This episode originally aired on June 4, 2024. We're about to break ground on season three, the soil outside is warming up and we're ready to get our hands in the dirt. So we wanted to revisit this episode as we prep our gardens for spring.

Stoops, balconies, and windowsills are ripe for growing food. Today, we're riding out the ripple effect that urban gardening can have on our lives and the planet.

Second Nature is your community for practical, sustainable living. On this episode, we're getting inspiration and practical tips to start small, fruitful home gardens in urban spaces. We're also talking about the carbon footprint of home gardens and realizing the ripple effect that growing our own food can have on our lives and the environment.

🌎 To see photos of our contributors and their gardens as well as citations, and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Second Nature is a podcast by Commons, the sustainable spending app that tens of thousands of people use to track their footprint. Earn rewards for climate-friendly purchases and find new, action-based content in the app every week. Download the app and join our June Collective Challenge: Sustainable Transit.

Episode credits

• Listener contributions: Sameera Mokkarala, Lindsay Kerns, Daria Panova, Brian Stancheski, Tara Haug, Rooey
• Featuring: Nelson ZêPequéno and Sanchali Seth Pal
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

This episode originally aired on July 9, 2024. As more and more people are boycotting big brands like Amazon, we thought it was the perfect time to bring back this episode about how ditching convenience culture can actually make us more sustainable citizens.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our use of Amazon has skyrockted, making the company the second biggest U.S. parcel carrier after the US Postal Service.

Amazon has become the poster child for convenience culture, but the time we save for the sake of convenience is putting us in financial and carbon debt. In this episode, we're grappling with our fraught relationship with our Amazon Prime subscriptions and getting practical tips to break free from convenience culture and start shopping more sustainably.

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On this episode, you'll hear:

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• Listeners share their complex, conflicted feelings about using Amazon.
• MIT research scientist Erez Yoeli shares how we can have a more sustainable relationship with Amazon and how to close the action vs intent gap.
• How Amazon gets you to buy so much stuff and how its fast-paced shipping comes at the cost of workers' health and pay.

🌎 For resources, photos of our contributors citations, and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode credits

• Listener contributions: Daria Panova, Diana Holguin, Freya Dumasia, Karen Jean and Rachel Martinson, Katee Hui, Kimberly Foley, Lawrence Hott, Miriam Jornet, Nicole Collins, Rozalia Agioutanti‍
  Featuring: Erez Yoeli and Sanchali Seth Pal‍
  Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
  Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

This episode originally aired on May 29, 2024. As we're prepping for season 3, we're revisiting this episode in honor of our February Collective Challenge in the Commons app: Boycott Fast Fashion. Join us!

Fast fashion is cheap, but the low cost to customers comes at a high cost to garment workers, communities, and the environment. So, how do we break free from the fast fashion cycle?

Second Nature is your community for practical, sustainable living. On this episode, we're commiserating with listeners over the allure of fast fashion and getting real tips to break free from it. Plus, we're doing the math on the impact of buying less fast fashion and talking to Kestrel Jenkins (journalist and host of Conscious Chatter) about the human cost of fast fashion.

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On this episode, you'll hear:

• Practical guidance from real-life, former fast fashion shopaholics.
• An interview with journalist and Conscious Chatter host Kestrel Jenkins about the human cost of fast fashion and how to recenter the supply chain in our buying habits.
• What happens when get this right? Commons CEO and founder Sanchali Seth Pal does the math on how ditching fast fashion can make a real carbon impact.

🌎 To see photos of our contributors, citations, and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Second Nature is a podcast by Commons, the sustainable spending app that tens of thousands of people use to track their footprint. Earn rewards for climate-friendly purchases like plant-based restaurants, and join collective challenges. Download the app and join May's collective challenge, Secondhand Shopping.

Episode credits

• Listener contributions: Alyssa Barber, Drew Crabtree, Freya Dumasia, Hattie Webb, Kellie Rana, Lawrence Hott, Madeline Streilein, Miriam Jornet, Romina Román, Rozalia Agioutanti, Tavia Anon, Willa Stoutenbeek
• Featuring: Kestrel Jenkins and Sanchali Sate Pal
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild
• Fact checking: Sophie Janaskie‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

We're excited to hear from your for season 3! Fill out this form to start your submission to Second Nature: https://j09c5.app.link/e/KfZvWw9izPb

After you fill out the form, you'll receive questions based on the topics you chose, with details about how to submit your audio.

At the end of this call for submissions, you heard the voices of listeners Jordan Webb, Cindy, and Artie Sadahiro.

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

When you’re trying to live more sustainably, fashion can be hard to navigate. The industry is ripe with greenwashing that masks exploitative practices for people and planet. But sustainable fashion is an expansive, exciting world of circularity, repair, and trustworthy, responsible brands.

On this episode (our season 2 finale!), we’re coming face-to-face with the cost conversation when it comes to sustainable fashion, getting real about overconsumption, envisioning a practical future for the industry with fashion expert Samata Pattinson, and finding out what sustainable fashion means to you. Plus, we’re talking to Commons’ Carbon Strategy Manager Sophie Janaskie about what to look for in a sustainable brand.

➡️ If you’re struggling to find sustainable fashion brands that you can trust, we got you. The Commons team has researched and rated hundreds of fashion brands so you can skip the greenwashing. Check it out here: thecommons.earth

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Season 3 submissions coming soon!

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Alexa Rivera, Cindy, Danielle Bird, Faith Winston, Liv, Obehi Ehimen, Verity
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0
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A third of the food we produce goes to waste, and a shocking amount of that waste happens in our own homes. The good news is that fighting food waste is easy with a few life hacks up your sleeve. And even better, it'll save you money too.

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In this episode, we hear what types of food our community struggles with and get their tips to curb the waste. We're asking plastic-free, low-waste chef Anne-Marie Bonneau about her recipes and tips to eat our food before it becomes waste. We're also reckoning with the amount of money we're tossing out with our food waste and finding out some surprising upsides to food delivery.

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amea Wadsworth, Anandi Yadav, Cindy, Jessica Tucker, Jordan Webb, Nick Blocha, Shayda Soleiman, Sierra
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0
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We’re eating way too much meat. An unsustainable, unhealthy amount of meat. If you’re looking for one way to drastically improve your health and carbon footprint — plant-based eating is it. But even if you’re not going fully plant-based, reducing your meat intake is a huge step in the right direction.

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In this episode, we hear how our community has noticed a difference in their health since eating more plant-based, how much of an emissions impact we can make by eating fewer hamburgers, and we’re talking to Professor and Nutrition Scientist Christopher Gardner about exactly how meat impacts our bodies.

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Diana Holguin, Drew Crabtree, Elisabeth, Miriam Jornet, Will, Willa Stoutenbeek, Brian Stancheski
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

When we need or want something, our first thought is often, "Where can I buy it?" But what if our first thought was: "I wonder if my neighbors have it?" Buy Nothing groups and free groups are community-rooted solutions for overconsumption and how much overconsumption costs us and the planet.

Whether you're looking for empty plastic containers for a craft or you want to give away an old Kindle you don't use, these groups are a great way to realize the resources and generosity of our neighbors.

On this Community Voices episode of Second Nature, we're diving into the generous, thrifty, free world of free groups and Buy Nothing groups to discover new opportunities to connect with community and find new value in our stuff.

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Taylor Barkley, Morgan Gallagher, Diana Holguin, Madeline Streilein, Nick Blocha
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0