More wealth or stuff doesn’t mean freedom: Distinguishing freedom from abundance and prosperity

You've probably heard people say, "Even poor people today can do things beyond what kings and emperors of the past could dream," talking about cell phones, airplanes, and so on. Yes, but technological power doesn't necessarily lead to people valuing life more. Most people value freedom. Money and technology can enable us to do what we couldn't otherwise, but what if it comes with a loss of freedom? If you have nice stuff but if someone tells you what to do, you can't walk away and you have to do what they tell you to, what's the stuff worth? What if it comes at the loss of liberty, equality, democracy, and national security? You can talk to people on the other side of the world…

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“All it is is pain”: Skier Jessie Diggins on discovering her potential

I don't pretend to be operating at the level of a top Olympic athlete in one of the most grueling sports (though my resting heart rate of 38 bpm probably indicates something) but the words of Jessie Diggins quoted below have resonated with me. Who is she? According to Wikipedia: She is the most accomplished cross-country skier from the United States in the sport's history having won three World Cup overall titles, four Olympic medals, seven World Championship medals, and numerous other event championships. Her words that resonated with me The New York Times profiled her in a piece titled ‘All It Is Is Pain’: The Olympian Testing the Limits of Endurance: Jessie Diggins has become the best-ever American cross-country skier because of what she…

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Heritage Foundation promoting socialism, as usual. Charlie Kirk did too.

The Heritage Foundation states: "Heritage’s mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." Those words may sound nice, but talk is cheap. What happens when it comes time to act? From Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation and his podcast cohost: After years of rigorous research, I am proud to announce the release of The Heritage Foundation’s newest paper, “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years.” In creating this pivotal paper, our scholars challenged outdated assumptions, studied other nation’s attempts to reverse declining families (both successful and unsuccessful), and put our best minds to work to create actionable solutions.…

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The importance of doing and talking about unimportant things

I wrote something last week in Another Spodek Method commitment: a walk in the park with family that prompted reflection: Talking while walking in a park is different than in the city or indoors when multiple family members are figuring out who sits where and what to do for dinner and all that nicknack stuff that goes into events. It’s peaceful, meandering, and unimportant in a way that makes it more important for life, just not for what drives much of American life, like productivity, efficiency, GDP growth. The prompt to reflect came from my contrasting what made for meaningful and delightful conversation with raising the GDP, efficiency, and innovation. Many people consider these last topics as core important topics for conversation. When I compare…

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This week’s selected media, March 1, 2026: Citizen Kane

This week I finished: Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles: Regular readers of my Sunday posts know that since a few movies led me to find art and expression in the medium that I had missed before. Mainly I enjoyed the subtlety, nuance, and complexity that got me thinking about life, society, myself, and art in general. Besides Yi Yi and A Brighter Summer Day, I found movies I considered masterpieces, like Tokyo Story. I watched Grand Illusion again and it held up, though not as much. Not everything people recommended measured up, like Mulholland Drive and Parasite. Eventually I had to watch Citizen Kane again. I watched it once before, but probably decades ago, long before I started appreciating movies more. I knew what "Rosebud"…

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We celebrate in garbage: Chinese New Year version

I was in Chinatown for the Chinese New Year celebrations scheduled today. Some traditions may go back hundreds or even thousands of years, but plastic pollution doesn't. Vendors sold these factory-produced tubes that launched plastic confetti into the air. That is, that polluted. The confetti lingered in the air for a few seconds. The plastic will pollute the environment for millennia. Parents buy these polluting tubes for kids, who learn to pay to pollute and associate it with fun or some cultural traditions that plastic pollution has nothing to do with. We have become a society where we celebrate in garbage. It's tempting to think, "Oh but it's fun! Josh, don't be such a spoil sport." People were having no more fun with these polluting…

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847: Tzeporah Berman: Ending Fossil Fuels by Treaty

