Serenbe Stories

Respite From a Fast-Paced Life with Outside Magazine and Carrie Battan

May 04, 2020 Serenbe / Carrie Battan Season 3 Episode 2
Serenbe Stories
Respite From a Fast-Paced Life with Outside Magazine and Carrie Battan
Show Notes Transcript

In Carrie Battan's recent Outside Magazine article, she says she came to Serenbe to see if it truly offered respite from, as she wrote, "the exhausting effects of {her} fast-paced, digital, urban life." In this episode of Serenbe Stories, we talk with her about her visit to Serenbe in Fall 2019, her Outside article, and how her life has changed since the coronavirus has forced people away from public spaces and leaving her life in Brooklyn NY. We also talk about the positive effects on the environment and she wonders if more communities will begin to live life the way Serenbe does.

Mentioned In The Episode

Jeff Tkach and 7 “Silver Linings” - The New Hope Network held a webinar in April 2020 on the State of Natural and Future of Organic, in which Nick McCoy Caleb out seven “silver linings” to the crisis. They are:

  1. Increased focus on wellness
  2. Moving away from individualism and toward new investments in public goods and services (especially health)
  3. Expansion of online communities
  4. Domestic self-sufficiency and reducing or eliminated the need for imports
  5. Land conservation
  6. Post-crisis boom in seeking relief from stress, pleasure, and communities
  7. Increase in community at all levels from micro to macro

Poets’ Walk - Named in honor of Washington Irving and other literary figures said to have walked the grounds, Poets’ Walk is one of the most popular places to take a stroll in the Hudson Valley.

America’s Biggest Cities Were Already Losing Their Allure. What Happens Next? - The New York Times

Monica Olsen (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, Building a Biophilic Movement, was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it. Every other week, Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living, social, and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations. More often than not, nature has the answers. You can find Biophilic Solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us today so you don't miss an episode. All right, now let's get back to Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (56s):
Serenbe is a place where people live, work, learn, and play in celebration of life's beauty. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other and to nature. This is Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 23s):
In Carrie Battan's recent Outside Magazine article, she came to Serenbe to see if it truly offered respite from, as she wrote, the exhausting effects of her fast paced, digital, urban life. In this episode of Serenbe Stories, we talk with Carrie about her visit in Fall 2019, the Outside article that came out of that visit, and how her life has changed since the coronavirus has forced people away from public spaces and leaving her life in Brooklyn. We also talk about the positive effects on the environment and she wonders if more communities will begin to live like the way Serenbe does.

The Inn At Serenbe (2m 0s):
But first, Serenbe Stories is brought to you by The Inn at Serenbe. The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside of bucolic Serenbe, where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool, hot tub, or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn, swings, and in-ground trampolines. Connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on The Inn grounds or within the community of Serenbe. Book your stay today at serenbeinn.com.

Monica Olsen (2m 29s):
So I want to welcome everybody back here today to Serenbe Stories. Steve Nygren and I are here today with Carrie Battan, who is a journalist who lives in New York, who had, we had the great privilege of having her here for almost a week here last fall. And so I want to welcome you Carrie to Serenbe Stories.

Carrie Battan (2m 48s):
Hi, Monica and Steve. Thanks so much for having me.

Monica Olsen (2m 51s):
Carrie came to us through Outside Magazine. I think they chose you to do a story on Serenbe. And you have been a journalist for a number of years, have been living in Brooklyn, working for the New Yorker since 2015 as well, and I believe you're a staff writer there, contributed to Time, GQ, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and had spent some time at the website Pitchfork as a staff writer for a number of years.

Monica Olsen (3m 18s):
So love to hear from you Carrie, before we get into, you know, your time and Serenbe, how is life for you right now? We're in the middle of shelter in place with COVID. You've been living in Brooklyn for a number of years, but I think you told me that you headed out to Rhinebeck, New York, which is sort of in the upstate area. So what's, what's happened in your world?

Carrie Battan (3m 38s):
Yeah, yeah. Rhinebeck is about two hours north, it's in the Hudson valley and it's kind of very idyllic farm country. And I've had a, an interesting quarantine because I was originally supposed to be going to a friend's house in, in Middletown, Rhode Island, independent of the pandemic. We were just going to be there. My boyfriend is currently working on a book and so he was going to do like a little, a little writer's retreat up there and we were going to be there. So we drove up there, I believe it was, you know, about a month and a half ago, we drove up to Rhode Island and then the next day coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

Carrie Battan (4m 20s):
And so the people who owned the house, they decided they were going to come back and, and sort of reclaim the house and quarantine there. So we drove back to New York City and we came back to a completely changed New York City, where everybody was inside all the time, all businesses had shut down, no restaurants or bars were, were, were serving people. And so we were in New York city for a few weeks, which was, which was very strange. And then I have a dear friend whose parents own a house in Rhinebeck. So a couple of weeks after that, we decided to drive up here and things were starting to get really, really bad in New York City

Carrie Battan (4m 57s):
And it was becoming kind of the hotspot. And, you know, I feel like I almost, I keep telling people, I almost feel guilty about how perversely enjoyable quarantine has been, especially, you know, in a house where you have space to cook and, and, you know, breathe, and you're not like constantly interacting with other people. Life is just a little bit easier. And so I am up here with my boyfriend and one other couple who are, we are very close friends with and, you know, I, I have some work to do, but I don't have a ton of work because a lot of reporting projects have been obviously paused because I can't really travel anywhere. And so, you know, it's been, it feels weirdly a little bit like a vacation, like an extended vacation.

