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

This week’s selected media, December 8, 2024: The Big Short

on December 8, 2024 in Tips

This week I finished: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis: I read this book after watching the movie based on my expectations on recent legislation. I expect that top-down sustainability efforts like the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, moving trillions of dollars toward technologies that won’t work, will create market bubbles that will burst. In the process, they won’t help on our[…] Keep reading →

Help a Historic Cause

on December 7, 2024 in Education

I don’t talk much about history here, but my father was a history professor and I grew up with history being a big part of family life and how we viewed the world. My dad knew a lot of history. It was one of his major lenses through which to view the world. Growing up I didn’t like that view. Everything seemed to warrant lectures, from art museums to tourist[…] Keep reading →

792: Travis Fisher, part 2: The spirit that America was founded on, Cato, and sustainability

on December 6, 2024 in Podcast

We recorded this conversation just after the election. We talked about it, especially Travis’s and the Cato Institute’s views. One of his main views is that the US puts too much executive authority in the president. I’m also We shared our concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act coming from different standpoints, but agreeing with each other. Our main conversation was about approaching sustainability from a view of freedom, not coercion[…] Keep reading →

See the video from Monday’s book reading

on December 5, 2024 in Creativity, Leadership, Nature, Stories

Monday’s book reading featured questions from AJ and participants about the writing process, my experience, what to do oneself, and other personal things. AJ is both supportive and leads people to give their all. We reminisced about my taking her workshop, in which I wrote the book’s first draft. Only later did I see that that draft was just the start of writing the book. She asked me to read[…] Keep reading →

Pollution, depletion, and overcoming addiction

on December 4, 2024 in Addiction, Awareness

My book Sustainability Simplified treats addiction in depth because it’s so connected to our environmental problems. All of those problems result from our behavior. We aren’t stopping behavior putting civilization at risk, harming people globally. Read the book for more detail, but I think you can see our dependence on polluting and depleting qualifies as addiction. If you want to overcome an addiction, whom do you ask for help: people[…] Keep reading →

More reasonable thoughts on population

on December 3, 2024 in Choosing/Decision-Making, Nature

Following up my post a couple days ago Some early thoughts of a new way to quantify population and overpopulation, we would all benefit from developing ways to speak about population calmly. Currently, people think others with differing views risk destroying humanity and act as if their lives were at stake, willing to say and do what it takes to win. I’ve come up with a view I think may[…] Keep reading →

The challenge of the winter solstice and misunderstanding leadership

on December 2, 2024 in Creativity, Leadership, Nature

This morning on the way to charge the sign said 34 degrees (1C). The sun was so low on the horizon the usually sunny places I normally charge were in shadow most of the day. The solstice is three weeks away. It will be darker and colder for another three weeks. Then it will be another three weeks to come back to this long a day, though it will be[…] Keep reading →

Some early thoughts of a new way to quantify population and overpopulation

on December 1, 2024 in Nature

People freak out when the topic of population or overpopulation come out. Some people think humans have overpopulated the earth and risk pushing us into a population collapse. Others think humans may cause problems but we solve them too, so more humans means to them more solutions. They see the first group as anti-human. The first group sees the second as not understanding science. They don’t want fewer humans. They[…] Keep reading →

See me on the Radical World podcast: “The Power of Personal Transformation for Systemic Impact”

on November 30, 2024 in Audio, Leadership, Nature

You’ll hear a healthy dose of agreement on principle and disagreement on implementation between me and Matt Perez on sustainability leadership. He hosted me on the Radical World podcast. About the podcast: In a world shaped by force, we’ve dared to envision a different path. Together with like-minded guests startup founders, corporate leaders, and professionals from diverse backgrounds we’re challenging the established norms. Our conversations on RADICAL WORLD delve into[…] Keep reading →

Sign up for my weekly newsletter