—Systemic change begins with personal change—
In her own words:
I’m Holly Whitaker (she/her), and I’m the author of the New York Time’s Bestseller, Quit Like a Woman, and the founder of Tempest, Inc. (acquired by Monument, 2022).
I’m a person in long term recovery who thinks that the key to everything we’re looking for, individually and societally, comes from the work we do on ourselves; everything starts when we stop running and because of that, it follows that everyone deserves the opportunity to engage in recovery. (Everyone!)
If I had to choose professional labels for myself, I’d choose writer, researcher, teacher, student. I prefer laptops to pens, cats to dogs. I enjoy gardening, piles of books, creating stuff, talking on the phone, and napping. I drink a lot of coffee. I find life to be excruciating but I also am thrilled by the mystery of it, the way it never stays the same. I swing left; equity, equality, and social justice are core to me and core to the alleviation of addiction. I believe all humans are inherently and basically good. Love ethic and non-violence are my north stars.
I do not have all the answers, and the more I learn the more I’m convinced I know nothing at all. My work is personal and subjective and how I make sense of the world and my place in it.
I’m currently working on my second book (Random House) and trying to write here and there regularly, mostly in my weekly newsletter, because writing is what I like to do the most.
I don’t know you but I care about you. You deserve a soft place to land. It is my sincerest hope that my work is of benefit.
I read Holly's book because I see us as a society and individuals addicted to what pollution brings. What can we learn from someone who overcame a different addiction? Holly's book is the opposite of a downer. It's spirited, researched, personal, and engaging. She reveals with infectious anger how society profited at wrecking her life, telling her poison was normal and good. Most of all, she shares how before stopping her addiction she thought sobriety looked impossible to achieve and boring if she did, but after sobriety, she loved life beyond what she could have imagined and beyond what an addiction-based society conditioned her to expect. We live in a society built on addiction. We created it. Almost every sentence in her book applies directly to our addictions to what pollution brings: flying, social media, fashion, and so on, all lowering our quality of life, controlling us, hiding from us reality and how joyful life can be. In our conversation we talk about the forces around us hell-bent on addicting us, creating craving and emotion to lock us in and keep us coming back. She agrees on how her experience applies to pollution.