"What about jobs?" people often ask to counter proposals to constrain some activity. Today's episode answers. Here are the notes I read from: What about jobs?People out of work drain on society, not so happyStore near me that sells trinketsOf any value?I'd prefer a hug, shoulder rub, or make me dinnerMany stages to make: plastic from oil, factory to make, transportation, store clerkFactory, put near landfillWhat about trucks and boats?Better to drive and sail around in circlesAbsurd, but actually better world paying to do worthless work with more hugs, shoulder rubs, and home-made dinners, oil in ground, people not displaced, skies clearerClassic historical case of buggy whipsIf legislated, people wouldn't die.People out of work now clamor to work. People love to serve.I don't know where…

Vanessa Friedman sees the fashion world from a vantage point few others can as the Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic at the New York Times. She arrived there after pioneering roles covering fashion at Financial Times in a first-ever role there, InStyle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Elle. She shares the industry's forays into sustainability---or responsible fashion in her terms---as well as sharing her thoughts on it. Right off the bat she talked about reducing consumption, which I differentiate from reusing and recycling, which most people jump to, but I consider tactical. Reducing is strategic. Harder to get at first, but leads to easier life and work. I was awkward, as I don't know the fashion world, but you can hear from…

Former guest and founder of the most popular men's dating advice website Chase Amante guest-hosted me to continue the conversation I started with Dov Baron on learning attraction, dating, and seduction and applying it to leadership. My conversations with Dov are in earlier Behind the Mic episodes. I start by sharing why I broached this topic at first with Dov, despite it not obviously connecting to sustainability. The short answer is that leadership for me means sharing relevant parts of yourself candidly and openly. While business school leadership classes opened the door for my learning social and emotions skills of leadership, practicing in the world of learning attraction gave me practice on many social and emotional skills for leadership. After mastering them, I honed how…

I'm in my second month since I unplugged my fridge. Why unplug it? Not because I think its power makes anything more than a negligible difference. This episode describes why. Here are my notes I read from: The other two reasons I unplug the fridge. The first was after reading Vietnam and much of the world ferments, I was curious to learn fermentation. Second is reading how much backup power a grid needs to maintain perfect uptime. Resilience. Each bit after 99% costs a lot more. Alternatively, 95% requires almost no backup. Third is to learn and grow myself. Neediness and entitlement, especially to things that hurt others and nobody needed for hundreds of thousands of years, doesn't make me better person. Do you know…

Nicola Pirulli hosts the Conversazioni Sostenibili podcast, which is the Italian offshoot of This Sustainable Life, launched last month. His episodes so far have been in Italian, but this one is in English. Besides talking about my life and work, he leads me through the This Sustainable Life process of sharing an environmental value and committing to act on it. Want to hear my commitment? Should I share it here or leave it as a teaser for you to listen? I'll leave it to you to listen, knowing you'll like it. Preview: it was inspired by my previous guest Vincent Stanley's commitment to turn off his electronics and connections half a day each week. His commitment led to him writing a book of poetry. Can…

Kip Ward is a retired General who, among other things, was the first leader of the Africa Command. He shares his background so you can hear it from him. It's extensive, having served at every level of the army. I met him through previous guest Frances Hesselbein and watched a few videos in which he spoke of leadership, which I linked to below. He spoke of things I don't see in sustainability and environmental stewardship but work. I took away from those talks Addressing the conditions that led to a situationGood, effective governance through sustained efforts, which he contrasts with technology or authorityAuthority and force being the last option, despite it being what he was trained in to reach that levelUnderstanding the society and people…