Starter episode: “How Sarah Organizes Her Life”
Minimalism — a lifestyle that emphasizes owning fewer material possessions — has snowballed over the past few years, spurred by figures including the tidying guru Marie Kondo and two Ohio natives known as the Minimalists. Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, longtime friends have built the Minimalists brand with books, a Netflix documentary and this long-running podcast, and their affable, nondogmatic approach is hugely appealing. Both were formerly in the sales world, so their anticapitalist mind-set is backed up by specific insights into scarcity marketing and other sly tactics that make us all want to buy more stuff. Beyond minimalism and decluttering, Millburn and Nicodemus also explore the factors that can drive consumption, like loneliness, trauma and addiction.
Starter episode: “The Minimalist Checklist”
Walk into the self-help section of any bookstore, and you’ll be confronted with titles by gurus of every stripe, promising to help you overhaul your life. The selection is so overwhelming that even if you’re in the market for radical transformation, it’s hard to identify which books have actual wisdom to offer. Enter Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer, who live by the rules of a different self-help tome in each episode of their podcast, sharing their real-time experiences and their takeaway lessons from books including classics like “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” and “The Secret.” Billed as part self-help show and part social experiment, “By the Book” applies a critical but never meanspirited lens to the books in question, and Greenberg and Meinzer are so committed to their task that even the duds provoke interesting conversation.
Starter episode: “The Five Love Languages”
There’s no shortage of podcasts out there offering life hacks — tidbits of wisdom that can help you navigate daily life more smoothly and efficiently — but this BBC Radio version is more insightful and rigorous than many of its competitors. The show focuses not just on self-care and self-improvement but on how those things play into creating a better world. The hosts, Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton, take an empathetic and earnest approach to subjects like environmental justice, mental illness and disability, and although the show is primarily geared toward teenagers and young adults, it offers wisdom and perspective that will resonate at any age. “Life Hacks” officially wrapped up its run back in the fall of 2020, but it has since returned for a few follow-up mini-series offering career advice for the post-Covid era and tips on how to make your life more eco-friendly.
Starter episode: “Grief With Katy Winship and Charlotte Henly”
As the show’s title suggests, Dana K. White is brutally honest about her own history of disorganization and her understanding of what it’s like to feel “completely overwhelmed” at home. After more than 10 years of “de-slobification” (a process she says is never-ending), White shares the cleaning, organizing and decluttering strategies that helped her to conquer the mess, while also delving into the mind-set changes behind it all. Although most episodes are centered on tips and Q&As, some have White interviewing guests who offer a different perspective on organization, like her recent conversation with a “cleanout expert” whose job is to restore order to the homes of hoarders.
Starter episode: “Getting Past the Tough Spots”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