Carrie Battan (5m 44s):
It's just like, you know, cooking really long, involved, complicated meals and taking long walks and playing with the dog and watching movies that I didn't get the chance to watch and playing a lot card games. So, so that has been what my quarantine is like, and I, it's not, it hasn't all been wonderful. It's, you know, every day there's, there's sort of a shift in my psychological outlook, but, but yeah, I, I really cannot complain. I feel very fortunate to be where I am.

Steve Nygren (6m 17s):
What is life like in Rhinebeck?

Carrie Battan (6m 20s):
Life in Rhinebeck? Honestly, it, it, it, I, since I got up here I was thinking about how similar it feels to life in Serenbe. It's very, it's, it's, there's a lot of farm country. There are a lot of horses. There's just a lot of open space and nature to interact with. And we've been trying our best to patronize the local farm stands that are still open and functioning in this time. And so, yeah, it's, it's a lot more nature than I'm typically exposed to.

Steve Nygren (6m 53s):
I'm familiar with Rhinebeck. We have friends and all up there. Are people out walking the trails and the nature areas?

Carrie Battan (7m 1s):
Yeah. Yeah. We've been going to, there's this very well known local trail called a poet's walk and, you know, you get out there and it's not swarmed or anything, but people are definitely still getting outside and doing, doing the hikes and the walks,

Steve Nygren (7m 16s):
Respecting each other and stepping aside. We find here that

Carrie Battan (7m 20s):
Yeah, yeah, they are. And I noticed there was a big shift a couple of weeks ago when I, I don't remember which body of authority declared it was necessary for everybody to wear masks, but nobody was wearing masks outside in Rhinebeck prior to that and then the next day, as soon as it was announced that everybody should be wearing masks, you just, you walk outside and everybody has a mask.

Monica Olsen (7m 41s):
Oh that's interesting.

Carrie Battan (7m 42s):
Yeah.

Monica Olsen (7m 43s):
Yeah, we're, we're sort of, have been seeing the same thing from a, you know, everybody's outside, I feel like people were always outside, but they're even more outside now, you know, on trails and being able to walk around and, and same thing, it feels sort of the same, it's quieter, right?

Monica Olsen (8m 3s):
Because we don't have as many people visiting because Georgia has been under a shelter in place. But I do think it's, it'll be interesting because our governor is releasing that on Friday. And so it'll be interesting to see how things sort of adjust in the next couple of weeks and our governor, I don't believe Steve, he has not said that we're required to wear masks. I think it's more of a suggestion. And so it'll be interesting to see what kind of behaviors people have at Serenbe, because I think, I think there is this, like Rhinebeck, you know, people feel very comfortable because there's so much outdoor space that you don't feel like you're in these close quarters.

Monica Olsen (8m 43s):
And so I'm sure it is a bit safer, but it feels safer because you're outdoors and you're not in a close quarters of like New York city. But anytime I leave Serenbe, I definitely am putting on a mask if I'm going to go to the grocery store or, you know, go to any, you know, sort of outside public spaces.

Steve Nygren (8m 59s):
You mean you've left Serenbe Monica?

Monica Olsen (9m 1s):
Only like once. My husband has been doing all of the shopping, but I did leave once. And it was just bizarre.

Steve Nygren (9m 9s):
Yeah, it's amazing how you get so used to just not leaving.

Monica Olsen (9m 12s):
Yeah. Yeah. It hasn't, I really haven't left. And my husband will go out maybe once a week and that's kind of it.

Steve Nygren (9m 18s):
Are the restaurants open for to go food in Rhinebeck?

Carrie Battan (9m 22s):
Yeah. The, and most of it is curbside to go, and it's interesting, like there's even a, I don't know why this local local ice cream shop was declared an essential business, but it was. And what they make you do is they make you sit in the parking lot and call them to give them your order. And then you have to pay with exact change and they kind of slide out the ice cream, you know, out the window and you pick it up and you leave the money. It's, it's, it's a quite, quite smart and savvy approach to selling ice cream. And I'm, I'm, I'm grateful that we've had access to it, but it is, it is very strange.

Carrie Battan (10m 2s):
I'm going to the grocery store and seeing the kind of lines that, staggered lines like you, you stay six feet here. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they reserved the grocery store for, you know, people over the age of 60 to come and do their shopping.

