Giana Eckhardt  and I chat about some of her research into the concept of deceleration or people's desire to slow down. Giana explains that deceleration involves three elements: embodied deceleration, technological deceleration, and episodic deceleration. We share some experiences of walking the Camino de Santiago. We chat about the benefits of deceleration and the positive impact it can have on our lives. The conversation then shifts to how businesses are responding to these needs. We also touches on ethical consumer behaviour, such as the slow fashion and slow travel movements, and the surprising benefits of inconvenience in bringing meaning and joy to people's lives.

Giana M. Eckhardt  is Professor of Marketing and Vice Dean, Executive Education and Engagement, at King’s Business School, King’s College London, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Giana is a leading expert in the field of consumer behavior, consumer culture, consumer ethics, branding and the sharing economy, publishing regularly in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Consumer Research. She is co-author of The Myth of the Ethical Consumer (Cambridge University Press) and co-editor of Handbook of the Sharing Economy (Edward Elgar). She is past co-chair of the Consumer Culture Theory conference, and current co-chair of the Association for Consumer Research conference. Giana is Associate Editor of Journal of Consumer Research, and is on the editorial review board of Journal of Marketing. Her research has won awards and has been featured in outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic, Fortune, Vogue, Scientific American, The BBC, and on National Public Radio. She teaches brand management to MBA and executive MBA students.