I met Tzeporah at an event called Climate Week NYC last fall. She was nearly the only person there who spoke about decreasing and stopping extracting fossil fuels. I had to bring her here. Our conversation grew more compelling and interesting as we spoke. The early parts about energy sources besides fossil fuels you may have heard before, but give context. After she shares the realizations that prompted her to lead are what I valued. In particular, she exposes and clarifies how people have simply ignored fossil fuel production or extraction in favor of accounting methods and seeing if they can offset things but not decreasing extraction. She also talked about her strategy, which differs from Paris Agreement approaches and is based on how treaties on…

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Podcasts and blogs I follow

I've written lately about podcasts I follow. It seems like I should share what I follow. I may be biased, but I recommend mine most: This Sustainable Life: Podcasts and blogs I subscribe to: This Sustainable Life: Solve for Nature, by Eugene Bible: Eugene contacted me about my podcast and work. We got to know each other. He started a sibling podcast to mine, practicing the Spodek Method with his guests. Since he is an engineer, he started by focusing on an engineering solutions-based approach but has expanded. Making Sense, by Sam Harris: I like his honesty and willingness to speak to guests he disagrees with, with respect and openness. (Video) What Is Politics?: I find Daniel, the host, a knowledgeable and thoughtful source on…

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More heartbreaking garbage

In Monday's post, Today's blizzard, February 2026, I wrote how the blizzard led to another day when I could find no litter in Washington Square Park. As usual, even with over a foot of snow, I found plenty of litter and garbage elsewhere, but at least not in the park, which is like my back yard. That post shows several beautiful pictures of my neighborhood covered in virginal snow. In that post, I also wrote something that breaks my heart that a lifetime of experience prompts me to express, and with confidence: I didn't see any litter in the park this morning so I'm one day into a potential release, but tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and Tuesday is forecast to be warm, so…

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Another Spodek Method commitment: a walk in the park with family

I've done a lot of Spodek Method commitments. I've loved them all, at least I don't remember disliking any, but haven't recorded many of them here, but liked posting My Spodek Method commitment to make water ice from snow: A photo essay last month. I did another one over the weekend and took a few pictures to share. The memories of nature stemmed from Wissahickon Creek and the park around it near where I grew up. Here are pictures of part of that park though also a story of being mugged there (incident #2) and a bike stolen. I remembered a conversation with my dad walking along the creek. Most of my conversations with him didn't go well, at least since high school in the…

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Today’s blizzard, February 2026

Everyone has a camera, so anyone can find wonderful pictures of anything online, but I couldn't help take some pictures of today's blizzard. It started yesterday and is forecast to run until this evening. Many places see more snow all the time, so I'm not saying we're experiencing a lot of snow. It also isn't that cold, slightly below freezing. I tried to take pictures that show the city before the beautiful snow turns to slush and reveals the larger accumulations of litter and garbage when the city pauses picking up the mess people leave. Recall that sanitation systems are socialist. Whether you like socialism or not, sanitation systems motivate more pollution and depletion. I'll start with the park across the street with my local…

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This week’s selected media, February 22, 2026: The Gulag Archipelago volume 1

This week I finished: The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, volume 1, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: If I weren't reading these books I wouldn't believe they could exist. I understand why people consider them among the greatest and most important books of the twentieth century. First, about the book itself: Solzhenitsyn's writing is simple, clear, and often funny from being sardonic and mocking. He survived the gulag's so he knows what he's writing about. I'm listening to the recording online here and the narrator has prepared himself well. The technical quality of the audio isn't great, but I find the reading very listenable. About the content: I knew something of Stalin's gulag prison system. I knew something about slavery in the US and the…

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If you wait to solve all the challenges of zero pollution and depletion before starting, we’ll never start. If we start, we’ll solve the problems.