Steve Nygren (10m 16s):
And how long are the lines for ice cream in the parking lot?

Carrie Battan (10m 19s):
Well, it was amazing the ice cream store is only open, it's only open a few days a week. And so we had to call 21 times and we got the, we got the busy signal 21 times in the parking lot of the ice cream shop before we were finally able to put our order in. So it's quite they're, they're doing, the business is booming at the ice cream store.

Monica Olsen (10m 43s):
Yeah. Yeah, we had pretty quickly went to a couple of our locations, our restaurants, The Hill and Halsa went to online ordering, but it will be interesting as dine in will be available over the coming weeks. You know, I've been reading a ton about like contactless payments, you know, do people want to touch pens?

Monica Olsen (11m 2s):
Do they want to touch credit cards? I mean, it's just a really interesting world of things that we just do every day and take for granted, will that change or will the customer demand that and, or, you know, will the, the establishment demand these changes will be really interesting to see.

Carrie Battan (11m 18s):
And how is, how are, how is Serenbe going to handle the sort of reopening of Georgia this week and next? Are you, are you guys going to allow dine-in and, and, you know, sort of reboot some of the events that you'd had planned?

Steve Nygren (11m 32s):
Event wise, I don't believe we're going to be doing much, but the, the restaurants are going to slowly allow, but it's, you, you can only have a, I forget what percent of your seating, for instance, the Blue Eyed Daisy will only have 10 people inside. And so we're going to spread the seating out. And, and then anyone serving customers will be required to wear a mask and they're all wearing gloves. So it's, we're, we're following the rules, but going ahead and reopening according to the guidelines to see what happens and what. And we've had no cases and so it's sort of surreal here. And I think that's one of the interesting things to look at is this same rules that apply to New York,

Steve Nygren (12m 19s):
Should they apply to places like Rhinebeck and Serenbe and other places that have had no incidences and have open spaces, so.

Carrie Battan (12m 28s):
And I'm curious, has Serenbe, have you guys done anything to, you know, you've had no incidences, so have you taken any precautions to, because I know a lot of small towns and some small islands off the coast of Maine are doing this thing of sort of, you know, shutting down the ferries and sort of avoiding people coming in to, to preserve the, the, the no cases. And I wonder if you guys have done any taken any precautions against, you know, having people potentially bring it to Serenbe?

Steve Nygren (12m 58s):
We really haven't because everyone's adhering to social distancing and sanitation, any door knobs that are handled and so that kind of thing. So we're, we're just making everyone aware, but we really analyzed, and it was like, we, you either go all the way, if you're shutting the ferries down no one leaves or comes in, then that, then that is a true control site. We really weren't able to do that because we do have some people that are working and in the essential places, hospitals, and what have you. So they would have had to find housing outside of their own Serenbe if we were to go to that extreme. So as we looked at all of the pros and cons, we realized there was no sense of being halfway on it, that the best thing was to just have good policy and awareness and keep everyone aware of that to be cautious and, and follow the rules for everyone here, no matter what you did.

Monica Olsen (13m 56s):
Yeah. And I think probably the first things that will sort of come back might be a five to 10 person farm tour in the outdoors with social distancing, maybe masks are encouraged. I, you know, that's going to be really dependent on the, on the governor and CDC of what the rules are going to be, but I don't think we're going to be coming back with any, you know, a hundred plus person events anytime soon. I think we'll really think about what things are outside. You know, maybe again, goat yoga might come back in a month and it was already limited in numbers. And I think each business will sort of slowly figure that out of what to do based on, you know, appropriate guidelines.

Steve Nygren (14m 35s):
One interesting new event we've created due to this is our porch connect. And so we have established a night in each community once a week, where people are out on their porches and people can drive by in their golf carts or walk on their way to pick up their to go food or what have you and wave to the neighbors. So it's a piece of connection while still staying socially distance. Because of our porches are, you know, eight, 10 feet from the sidewalk it, it makes it very connected yet safe.

Carrie Battan (15m 8s):
Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice.

Steve Nygren (15m 11s):
And creative. That people are doing art and other's music and all sorts of innovative things.

Carrie Battan (15m 16s):
Yeah and I imagine it probably provides people the opportunity to connect more than they typically would if there were no quarantine, they would have to take advantage of it because we have so little chance to actually do it. So everybody probably gets really excited for it. I would bet.

Monica Olsen (15m 29s):
Yeah. Yeah. It's been a lot of fun. So Carrie, we were absolutely thrilled when the article came out with Outside and, you know, you came for, was it five nights last fall? I'm trying to remember how long you were here.

Carrie Battan (15m  41s):
It was either four or five. It was like, maybe it was four nights and five days or five days and four nights, something like that. But yeah, I felt, I felt by the end, I felt like a, you know, an honorary resident.

Monica Olsen (15m 54s):
Definitely. And I know that, you know, the article is great.

