The Story of Stuff.com

So what's wrong with my iPod? Ask Annie Leonard, who delves into the life cycles of consumer goods -- everything from, yes, iPods to pillows -- in her animated video, The Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com). Eco-activist Leonard stands in front of a plain white background with cartoon icons dancing above her head, detailing the path of must-have items from their origin as natural resources, through their mass production, and, finally, to their all-too-rapid disposal in landfills. Leonard's lesson: our "linear material economy" is eroding both the environment and our communities and simply can't be sustained.

Meanwhile, Leonard points out, we've become full-time consumers who work longer hours than people did in feudal society. And people who don't feed into the consumption cycle--omigod, those shoes are so 2006--are stigmatized as being beyond uncool. "All this extra stuff is costing us--and it's not even fun," Leonard says. She hopes the video, which has had more than 1.5 million hits since its Web debut in December 2007, will encourage people to free themselves from this cycle of manic consumption. Leonard says, "It's about liberation, not sacrifice."