Born 1981 in Dayton, Ohio. By his late twenties he was a six-figure corporate executive at a telecom — and, by his own account, miserable. In 2010, after his mother's death and his own divorce in the same month, he began to systematically give away most of what he owned.
He and his closest friend Ryan Nicodemus started a blog, theminimalists.com, documenting what they learned. They quit their jobs. They toured the country in a used car, speaking at bookstores. The audience grew.
Four books, two Netflix documentaries (Minimalism, 2016; The Minimalists: Less Is Now, 2021), and a long-running podcast later, they are the English-language voice of the movement. The core thesis — that owning less creates room for a meaningful life — has reached tens of millions.
The Minimalists
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus on living meaningfully with less. Podcast, essays, documentary.