Audio


This Sustainable Life again named one of the top environmental leadership podcasts

Not that I'm trying to win awards, but who doesn't like being recognized for one's work? The Million Podcasts compiled the Best 40 Environmental Leadership Podcasts in the US, and This Sustainable Life came in at number 18. More honor in other categories This Sustainable Life is also #22 in Stewardship podcasts. #22 in Earth podcasts. #25 in Sustainable Leadership podcasts. #41 in Sustainability podcasts. #47 in Sustainable Living podcasts. #51 in Global Warming podcasts. #56 in Environmental Stewardship podcasts. #82 in Climate Change podcasts. #92 in Environmental podcasts. #98 in Visionary Leadership podcasts. If you haven't listened lately, what are you waiting for? Coming soon is Steven Pressfield's second episode, author of The War of Art, Gates of Fire, and The Legend of Bagger…

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How I watch videos I find online: not online

The other day I happened to watch a video on YouTube not in my usual way and saw an ad there in the video for the first time in five years or so. Besides using a browser plug-in that block ads, I use another that blocks suggested videos. When I go to watch a video, I usually just see that one, not others. Sure, others might be interesting, but there are billions of videos and other "shiny objects," as I call them, that are interesting and I only have a few life priorities. As I wrote over a decade ago, You have to say no to a lot of good things to have a great life. Besides, the algorithms don't try to attract you to…

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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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Hear my second time on the Heritage Foundation podcast The Power Hour with Jack Spencer

It's been close to a year since I first appeared on the Heritage Foundation's podcast The Power Hour, hosted by Jack Spencer, who has been a guest on my podcast three times. First, I enjoy Jack's hosting both as a guest and a listener. I really was laughing as hard as I said when I came on. You'll hear me share more about how America's founders, Lincoln, Adam Smith, and other Enlightendigenous thinkers inform my views and actions. To my credit, I think I convey important thinking about sustainability based on what we need for society to work. It won't work if anyone can just do what they want. Roles for government include ensuring the consent of the governed and protecting people's life, liberty, and…

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A new podcast I recommend: “Bulk Beans & Bicycles”

Regular readers and listeners to my podcast know Evelyn from her being a guest and my mentioning her. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Hayden, but both of them took my workshop in sustainability leadership (I recommend you do too). They started a podcast together called Bulk Beans & Bicycles. They posted the first episode a few days ago. Here's the link to the podcast's home page and to a page that links to all the other places to listen. They cover living more sustainably, each post-mindset shift and continually improving. They aren't just talking theory or telling you what you should do. They're living more sustainably, seriously, also joyfully. They're fun at times, serious at others, but always engaging. They talk based on hands-on…

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Hear me on WNYC: “Meet the NYC environmentalists going off the grid and eating discarded food”

Listen to this story about me on WNYC: The text introducing it says: As President Donald Trump pursues a deregulation agenda, New York’s ambitious clean energy goals appear further out of reach. So what’s a climate conscious New Yorker to do? WNYC’s Rosemary Misdary reports on some New York City residents taking an extreme approach to eliminating their carbon footprints. I won't split hairs, but I would describe what I do as traditional and conservative, not extreme, since nobody connected to an electric grid or used plastic more than about a century ago. If you've read Sustainability Simplified, you know I consider many polluting and depleting activities as addictive, and from the perspective of, say, a heroin addict, using zero looks extreme, but it doesn't…

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Hear me on the 12 Minute Conversations podcast with Engel Jones

Engel hosted me before and invited me back to catch up. Twelve minutes makes for a quick conversation and still meaningful depth. Here's the new episode (3410). (Here are my previous episode 2708 (2020) and previous episode 1128 (2017)). Usually I embed the podcast player, but I can't see how to embed his, so you have to go to his site to hear it. I think you'll enjoy the conversation, especially if you like shorter ones than I normally post. Here are the show notes: About Josh Spodek Joshua Spodek PhD MBA is the premier voice in sustainability leadership. He hosts the award-winning This Sustainable Life podcast, is a four-time TEDx speaker, bestselling author of Initiative and Leadership Step by Step, professor at NYU, and…

