Living without money—or at least paring down your reliance on it—is easier than it looks and brings a surprising number of rewards, says Mark Boyle, aka “The Moneyless Man,” in a new interview with noted author and Green Interview host Silver Donald Cameron. The interview, which coincides with the release of Mark Boyle’s latest book, is posted on The Green Interview website (www.thegreeninterview.com). Readers can link to Boyle’s new book, The Moneyless Manifesto, and his previous book, The Moneyless Man, through the site.
In 2008, Mark Boyle began an experiment to live without money for one year. His first book, The Moneyless Man, chronicles his year scavenging in dumpsters, brushing his teeth with homemade cuttlefish toothpaste, but also making friends, reading books, enjoying nature, and celebrating a cash-free Christmas. Today, he is still happy to be the “Moneyless Man.”
“You'd be completely surprised by how much you can actually do without ever needing money. It's just actually thinking about the world in a different way,” says Boyle. “It’s not just about money: It’s a design for life.”
In this full-length interview, Boyle explains his “design for life” and demonstrates that reducing our reliance on money can help build stronger communities and friendships, reduce stress, make us more physically fit, and create a cleaner environment.
“Mark is an amazing young guy, full of idealism and Irish charm,” says Cameron, who interviewed Boyle in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, England. “But he's part of a worldwide trend to reduce, re-use, re-purpose and stop wasting stuff. I remember doing a lot of this during World War II – well, this is another war, but this time we're fighting our own carelessness and wastefulness. As the immortal Pogo once said, we have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Boyle, a former businessman from County Donegal, Ireland, points out that we traditionally talk about the benefits of money, but we overlook the way it distances us from the land, animals and people who produce the things we buy. “We've become consumers of everything,” he told The Green Interview.
The Green Interview is a subscription website of extended interviews produced and directed by Chris Beckett in partnership with Silver Donald Cameron. The programs feature some of the world’s greatest thinkers, writers and observers—people whose ideas and perceptions are leading the way to a new era of sustainability. Visitors to the site can watch one interview free of charge and browse biographies and transcripts. In addition, the interviews are available in thousands of libraries worldwide through GreenR, the environmental database service of Gale Cengage Learning.
For further information about this interview or others at www.thegreeninterview.com, please contact: Silver Donald Cameron, host and executive producer, at sdc@silverdonaldcameron.ca or 902-446-5577.
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