385: Coleman Hughes: Race and social media mobs

I first crossed paths with Coleman at a conference that previous guest Jonathan Haidt organized on promoting viewpoint diversity in academia. I hosted a breakfast panel discussion. Coleman spoke on a panel later that day. He shared views that sounded reasonable and well-expressed, but I also knew social media mobs attacked him, though not often engaged. You hear about situations like that. I wanted to bring someone on who had weathered such storms. Partly, you've heard me talking more about race. My next book covers race a lot, so I've had to practice developing my voice in an area I've seen people lose their careers. Coleman didn't. On the contrary, he recently spoke to the US Congress on reparations, opposite another well-known writer on similar…

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384: They would rather switch than fight

Here are my notes that I read from for this episode: Play Thomas N. Todd recordingRepeat it, explaining from ad campaignContext was civil rights---that is equal rights for blacks as for whites in the US. I don't know context but I think pointing out that blacks who could fight best---educated, could speak to whites best---instead of helping other blacks would rather be white and not fight for equalityI'm going to approach this concept from three directions applying it to sustainability and stewardship.I've spoken to a lot of people about sustainability and led many through my podcast's 4-step process and have seen them from many backgrounds, levels of awareness, levels of greenness, how much they say people should act.I'm going to share an observation. Personal and…

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Attend my online workshop: Make my famous no-packaging vegetable stew. Free, October 1 online

You've heard of my famous no-packaging vegetable stews and that I take over a year to fill a load of trash. Read the reviews. Now see how to do it online! Plant Powered Metro New York is hosting this free online event. October 1, 2020, 6pm-7pm Eastern Click here to register. I've cooked for over fifty people with nothing to throw away or recycle after. I led a cooking demonstration at Lululemon for Earth Day and in the Bronx to show how to do it in a food desert. Click here to register. Description If you're on the path to vibrant health with plant-based nutrition, you've probably noticed that eating more whole foods can reduce the amount of packaging you're taking home from the store.…

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383: Sports, competition, and beating pandemics
One of Usain Bolt's many injuries. I haven't been injured near to his scale.

383: Sports, competition, and beating pandemics

Are you fatigued from pandemic defenses like wearing masks and washing your hands? Is your community, like New York City, doing well? Do you feel since we're doing well, we can let up at last? One of Usain Bolt's many injuries. I haven't been injured near to his scale. Do you know what happens when competing against an opponent you can beat, but instead of playing to your potential, you play to theirs? You tie them or even lose. The fatigue we feel is mental and emotional, which means under our control. We can choose from among plenty of role models who persevered through harder challenges than wearing masks and washing hands. In this episode I share how I learned not to let up or…

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My Washington Square Park drug dealer dream

I want to write a headline one day saying, "How I Led the Washington Square Park Drug Dealers to Clean the Park," or something like it for a story in the paper. Likely? No. Possible? Yes. For longer than the twenty years I've lived in Greenwich Village, drug dealers have operated wantonly in the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. "Smoke smoke . . . weed weed," they say as you walk past. Since the pandemic, they've increased in number and brazenness. I haven't seen the police walk through in months. They claim to lack manpower and that they have to watch the arch since people spray-painted it. Many days I'll see a half-dozen cops standing around chatting, masks off, by the arch. So the…

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I confess I don’t get a lot of poetry

I'm reading a book of poetry a friend just published. I like a few poems---generally the big ones like Ozymandias and Sonnet 116. I haven't read much Whitman, but occasionally a work of his has drawn me in and enthralled me. The year I lived in Paris I saw a live performance of Rimbaud's Une Saison en Enfer in French, though my French wasn't great so it lost me quickly. I posted almost eight years ago a poem I've loved since college, In the sea of Iwami by Kakinomoto Hitomaro. I've liked plenty of other poems, though I contrast my moderate interest in learning poetry with a few physics memories---walking through the shelves of the physics library as an undergraduate and graduate student looking at…

