Minimalism: Less Isn’t More

Minimalism. In a world of abundance and excess, this one word means anything but seems to gain more traction than ever. The minimalist lifestyle holds many promises; among them the idea of having less to be more. The variations of minimalism seem to be endless; from Marie Kondo’s ‚KonMari‘ method to ‚Digital Minimalism‘ popularized by Cal Newport. Which variation of Minimalism then, is the ‚correct‘ one? Or does such a concept even exist? If it does, can minimalism truly be the answer to the world’s current issues such as overconsumption?

In this podcast episode we speak with two persons who practice different strains of minimalism as well as an academic who provides a critical view on lifestyle minimalism:

– Karina Schmidt, a KonMari consultant based in Munich, who explained to us the inner workings and philosophy of the KonMari method and how it relates to minimalism

– JeanMarc, a PhD student and an AI engineer;  practitioner of digital minimalism based on the book by Cal Newport, who looks at minimalism from the angle of digital technologies

– Dr. Miriam Meissner, assistant professor in Literature & Art at Maastricht University who has done research on minimalism through her project ‚From
Minimalist Forms to Post-Growth Economies?‘ and provided us with her critical view of minimalism and its denominations