Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska, a partner to Simple Living America, is a magazine-style television series dedicated to educating public television viewers nationwide.  It features enhanced quality of life through environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, community involvement, and financial responsibility. Utne magazine called the series “a kind of This Old House for the American dream.” The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal described the program as “funny, sometimes wacky and always interesting and effective.”

The series is launching its fourth season in April 2008 with 13 more exciting episodes, including Simple Living America's Get Satisfied campaign in program #401.  These are added to the 26 half-hour programs that became available to PBS viewers nationwide with the release of the third season of programming in January 2007.  During its second season, the series reached 67% of U.S. TV households through 65 PBS affiliates across the country.

The series is produced by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska of Mount Airy, NC, who are co-authors of Simple Living (1992), Moving to a Small Town (1996) and Nothing’s too Small to Make a Difference (2004). USA Today described them as being “in the forefront of a national trend.” The Charlotte Observer has called the telegenic Urbanska “the anti-Martha Stewart: an outspoken proponent of reducing clutter, stress and waste.” The New York Times called her “a spokeswoman for the simplicity movement.” Urbanska hosted the PBS primetime hit special Escape from Affluenza (1998) and has appeared on Oprah, Today and NPR’s All Things Considered. Acclaimed playwright and filmmaker Levering is series writer and director.

UNC-TV, the statewide public television system of North Carolina, is the presenting station for the third and fourth seasons of the series. American Public Television (APT) is its national distributor.

The Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska series is already well on its way to its goal of becoming an on-going “signature” series for public television nationwide. “Getting back to basics and re-examining values are concepts that resonate with our audience,” says Patti Kistler, programmer for KETC in St. Louis. “They can’t find this kind of programming elsewhere.”

A tax-exempt educational fund with 501c3 status, Catawba College in conjunction with Catawba’s Center for the Environment serves as Simple Living TV’s financial fiduciary. Foundations, underwriters and individual donors to the series will receive a tax deduction by making gifts payable to “Catawba College” earmarked for Simple Living TV. Checks should be mailed to P.O. Box 1632; Mount Airy, NC 27030.