We spend a third of our lives on our mattresses, but what's actually in them? In this episode, we dig into the hidden world of the mattress industry: the flame retardants, petroleum-based foams, and PFAS ("forever chemicals") lurking in conventional mattresses, and what happens when millions of them end up in landfills every year, slowly breaking down and releasing toxins for decades? What happens when we sleep on them for years and how do they affect our health?
We're joined by Arin Schultz, Chief Growth Officer at Naturepedic, a 20+ year-old family-run company founded by an environmental engineer on a mission to build a safer crib mattress. Arin takes us behind the scenes, from organic latex sourcing to regenerative cotton co-ops in Texas, and helps us cut through the greenwashing to understand what "non-toxic" really means, which certifications (like GOTS, GOLS, and MADE SAFE) actually matter, and how the choices we make about what we sleep on ripple out to human and environmental health.