I produced this podcast a number of years ago and, similar to this site, it was an exploration of overwork, over-scheduling and time poverty. The concept for the podcast was inspired by the work of the organization Take Back Your Time and originally aired on 91.1 WMUA, the University of Massachusetts’, Amherst, and then on 90.3 WAMC, Albany, NY and a couple of other independent and public radio stations around the country. I thoroughly enjoyed putting this podcast together and meeting all of the guests that I interviewed for it. I hope to revisit the concept again sometime soon. Here are some of the episodes.

Episode #1 – What’s an economy for, anyway? – Professors Nancy Folbre & Jim Boyce are challenging the concept of Gross Domestic Product as the only measure of a healthy economy and replacing it with an alternate measure, Gross National Happiness.


Episode #2 – Too Much to Do – Productivity consultant Matt Cornell discusses how he uses the strategies of David Allen’s, “Getting Things Done” to help people streamline their “to do” lists in order to free up time and lessen their stress.

Episode #3 – Time for Teens – Ken Danforth, Director of North Star Self-Directed Learning Center along with some of the teens involved in the Center, talk about non-traditional approaches to education and how it changes their relationship to time.

Episode #4 – The Motherhood Manifesto – Filmmaker and activist John deGraaf discusses his 2006 film about the social issues that mothers deal with in comparison to the ways other countries support mothers and families.

Episode #5 – Creating an Old Fashioned Summer with your Children – Guest Mimi Doe discusses the importance of giving your children “down” time and offers specific suggestions on how to do that.

Episode #6 – Sabbaticals for All – Author and consultant Bonnie Michaels takes a closer look at the benefits of sabbaticals and makes an argument that we all need  to occasionally take a sabbatical during our working lives.

Episode #7 – Too Busy to Sleep – Sleep expert and professor of anthropology Dr. Matthew Wolf-Meyer talks about how our over-scheduled lifestyles affect our sleep and overall wellbeing.

Episode #8 – The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Family Life – Author and professor, Etta Kralovec. discusses the research that shows how homework negatively impacts children and family life.

Episode #9 – Hooked On Our Stuff – Author Stephanie Kaza discusses her book, Hooked!: Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume.

Episode #10 – Youth Sports – Have we Gone Overboard? Writer, social activist and parent Andrea Grazzini Walstrom discusses the high cost of competitive athletics on our children’s wellbeing.

Episode #11 – Slow is Beautiful – Cecile Andrews, with her own particular brand of humor and insight, talks about her book, Slow is Beautiful and the growing slow life movement that is reverberating throughout the world.

Episode #12 – Not Buying It – Author Judith Levine tells us about her book, Not Buying It, My Year Without Shopping and what brought her to examine the ways consumerism impacts all of our lives, why she decided to challenge herself to not shop for a year and what that was like for her and her family.

Episode #13 – Rethinking Retirement – Author and speaker Bruce O’Hara discusses his anti–retirement guide, Enough Already, Breaking Free in the Second Half of Life, where he challenges the conventional wisdom regarding retirement and then offers seven keys to happiness in the second half of life. 

Episode #14 – Creating More Leisure Time – Retired professor Cathy O’Keefe discusses what the term, “leisure” means and how we can all have more of it.

Episode #15 – Birthday Parties Gone Crazy Educator, researcher, therapist, speaker, author, consultant, and community organizer Bill Doherty helps to raise our awareness about the “arms race” between parents when it comes to how they celebrate their children’s birthdays and offers alternatives to the constantly bigger and better approach.

Episode #16 – Challenging the Overwork Ethic – Author, work-life advocate and speaker Joe Robinson, discusses his book,  “Work to Live,” a road map to reduce burnout and work overload.