Best and Brightest … Genius — Esquire

A once-in-a-lifetime game-changing advance
in our field everyone else will follow
— Marshall Goldsmith

Astrophysicist turned new media whiz — NBC

Passionate … confident … — Forbes

You don't just learn theory from
him, you improve your life.
— Inc.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard University, Standford University, Princeton University, MTV, IBM, US Army

My Mission

My mission is to help change American (and global) culture on sustainability and stewardship from expecting deprivation, sacrifice, burden, and chore to expecting rewarding emotions and lifestyles, as I see happen with everyone I lead to act for their intrinsic motivations.

In my case the emotions have been joy, fun, freedom, connection, meaning, and purpose.



Systemic change begins with personal change.

Some of my values. What are yours?
Months living off the grid in Manhattan: 45 (and counting)
Loads of garbage I filled in 2025 so far: 0
Loads filled in 2024: 0
Loads filled in 2023: 0
Loads filled in 2022: 0
Loads filled in 2021: 0
Loads filled in 2020: 0
Loads filled in 2019: 1
Loads filled in 2018: 1
Loads filled in 2017: 1
Days picking up litter: 3,236 and counting
Years not flying: 10 (119 months) and counting
2024-25 grid electric grid use at home: 0 kilowatt-hours
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 264,431 and counting
Resting pulse: 38 bpm

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Environmentalists rarely try to solve the problem

on April 21, 2026 in Addiction, Doof, Leadership, Nature, PollutionAndDepletion

Fixing the results of a problem is not the same as stopping it from recurring and you rarely can undo all the problems, especially if you do it persistently. For example, exercising doesn’t make up for an addiction to doof. Even if you burn off the calories, it doesn’t fix the health problems or make back the wasted money. More importantly, since you keep consuming doof, you’ll likely miss exercising[…] Keep reading →

Why do we fund our enemies by air conditioning the outdoors?

on April 20, 2026 in Freedom, PollutionAndDepletion

Find me a war where at least one side isn’t partly funded by oil money. Find me a war that isn’t threatening to expand at least regionally, maybe globally. Where is that oil money coming from? Who is helping raise fossil fuel prices, thereby increasing the resources and power of Putin and his peers? Look no further than this restaurant, running the air conditioning with the doors wide open, and[…] Keep reading →

The Constitution has no extraneous protections.

on April 20, 2026 in Freedom, PollutionAndDepletion

I wouldn’t want to live in a nation or world without freedom of speech, freedom of the press, protection of being tried twice for a crime, or any of the protections in the Constitution. I don’t know anyone who would. All must enjoy the protections you do for it to work, even if you really want to deprive others of them It might be tempting to think it would be[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, April 19, 2026: Heirs of the Founders, Led Zeppelin’s catalog

on April 19, 2026 in Tips

This week I finished: Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants, by H. W. Brands: The following words go through my mind a lot these days: We learn about Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Douglass, Lincoln, Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK because we want to be like them. Learning about role models helps us learn to live like them.[…] Keep reading →

The ability to empathize with or speak for the oppressed isn’t what we think

on April 18, 2026 in Blog

Understanding the plots in my post Why I work on sustainability leadership here and now despite other things I could do instead clarifies how to see our culture. We live in a culture that causes more death and suffering than any other, including the greatest historical atrocities. People today often suggest that people today who don’t descend from or look like people who suffered and died can’t understand or empathize[…] Keep reading →

What we can learn from jarring images from the Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA

on April 17, 2026 in Awareness, Freedom, Nonjudgment, Visualization

I gave a keynote and led a leadership workshop near Harrisburg, PA—a place halfway between where I grew up in Philadelphia and where my dad grew up, in Pittsburgh, so we passed through there many times growing up. I learned that the city hosts a Civil War Museum, so arranged to spend half a day there. I recommend it. A few items affected me beyond what I would have expected.[…] Keep reading →

Nonfood things I’ve bought this year

on April 16, 2026 in PollutionAndDepletion

I don’t like buying things that pollute and deplete. Other than food and building maintenance, I try to keep track of things I buy that are material or cause polluting and depleting. I haven’t kept track of subway and bus fares, but I ride them a couple times a month. April 16: Yesterday I bought an envelope to send a tax form. It cost fifty cents plus four cents tax.[…] Keep reading →

Discipline Equals Freedom: Two years no hot showers

on April 15, 2026 in Awareness, Exercises, Habits, PollutionAndDepletion, SIDCHAs

If you don’t get that discipline creates freedom, this post will make no sense to you. If so, probably best not to read it. Regular readers know I found value in taking cold showers. Maybe five years ago, after watching podcast guest Joel Runyon‘s TEDx talk on cold showers then reading his conversation with his readers on his Cold Shower Therapy Guide, which I recommend, I experimented taking a cold[…] Keep reading →

The futures that futurists imagine are what I envision: Yet more evidence living without polluting or depleting isn’t regression

on April 14, 2026 in Freedom, Relationships

People consistently refer to life without polluting and depleting as returning to the Stone Age. The lack of historical awareness and imagination staggers the mind, or it would mine if I didn’t realize that humans fill our minds with lies, or legitimizing myths, when we are induced to act against our values, to mollify our feelings. I was listening to William MacAskill (bio below) on Sam Harris’s podcast. I’m not[…] Keep reading →

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