People dream that we'll figure out how to keep our world as it is, just without pollution and depletion. We'll just create new technology that does what existing technology does, but it will be "clean," "green," and "renewable." Well, shoot, why didn't people think of making technology that didn't hurt people in the first place? What jerks, not making things "clean," "green," and "renewable." Oh wait, maybe it's not possible to replicate the results of technology that violates the Constitution (by depriving people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law) with technology that doesn't. Maybe we're dreaming of an impossible fantasy. Even if it is possible to fly, drive, and ship thousands of shipping containers per load across oceans without violating the…

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How cute and adorable the garbage from doof dealers

I used to be unable to resist craving for sweets and savory treats. Now I'm free from the doof industry's deliberate strategy to addict people, or at least mostly so. Walking along Seventh Avenue, I saw this revolting sight: a trash can overflowing with pink boxes designed to look adorable and appealing. They say the name of the store creating this garbage: "Crumbl". I see the store around. They make doof: sweet, sugary doof. To clarify, I don't look for this revolting stuff. It's everywhere. I just can't help taking pictures when I feel vomit forming, to show how twisted we've made our world. As much as I couldn't resist such products before, today, I would pick apples over any sweet doof. They grow locally…

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Does every group think they’re the best?

I've meant to start compiling this list for a while. People often equate racism with white supremacy. Even if they say they aren't the same, many people consider all white people as privileged, whether they want to be or not, and all people of color as being oppressed, at least to some degree. They consider that white people may face challenges, but not because of their skin color, whereas people with skin that isn't white face headwinds and start behind the starting line. My book explores how these beliefs and the practices that prompted them, as well as the conditions that prompted the practices in more depth. In particular, I explore beyond what historians and anthropologists who just look at the past few centuries or…

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Silly bathroom question: Am I missing something here?

I think I usually write about important topics, but I like to share silly things my mind ponders. I think it builds self-awareness. I don't know how the following situation will seem to a reader, but I hope it reads as it feels to me playing with ideas: being curious. I brush my teeth after dinner, before going to bed. Sometimes after dinner I also need to poop. I figure this situation is common to all. When I have to do both, I brush my teeth first and poop second. I figure the order makes sense to all, but basically, brushing teeth seems cleaner so should happen first. When I think about it, though, after pooping, I wash my hands, so they are cleanest then.…

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846: Gail Eisnitz: The Inside Story of a Life Investigating Factory Farms

Gail shares her investigations into meat industry practices, exploring how exorbitant slaughterhouse production line speeds in a consolidated slaughter industry affect animals as they are being handled and killed, and how the proliferation of massive factory farms impacts animals being raised in intensive confinement. She spent decades in the field documenting violations against farm animals and in the office preparing cases and writing about her investigations in articles and books. Her efforts to expose and prosecute animal abusers were often thwarted by network television producers and by law enforcement authorities. Producers considered her findings too disturbing. The law refused to prosecute abusers. Instead they provided cover for the meat industry---a billion-dollar industry. She gives an inside view behind the closed doors of U.S. slaughterhouses and…

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Why don’t the left and right look at themselves the way the other does? Or do they, but I can’t find it?

We've all heard how since the left and right get their news from different sources and those sources present different facts, it's as if two parts of the nation live in different realities. If so, how can they agree on points based on different facts? A related issue I don't think I've seen treated stems from each group evaluating themselves and the others based on different criteria. The left judges the right based on its criteria, not the right's, so it sees the right as failing, wrong, or bad. It also judges itself by its criteria and finds itself as succeeding as best it can, right, and good. Meanwhile, the right does it the other way. It judges the right based on its criteria, not…

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This week’s selected media, February 15, 2026: Cinefiles

This week I finished: Many Cine-Files podcast episodes, hosted by Steve Morris and John Rocha: I've been appreciating movies more lately. After each movie I like, I follow up with reviews. Following up Remains of the Day, I found this podcast of two guys in the movie industry talking about it with more depth and thoughtfulness than most reviews. It turns out they did a four-part survey of Scarface too, for about 7 or 8 hours. Normally I don't report on podcast episodes here, but I listened to so much and anticipate listening to more. They've been reviewing movies on this podcast about ten years and I found many I liked. Episodes I listened to or downloaded: Remains of the Day Scarface Spirited Away Chasing…

