Tony turns out to live a few blocks from me. I met him at his home, where we recorded. He shared his experience knowing E. O. Wilson, who, as Tony described, conceived of the plan to protect half the Earth's land to protect biodiversity and more to sustain Earth's ability to sustain life. I'd heard Wilson describe the plan many years ago and had seen some analysis that it could protect up to ninety percent of biodiversity if implemented effectively, whereas saving less land or implementing ineffectively might save markedly less, which could put humanity at risk, not to discount the value of other species' existence independent of humans (I confess to valuing humans more than others, but still value other life). I hadn't heard…

Ethno-botonist Rodrigo Cámara-Leret first describes how podcast guest Alan Ereira chose him to live and work with the Kogi, who want to share, in my language, how to stop wrecking the biosphere. He has visited them and seen behind what they show of themselves in the documentaries. Unlike typical scientific research, he will bring his family and learn beyond what they plant. The condition of their environment is the physical manifestation of their culture, as is ours to ours. They aren't living in the Stone Age or as noble savages. They are living appropriate to their environment, sophisticated in their understanding of nature. Rodrigo and the organizations supporting him are approaching the Kogi with humility, as I understand, not trying to teach them or assimilate…

Nadeem committed to reducing his doof. He bravely shares the challenge. Even in Norway, he's surrounded by messages to keep consuming it. Imagine any other unhealthy addictive substance---cocaine, heroin, etc---was advertised and sold everywhere. On top of extra availability, imagine it was portrayed as like food, which it isn't. Nadeem stopped drinking alcohol long ago despite its prevalence in Norwegian culture, and compares how avoiding doof was harder. If you're struggling with getting clean from doof, you'll appreciate hearing what it's like. He also shares more about living as a Muslim in Norway.

I've said before and I'll say again that conversations like mine with Mark Mills are what I value and wish we had more of. We do our research, we have strong opinions, we agree on many things, we disagree on some things we care about. Most of all, I believe we learn from each other, respect different opinions, and try to understand the other's view and goals. In this conversation we talk about his book and the challenges of predictions at first, The most interesting parts are challenging each other on our understandings of our environmental problems and what we can do about them. We agree most proposed solutions that humanity is pursuing don't work and people are misguided. We differ on our expectations in…

I can't tell you how valuable (and entertaining) I found Daniel's video series. Regular listeners and readers may know how important I find anthropology to solving our environmental problems. If we want to change our culture, we have to know why it is this way, how other structures have worked, and how we can change. I started realizing this importance when I noticed that I had read podcast guest Sebastian Junger's book Tribe the day I unplugged my apartment. It showed me what we lack in our culture that others have: freedom, equality, community, connection, and what we value when calm, not bombarded with ads and feeling guilt, shame, helplessness, and hopelessness. It gave me something to look forward to beyond being able to fly…

Martha Nussbaum's new book, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility, looks like it's about animals, but the more I read it, I found it about us, our values, and our behavior. Regular readers and listeners will see the similarity to how I approach the environment in general. Not having eaten meat since 1990 and no animal products at all about ten years, I don't find new materials on human treatment of animals. Candidly, I thought I'd just browse the book. I also don't read much philosophy, which I find too often hard to read. Instead, I kept reading the book until I finished it. I found her writing style accessible, her material heartfelt, and her motivations genuine. She takes a few controversial points, like predation…

Watching environmental documentaries means having seen the Tickells' work, especially Fuel and Kiss the Ground, which they did with podcast guest Bill Benenson. Bill introduced us, though we scheduled this conversation to release the day before their new movie On Sacred Ground, on the Dakota pipeline. In this conversation, they share about the process of choosing the subject, the story and its roots in their lives at the protests, the actors performances, interacting with indigenous cultures, and the emotion the movie evokes. You'll hear some behind-the-scenes stories, but most of all, you'll feel compelled to watch the movie. The movie tells the story of an outsider coming to the protests of the Dakota pipeline and seeing the community there, particularly Native Americans, as a last…