Welcome to age, the podcast from 40 Hearts where four people pull a topic from a trash can and see where it goes. This week: Materials. Reggie, Tim, Mary, and guest host Cat Slater pull the topic from the can and immediately the room gets philosophical. Cat talks about quality over cheap synthetics and her dream of becoming a cobbler. Mary flashes back to Japan and the cultural reverence for natural materials. Reggie goes back to his BFA in graphic design, where finishings and materials were the whole game. And Tim reflects on his time as a furniture repairman and seeing how things are made from the ground up. They dig into Japanese denim that you're only supposed to wash three times, fast fashion and beaches full of disposable fabric, wabi sabi and featuring material's true nature instead of hiding it, and why fiber arts reveal the maker in the material. There's talk of the true cost of a handmade sweater, Marie Kondo and clutter as intergenerational trauma, sentimental value versus aesthetic preference, and whether your parents' oak furniture has to live in your garage forever. Cat shares gathering the best tortillas and cheese in her mom's Costa Rican town and building an altar for a funeral with materials gifted by the whole community. Cat confesses she made her five year old go through the Marie Kondo method and they never fought about clothes again. Tim opens up about homeownership as the American dream versus stewardship. And Reggie wonders if his son's generation values digital materials more than physical ones, buying Minecraft skins instead of caring about their actual living space. They get into land ownership and colonialism, the flyer debate and whether bad design is objectively bad, brands as judgment and the materials we're judged by, death rituals and community as the fabric that holds us together, fear versus love and the city without walls, and why the promised land might be the place where you let your guard down. There's the realization that materials connect us to the maker, that we've turned homes into assets instead of shelter, that community is the material we're all woven from, and that maybe the most radical thing we can do is stop fearing each other and start building the village we're missing. It's sprawling, it's warm, it's a little mystical, and it doesn't resolve cleanly. But what if that's the point? Follow Reggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reggietidwell/ Follow Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timscroggs/ Follow Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-greene/ Follow Cat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catalina-slater/ Produced by Mary Greene. age the podcast is edited and engineered by Will Canady. All episodes are filmed at the 40 Hearts Studio in Asheville, NC. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Pulling the Topic - Materials 00:04:05 Quality Over Quantity: Japan and the Value of Materials 00:11:09 Fast Fashion, Cheap Materials, and Environmental Impact 00:15:33 Wabi-Sabi and Featuring Material's True Nature 00:18:11 Fiber, Weaving, and the Maker in the Material 00:20:26 The True Cost: Time, Labor, and Gratitude 00:22:55 Marie Kondo, Clutter, and Intergenerational Relationships with Stuff 00:29:21 Sentimental Value vs. Aesthetic Preference 00:33:55 Land, Ownership, and Colonialism 00:39:03 Homeownership, the American Dream, and Stewardship 00:45:28 Digital Materials: Minecraft, Skins, and the Next Generation 00:49:33 Process, Craft, and Warren Wilson's Fiber Arts 00:52:26 Form, Function, and the Flyer Debate 00:59:25 Brands, Judgment, and the Materials We're Judged By 01:03:09 Costa Rican Community: Gathering the Best Materials 01:04:30 Building Altars, Death Rituals, and Community Materials 01:11:58 Fear, Love, and the City Without Walls 01:14:29 Closing Thoughts: Materials as the Fabric of Community