Listen to “Rewilding Your Yard,” with Dr. Doug Tallamy
For the sake of the planet, an entomologist asks you to adopt a bug’s eye view of your own backyard—and then tear out your lawn.
Listen to “A Conversation with the Compost King”
Mark Sturges has mastered an agricultural art as old as agriculture itself: cultivating live compost.
Listen to “The Cowboy Folklorist”
Though he calls himself simply a “songster and storyteller,” Andy Hedges is compiling a rich, unique audio archive of cowboy music and poetry—and bringing the legends of the genre together on CD and stage.
The Case for a Maintenance Mindset
A conversation with Stewart Brand, one of the most influential thinkers and pioneers of our time, still known for his 1968 creation, the Whole Earth Catalog. We talk to him about his latest project: a book, being publicly drafted online, entitled “Maintenance: Of Everything”
Written by TODD OPPENHEIMER
The Great Washing Machine Scam
As consumer technology improves, household mainstays like the basic washing machine keep sprouting new, unnecessary functions. Many of those functions are difficult if not impossible to repair, which makes the life expectancy of our household appliances plummet. What’s going on here? Our journalistic gumshoe hits the streets to figure out who’s pulling the strings in the appliance world.
Written by AARON BRITT
Try This at Home: A Q&A with Kyle Wiens, Right-to-Repair Crusader
Craftsmanship’s Contributing Editor Jeff Greenwald caught up with Kyle Wiens, co-founder and CEO of iFixit, the world’s largest repair community, to talk about what makes repair a craft—and where the right-to-repair movement is headed next.
Written by JEFF GREENWALD
Mending: An Ancient Craft for Modern Times
Traditional DIY basics like clothing repair have become covetable knowledge again. With the fast-fashion machine on notice for its abysmal climate footprint, could this be mending’s big moment?
Throwaway Nation
The practice of deliberately making goods not meant to last, or be repaired—a concept called “planned obsolescence”—was invented in America, perfected in America, and can now claim victory in leaving the U.S. with the world’s largest waste stream. Why are we so addicted to buying stuff that will soon be worthless? And what can we do to get off this destructive treadmill?
Written by JULIA SCHEERES
Listen to “Keeping the Beat: Custom-Made Conducting Batons”
A good conductor can lead an orchestra with almost anything — even a chopstick. Leonard Bernstein was known to conduct a full symphony with just his eyebrows. Why, then, in this age of cheap manufacturing, are handmade, customized batons still in demand? Written by JEFF GREENWALD Introduction by PAULINE BARTOLONE Narrated by JEFF GREENWALD Produced…
