What is the good life? It is a timeless question that has taken on an urgent dimension in this early dawning of a new century.

Here’s the deal: we are rapidly losing a way of life that we may never be able to regain. Our global, hyper-connected modern lifestyle has left us feeling, well, rather disconnected. It has also left the world and many of its communities and ecosystems in pretty bad shape.

Here’s where we come in: we’re putting on the brakes and shifting gears, looking back to the time and place where we took a wrong turn and started depleting the planet’s resources faster than we could replace them, to where we lost sight of the connections between cause and effect. With one eye on the rear-view mirror of history and one eye firmly on the road up ahead, we’re starting a new carpool for global nomads, mindful planet dwellers and conscious world citizens.

We do not believe you should have to change or compromise your (Western) lifestyle (too much) in order to live “the good life.” With your help, we’re writing a guidebook for a new generation of Goodlifers. We want you to share in and help craft a positive, enthusiastic vision of a future that is both sustainable and achievable. Through first-hand, personal journalism and thoughtful exploration and discussion we’re here to consider daily choices, reconsider assumptions, pose questions, uncover opportunities, make you think and collaborate with us on what it means to be a Goodlifer.

Carpe Diem.

Johanna Björk, Publisher

Born in a smallish Swedish town, Johanna moved across the pond in the first year of the new millennium, spent seven years in Miami, and then settled in Brooklyn, NY. A graphic designer by trade, her career has followed a windy road through real estate marketing, art fair parties, neighborhood branding, magazine design, fashion styling, travel writing, sports and entertainment marketing, and non-profit organizations. She realized what bound all these experiences together was a desire to tell stories, and decided to start Goodlifer as a way of expressing this passion, with words as well as visuals. Fed up with negative doom and gloom prophecies, she wanted to offer a positive outlook for the future, and sees Goodlifer as a place for like-minded people to come together and share great discoveries, thoughts, tips and reflections on a new definition of the Good Life. We’re all in this world together, let’s make sure we have a good time!

Johanna has a day job as an Art Director in Corporate America, enjoys riding the subway because it offers opportunity for undisturbed reading, always falls asleep when watching TV, and thinks everything is just a tad bit better with champagne.

johanna [at] goodlifer.com

Marc Alt

Marc grew up on the island of Oahu, Hawaii where he cultivated a deep affiliation with the natural world and the ocean. Currently residing in Brooklyn, after spending a few years on the West Coast, he continues to question daily the logic of leaving an island paradise for a concrete jungle.

As a New York board member of the design organization AIGA, he organized Grow, the first conference focusing on the intersection of design, business and sustainability, and subsequently co-founded the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design. Marc also co-founded the Greener Gadgets conference, the first event to look at the complex issues surrounding greening the $170 billion consumer electronics industry. Today, his consultancy works with companies such as MINI USA, Neenah Papers, EPEAT, The Green Electronics Council, Lippincott and others. He speaks regularly at international conferences, guest lectures at schools including F.I.T. and NYU, teaches sustainable design at SVA and serves on the advisory board of The Designers Accord.

Marc still, after sixteen years in New York City, hates cold winters. He loves riding faster than he should down New York streets on a fossil fuel burning vintage motorcycle, and could live on sushi and beer alone.

marc [at] goodlifer.com

Sergio Baradat

Cuban born with Catalan roots and raised in the Miami, Baradat came to New York to study at Parsons School of Design, New York. Committed to beauty and order, his original art ranges from home furnishings to product design, conceptual illustrations, book covers to promotional and institutional graphics. He has received numerous awards for his work, has been commissioned to design several U.S. postage stamps and is featured in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design in New York and The Postal Museum in Washington DC.

In his free time, Baradat is an amazing cook, frequent dinner party host, art aficionado and hardcore lover of music.

sergio [at] baradat.com

Stephanie Zonis

Stephanie Zonis was born with a spoon in her mouth — a tasting spoon, that is. She began cooking (especially baking) at a very early age, and for a short time even ran a highly illegal baking business from her long-suffering parents’ house when she was in high school. After acquiring a Master’s Degree in Foods, she eventually discovered the Internet in 1997. She’s been writing about food and developing recipes, especially where chocolate is involved, ever since. During those few moments when she’s not cooking or writing or thinking about food, Stephanie enjoys reading, walking, political discussions, and volunteering at a local no-kill cat sanctuary. She has been a member of a medieval re-creation group for longer than she’ll admit and loves absurdist humor.