Monica Olsen (15m 58s):
It sort of starts off with a very confused Uber driver of like, where are you having me go? Because everybody typically goes north in Atlanta from the airport and they want, and this time you needed to go south. But sort of talk us through sort of like your initial impressions when you were asked to do the piece, right? And then once you got here and then obviously through your experience, and then if any of that's changed over time, I'd be sort of curious what your thoughts are. Cause it's a super fun piece, but honestly like great points about like, you know, your own stress and health and things that you do in New York or what you're doing now. So just walk us through sort of when you got the pitch or, you know, that Outside wanted to do this, and then when you came sort of what were your sort of conceptions?

Carrie Battan (16m 42s):
Sure, sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, I was, I was very, very excited when I got the pitch cause I had, you know, I had heard of Serenbe in the past before my editor reached out, but I hadn't done any, any kind of in-depth research. And I think they reached out to me cause I have, I've written a few pieces sort of in the, that are like more immersive and wellness-y. And I think they were interested in my, in my understanding of the wellness world. And, you know, I, I think in, in the piece I describe my confusion of arriving in the pitch-black at Serenbe. And I literally, in my mind, as we were riding the golf cart, I was picturing sort of, and I think actually, even before I got there, I reached out to you Monica.

Carrie Battan (17m 23s):
And I said, I just want to be clear, like, is there wifi at Serenbe? Like, I had I had no real understanding of like, exactly how connected it was. It like, I, it, it even, even after reading through the website and all of the literature about it, I, you know, I still sort of felt like I was going to be in the middle of nowhere. Like maybe, you know, sort of roughing it or, or almost on some sort of like camp situation or, or it would be the type of place where people move to and they're like really strict about, you know, not, not being too plugged in. And yet when I got there, I was, and when I saw it in the light of day, I was completely amazed by how, you know, state-of-the-art and high functioning, everything is there.

Carrie Battan (18m 11s):
Like, it, it things that Serenbe row almost run more smoothly than they do in New York City or Boston or Chicago. It's like, they, like, it feels the infrastructure there is unbelievable and, and sort of the convenience kind of blew me away. And so, you know, that, that I, that was a big surprise for me. Yeah. And then, I mean, I think I, along the similar lines as the wifi stuff, I think I had an idea of Serenbe coming in that it would be filled with people who were total wellness freaks, who were doing like macrobiotic diets and they were vegans, and, and, you know, I had a very extreme like image in my mind beforehand.

Carrie Battan (18m 54s):
And so I was very like happy and relieved to experience Serenbe as just like a completely normal place. It's, it's not overwhelmed by dogma. It's not people shoving, you know, shoving ideology about wellness down your throat. And it also struck me that the people who move there are not necessarily, you know, people who are super into wellness beforehand, it just happens to come as a nice side effect of, of living there. And I also, another thing is, you know, I, I have very much experienced the wellness community through a very commercial lens that is very social media focused

Carrie Battan (19m 37s):
And it's Gwyneth Paltrow, it's Goop, it's drinking turmeric lattes and going to hot yoga and, you know, using crystals and going on strange retreats. And so I think in that whole universe, what has gotten lost is like a very simple back to basics idea of wellness and like biophilic living, as you describe it, Steve, just, just sort of being connected with nature, eating things, eating plants, and fruits and vegetables when you can, and, you know, walking places and just saying hi to people as you pass them on the street. I, I was surprised and very pleasantly surprised to experience that version of wellness, which is a term that has been kind of, you know, diluted and commercialized over time.

Monica Olsen (20m 27s):
Yeah. I think that that's something that we struggle with sometimes, because obviously it does have meaning, but is it being co-opted on this sort of again, I think, I think that's an interesting commercial lens to think about and all of those things are wonderful and fun and great and you want to have, I mean, you know, goat yoga in and of itself is sort of this quirky concept. Right? But, you know, yeah. How, how do you sort of take it all, not so seriously maybe, or that it's an aspect of your life, it isn't this dogma. And we are sort of pushed into this, like all or nothing.

Monica Olsen (21m 5s):
And, you know, I know Steve, you know, we talk a lot about balance and how we can have balance in life.

Steve Nygren (21m 10s):
It's going to be interesting because I think you bring a great perspective because a lot of people see Serenbe and places like it is, is that, that foreign, that exotic, something that's unfamiliar and and everyone is used to their own schedules. And I think you kind of pointed that out, how it, you know, it was kind of ready to get back to New York. I'm wondering if, if this pandemic, which has really pulled a lot of people out of their normal is, I read some articles talking about muscle memory. That it's really adjusting people's muscle memory, whether it's attending meetings or, or how we function. And how do you think we're going to, as a society what's going to change as we come back out of this?

