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: 30 (and counting)
Loads of garbage I filled in 2024 so far: 0
Loads of garbage I filled in 2023 so far: 0
Loads of garbage I 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: 2,772 and counting
Years not flying: 8 (104 months) and counting
2024 grid electric grid use at home: 0 kilowatt-hours
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 239,685 and counting
Resting pulse: 46 bpm

LATEST BLOG POSTS

See me interviewed by Don Lemon in Washington Square Park on the election

on November 19, 2024 in Leadership

I was walking through Washington Square Park the other day and an influencer/reporter stopped me to interview me about the election. It turns out he was Don Lemon, who has won awards. According to Wikipedia, he is “an American television journalist best known for being a host on CNN from 2014 until 2023. He anchored weekend news programs on local television stations in Alabama and Pennsylvania during his early days[…] Keep reading →

791: Sustainability Leadership Is a Performance Art

on November 18, 2024 in Podcast

I’m following up my recent solo post, 790: Talking to a guy injecting on the sidewalk, with another extemporaneous one. This one is also with a former podcast guest and fellow teacher of our sustainability leadership workshop, Evelyn Wallace. This episode gives an inside view of how I develop ideas in our entrepreneurial team. In particular, I share a few insights into what I offer in the workshops. I’ve long[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, November 17, 2024: Commentary on Wealth of Nations

on November 17, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: Giants of Political Thought: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, volumes 1 and 2, read by Craig Dietschmann and a Supporting Cast: This audiobook isn’t the Wealth of Nations, but is a summary with many quotes from it. I got it from the library as a quick review. I don’t think I’ve read any of Wealth of Nations since college and never read it cover to cover.[…] Keep reading →

790: Talking to a guy injecting on the sidewalk

on November 16, 2024 in Podcast

On a beautiful sunny Saturday, 9:50am, I was walking to Washington Square Park to charge my battery and talk at 10am to my friend Dan McPherson (he’s been on the podcast, where he shared about his heart attack at age 46 the week before we recorded). I saw the guy in the picture injecting. I asked if I could take his picture and a brief conversation ensued. Instead of my[…] Keep reading →

One of the most challenging parts of living more sustainably: other people bragging and showing off nonsense they think is “green”

on November 15, 2024 in Nonjudgment

If you think living in an apartment disconnected from the electric grid in Manhattan is hard, you haven’t had to deal with talking to people about sustainability when you’re doing it. People seem compelled to tell me their half-assed “sustainability” practices, nearly always self-righteously, as it they want my approval. I don’t look forward to people bragging, even less when their bragging doesn’t follow from whatever half-assed thing they did.[…] Keep reading →

789: Solomon Schmidt: Author of Legal Gladiator, on Alan Dershowitz

on November 14, 2024 in Podcast

As a podcast host, I get pitched a lot of authors, books, and more. Most aren’t relevant or are counterproductive to sustainability. I received an email promoting the author of Legal Gladiator, a biography of Alan Dershowitz. I knew the name from the news, but didn’t know more than the name, maybe a whiff of his being controversial. I looked up the book and author and found both fascinating. I[…] Keep reading →

Land acknowledgments and sustainability

on November 13, 2024 in Nature

A major point of my book Sustainability Simplified is that a culture being unsustainable means it is running out of something so must There is a name for taking from another culture. It’s imperialism. Taking their land is colonialism. You can oppose imperialism and colonialism all you want, if you live unsustainably, you’re driving them both. You can blame governments or rulers for driving them, but they do it because[…] Keep reading →

788: Susan Liebell: John Locke, Stewardship, and the US Constitution

on November 12, 2024 in Podcast

I quote Susan in my book, Sustainability Simplified. In it you’ll see how much John Locke influenced my long-term vision for the US to understand and solve our environmental problems. Learning about the Thirteenth Amendment, which (mostly) banned slavery, and its improbable path to passage and ratification led me to think about solving our environmental problems similarly. I learned that many people working to abolish slavery worked hard when drafting[…] Keep reading →

Adam Smith and pollution

on November 11, 2024 in Freedom

My book, Sustainability Simplified, approaches our environmental problems in several ways. One is from the view that government should stick to a few specific roles, one of which is to protect your life, liberty, and property from me taking or destroying it without your consent. A government that doesn’t protect life, liberty, and property leads to a nation without hope for a better future, which leads to people retreating to[…] Keep reading →

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