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"The Man Who Quit Money"

Aired on Wednesday, March 14th.
Aired on Wednesday, March 14th.

Ever felt like quitting the whole earning-and-buying rat race? Ever wondered what it'd be like to live without a wallet, a car, a mortgage, or even a roof over your head? Our guest today on ST is Mark Sundeen, a journalist and author whose writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, and The Believer --- and whose books include "Car Camping" and "The Making of Toro." Sundeen tells us about his new book, which some have called "a 'Walden' for the 21st century." This book, "The Man Who Quit Money," is a true and accurate profile of one Daniel Suelo, who set out in 2000 to live without cash, credit, checks, savings, bartering, or funds of any other kind . . . and who has enjoyed, ever since, the sort of freedom, security, and happiness that many of us would label The Good Life. (Although he does eat roadkill sometimes, and he's a regular when it comes to dumpster diving.) As a critic in the pages of Outside has noted of this volume: "Sundeen deftly portrays [Suelo] as a likeable, oddly sage guy . . . who finds happiness in radical simplicity . . . [and who] personifies a critique that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt remorse on the treadmill of getting and spending."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.