S01E03: Overconsumption
Episode 3 takes an introspective approach, focusing on why we, as consumers, are so susceptible to wanting more than we need. By overconsuming, we are fast-tracking climate change, destroying ecologies, exponentially increasing waste, and finding ourselves caught on a hamster wheel. While materialism gives us a temporary high as it feeds our insecurities, it does not resolve them. Conscious consumers choose and invest in brands that reflect their values, resisting advertising and peer pressure. Making product prices reflective of the true environmental and human cost might also temper consumerism, but as long as we measure countries by gross domestic product and companies by revenue, deleterious consumption will remain a priority for governments and private sector. So collective change is the only way to address systemic issues.