Press Clippings
Bangor Daily News - September 17, 2005
Simple Living Host Urbanska Suggests Making Change
By Dale McGarrigle
Many people stay in or move to Maine in an attempt to capture that ethereal trait called “quality of life.”
Wanda Urbanska certainly can understand that yearning. Urbanska lived in Maine for four years in the 1970s, graduating from Orono High School in 1974. During that time, she got her start in journalism and broadcasting, interning at the Bangor Daily News and Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
Urbanska, 49, has also become a leader in the “simple life” movement. She and her husband, Frank Levering, have written two books on that topic, “Simple Living” (1992) and “Nothing’s Too Small to Make a Difference” (2004).
Now she has made a triumphant return to MPBN with her TV series Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska. It airs at 10:30 a.m. Saturdays on MPBN (satellite TV users should check onscreen programming guides for a PBS affiliate).
What is simple living? It’s a philosophy that promotes an enhanced quality of life through environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, community involvement and financial responsibility.
Aren’t these common-sense ideas ones that people throughout a rural state such as Maine practice regularly?
“The lessons of Simple Living have been with us for many generations,” Urbanska said. “But they need to be relearned in a modern context. People get disconnected in a computer age, and Simple Living seeks to counteract that. These lessons bear repeating.”
The origins of Simple Living began with life in the big city. After Urbanska and Levering met at Harvard in 1977, they moved to Los Angeles. She became a newspaper reporter while he was a prolific but rarely produced screenwriter (1982’s “Parasite” was his lone credit).
One night, after they came out of a movie premiere and found both their cars had been towed, they decided it was time for a change.
Levering was a native of Mount Airy, N.C., Andy Griffith’s hometown and the inspiration for Mayberry. In 1986, Urbanska and Levering moved east, taking over his parents’ 304-acre cherry orchard just over the state line in Carroll County, Virginia.
The idea of frugality was soon thrust upon the couple when they discovered the orchard was $130,000 in debt. They tightened their belts and paid the debt off over eight years.
The lessons they learned became the basis of their first book. That led, in turn, to their move into TV. Seattle producer John DeGraas contacted Urbanska to host his 1996 special, “Escape From Affluenza,” about a condition he described as an epidemic of stress, waste, over-consumption and environmental decay.
This resulted in a 2000 meeting with the president of PBS Plus, who was interested in a “Simple Living” type show.
Not surprisingly, few corporate sponsors were interested in a show with a message of environmental responsibility and consumption reduction. Instead, Urbanska’s friends and neighbors in Mount Airy came through with small donations that eventually reached $150,000. She used that seed money to gain 20 grants from foundations, which allowed her to produce the first five episodes of Season 1. Then Smead Manufacturing, a Minnesota-based manufacturer of office filing products, came through, sponsoring the rest of Season 1 and all of the recently begun Season 2.
So what kind of changes does Urbanska promote? Here are some ideas:
-Reusables, not disposables. This means coffee in a travel mug instead of paper cups, using rags instead of paper towels.
-Thoughtful consumption: Ask “Do I need it?” “Can I afford it?” Save to make some purchases rather than getting caught in a credit trap.
-Reconnect with nature by spending more time outdoors.
-Conserve water (shorter showers, low-flush toilets) and energy (unplug appliances not in use, shut down computer at day’s end).
-Consider living in a smaller space to reduce clutter and utility costs.
Urbanska has seen a rapid growth in people interested in simple living.
“In the late ‘80s, when we came up with the concept, we thought, ‘who in the world would be interested?’ ” Urbanska recalled. “Now it’s a category in bookstores. People are hungering for a simpler life. Things have gotten too complicated. We have a hard time sitting down to eat with the family now.”