Press Releases
History of SIMPLE LIVING with Wanda Urbanska (July 2004)
The purpose of the public television series SIMPLE LIVING with Wanda Urbanska is to educate Americans of all socio-economic brackets about leading simpler, healthier, more sustainable lives. The program seeks to provide its audience with concepts in an accessible, entertaining and down-to-earth way about how to enhance the quality of their life through thoughtful lifestyle choices (such as good nutrition, physical activity, and positive health choices), thoughtful consumption patterns, sound fiscal practices, and community involvement. SIMPLE LIVING addresses the problem of time-pressured lifestyles that effectively disconnect individuals from physical and emotional health, family life, community, and nature. SIMPLE LIVING engages its audience in active change, going beyond education alone, by providing entertainment programming that incorporates how-to ideas that can easily be made a part of daily life and challenging viewers to make those changes.
The SIMPLE LIVING project was established in April 2000. Based in Mount Airy, NC, the project was initially funded through a combination grassroots effort of individual contributions and the support of 20 area foundations. The first run of the series, consisting of eight half-hour programs, began broadcast on PBS stations nationally in July 2004. PBS stations reaching 83.77% of US TV households signed on to air the series—an outstanding number for a newly launched series. The second run of SIMPLE LIVING consists of ten, weekly half-hour programs and was offered to PBS stations in the country free of charge, starting in September 2005.
Smead Manufacturing Co., a Minnesota-based socially and environmentally responsible maker of office organizational supplies, such as file folders and software. The series is produced by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, who are nationally recognized leaders in the simplicity field, speakers and authors of several books, including Simple Living (1992) and Nothing’s Too Small to Make a Difference (2004).