The Prime Effect: How Amazon Has Us Hooked on Convenience

Second Nature

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our use of Amazon has skyrockted, making the company the second biggest U.S. parcel carrier after the US Postal Service.

Amazon has become the poster child for convenience culture, but the time we save for the sake of convenience is putting us in financial and carbon debt. In this episode, we're grappling with our fraught relationship with our Amazon Prime subscriptions and getting practical tips to break free from convenience culture and start shopping more sustainably.
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On this episode, you'll hear:

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• Listeners share their complex, conflicted feelings about using Amazon.
• MIT research scientist Erez Yoeli shares how we can have a more sustainable relationship with Amazon and how to close the action vs intent gap.
• How Amazon gets you to buy so much stuff and how its fast-paced shipping comes at the cost of workers' health and pay.

🌎 For resources, photos of our contributors citations, and further reading, check the full show notes.

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Episode credits

• Listener contributions: Daria Panova, Diana Holguin, Freya Dumasia, Karen Jean and Rachel Martinson, Katee Hui, Kimberly Foley, Lawrence Hott, Miriam Jornet, Nicole Collins, Rozalia Agioutanti‍
  Featuring: Erez Yoeli and Sanchali Seth Pal‍
  Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
  Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0