Tom Szaky has been working on waste since his undergrad days at Princeton in 2001. Then I suddenly heard about him from many sources in the past few months. His company, Terracycle, recycles waste others don't. The new initiative, Loop, got attention at Davos and support from many companieswhose business plans depend on producing waste, within an economic model that promotes growth. He also published a book, the Future of Packaging, coauthored by top executives from these waste and growth places. I wrote more notes from that book to prepare for this conversation than any book, including Bob Langert's, McDonald's former head of Corporate Social Responsibility (that episode is still being edited). It never mentioned reducing consumption, twisting, as I saw it, the idea to…

A few months ago I attended the Summit. It was expensive, so I wasn't sure I'd get the value out of it that I paid. As it came together for me, I met the founder, Elliott Bisnow, and then happened to meet his mother, Margot, this episode's guest. She was a big part of making the event great for me. As you'll hear in the conversation, she was like a force of nature, connecting people, doing what leaders do despite no formal role, as many leaders work. To give you some background on her formal leadership, she was an FTC Commissioner and Chief of Staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Today we more talk about her book: Raising an Entrepreneur: 10 Rules for…

Today, I'm sharing what value being a guest offers to influential, well-known people. I call Oprah and her peers the single-name people -- people everyone knows by single names: LeBron, Serena, Sergey, Larry, Barack, Elon, Bill, Mark, Madonna, Giselle, Venus, Meryl, Bruce, Maradonna, Cher, Beyonce, Messi, Jay-Z, and so on. I also mean anyone influential or with an audience -- people in politics, accomplished actors, journalists, singers, artists, and the like, bestselling writers, public speakers, winning athletes, and so on. If anyone listening is someone like them or knows them, this episode is for you. I'll say it bluntly, but nothing you haven't heard before: we could potentially could lose civilization. If we don't, it will likely be because people changed culture. Rare moment in…

Today's guest, Sean, is a friend. We recorded this conversation before the podcast launched in November 2017. It took a while to get through the editing process, but I wanted to post it to document the evolution of the podcast and me. For Sean, it shows him as a leader of leaders, since all the guests since followed him. In showing that I grew as an interviewer, finding a purpose, strategy, and voice, I hope it shows the accessibility for anyone to take an environmental leadership role. This conversation helped the podcast's strategy emerge. It's largely based on learning that community influences behavior more than facts. So I'm bringing world-renowned guests -- people in everyone's communities. If Oprah shares her environmental values, acts on them,…

Nobody likes being coerced to do something you don't want under threat of punishment. Nor do people like being told they're wrong or ignorant by someone else telling you they know better. Yet it happens all the time. Much of our politics and public dialog -- our leadership -- is about coercion, self-righteousness, hitting people over the head with facts, and the like, especially around the environment. It doesn't work. Rather it works at something -- at people resisting, disengaging, undermining leaders' authority. The opposite of what we want. Particularly in the area of environmental behavior. There's a lot of self-righteousness, attempts to coerce, expectations that facts will change behavior. Why do we do it? Would you be surprised to find that our educational system…

Since seeing Al Gore's movies and speaking in person in November, I've wanted to share what I see as the next step in leading people to live by their environmental values. I love what Al Gore has done so far and could learn more from him than he could from me, but I think the next step of environmental leadership will come from leaders living by their environmental values far more than any I know of are. An environmental leader causing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IPCC recommends, for example, is like a Surgeon General who smokes or eats sugar cereal. Changing his behavior without losing effectiveness may look hard, but I believe he can do it and will increase his effectiveness, though only…

Everyone thinks about the environment. Nearly everyone gets bogged down in questions. What's best?Will this or that change make a difference?What does all the science mean?What should I do? Science answers some of these questions. Science is the study of nature. People associate it with going to the moon or people in lab coats, but it's about nature -- sunsets, gravity, why the sky is blue, as well as global warming, pollution, and resource depletion. Using computers, motors, eye glasses, and so on means your life relies on science. I find it beautiful, which is why I got the PhD in physics. Not understanding science or math means not knowing how to reach or understand answers resulting from studying nature and its patterns. Even understanding…

Ana works in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Executive Director for Nipe Fagio (Give Me the Broom! in Swahili), my first guest who works in Africa. This conversation is about leadership in an area lacking it -- environmental action. I wish I met her before! It sounds to me like she leads effectively -- not telling people what to do but leading them. Ana promotes doing things, focusing on action, creating the joy of living by your values. She's starting with beach clean ups and organizing people to act, but you can tell her vision is broader. I've spoken a lot about people delaying action by making a goal of awareness when they're already more than aware enough that their values are telling them it's time…

When I met Ron in business school, he and Recycle Bank, which he co-founded, were well regarded. He's continued to grow since. Beyond contributing into entrepreneurship in sustainability as an entrepreneur, he's helped create policy, appears often in the media, and now invests. In our conversation you'll hear on the personal side his passion. On the business side you'll hear the opportunities to start businesses and solve problems are increasing -- from the sounds of it, dramatically. He puts his money where his mouth is. If you came here for examples of leadership in the area of the environment, I'd say he sounds like a role model. He achieves business success. It emerges from transparency, which creates, as I hear it, trust, joy, and liberation…

I recorded a preface to episode 142 because I got the backstage pass, attended the meet and greet, shook Sam's hand, and asked him if he was open to alternatives to conversation and violence. I won't be able to do his answer justice here, but his views of conversation and violence were broader than mine, so if he hears episode 142 without this preface, I suspect he'll think I don't understand his views. In a funny way, I hope he sees I misunderstood what he meant by conversation and violence because, as he'll recognize, I recorded that episode before his explanation, but more because I hope my being open to his more expansive view will open him to mine. He asked me about alternatives. I…

This conversation is about joy, responsibility, community, and values you undoubtedly share. Rob Greenfield lived like an average American. He saw the environmental problems we all see on headlines and dismissed them as most do. Then he decided he could no longer abdicate the responsibility of how he affected others and our world. I consider him a role model. Nearly everyone I talk to describes what I do as a big deal. I'll grant I'm far from mainstream -- about 10% of the pollution of the average American -- but it's not a big deal. The more you act on your environmental values, the more you'll find typical American behavior is extreme. An aberrant from how humans act. Once not polluting was normal. It's returning…

While Nikole's being a celebrated director and writer is a great reason to feature her and listen to her, I approached her because she graduated from Sudbury Valley School. I hope you've heard of Sudbury. If not, it's likely a different school than any you've heard of. Learning about in inspired me to learn as much as I could about it. Here are many of the links I read on it. As an educator I am as fascinated by its success and how it overturns my view of childhood, education, and humanity, as well as my own childhood. What better background could I find and feature on it than a student who loved her experience there and shares it. Nikole shares openly about herself, her…

Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about a negative peace, where a problem exists but people don't face it or deal with it, and a positive one, where people solve the problem, which requires facing it. He used non-violent civil disobedience to lead people to face problems that affected others, but as voters and citizens, they could do something about. People didn't always like it, but you can't get change otherwise. Nonviolent civil disobedience works with human laws but doesn't apply so much with our environmental problems. So how do we face these problems? How do we get people who are already aware that they are polluting and emitting greenhouse gases way beyond what risks undermining society, yet people using 90% less are more happy to…

In End of Faith Sam Harris says "We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence." I like his podcast, listened to most episodes, read several of his books, support him with cash. I will see him in person this week for the first time at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. It looks like I'll get back stage passes so may meet him. One of my goals with today's recording (that isn't obviously about the  environment) is to prompt the chance of meeting in person. I support his initiatives on free speech, not just for myself and people who agree with me, freedom from religious…