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Jane Alt

If Jane’s adolescent self met her adult self today, the younger version would be shocked (and probably appalled). With aspirations of becoming a corporate CEO at 18, Jane came to her senses after 4 years of college plus 12 years in the business world and traded them in for “the good life”. Choosing to be a stay-at-home mom to her son Jake (and her garden), Jane is passionate about organic gardening, reading about gardening, all kinds of music, good food and wine, and her family (sometimes in that order). She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and proudly participated in the vote to name the Banana Slug as the official school mascot way back in 1986. When Jane’s not cleaning the garden dirt out from under her fingernails or listening to radioparadise.com, you can find her delivering library books to homebound seniors or knitting. A dyed-in-the-wool, native Californian, she lives in Marin County with her husband Roger and their son Jake.

janeoalt [at] mac.com

Kate Andrews

A British born design writer and communications consultant, Kate is educated at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, holds a first class honors in Graphic Design, a Merit Award from The International Society of Typographic Designers and in 2008 she was accepted as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts (RSA). Kate is currently studying a part time MA in Design Writing Criticism at London College of Communication.

After graduating, Kate briefly worked as an editorial designer before quickly recognising a severe lack of ethically responsible and socially responsive creative practice. Strongly believing that communication design can effect social change, Kate dedicated the next eight months to research. Documenting her insights and discoveries on a number of design platforms Kate rekindled her life long passion for writing. She loves reading, dancing and is proud to admit her love for surrealism.

KCAndr [at] gmail.com

Abigail Doan

A homespun upbringing on a family-operated sheep and dairy farm in New York State’s rolling Hudson Valley set Abigail on the path to pursuing ‘the good life’ right from the get-go. Today she divides her time between Manhattan, an ambitious home restoration project near Siena, Italy, and entrepreneurial adventures in Sofia, Bulgaria. An internationally exhibited fiber and environmental installation artist, Abigail’s eco-textile artwork is featured on Greenmuseum, Art Cloth Text, Hiphonest, Landviews, and in the new book, Green Guide for Artists. She is a regular contributor on sustainable style and green design for Eco Fashion World, The Ethical Fashion Forum, Inhabitat.com, Supernaturale.com, and her own art and fashion blog, ecco*eco. Future dreams of melding art, family, and sustainability include the thrifty recycling of textile scraps from her domestic sphere, teaching family recipes to her twin toddlers, taking long afternoon naps with her whippet, and building a house from scratch in the American Southwest with her very resourceful and dashing husband.

abigaildoan [at] mac.com

Claire Fountain

“Food should not only be good to eat, but also good to think” —Claire

Founder of For the Taste of It, Claire Fountain is witty, passionate and lives a sweet life of all things food. Claire believes in sharing her knowledge of baking and cooking along side her holistic approach to eating with all of you. As a food writer featured in books and publications, with a background teaching cooking classes, vegan baker and personal chef, to name a few ventures, Claire loves the science, history and lore of food. Recipe development, catering and researching… Claire keeps it joyous in and out of the kitchen. Though born and raised in Mississippi on biscuits and ranch dressing, she practices what she preaches in her own daily food choices, with taste being at the forefront. She currently writes and bakes in New York; spending time supporting local agriculture, sustainable food and promoting conscious consumption with sexy vengeance.

clfountain42 [at] gmail.com

Alexander Hogan

Alexander Hogan occupies his days teaching and conducting research as a professor of political science. Like many of us, he searches for the balance and peace in a hectic, materialistic world. He is a passionate home chef and foodie who resides with his wife and impressive house plant collection in Houston, Texas.

letsemailalexander [at] gmail.com

Ulla Kjarval

Ulla Kjarval is an NYC based photographer, food blogger and grass-fed advocate. She believes that grass-fed beef production could help to save the struggling rural communities of upstate New York. It is also good for the cow, our land and our bodies. Her family operates Spring Lake Farm in Delaware County, New York. Ulla’s blog is entitled Goldilocks Finds Manhattan.

ullakj [at] gmail.com

Lukas Volk

Lukas was different from the start. Born a bit jaundiced, he spent a few days in an incubator and attributes this to his longing for warm climates and curling up at night in a toasty bed. After spending the first 22 years of his life in South Florida he took a job opportunity on the west coast where he soon realized his passion for protesting, self awareness and good deed doing. Currently he is experimenting with an organic raw vegan food diet and diminishing his waste impact to 20% that of an average person.

On an average day you could find Lukas protesting in the streets of San Diego, collecting cigarette butts from gutters for art projects, or enjoying a superb late night bike ride with his SLR strapped to his back for some experimental night photography.

lukas [at] nhxdesigns.com