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Visiting the Jackie Robinson Museum

The Jackie Robinson Museum offered free admission this weekend. I didn't know about it and don't remember how I learned of the offer, but it turns out it's a 20-minute walk from my front door so I took them up on the offer. I recommend the museum to anyone. I presume most Americans know Jackie Robinson as the guy who "broke the color barrier" in baseball. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the overview of his life from Wikipedia, which is fascinating. This museum shows his life from childhood, born in Cairo, Georgia, his father disappeared, his mother brought his family to relatives in Pasadena, California as part of the Great Migration, becoming a star athlete (along with his brother). He was UCLA's…

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845: Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon: The War on Cars and Life After Cars

Doug and Sarah's podcast The War on Cars is a podcast that delivers news and commentary on the latest developments in the worldwide fight to undo a century’s worth of damage wrought by the automobile, approaching the topic from all angles, from politics to pop culture. They release two regular episodes and one Patreon bonus episode per month. Doug and Sarah's Book Cars ruin everything. That’s why we need Life After Cars. When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for everyone; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty. Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending proliferation of automobiles has delivered a host of costs, among them the demolition…

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Civil war results: obligation to kill old friends

People read prediction of environmental problems like climate change or biodiversity loss and think the problems we face will be from things like crop failure or heat exhaustion from a warmer globe or lack of plants from honeybees dying. Those results won't cause the most suffering. They will provoke what causes the suffering, but fighting between people and societies will cause the most suffering. I'll illustrate. Say crops start producing smaller yields globally. Before people start starving, people will realize a resource is dwindling. While we live in mostly democratic societies, every nation also has systems that give different people different levels of access to resources when they become scarce. In other words, we live in dominance hierarchies, at least to some extent. Some people…

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A rat and plastic in Washington Square Park, of the many due to garbage and litter

I don't have anything against rats, but they represent a loss of biodiversity and a failure of our society. They thrive on our waste. This island used to be covered with countless species of mammals, birds, and probably reptiles and amphibians, on top of plants and fungi. Now we have mostly rats. No beavers, coyotes, bears, egrets, swans, butterflies, and what used to live here, plus fish, mollusks, dolphins, and everything in the water and air. Walk through Washington Square Park on any night now and you'll see countless rats running around. Also mice, pigeons, and roaches. In the recent snow, you can see the holes they dig in the snow. I took the pictures and video below before the big recent snowfall. This rat…

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See me on Korean TV!

Last fall a Korean production company asked to cover my off-grid living. As usual, I tried to clarify I work on leadership applied to sustainability and that covering my solar panels would be like covering Martin Luther King's shoe's during the bus boycott. Media is media the world over, so they covered my staircase and dark apartment as opposed to changing global culture. Still, without understanding what they say, I found parts funny. The guy who interviewed me, Ha Seok-jin, seems to be renowned in Korea. I had a good time with him and the crew. The title of the segment is 활기 넘치는 뉴욕에서 지속가능한 에너지 쓰는 이들의 이야기(feat.천국의계단) which seems to translate to Stories of Those Using Sustainable Energy in Vibrant New York…

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Volunteering is like a holiday

I described my volunteering to some friends. One remarked how over the holidays she wanted to volunteer so went to some pages that catalogued volunteer opportunities but they were all filled. People volunteering around holidays is like people going to gyms after new years resolutions: after the holiday, it empties again. People return to social media and watching TV over the gym and volunteering. This time I looked at it differently. We love being generous and helping people. Somehow we do so during holidays more, but our hearts, minds, and souls benefit from helping others all the time, certainly more than from scrolling and getting outraged from social media. Even though I volunteer fewer hours per week than many Americans spend on screens per day,…

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