Author and coach Bessi Graham hosted me on her podcast: “The Spodek Method: How Radical Personal Change Can Change the World.” Bessi in her words on her page: Show notes:

In Sustainability Simplified, I clarify that a culture being indigenous doesn’t mean it’s sustainable. An indigenous Indian group that puts up a casino is pushing addiction. An African politician who finds oil and gets cozy with the global oil industry is too. Any culture that doesn’t live sustainably will find itself running out of something, leading it to conflict with others or collapse. But indigenous cultures that endure tend to[…] Keep reading →

I was thinking about how some religions suggest people to pray facing east, Jerusalem, or Mecca. Quoting Wikipedia, “Prayer in a certain direction is characteristic of many world religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá’í Faith.” I couldn’t help pursue the question. What happens if you’re on Mars? How would you figure out the direction to one of these places from Mars? What if we achieved interstellar travel?[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Transformer: Transitioning as a World-Record Powerlifter, directed by Michael Del Monte, starring Janae Marie Kroczaleski: Wow! A fascinating and illuminating documentary in two ways. First, it showed the struggle of someone with two competing inner drives. One is to develop huge muscles and compete in bodybuilding. The other is to be a woman, though born a man. This movie revealed the struggles of navigating society and[…] Keep reading →

One of the more common line of questions people ask me when they learn I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid is what I do for light. Before I share what I share with them, if you’re curious, you can find out easily: don’t turn your lights on this evening. If you do the simple task of not dying, you’ll find an answer. I’m no do-it-yourselfer. If you just[…] Keep reading →

My building’s routine maintenance project that began keeping residents from roof access last March is now extended to this March, as my building manager informed residents earlier this month. The delays mean I have to keep walking ten or fifteen minutes each way to Washington Square Park to charge. Argh. The building manager wrote me in early December, “The plan is for the work to be completed in December.” So[…] Keep reading →

Increasing efficiency forever can’t reach zero waste for many physical processes, but I think people feel otherwise. Or fantasize. When you hear about airplanes being made more efficient, or electric vehicles, computers, or whatever, do you think that if we keep making them more efficient, they’ll eventually not pollute? In the graph below, where the green curve approaches the horizontal line, it will lower forever but never drop below a[…] Keep reading →

Jack Spencer has been a guest on my podcast three times. Now I’ve been on his, and I think you’ll agree it was a fun, engaging conversation. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from him. For one thing, when I started doing the Spodek Method with him on my podcast, I enjoyed his sharing about nature so much, I didn’t get past the first couple steps. I had[…] Keep reading →

Thomas Jefferson wrote some of the most inspiring words on freedom and liberty, yet kept his slaves. To this day, people say as a result: He didn’t mean all men are created equal or he wouldn’t have done what he did. He did, so he must have meant all white men are created equal. It’s difficult to impossible to lead without credibility or integrity. Jefferson undermined both by violating the[…] Keep reading →