Carrie Battan (21m 55s):
Well, I've heard some interesting things. I mean, as a freelancer, somebody who typically works from home and makes my own schedule anyway, I think the muscle memory's, that like, I'm, I'm used to sitting at my own desk in my own home, working at my kitchen table. So that hasn't changed so much for me. But I have heard from people who work in offices in New York City, is that like, what is happening is that a lot of companies and a lot of managers and bosses and employees are realizing that it's possible to, you know, do the job without even having an office. So it's like, sort of, you know, why pay rent at a, a Midtown office building, if you can both have everybody work from home.

Carrie Battan (22m 38s):
And I don't, I don't know exactly how I feel about that. That seems, that seems like a bridge too far. And so I hear two different things. I hear people saying when this is all over, you know, everybody will, will be so excited to go back to normal of, of gathering in large crowds and going to restaurants, et cetera, et cetera. And then I hear people saying no, actually quarantine is proving to us the ways that we can live, that we thought was previously inaccessible or, or impossible to, to do. And I also, I don't know if you saw this article, it was in the Times a few weeks ago, that now this is going to spark a huge shift in the appeal of major cities.

Carrie Battan (23m 22s):
And, you know, people, like young people, like the sentiment about moving to major cities like San Francisco, Chicago, New York, et cetera, Atlanta was already kind of on the decline. And now that there is this image of these cities as, as vectors for virus and Petri dishes for disease and disfunction and chaos, people are going to be flocking to cities a lot less. And I think that could be true. Yeah, I think that could be true. And I certainly, in this experience, have found myself appreciating this rural, new, rural life that I have more than I ever thought I, I, I did beforehand. But then I think back to something like 9/11 and, you know, I think there was a little bit of a dip after 9/11 and people moving to New York, but then, you know, mayor Bloomberg did so many things to make New York City appealing that 9/11 ultimately ended up making, you know, the, the re rehabilitation of New York made it way more desirable than it had been in the past.

Carrie Battan (24m 36s):
And then rent skyrocketed, people flocked from Europe and all over the place to live in New York City and it became even more of a dense metropolitan area than it had before. So I, I think it's, that we're definitely gonna have a few years of people not necessarily fantasizing about cities in the same way that they did before, and perhaps wanting to be in more remote areas and willing to live in more remote areas.

Steve Nygren (24m 4s):
You know, we're experiencing at Serenbe, anyone with a second home, whether it's Atlanta, New York or where, they've all come here. And it sounds like you experienced that same thing with the house you'd rented in Rhode Island. And I would imagine you're finding a lot of the second home folks in Rhinebeck are there rather than being in New York. I wonder if it could change that, that now that we can work in these remote places that we have our second home in the New Yorker or in the big cities and our primary residence might be in these more remote places. I don't think people are going to give up the city, but they might find that they don't have to work within the four walls within the city. It's more fun to be in the rural and have the city available on a more specific time.

Carrie Battan (25m 47s):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's, I think that's going to be the case. You know, now I want to work towards saving for a second home in the, in the case that something I used to, used to want to buy property in New York City. And now I'm like, oh, as a second home in the country, or a first home in the country seems so much more desirable at this moment.

Monica Olsen (26m 7s):
Yeah, that's an interesting idea that your primary or your first home you buy is actually your, I don't want to call it a vacation home, but it's your, your house outside the city. And then you're just renting something inside the city that is sort of that's the temporary, but your permanent is this more rural or a place where there's land conservation and you can really get outside.

Monica Olsen (26m 32s):
Cause I think that's what I, we've been starting to hear from people. You know, we, we've seen interest in rentals spike quite a bit, you know, extended, not long-term leases, but anywhere between, you know, two, four weeks, six weeks. And I'm hearing that more and more as the summer comes online and their kids maybe aren't on online school or they feel like, you know, this is going to continue and they can, now we can work from "anywhere," they can come to Serenbe for the summer and sort of get out quote unquote of wherever they are. My brother for instance, is out in Culver City and you know, they have a really lovely little walkable neighborhood, but it's a tiny little backyard and the parks are all closed.

Monica Olsen (27m 11s):
The beaches are all closed. I talked to a friend of mine in DC, same thing. And both of them, who obviously had been to Serenbe, fans of Serenbe, both said to me, I, you know, I, what, what can I rent for like three to four weeks? And that was sort of shocking to me, even though I knew that they were interested in, and liked it and hearing more of that even from Atlantans. What can I rent down there? Is there something that I can do for a month? So that's going to be interesting to see what happens over the coming months. As again, people don't have to be in an office. You know, many companies are extending their work from home all summer. Some of them are extending it through the end of the year because really the virus isn't going anywhere,

Monica Olsen (27m 53s):
And so these companies that have really dense workspaces, you know, they've got to either rearrange their whole office or, you know, have, you know, you come in for two days and then the other half of the staff comes in for another two days. Yeah, I don't think that the real estate is going to go away in New York from a commercial standpoint, but you do wonder if they can sort of bring the footprint down, which is going to change the, WeWorks of the world, are these, you know, gorgeous towers that, you know, Conde Nast has, or the New York Times, you know, will you only need to come in if you are on staff once a week or twice a week? Because there is something about that being together in the creativity and moving projects forward, but we've realized how much we can do virtually would you knew already as a journalist, what projects are you working on?

