Regular listeners and readers of my podcast and blog know I grew up with parents who helped form a grocery buying group which folded into a food co-op. Different co-ops work differently, but the general idea is that shoppers co-own the business.…
Many people think sustainability requires fixing everything or else we’ll collapse. The Spodek Method creates a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not, as they might hope, a mindset shift followed by perfection. Alden has had her electronic bike in Vermont for…
We start by talking about the internal challenges Jack felt about acting to do something he wouldn’t have otherwise. He cares about the environment and lives accordingly. Still, he wouldn’t have done what he committed to when we spoke. Does that mean…
Lorraine is one of the few people I know who saw mainstream sustainability efforts for what they are: ineffective and often counterproductive but self-congratulatory. I call most of them “stepping on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations.” Unlike most others,…
Lorna first appeared on this podcast in 2021. We became friends and remained so, though we challenge each other, as you’ll hear in this conversation. We don’t try to. Just things about the other annoy us. But how much we respect and…
People I talk to on the political left who care about the environment see people on the political right as opponents to defeat. When I share that I talk to people from Heritage Foundation, where Nick worked, they sound skeptical at best,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
I’ve been curious in what ways libertarian views on the environment and sustainability differ from conservative views. Travis worked at the Heritage Foundation, which is more conservative, and now works at the Cato Institute, which is more libertarian. Since I haven’t spoken…
Usually when someone does their commitment with the Spodek Method, they enjoy it. Nearly always they do more than they commit to. Sometimes someone really enjoys it. Jan went to town on his commitment. You might wonder if there’s any appeal to…
I participated in an online workshop in influence and persuasion that Josh led. We got in touch afterward and found our approaches to the practices and how to learn them overlap. We start this episode talking about his background and what led…
If you haven’t listened to episode 781: My New Major Life Volunteering Community Project, four years in the making, listen to it first for context. That episode describes my journey to start volunteering as an auxiliary police officer and the background to…
Jan is a listener of this podcast who contacted me about how it changed his life. He is listening to each episode, starting from the beginning. I invited him to be a guest and he accepted. We’ve also crossed paths through working…
Toxic chemicals leach from food packaging into your food. Some of these chemicals disrupt your hormones. Some cause cancer. Some affect your children more. Some disperse into the environment and harm wildlife. For 300,000 years, humans lived without plastic. We created this…
I started a new project volunteering in my community that is also a big life change I wouldn’t believe I’m doing except that I am. In a sense I started the project over four years ago and it’s only seeing the light…
Jack shares his love for nature and passion to care for it, how central it is to his life, how much of his time and focus he devotes to it. He shares his principles of individual choice over top-down regulation. He especially…
Nick and I talk about freedom, liberty, personal action and, however paradoxical to most people, how important personal behavior is in changing systems. Then we talk about markets, regulation, and democracy and how they interact with community norms. Looking at the words…