Our relationship with our stuff is broken. What was once fixed is often tossed into landfills. Repairs today are more expensive than the prices of many new clothes, gadgets, and household appliances.
Large manufacturers restrict the repair of their goods by limiting the availability of parts and repair information. Their policies sparked a consumer backlash and a growing right-to-repair movement. This week, The Federal Trade Commission said it wants to give consumers new rights to fix devices and limit "unfair anti-competitive restrictions" by manufacturers.
Our guest, Sandra Goldmark, is a leader in the movement to demand better “stuff.” She doesn’t just want to help us clear away clutter—she aims to move us away from a throwaway culture, to teach us to reuse and repurpose more thoughtfully. We discuss her new book, "Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet,” and the case for a circular economy.
Read moreMuch of the West has just lived through one of the worst June heatwaves in decades. Many states could be in a drought all this summer. From California and Arizona to the mountain West, dangerous heatwaves are almost becoming the norm.
The threat of more devastating wildfires prompted calls for reforms of the nation's fire management policies, and are a clear sign that the impacts of climate change are now being felt.
Our guests are Guardian journalists Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano, authors of the book, “Fire In Paradise: An American Tragedy", a harrowing account of the most destructive wildfire in a century. Both Dani and Alastair reported extensively on the Camp Fire in 2018, and this year's megafires in California, Oregon, and Washington.
Read moreShe lived in Seattle and covered science, climate change, and the environment for NPR for more than a decade. Most of her friends and colleagues were liberals or progressives. Then in 2018, journalist Ashley Ahearn made a big jump, moving with her husband to one of the most conservative counties in rural Washington State.
What did this public radio reporter learn from her dramatic change in lifestyle?
In this episode, we learn about the profound rural-urban divide in America, and what Ashley discovered about her new neighbors and herself when she switched from the city to the country, now living on a 20-acre property with a horse and a pickup truck. We also discuss how politics and views of the land and climate differ greatly according to where people live.
Read moreWe’ve made it to our 300th weekly episode! While it’s easy to congratulate ourselves for being among the few podcasts to produce this many shows, Jim and Richard are most proud of our extraordinary range of guests.
During our first six years together, we've often highlighted out-of-the-box thinkers, who share ideas that are too rarely discussed: People who speak about solutions through an independent lens— neither firmly left nor right.
For this episode, we revisit interviews with six guests— or roughly 2% of all the people we've spoken with for "How Do We Fix It?" We begin with the public intellectual and problem solver Philip K. Howard, who was our very first guest. Others featured here are Claire Cain Miller of The Upshot at The New York Times, Mike Rowe, who became famous with the TV show "Dirty Jobs", science evangelist, Ainissa Ramirez, Jerry Taylor, President and Founder of The Niskanen Center, and R&B musician Daryl Davis, who has personally persuaded more than 200 men and women to quit white supremacist groups.
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