Slow is Beautiful

We're hammered, we're slammed, we're out of control. Happiness is on the decline in some of the most affluent countries in the world and North Americans are troubled by the destructiveness of a lifestyle devoted to money and status. Yet no-one seems to have a clue how to exit from the Fast Lane.... Published in 2006 by British Columbia's New Society Publishers, Slow is Beautiful analyzes the subtle consumer, political and corporate forces stamping the joy from our existence and provides a vision of a more fulfilling life through the rediscovery of caring community, unhurried leisure, and life affirming joie de vivre. Host Jon Steinman was recently in Seattle, Washington, where author Cecile Andrews calls home. Jon sat down with Cecile at her home in the Phinney neighbourhood of the city. Food, as Cecile Andrews suggests, is a metaphor for life, in that our relationship to food is also suggestive of our relationship to living and how we connect with the world around us, whether it be plants, animals, people…. or ourselves. Cecile's book is similar to the way Deconstructing Dinner educates listeners about food, in that Slow is Beautiful deconstructs our consumer driven society in order to understand how we perceive happiness, what factors influence this perception, and how it affects our ability to feel alive. Guests Cecile Andrews, Author, "Slow is Beautiful, New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre" (Seattle, WA) - Is the author of The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life (HarperCollins 97). A former community college administrator, Cecile has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and affiliated scholar at Seattle University. She is founder of the Phinney Ecovillage in Seattle. Her work has been featured in the PBS video "Escape from Affluenza" and the TBS video "Consumed by Consumption", CBSNews "Eye on America", New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, and various PBS and NPR programs. Cecile received her doctorate in Education at Stanford University and gives workshops and presentations; she has written a column for the Seattle Times; and she has co-hosted a local NPR program.