—Systemic change begins with personal change—
From Alden' home page:
I’m an award-winning journalist, sustainable fashion expert, and author of To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick – and How we can Fight Back. Buy it in physical, audio, or digital form wherever you purchase your books.
I’ve written investigative pieces and deep dives on innovation, materials, and consumer trends for The New York Times, Wired, The Cut, Vox, Vogue, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar, Quartz, Inc. Magazine, Glamour, Popular Science, Refinery29, Vogue Business, Craftsmanship Quarterly, and more. I’m also the founder and editor of EcoCult, a leading international information hub on sustainable and ethical fashion, where I and contributors explain the science and sustainability of fashion to shoppers and industry pros alike.
I frequently speak on and moderate panels on the topic of sustainability in New York City and around the world and conduct in-depth research for non-profit organizations looking for answers on how to move the industry forward. I’ve been interviewed on the topic of sustainability for W Magazine, the BBC, NPR, Reuters, Fortune, CBC, The Cut, Al Jazeera, Harper’s Bazaar, and Teen Vogue.
Many people think sustainability requires fixing everything or else we'll collapse. The Spodek Method creates a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not, as they might hope, a mindset shift followed by perfection. Alden has had her electronic bike in Vermont for some time but hasn't ridden it. She's used doing the Spodek Method as her excuse to ride it, but it's taken time. This time she used it and you'll hear both how she got it working as well as the challenges. As tends to happen with acting on sustainability, even the challenges end up rewarding.
I ask guests to do episodes 1.5 when they tell me they couldn't do their Spodek Method commitment or keep postponing. Sometimes they say they don't want to share that they didn't do it. But experience has shown that talking about that vulnerability by sharing that they didn't do it overcomes it. Then redoing the Spodek Method usually leads to it working better than expected. The goal isn't perfection, after all. It's to create experiences that prompt emotions they like. Alden wasn't doing her ebike commitment, as you'll hear in this episode. She also shares some of her priorities in the rest of life. Many people think they don't have time for sustainability, but that view is a red herring. The Spodek Method acts on strong emotions the person likes. Emotion and values are related. To manifest powerful emotions is pretty close to living by your values, which is what our time is for. We redid the Spodek Method. Listen for yourself, but I'd say she enjoyed the process. She came up with a new commitment. She also shared why she expects this commitment will be easier. We also shared common natural joys like foraging, permaculture, and wild food.
Since recording this conversation, I've mentioned to a lot of people, "you wouldn't believe the situation with dyes and poisons in our clothes." The most common response has been something like, "Oh yeah, I've heard. It's terrible." Then I share some of what Alden shares in this conversation and they say, "Wow, I didn't realize it was that serious," and become very interested to learn more. Our clothing touches us intimately. Microfibers enter our lungs. Our children, everyone is affected. You'll value learning from Alden in this conversation, then reading her book To Dye For, then acting personally, then acting politically.