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More disposable cars: Ignoring unintended side-effects

Less than 24 hours after posting about cars becoming disposable, discovering while writing that post that it looks like it's already happening in China, I see this headline: This car will become disposable and will choke landfills The article's tone suggests a wonderful novelty. Yes, it will enable people to do what bicycles do without having to pedal or get rained on, but things don't only give us the effects we want. They give us all the effects. For generations we've watched industries lower prices and make material things more accessible---plastic, clothes, furniture, etc. Every time we react with wonder of the desired results. Then we lament the side-effects evident from the start. We don't lack comfort and convenience. We're choking on waste. We like…

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Prediction: cars will become disposable

Walking around Manhattan, with many people moving out, sidewalks are overflowing with what they don't value enough to keep. What are they disposing? Sofas, mattresses, shelves, chairs, books, televisions, printers, scanners, lamps, mirrors, plates, toasters, silverware, . . . I could go on. Notice anything about them? All those things used to be once-in-a-lifetime purchases. Some were high-tech wonders when introduced---now disposable. We don't value them as much as the effort to maintain them. We turn them into pollution. Our market system has shifted from creating value to creating craving. People like novelty, I guess, so marketing engineers figure out how to generate craving so they can temporarily satisfy it. Meanwhile, markets motivate people to figure out how to deliver with lower cost. The result?…

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382: Kelly Allan, part 1: Deming 101, community, and beyond

Kelly is experienced in theory, practice, and community of W. Edwards Deming. If you don't know Deming, you'll hear from this conversation, but for context, growing up my top role models were Gandhi, King, and Mandela. As I practiced sustainability, I realized acting in harmony with nature and motivating others to connect with deeper values isn't exactly what they did. New role models emerged: Patton, Eisenhower, and Ali, for example, but they didn't lead people exactly to connect with their values. Then came Deming. He transformed a war-destroyed Japan starting in 1950 after helping win WWII in the US in a way comparable to developing radar or cracking the Nazi's codes for their secret messages. He did it in four years, an attractive time frame…

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Mutual Aid During the Pandemic

On my podcast I've been sharing how I'm trying to find ways to work with my community to keep it safe. You may have seen the article former podcast guest James Altucher wrote, NYC Is Dead Forever. Here's Why: Jerry Seinfeld responded with a proud "up yours" in a piece the New York Times published, So You Think New York Is 'Dead': Seinfeld remarks that the city is resilient, always has been, and always will be. I see their feud applying to many places during the pandemic, not just New York City, but let's treat the place they're talking about. I agree on the city's resilience, but I don't think it will do well if we just believe it will and wait for it to…

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381: Kevin Edwards Cahill, part 1: The Deming Legacy

Kevin Cahill's grandfather, W. Edwards Deming, changed nations. An emperor awarded him a medal. If you don't know either, listen to the first few minutes when I describe him. Deming has become one of my top role models. He transformed nations in a few years---the time scale that climate scientists say we have, not that climate is our only problem. He shows what one person can do---the opposite of what everyone who doesn't act justifies their inaction with: "What one person does doesn't matter." W. Edwards Deming saw and acted on systems, what many people talk about but not many get. This episode will illuminate them and, I hope, give hope and direction for what we can do. Kevin's TEDx talkThe Deming Institute

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The virus does nothing

People talk about what the virus does, like it spreads on its own or it's waiting or it want this or that. The virus does nothing on its own. It has no means of locomotion. It has no mind to think or choose. It has no volition or will. It reacts. That's it. It's like water flowing downhill. We need to learn its structure and mechanisms to learn how it works, but we need to look at ourselves to change its results. Not blaming. Stating. Everything that's happened regarding the virus has resulted from our behavior and nothing else. I'm not blaming. I'm stating. It evolved to spread more than its cousins by reproducing more numerously based on our behavior. As with the environment, if…

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I don’t have to steward. I get to.

I don't have to do what I do to act in stewardship to others. I get to. By avoiding flying and packaged for or by picking up others' litter or training people for free to start offshoots of my podcast, I'm not missing out on better things or sacrificing my time. If you think stewardship to others, especially those helpless to protect themselves from my actions that hurt them, lessens my life, you're missing out on the greatest feelings humans can have, to act in service of something greater than all of us, that helps us all. If you think I'm a sucker or a loser for doing unto others as I would have them do unto me, as many prominent people think of someone…

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The Book: Food and Climate Change–Without the Hot Air

Food started my path to finding that acting on my environmental values improves my life. Before trying, I expected stewardship to feel like a burden or chore. Eating from scratch relieved me of that misperception. Food is delicious so great place to start your journey. A new book came out in the Without the Hot Air Series that began with David J.C. MacKay's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, available by free download. I consider it one of the most valuable resources on learning and practicing sustainability. The new book is called Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air. The author, Sarah Bridle, also comes from an astronomy background. It continues the series' presenting the information usefully without sensationalizing it. UK readers can download…

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380: Matthew Stevenson, part 1: Why Befriend a White Nationalist?

Matthew is friends with the guy who built the white nationalist online community, Stormfront. He is also an observant orthodox Jew. You may have heard about him because the pair made headlines and appeared on the Daily Show and shows like that. Matthew and Derek Black made headlines because Matthew invited Derek to Shabat dinner in college. They became friends. Derek eventually disavowed his earlier beliefs, in large part because of their friendship. In our conversation, Matthew shares his side of the story. Most interviews featured Derek, which will get more ratings, but I find Matthew's initiative in leading by engaging more inspiring, especially for those of us not raised as white nationalists. I compare how the mainstream approaches people they disagree with---"punch a Nazi"…

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Would you describe these abs as chiseled?

Call me vain or unprofessional if you want, but I'm sharing the results of my recent decision to reach a fitness goal I've meant to work on for years, maybe decades. Call me self-obsessed if you want for how many words follow, but the journey has been for more enlightening, satisfying, and delicious than I expected. For context, as a child I felt ashamed enough from being teased for excess fat that I would wear a t-shirt at the beach and pool. In high school I started sports, though not seriously, but friends commented on my becoming more fit. In college and beyond I competed at the nationals and worlds level in ultimate Frisbee, a demanding and highly active sport. I loved competing and discovering…

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Watering my tomato plants means climbing 11 flights every day

Following rowing on my roof, since my tomato plants weren't pollinating in my bee- and bug-free apartment, I put them on my roof. Since I avoid taking the elevator, watering them means walking up 11 flights every day until tomatoes form or the season ends. I share some of the story. Sorry for the sound but I wore a mask and was behind the camera. https://youtu.be/_Y9-4t1mwkA Here are the plants Here they are in context:

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379: Dan McPherson, part 1: A Heart Attack Last Week at Age 46

Do you have friends that you talk to once or twice a month---someone you can talk about important things beyond the day to day? Dan is one of those friends for me. The week before recording this conversation he told me he had a massive heart attack. He's 46 years old. I was traveling and could only hear part of the story. What I heard made me reflect all week. The pains, hospitals, and doctors were the exciting, if that's the right word, part. The parts about his son and his views on life got me in the gut. He's gone through life and death experiences before, so he could compare reflections and changes this time to others. The part about the changes he's made…

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I used to think I lived in the best time and place for food
Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food?

I used to think I lived in the best time and place for food

Living in Manhattan, I used to think I had access to some of the best tasting food in the world and since a long time, maybe forever. With all the restaurants, chefs, and cuisines, I figured their competition and education must drive them to ever improving quality. The longer I cook at home and shop at farmers markets, the more I find restaurants don't compete on quality of ingredients. What they serve---more doof than food, if they even serve food---derives its main sensory pleasure from salt, sugar, fat, and convenience. They don't showcase the vegetables. On the contrary, they hide them under salty, sweet, or oily sauces. Do American Restaurants Only Serve Comfort Food? The more I buy and cook with fresh ingredients, the more…

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I’m not leading by example. If you think I am, you’re probably promoting pollution.
12 Nov. 2019 New York NY USA Sustainology Summit 2019

I’m not leading by example. If you think I am, you’re probably promoting pollution.

Yet again someone told me how he loved that I'm leading by example with producing less trash and not flying. I'm not leading by example by eating fresh fruits and vegetables or connecting with my community and spending more time with family any more than I'm leading by example by eating and breathing. If someone thinks these things take effort or deserve praise, they are stuck in an old system that thinks avoiding pollution is a burden, chore, or obligation. I don't care that most of 7.8 billion people subscribe to that system, I call it old. I can't live that way any more, to believe that avoiding polluting detracts from life. It adds. If you believe not polluting is hard, you'll communicate it with…

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It seems I eat food homeless people throw away

When the pandemic began, New York City began a program of giving free meals to anyone---no one turned away. The meals usually consist of a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a bag of chips, some cookies, some baby carrots, a tub of hummus, and about eight ounces of milk. In other words a mix of food and doof. Partly the program feeds hungry people, partly I suspect it funds doof producers. Since people get that food in a package, a side effect of the program is that people throw away what they don't want. How do I know? I keep seeing plastic bags with food in them on the sidewalk. I conclude what people who get the bags like and don't like by what they…

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In a world calling for leadership, where are the leadership authors and gurus?

Read any editorial page or media on any major topic---the pandemic, the environment, race, police, the election, . . . anything---and people are calling for leadership. In the United States, they often refer to missing leadership from the government, especially the executive branch from local to federal, but I see leadership vacuums in business, education, sports, arts, culture, military, religion, media, . . . everywhere. As a leadership writer, professor, speaker, podcast, coach, entrepreneur, and practitioner, I know and work with a few leadership peers, including globally renowned authors, speakers, etc. Here's an article on top leadership and management experts, Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts: Who makes the list? More important, whom should you be listening to?, not to single out Inc., since any…

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378: Libba and Gifford Pinchot III, part 1: Redefining business education

Rarely do you meet someone who created a word that became common. My guests today, Gifford and Libba Pinchot, created the term intrapraneurship. In the world of leadership and entrepreneurship, they created a discipline. After years of activism in the 60s, through entrepreneurship in the 90s, and what attracted me to them most, they started a business school from scratch, the first to offer an MBA in sustainable business. Beyond teaching students, they changed the field, as you'll hear in our conversation. I've worked with a lot of business schools. Today they all have to work on sustainability. As a professor, I can't imagine sustainability and nature not infused into my courses. The Pinchots helped start that trend. In earlier conversations, we talked about them…

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The rare taste of blood

I hope I didn't make too morbid of a title. I cut my finger the other day chopping an apple. My finger started bleeding like in the picture but my pinky finger. I think it's instinctual, but I licked the cut. Being instinctual make sense since research shows saliva helps blood congeal. It was one of my rare (no pun intended) times since stopping eating meat in 1990 to taste blood. Kind of salty. Not that much thicker than water. I don't see the draw of eating meat. I'll stick with not eating it. I used the occasion at last to buy a knife sharpener, as usual used off Craig's List. I'd meant to get one for a while so was glad for the excuse.…

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377: Chris Manhertz, part 2: Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.

Our last episode ended with two subjects either of which I'd love to cover---an NFL tight end picking up other people's garbage and stoicism. We had covered life for a professional team athlete under a pandemic. Then George Floyd and Black Lives Matter eclipsed the pandemic in the media and public discourse. We covered all these topics in this episode, starting with stoicism, which I think set the tone for thoughtful, reflective conversation onimportant but difficult topics. None of my podcasts are scripted, but this was probably my most unscripted. Though it only scratched the surface of sharing personal experiences, hopes, fears, expectations, and other vulnerabilities, it seems the start of what to share. In this case, Chris's thoughtful conversation helped, especially applying stoicism to…

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