Matt shared last time about the redwoods I keep hearing about in California that I’ve never seen but find they transform people. His goal was to plant a tree. He ended up with a new tree, plus he planted other plants. Listen…
I met Bob at a conference on climate at my old school, Columbia Business School. He knew another participant, Gernot Wagner, with whom I recorded an episode I’ll post soon, and was a peer with past guest Mark Tercek. I didn’t work…
Population modeling can be hard, as is figuring out a prediction’s accuracy, therefore how much confidence to give your conclusions. Many people can’t hear talk about population without hearing things like eugenics and racism even when they aren’t there. But population is…
In what looks to me like one of the biggest overcommitments of guests on this podcast and participants in the Spodek Method, Dan shares that to free his mind for meditation, he ended up selling his motorcycle and Playstation. Then we spoke…
People who work at fossil fuel companies are people just like you and me. When you buy what the industry sells, you support it too. You rationalize and justify that your money supports lobbyists, advertising, extraction, pollution, depletion, making refugees, dictators, and…
If learning what it’s like to watch your team win an Olympic gold medal from the sidelines isn’t enough, and if learning what it’s like to grow up in a family beset with poverty and addiction before reaching Olympic level competition isn’t…
Matt invited me to his podcast, A Climate Change. We stayed in touch after recording. He shared that he ran for President, including supporting sustainability. A goal of this podcast is to bring elected officials of all stripes. While he didn’t get…
Christopher may be the most direct, accurate reporter on sustainability. Our last conversation treated his helpful and accurate reporting on the book Limits to Growth. Today we start from his (in my opinion) excellent article The Green Growth Delusion, in which he…
The spiciest parts of this conversation come at the end. It’s possible listeners may think we were annoying each other, but I think I can speak for both of us that we enjoyed the repartee. Anyone who has talked to me about…
I’ve been recommending Oliver’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals a lot. When people ask about it, I have a hard time explaining what it says, only that it’s valuable. He has a way of communicating important things about values,…
This podcast and my mission are about changing culture. The Color of Law compiled our culture’s practices that I can only see as cruel and unfair. As long as they’re hidden, we can’t do much about them. Listen to my episode with…
Can Learning to Lead Sustainability be fun, inspiring, and effective? Yes! I just finished leading my first workshop in leading oneself and others effectively to act more sustainably: enduring systemic change and immediate personal change. Best of all: it was FUN! .…
Some context leading to my conversation with Maya: When I first thought of a constitutional amendment to protect us from pollution, I thought the idea was crazy, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The more I did, the more it made…
See the video for this episode here. I speak about the concept of a constitutional amendment on the environment with former guests on this podcast: Michael Herz: Constitutional scholar and former lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund (Michael’s podcast episodes and bio)…
In the first part of our conversation, we start by reviewing Gautam’s commitment to sailing, which seemed and still seems a good idea to him. but maybe too much for now. We revisit what motivated him and come up with a new…
Chris returns to share his experience with the Spodek Method. He did something different than he committed to: he stopped using his smart phone—the latest Apple iPhone—in favor of a simple flip phone hearkening almost back to the nineties. What happens? Does…
Simon is a mining engineer who both researches the minerals and mining necessary if we were to try powering our culture with various sources. His work has brought him to work with government teams, especially economists and politicians around the world. He…
The more I move toward living sustainably, the more I learn about cultures that haven’t become as polluting, depleting, addicted, and imperialist as ours. I grew up thinking they were stuck in the Stone Age, but they aren’t. Conversations with Alan help…
I’ve made it no secret that sustainability lacks leadership and leaders. If you want to help on sustainability, I suggest that the most valuable thing you can do is learn to lead. If you know how to lead, improve it. Nothing can…
Regular listeners know I’ve been asking people what the environment means to them as part of the Spodek Method. Many people respond with touching answers that I would call something close to life-altering. Maybe more like life-guiding, life-enhancing, or giving meaning and…