Monica Olsen (28m 47s):
You know, or are you hearing from editors? Like, what are they interested these days? Like, is it, you know, it seems like it's just been COVID COVID COVID, but that's going to have to pivot at some point and get back to more general interest. I mean, are you hearing or what, what would, what would you want to write about, or what are you hearing about?

Carrie Battan (29m 5s):
Yeah, I mean, it's something I haven't, I haven't really been able to figure out at this moment. I do know that my editors, my editor at Outside Magazine, as well as any other magazine that I write for, they are not only desperate for content that is relevant to COVID and pieces of COVID reporting. And I'm not a hard news reporter.

Carrie Battan (29m 25s):
I'm a magazine journalist who mostly writes about culture, whether it's the arts or about, you know, lifestyle and, and things like that. So I'm, I'm not somebody who's going to be sent to a hospital in Brooklyn to report on, on what the ventilator status is. And I'm hearing a lot of solicitations for pitches that are not necessarily related to COVID, but that can be done remotely and virtually, and don't necessarily like, I would never be able to report the Serenbe piece right now because it would require flying and interacting with other humans. So kind of, so kind of, yeah, no, I actually, I did it, you know, I had been assigned a piece on a young actress and it was, I, it was assigned right before all of this happened and then we ended up doing, and so we'd gotten all the photographs of her and, but then when it came time to do the interview, we were all sheltering in place.

Carrie Battan (30m 19s):
And so we had to do the interview over FaceTime and it was my first kind of reporting experience in quarantine. And I actually found it really cool because everybody has something to talk about. There's this immediate shared interest among everybody. It's not like you're grasping for things to connect about because everybody's in this same strange situation. And so that made it a lot easier in some ways. I do think there's gonna come a point in a few months where everybody has fatigue about, about COVID and about like, I think if you open up a New Yorker or an Outside Magazine or a GQ or a New York Times magazine in the next several years, you know, inevitably there's going to be the six paragraphs that you get to where you're like, okay.

Carrie Battan (31m 4s):
And then the coronavirus happened, you know, we're, we're going to be hearing about this. There's no way to do anything without sort of framing it through, through the lens of COVID, which is, I think it'll be good and bad.

Monica Olsen (31m 19s)
Yeah, definitely. Are you, did you ever have to be required to sort of go into the city for meetings for work or with the magazines or was again, it's always been freelance at your kitchen table?

Carrie Battan (31m 35s):
No. So I would say I go into the New Yorker, I, you know, I meet with editors in the city or previously I met with editors in the city maybe once every couple of weeks, whether it's editor of this magazine or that magazine.

Carrie Battan (31m 48s):
And then, you know, the New Yorker has these big group ideas meetings every month where, you know, a group of writers will come and all be crammed into one room talking, you know, talking about ideas for the magazine, which I think they've either canceled them or they're going to be, they're going to resume on zoom for the foreseeable future. And I really love meeting people. As somebody who's holed up in her apartment all day long, like the prospect of going to lunch or coffee with somebody I work with is always welcome. So I'm, I'm a little bit sad to see that being put on pause and I will, I will be very grateful for the face-to-face contact once it, once it does start up.

Monica Olsen (32m 28s):
And tell me like, what kind of things, cause now you're out sort of taking walks and cooking,

Monica Olsen (32m 34s):
Like I assume your stress level has, I don't know if you had a high one, but you know, where you were seeking meditation or different retreats and stuff. Do you feel like you have the need for any of that now, or is it sort of taking care of itself because you're sort of have a slower paced life?

Carrie Battan (32m 53s):
That is a very good question and something I've been contemplating. I think this is an unusual, it's not as if, as if I've moved out here in a normal situation or I'm just taking a vacation. I think that the, my day to day mental stress is probably pretty high, depending on how much of the news I'm reading or that kind of thing.

Carrie Battan (33m 16s):
And yet I bet if somebody hooked up electrodes and did blood tests and stuff, they would find lower levels of cortisol, you know, lower stress hormones in general. And just, I bet my physical chemistry is way more balanced than it was three or four months ago.

Monica Olsen (33m 35s):
Right.

Steve Nygren (33m 36s):
Your changed location, how has it changed your, your work habits? For instance, sitting at the desk, being in, within closed space at Rhinebeck and in New York, do you tend to get up and go outside for shorter periods and come back in or has that changed at all?

