Martha Stewart Talks About Spawning Lifestyle Industry

Marketplace‘s Kai Ryssdal interviewed East Hampton resident Martha Stewart for Monday’s broadcast of the American Public Media daily radio program and asked the lifestyle guru about everything from Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Goop to the American Made Awards.

Stewart says she doesn’t know what a “goop” is, but she did not make any disparaging comments about Paltrow to further their fued.

“Gwyneth has been a tremendously successful Oscar-winning actress,” Stewart observes. “She is beautiful, she loves food, she has a family. She’s interested in the home and the surroundings of the home, and she wants to have some sort of business that deals with all of those things—just as I did 25 years ago when I started the magazine [Martha Stewart Living]. I didn’t know I wanted a lifestyle business and I didn’t know it was going to be called the lifestyle category at the time.”

Stewart also shared the highest compliment she’s received, from her neighbor across the street Steven Spielberg. He stopped her on the street in East Hampton and said, “I think you have elevated the job of the homemaker from something we all thought was kind of drudgery to something much more of an art form.”

She agrees it should be an art form. “You should feel good about making your home nicer for your family and your friends. You should feel great about cooking a good dinner, creating a beautiful birthday party,” she says. “It’s all part of life.”

The winners of the American Made Awards for 2014 will be announced laster this week in New York City. Stewart concieved the awards, which honor artisans and craftsman who make products themselves in the U.S.

Listen to the entire interview: