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: 34 (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: 2,898 and counting
Years not flying: 9 (108 months) and counting
2024-25 grid electric grid use at home: 0 kilowatt-hours
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 246,405 and counting
Resting pulse: 46 bpm

LATEST BLOG POSTS

Telling people problems with tobacco and alcohol is perfect message for the industries selling them

on April 17, 2025 in Addiction, Habits

I was talking to a friend about how addictive products work so well for people who sell them. The products sell themselves. From the perspective of the buyer and society they don’t work so well. Regular readers know I’ve concluded that since polluting and depleting destroy life, liberty, and property, a government mandated to protect life, liberty, and property must prevent polluting and depleting, as surely as it has to[…] Keep reading →

First they say it’s impossible, then easy, then easy for me but hard for them. Anything but acting or responsibility.

on April 16, 2025 in HandsOnPracticalExperience

Want to read something frustrating about living more sustainably? Want to read why, when people ask the hardest part about what I do, I say it’s the friction from people? I’m not saying I’m anything special, just that I’ve done things as experiments that work out. People say living more sustainably is impossible. When I tell them I’m already doing it, like that I dropped my impact ninety percent, they[…] Keep reading →

Should oil, coal, and gas have rights like animals and rivers to stay in the ground and not get burned?

on April 15, 2025 in Nature

You’ve probably heard of movements to give rights to animals and bodies of water as ways of protecting them. When I first heard the idea, I found it far fetched. Then I remembered we extend rights to corporations, so why not other non-human and non-living things? I generally hear about giving rights to things we consider beautiful or sustaining, like animals and rivers. What about giving them to oil, coal,[…] Keep reading →

811: Tina Tombstone: A friend I volunteer delivering food to the needy with

on April 14, 2025 in Podcast

Tina is one of the central characters in that group that everyone knows (another is Kevin Fucillo, also a podcast guest). We go back a few years. She was born in the south in 1933, so you can do the math, but you’d never guess. She’s at times a firecracker, full of life, ready to handle anyone. She’s friendly to all, but ready to police anyone overstepping bounds. She’s always[…] Keep reading →

Tina Tombstone, a friend I volunteer delivering food with, on Fifth Avenue with vegetables

on April 14, 2025 in Habits, HandsOnPracticalExperience

I’m posting today my podcast episode with Tina, who volunteers with me delivering food from stores that would throw perfectly good food away to a community fridge for anyone to take for free. This video was recorded by one of the TV crews doing a story on me. They didn’t use it so let me use it. She was more quiet and reserved when I turned the microphone on, but[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media, April 13, 2025: Matewan, This Changes Everything

on April 13, 2025 in Tips

This week I finished: Matewan: In college, a teammate on the ultimate Frisbee team was a graduate student in the film school and cited this movie as one of his favorites. I watched it a long time ago and re-watched it this week. I found it compelling as a movie. Having taken acting classes, I thought about how much fun an actor could have playing the bad guys since they[…] Keep reading →

Some of my creative writing and editing process

on April 12, 2025 in Art, Creativity, HandsOnPracticalExperience

I recently finished a book and a video course on sustainability leadership. Writing means editing. Any creative, expressive work means sketching ideas, composing, outlining, etc. Any creative, expressive work emerges from copious practice work—any painting, musical piece, novel, poem, etc. You’ve seen sketches by da Vinci, Michelangelo, and so on. I don’t keep a writer’s or artist’s notebook. I don’t start by writing on a computer. I start by writing[…] Keep reading →

Why treat doof as second hand smoke

on April 11, 2025 in Addiction, Doof, Freedom

If an adult wants to smoke in their home, that’s their business. If they give themselves lung cancer, that’s their choice, assuming their sickness doesn’t tax others who didn’t choose. Likewise, if people want to consume doof, that’s their business too. But if someone smokes where others who don’t or can’t consent to breathing that smoke, or if someone too young to know the long-term results of their choices smokes,[…] Keep reading →

We launched our minimum viable course: SpodekMethod.com. Check it out.

on April 10, 2025 in Education, Entrepreneurship, HandsOnPracticalExperience

Today we made SpodekMethod.com live. My book, Sustainability Simplified, mentions the page as a place for more resources and it came out last November, so it’s been almost painful for it not to be working. I couldn’t in good conscience promote the book on podcasts or elsewhere knowing it pointed to an incomplete page and therefore couldn’t enable someone to take the workshop. It’s ready now. I needed to make[…] Keep reading →

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