841: Sandra Goldmark, part 1: Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet

About this episode

Sandra Goldmark discusses the importance of repair culture and sustainability in modern society.

How often does something break that you know could be fixed, but you don't know how and there are no places to fix it? I remember repair stores all over the place, but the field doesn't exist any more. We all know about planned obsolescence and how products are designed to break. Now we feel we have to throw things away and replace them (after avoiding buying things when possible, which is far more than most of us practice). Enter Sandra Goldmark, as a member of a growing movement to fix things and make things fixable. She's also an Ivy League professor at Barnard and the Columbia Climate School, so, no, professors don't have to be out of touch. I met Sandra before the pandemic, at a shop she set up down by the South Street Seaport to repair things. Besides her own book  Fixation , she was mentioned in a book ( The Repair Revolution ) in my sustainability leadership workshop alumni book club. Lest you think people have to be born fixers or educated as engineers, a preconception that I find still holds me back, she shares her background not growing up with those things. On the contrary, she found she enjoyed it and found community. Listen for a basic human approach to fixing…

People in this episode

Host: Joshua Spodek

Guest: Sandra Goldmark

Topics covered

• repair culture
• sustainability
• planned obsolescence
• community
• education

Keywords

• repair
• sustainability
• fixation
• planned obsolescence
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Barnard, Columbia Climate School

Books & works: Fixation, The Repair Revolution

More episodes of This Sustainable Life

• 853: Kate Williams: CEO, 1% for the Planet · June 11, 2026 · 1h 21m
• 852: Steven Pressfield, conversation 2: His new book, The Arcadian (and A Man at Arms) · May 29, 2026 · 58 min
• 851: J. Eric Oliver: How to Know Yourself · May 18, 2026 · 1h 9m
• 850: AJ Harper, part 1: Write to change lives, including yours · April 24, 2026 · 1h 12m
• 849: Josh Bandoch, part 3: How to Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion · April 22, 2026 · 49 min
• 848: Peter Simek, part 1: EarthX's CEO · April 13, 2026 · 50 min