Carrie Battan (33m 54s):
It hasn't changed too much. One thing that I am noticing, well, I'm doing this thing that a lot of people are doing, which is forcing themselves to kind of open up a day planner and a calendar and write down like what they're going to do that day. And usually even, even in quarantine where, where there are no distractions really, I still find it very hard to keep to a schedule. I don't know if you guys are also experiencing that, like, somehow the to-do list is always too long, no matter what, even when there's nothing else to do. But one thing I have noticed that has been really enjoyable for me is with a little bit less work than usual, a little bit less distraction, a little bit less stress and kind of visual and psychological noise,

Carrie Battan (34m 39s):
I've found that I've taken a lot more pleasure in writing. Like it used to be when I was at my peak stress in New York and, you know, had so many things going on. I had to go to meet with an editor. Then I had to go to somebody's book party, and I had to go to a movie, restaurant, et cetera. I was really cramming the writing in, in a way that was not pleasurable. And here I have found that like actually sitting down to write, I'm kind of remembering why I like it so much to begin with. Cause I get to take time to do it and think.

Monica Olsen (35m 12s):
Yeah, I do wonder if we'll, you know, as we've stripped away, you know, by necessity, things that we used to do, whether that was for business or for personal, I wonder what things that we will leave behind permanently, you know, and I, I'm sort of curious about that, where the writing isn't work, but it's pleasure.

Monica Olsen (35m 35s):
It isn't something that you squeeze in between all these fabulous, fun things that you want to do, but do we maybe start saying no, instead of yes, to things, that'll be interesting to see. People are sort of talking about like, you know, living slowly. I dunno if that's quite the right word, but it'll be interesting to see what we take from this time. And we continue to incorporate, kind of to Steve's point about muscle memory. Steve do you have anything that you're doing differently that you've you've incorporated? I haven't really asked you that question. I'm just curious. Like, are you, have you changed something that maybe you're more focused on your, you have more time for now that you'll continue on in your

Steve Nygren (36m 18s):
It's amazing how uninterrupted and different life is here. It really hasn't changed that much. I mean, th th the big difference is it would seem strange to get in a car. You know, I, in a normal week, I might have, you know, one meeting maybe in Atlanta. And so I would make sure that any errands or anything I wanted to do in Atlanta was there. And I don't do that and I don't miss miss that at all. And I also gotten a car every week to go to Pilates, which wasn't here. So I'm really looking forward to the Pilates studio that's going to open here at some point this fall. To where literally it's, you know, I realize how I don't like driving.

Carrie Battan (37m 2s):
Yeah. Maybe quarantine is your ideal lifestyle. But I was also thinking you must be so relieved to have made that big life choice that you made in the nineties of, of quitting the restaurant business. Because being in, it seems like the restaurant business is really kind of the worst scariest place to be right now. And Serenbe seems like a much better situation.

Steve Nygren (37m 23s):
Yes, and of course, we're, you know, we have the restaurants here so that, you know, we have some of those same pressures, but it's, it's very different. You know, I, I, I see just in Atlanta there are two restaurants who have announced that they are, they're closing permanently. They're restaurants that have been been around, and they've just taken this opportunity and saying, you know, we're not coming back. Clearly it's people that have been thinking about this, and this is kind of the, the threshold. It's gonna change. It's gonna be difficult. And that'd be the many restaurants, even though they can open on limited, for instance, in Atlanta, they can't survive at a 20% occupancy, you know, that just isn't gonna work. And so that's why this limited opening is not economically feasible.

Monica Olsen (38m 10s):
No. And I think, I think you would agree with this Steve that, you know, by, by the way that you've built Serenbe and the neighbors, you know, they're really who kept the restaurants alive with the takeout and the to go that we've had over the past month, as well as our farm stand. You know, we sort of, you have this built-in ecosystem or economy that typically would have been 10% of our sales and 90% were sort of guests, but really in this retraction where we had to lay off, you know, the majority of the staff, and we just had a couple of people working, you know, hopefully I think the residents realize how beneficial it was to have the restaurants

Monica Olsen (38m 50s):
And then the restaurants realize how beneficial it is to have that sort of built in audience, which is very unusual.

Carrie Battan (38m 56s):
Yeah, I'm, I'm sort of hoping that this whole situation moves people a little bit further away or, or starts to move people away from, you know, this obsession with convenience and like, you know, doing everything over an app, ordering, ordering, you know, food on Seamless or Grub Hub or whatever, or like having everything delivered to you, Postmates all of this kind of stuff. I'm now that that's the only way they have things, the only way to do things at this moment, I'm, I'm thinking, you know, when everything sort of goes back to normal, I'm going to cook for myself.

Carrie Battan (39m 31s):
I'm going to go outside and see a movie in a theater instead of just binge watching TV. I'm gonna, you know, I'm actually gonna, you know, I'm going to go inside of a store and pick something out that I want and need and interact with a human being instead of pressing a button on my phone.

Monica Olsen (39m 46s):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, is there anything you want to add? Any thoughts, any personal projects you're working on that have been interesting or?

