David and I could have talked about growth and how many people think growth is sustainable and non-growth isn’t which seems based on a system hurtling toward collapse whereas a steady-state economy and population can be sustainable. Human populations have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, hundreds of thousands of years without growth whereas our growth just since Industrial pollution it doesn’t look like it’s going to last 1000[…] Keep reading →

Today’s guest is Sally Singer, creative director at vogue.com. My conversation with her is so fascinating. This is the first one. I’ve split one episode into two parts partly because this is such a new world for me but I believe incredibly valuable for leadership. So the first episode this one is on vogue.com. It’s on storytelling and journalism in general. She’s had a storied career throughout journalism including the[…] Keep reading →

You’ve heard the idea that with social media, Google and most free services online you’re the product. The idea was probably thought provoking when you heard it. For most people it’s an ending point. But what if you considered it a starting point for your thoughts. Where does it lead? What does it tell you about yourself, society, the internet, markets, humanity? Because the Internet began as a medium to[…] Keep reading →

When thinking about the environment would you think that the army would be quick to change or late to change? In my second conversation with Colonel Everett Spain he talks about using only one plastic bottle where he would have used something like 40. He also talks about how he had already reduced his garbage from leading a garrison in Germany. He also reduced his family’s use. And this is[…] Keep reading →

I learned a lot from this conversation. And partly that’s a euphemism for it being challenging for me since my measure of a challenge working was different from hers. You’ll probably hear me struggle to listen and feature her without disagreeing too much. Part of why I invited her and why I value her friendship is our different values and therefore balancing them differently. Personally, I felt like she was[…] Keep reading →

Junior year in college I met a guy who ended up being one of my most longstanding friends. He still is. The year was 1991. I had just returned from a year in Paris taking a year off from school. He’d returned from serving as a marine in the first Gulf War. At Columbia, time off meant losing your guaranteed housing. So we lived relatively far from campus. But it[…] Keep reading →

David Gardner left a well-paying mainstream job to create and star in a documentary called GrowthBusters. That’s a play on Ghostbusters. He saw the problems with growth to local communities, the national economy, the global economy, the environment and many other places. He also saw the nearly unquestioned belief that growth is good, especially GDP growth and population growth. And once you question this belief, then like a sweater unraveling[…] Keep reading →