motivation was a desire to live life on his own terms: running was already his passion, and this would enable him to do something physically demanding and see the world.  This is a fascinating conversation with an incredibly inspirational person. We talk about minimalism, materialism and the book Stuffocation by James Wallman as well as mental health, mindset, purpose and success.   Like our Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/INSPIREDINBURGH  

James Wallman is a noteworthy trend forecaster and futurist, esteemed journalist, keynote speaker and activist, as well as the author of the groundbreaking book Stuffocation: Why We’ve Had Enough with Stuff and Need Experience More Than Ever, which has been described as the intersection of “The Tipping Point and Freakonomics, but with a huge idea at its heart” by the Sunday Times. James has shared his thoughts and forecasts on NPR, BBC, ABC in Australia, and MSNBC, and his writings have been featured in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Time, The Economist, and Wired. He was formerly editor of leading trend consultancy The Future Laboratory’s forecasting publication, and wrote the futurology column in T3 magazine. Recently, James founded The Future is Here, a think tank for a better world.

James Wallman is an ex-adman and trend forecaster - which doesn’t necessarily sound like Brooke’s typical guest - but when you learn he is also the author of Stuffocation and the person who coined the phrase ‘experientialism’ it starts to make a lot of sense. Brooke and James talk about minimalism’s branding issue and why he thinks that experientialism is the way to make a life of less stuff more appealing to the mainstream. They also look at the overwhelming number of choices we all face each day and why experiences will almost always trump stuff. James also had some ridiculously straightforward advice for Brooke when she admits she sometimes feels so defeated by the rampant consumerism happening across the globe. Such a thought-provoking conversation, sure to raise as many questions as it answers. Enjoy! ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ==== Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/slow See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Minimalism, as James Wallman, author of Stuffocation, states is a practice. It's a conscious way of living that positively reinforces that you don't have to be rich to be an experimentalist. With James Wallman as our guest here on GluckRadio, we discuss the importance of having the right people in our lives as opposed to materialistic goods because after all, experience with the people who matter is what stays with us. Material goods are replaceable but people are, in essence, not. To find out more about how to de-clutter, check out James Wallmans book at www.stuffocation.org.

This week on TALK! with AUDREY: Are you gearing up for spring cleaning? Do you have too much stuff? In 1991, the average American bought 34 items of clothing and now we’re buying 64 items every year – that’s something new every five days or so! Trend forecaster, journalist and the author of STUFFOCATION . . .Why We’ve Had Enough of Stuff and Need Experience More Than Ever, James Wallman is my guest. He offers the “big think” approach to decluttering and inspires a new way of living: having less and living more and the potential to transform our lives.

This week on TALK! with AUDREY: Are you gearing up for spring cleaning? Do you have too much stuff? In 1991, the average American bought 34 items of clothing and now we’re buying 64 items every year – that’s something new every five days or so! Trend forecaster, journalist and the author of STUFFOCATION . . .Why We’ve Had Enough of Stuff and Need Experience More Than Ever, James Wallman is my guest. He offers the “big think” approach to decluttering and inspires a new way of living: having less and living more and the potential to transform our lives.

What a breakthrough in science! Tiny robots made of DNA enter your blood stream and destroy cancer cells. Sounds like science fiction but it’s been tried and it works…and a nanobot could be navigating through your body some day looking for baddies. But then again, robots could be primed to take over America’s dirty jobs. Manny the Movie Guy reviews Insurgent. What is “Stuffocation” anyway? Good news for folks who were not allowed to drive Tesla’s. Google’s new luxury watch partner. Which baseball stadium has the best hot dog? The top 10 best lines from the worst movies. Urine-repelling paint and pees back! The church of the not-so-compassionate sprinkler head. Should voting be mandatory? Man Madonna is getting old…she can’t even beat a TV show on the music charts. And finally, all the doctors who told a lady to stop drinking her favorite drink three times a day have long died…she’s still drinking it and attributed her [...]

The actress, script-writer and producer Ruth Jones joins Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles. Known for her role as 'Nessa Jenkins' in the BBC's award-winning sitcom Gavin and Stacey, she's now back on our screens in the comedy drama series Stella. Trend forecaster James Wallman describes why we have more stuff than we could ever need. It's cluttering up our homes and making us feel 'stuffocated'. He explains why, rather than a buy a new watch or another pair of shoes, we should invest in shared experiences. Listener Polly Loxton wrote to Saturday Live about the value of a handwritten letter. She explains why they have been central in her own life. Anna Bailey accompanies Julian Lloyd Webber to a football match at Leyton Orient to find out how he spends his Saturday. A visit to his local launderette inspired Luke Jerram to create the 'Play Me, I'm Yours' project - in which he installed pianos in various locations in 46 cities across the world. An estimated six million people have played or listened to the Street Pianos. He describes how the project has led to marriages, a peaceful protest and the film of a homeless man playing which has gone 'viral'. Inheritance Tracks - the singer and actress Beverley Knight chooses: Touch the Hem of His Garment and A Change Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. Ruth Jones stars in Stella, Fridays, 9pm, Sky 1. Stuffocation by James Wallman, is published by Penguin. Beverley Knight stars in Memphis the Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London and has extended her run until July 2015. Julian Lloyd Webber makes his conducting debut with the album 'And The Bridge is Love', which comes out at the end of the month; and he'll also be touring with his wife the cellist Jia Tschin Lloyd Webber, where he'll be talking about his career.

In a persuasive new book, the trend forecaster James Wallman says that our appetite for material possessions is giving way to a hunger for experiences. How will that shift be reflected in the arts? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.