I don’t know your views on guns, but I value both exploring different cultures and not polluting, which destroys life, liberty, and property. When my friend invites me to go to target practice at his shooting range outside the city, I’m happy to explore a culture as different from Greenwich Village, NYU, and Columbia as most places on earth. Unlike nearly anyone I know, I find cultures as diverse as[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday, April 20th, is a big holiday for people who love cannabis and many cannabis lovers love Washington Square Park so it was more crowded than usual, but it’s not a national holiday or that big. Yet look at the garbage on a mostly regular day. I just took a few pictures, but every can was beyond full to overflowing. Each became the center of an ever-growing pile of garbage.[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, by Ryan Holiday: Like Courage is Calling, Holiday recalls virtues largely abandoned these days with diverse historical examples. It makes sense to practice them, yet we don’t. I don’t think I’m flattering myself to say I believe I practice discipline, approaching a quarter-million burpees without missing a day in over a decade among other sidchas. I think I also[…] Keep reading →

That something in poppy can be extracted into something that addicts (opiates), that fruit and grains can be fermented into something that addicts (alcohol), or smoking tobacco can addict, or that gambling addicts are all chance results from nature. People may have found ways to capitalize on and profit from that addiction, but no one created the effect. Evolution did. By contrast, we now know how to addict people to[…] Keep reading →

Our third conversation matches the first two in intrigue and quality. We talk about the things that came up for Dr. Bob that got in the way of his commitment. These issues come up for nearly everyone (implying they aren’t personal, but cultural beliefs): politics (including reacting to Trump), family, and race. This conversation was one of my first engaging on race unscripted. It’s tempting to see some issues as[…] Keep reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →