Hello, and welcome to the On Books Podcast. This week we are looking at Buy the Change You Want to See. This is a new book that just came out, by Jane Mosbacher Morris. It’s promoting the idea to “Vote with your dollar,” a concept that I love, and to the best of my extent, try to live by everyday.
Vote with your dollar is more or less the idea that you, as the consumer, you have the power to change the world by influencing it with your buying decisions. If you use your money to support Patagonia or Whole Foods (they will benefit and survive longer). On the other hand, if you refuse to give money to companies that clash with your values (in my case, let’s say McDonalds and Taco Bell) hopefully over time the power of these companies will diminish.
The book Buy the Change You Want to See came on my radar because I saw Jane give a talk about the book, and thought, the mission of this book is exactly the types of books we try to support on the On Books Podcast: People thinking about the future, and passionate about improving the planet.
In this interview, we’re gonna talk about Jane’s company To The market which uses technology to help brands provide transparency in their sourcing and supply-chain. For example, to help connect retailers with ethical distributors, ethical factories, people, labor, materials, etc.
Jane will also give us some of her best tips (from the book) on how to make more ethical buying decisions — so that you can buy the change you want to see. I hope you enjoy this conversation with me and Jane Mosbacher Morris.
Chris: Jane, welcome to the show.
Jane: Thank you. I’m so excited to chat.
Chris: What prompted you to write the book Buy the Change You Want to See?
Jane: I never thought that I would actually write a book, which is interesting because I am pretty ambitious and am definitely a planner. For someone who has these five, 10 year, 15 year goals for my life — writing a book was not one of them. So, it was very serendipitous that I had the opportunity to write Buy the Change You Want to See and it was largely because of a friend of mine from high school who became a literary agent in New York that suggested to me that I write a book after I started my business.
At first I said, “Thank you so much, but no thank you.” But I quickly changed my tune about a year later and decided to really help memorialize the inspiration behind my business To The Market.
That thesis [of the book] is that all of us have the ability to change the world and positively impact other people and the planet if we align our purchasing decisions with our values. So, Buy the Change is truly a guide to how you can do that in a way that’s easy, and accessible. [The book] also weaves in my voice and my personal journey of coming to this realization.
Listen to the full interview with Jane Mosbacher Morris on the On Books Podcast
