Counting The Mental Costs Of Our Possessions w/ Minimalist Evangelist Joshua Becker

The Kevin Miller Podcast

Kevin Miller

Nutrition, Relationships, Mental Health, Education, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Medicine, Life Sciences, How To

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Author David Foster Wallace is credited with a story in a commencement speech, where he shares, "There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says 'Morning, boys. How's the water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says 'What the hell is water?'" We live in a culture where the expectation is to have absolutely everything. And more. Obviously there is a material cost to everything. Money. And it takes time to make money. So we cost ourselves a lot of work to afford all the stuff. But regardless. Even if you win the lottery and can easily afford anything. Having stuff takes up our mental space, and I don’t think we consider this. I sure didn’t. I was just like the fish. Stuff? What stuff? I don’t feel I bought things needlessly. Or for status. I had a big family. If we felt we needed something? Get it. Maybe get two. If someone might need it, let's have it on hand. This had its value. But my gosh. There is just stuff. Everywhere. I ultimately felt so tied down by it all. So, my guest is Joshua Becker, the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website dedicated to inspiring others to find more life by owning less. His websites welcome over 1M readers each month and have inspired millions around the world to consider the practical benefits of owning fewer possessions and given them the practical help to get started. He is an international speaker and the #1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of several books, the newest of which is, Uncluttered Faith: Own Less, Love More, and Make an Impact in Your World. I am on a constant quest to…pair down. Yesterday, as of this recording, I accompanied two of my daughters in talking through everything in their rooms. Rooms I think most would feel were sparse. The result of questioning each item? Two trash bags and two boxes full of clothes and…stuff. And an entire big bag of trash. Feels like a breath of fresh air. Space to…contemplate. Create. Sign up for your $1/month trial period at shopify.com/kevin Go to shipstation.com and use code KEVIN to start your free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome. I'm Kevin Miller, and this is a podcast to elevate your experience of life, an experience
0:07.6	you're creating. In this episode, counting the mental costs of our possessions, it was author
0:16.7	David Foster Wallace, who's credited with a story that he did in a commencement speech where he
0:23.2	shares, there are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish
0:27.8	swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, morning, boys, how's the water? And the two
0:32.2	young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks at the other and says,
0:36.0	what the hell is water?
0:44.9	Well, we live in a culture where the expectation is to have absolutely everything and more.
0:49.6	Obviously, there's a material cost to everything, money, and it takes time to make money. So we cost ourselves a lot of work to afford all the stuff.
0:52.3	But regardless of that, even, even if you
0:54.7	win the lottery and can easily afford anything with no time or effort to get it. Having the stuff
1:00.5	we just continue to find takes up our mental space. And I just don't think we consider this.
1:07.1	I sure didn't. I was just like the fish. Stuff? I mean, well, what stuff? It's stuff we need. I don't
1:12.6	feel like I bought things needlessly or for status. I had a big family. If we felt we needed something,
1:18.0	so we'd get it. Maybe we should get too. And if someone might need something, well, let's just have it on hand and,
1:24.2	again, have another one. And in truth, there's a lot of value to that concept i
1:30.6	experienced some value but oh my gosh then there's just stuff everywhere everywhere that
1:38.9	ultimately felt so tied down by it and lost in all of it. Overwhelmed myself. So my guest, Joshua Becker,
1:50.2	Joshua is the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website dedicated to inspiring others
1:56.3	to find more life by owning less, literally, which I don't think that's a popular concept, and yet I look
2:04.1	at the people I most revere and they're not overwhelmed and inundated with their stuff.
2:11.0	Joshua's website welcomes over a million readers per month and has inspired millions around
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kevin Miller, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kevin Miller and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.