Carrie Battan (39m 55s):
Nothing, nothing too exciting. Just small pieces here and there. One thing I did, and Steve, maybe you'll be able to answer this, I mean, I'm curious, I don't know if you guys are, think a lot about climate change, but I'm curious how the slowdown is going to have an impact on climate change and whether or not in some weird, strange way, like that that's like an upside to COVID is that it's forcing everybody to really slow down and reduce their carbon footprint.

Carrie Battan (40m 29s):
And I wonder if Steve, if that's something that you think about?

Steve Nygren (40m 32s):
All the time, and I think, I mean, this is one of the big things that I hope comes out of it. And I think it's that people have thought it was a difficult thing, what they individually did wouldn't make a difference. And now we see with the flick of a switch literally, we have blue skies, we have cleaner air, we, you know, our waters are cleaner. It happened so quickly that I, I would hope it's given policy makers and the individual public realization that changes now can affect where we live immediately. Does in this 10, 20 year thing. So why should I change my life today?

Steve Nygren (41m 15s):
And I'm hoping that happens, but it's going to take some major policy changes and change in muscle memory, you know, use a lot fewer cars, share transportation, you know, living where we work, whether that's, you know, working remotely  or closer to where you can walk to it, all those things are going to have to change. And, you know, if we, if we really move, for instance, we really need to move forward with electric cars. You know, our clear skies currently, imagine, I think I read somewhere it was if 40% of our current cars were converted to electricity,

Steve Nygren (41m 55s):
We would have some of the same effects that we're experiencing today. So, you know, it, hopefully there, this, this increases the will to really move forward with these issues because here it is, and it isn't just the United States. It's, you know, around the world that we need to change that problem.

Carrie Battan (42m 17s):
Absolutely.

Steve Nygren (42m 17s):
I would hope in the media that there's some, that we start cataloging the people who are dying, really a lot more about who they are, you know, does the air quality of where you live affect it, you know, has that affected your lungs and are your lungs compromised?

Steve Nygren (42m 38s):
And some of the other issues, you know, at best, we're now looking at age, some are looking at race, but I haven't seen many studies going beyond that. And so that's what I hope that there's some studies that connect the dots and then really see that dealing with the environment is actually a health issue.

Monica Olsen (42m 59s):
Well, when we saw our friend Jeff Tkach at Rodale Institute send us a list of sort of seven silver lining trends of COVID. And one of them was the interest in wellness and immunity. And then another one I thought was really fabulous was land conservation. You know, that people are really appreciating being outside and appreciating large swaths of it, right, not just a small corner park, and that they believe would be a big change as land conservation. As well as I think this study had said that something like organic food sales were up 22% in March.

Carrie Battan (43m 39s):
Oh, wow.

Monica Olsen (43m 40s):
Yeah. I'll forward it to you.

Carrie Battan (43m 41s):
Yeah. I would love to, I would love to read that stuff.

Monica Olsen (43m 45s):
I think those are the things that I'm hoping to see written about, you know, and covered to, to Steve's point is, you know, these underlying conditions, many of them can be, are preventable, you know? And so how can we, what are the things that we can do to get people in a healthier place and, and you know, reconsider their health is so important, especially in a time like this.

Carrie Battan (44m 9s):
Right. Being preventative as opposed to reactive with your own wellbeing.

Monica Olsen (44m 14s):
Yeah. Well Carrie, thank you so much for your time. This has been great, we would love to have you back when you're out of a shelter and can get on a plane safely and

Carrie Battan (44m 26s):
No absolutely. And thank you for inviting me on this it's so it's always so exciting and nice to get an opportunity to see some fresh faces.

Monica Olsen (44m 35s):
Yeah, no, it is it's nice to see you outside of our Serenbe. Thank you so much.

Carrie Battan (44m 42s):
The most exciting thing happened to me today, so.

Monica Olsen (44m 44s):
Oh, the most exciting thing that's happened to you today. That's great. I like that. Maybe this whole month.

Carrie Battan (44m 50s):
Maybe this whole year. Alright guys.

Monica Olsen (44m 53s):
Well thank you so much. Carrie.

Steve Nygren (44m 55s):
Thanks Carrie.

Carrie Battan (44m 55s):
Have a great week. Talk to you later. Okay.

Steve Nygren (44m 58s):
Bye now.

Monica Olsen (45m 0s):
There are two rubrics in building a city. You can follow the sprawl mentality or you can preserve land while boosting economic development. Serenbe builds and designs to be both beautiful and environmentally sustainable.

Monica Olsen (45m 14s):
If you're a city planner, developer, land owner, or a policy maker, there are common sense solutions you can take to build a biophilic centered community. Attend the Nygren placemaking conference this fall to learn more. Details at nygrenplacemaking.com. That's nygrenplacemaking.com.

Monica Olsen (45m 42s):
Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and make sure to email your questions for Steve Nygren to stories@serenbe.com. You may even get to hear them on the podcast. More details about episodes and guests are available on our website, serenbestories.com.