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See me with Rob and Andrew on After Dark: “When Sustainability Meets MAHA And Making English The Official Language”

Longtime readers know Rob, Andrew, and I appear on each other's podcasts and programs. They strongly support Trump. I strongly support sustainability leadership. Many people who support Trump or act on the environment consider the other group the enemy. We are friends. I recently appeared on their podcast-now-videocast: When Sustainability Meets MAHA And Making English The Official Language. It was evening and I disconnected my apartment from the electric grid so was just lit from a battery-powered light. (If the video appears small, click the link above for the original post.) The show notes: In the realm of sustainability and health, two influential voices—Joshua Spodek and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—offer compelling perspectives that resonate with today’s growing desire for meaningful change. Spodek, a leadership expert,…

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Hear me on A Climate Change with Matt Matern

Matt and I have appeared on each other's podcast before. He invited me back to talk about Sustainability Simplified. I recommend reading it. This episode will whet your appetite. Looking at Matt's podcast page, the guest before me was Bill McKibben so I consider myself in esteemed company. Here at the liner notes: Astrophysicist, sustainability advocate, and author Dr. Joshua Spodek joins us to discusses breaking free from processed food addiction, building community-driven environmental solutions, and embracing the Spodek Method - a unique approach focusing on intrinsic motivation for sustainable action.  Josh shares insights from his latest book, Sustainability Simplified, which captures Josh’s life journey and reveals how our culture became so polluting, and shows practical and liberating solutions for individuals, nations, and the world.…

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The audio book for Sustainability Simplified is on sale!

The audio book for Sustainability Simplified is on sale at last! If you've been waiting to hear me read it, now's your chance. It's only available on Amazon (I'll work with my publisher to make it available elsewhere). The free preview of the first five minutes is captures the opening story. I predict you'll find it engaging. I confess I'm nervous how people will find my reading, which I consider a performance art. I'll always feel I could do better, but maybe that's just me. What do you think?

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On the Jasper Blueprint podcast: “The Spodek Method: How Radical Personal Change Can Change the World”

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: Doing Well By Doing Good Inside Your Business This is a space for established business leaders who strive to align their companies with their values, ensuring financial stability while making a positive impact. We will explore actionable steps you can take to integrate social responsibility into your business strategy and achieve a triple bottom line: doing good, doing well, and making money. That’s right, you really can do well by doing good inside your business. With over 20 years of experience working with business owners, governments, and large funding bodies to bring “doing good” and “making money”…

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Hear me on the Power Hour from the Heritage Foundation

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 to keep listening to what he shared. Most people I know who call themselves environmentalist view Jack's employer, the Heritage Foundation, as the enemy or something like it. They would want to defeat it, not talk to them, and would view people in it with suspicion. Yet I found his appreciation for and love of…

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Hear me on the New Books Network podcast on Sustainability Simplified

From its About page: The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to public education. Covering 100+ subjects, disciplines, and genres, we publish 70 to 100 episodes every week. The NBN reaches about half a million people every month; NBN listeners download close to 1 million episodes a month. The NBN does not authorize books or endorse anything said in them. We are strictly viewpoint-neutral, allowing the hosts to select books. Rather, like a bookstore, we make the viewpoints of authors available to the public. When we publish an interview, we are not saying “This is a good book” (though it usually is). Instead, we are saying “Here is a book by a serious author whose viewpoint you may or may…

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Go Alan Go rocking Washington Square Park, teaching kids music

Alan is a friend and podcast guest. Regular readers know I comment on how people degrade our environment, including public spaces like our parks. Alan is a counterexample, a breath of fresh air. Alan brings fun, life, community, and joy to the park. Between his music and my New York Times article, we're in a friendly competition to see who can improve the park more. I often describe him thusly: I've seen lead singers and guitarists get audiences to put their hands up in the air and wave them around like they just don't care, but never a drummer alone until Alan. He draws crowds in. He gets them dancing, enjoying themselves, meeting each other. Here he is in Washington Square Park getting kids into…

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See me on the Radical World podcast: “The Power of Personal Transformation for Systemic Impact”

You'll hear a healthy dose of agreement on principle and disagreement on implementation between me and Matt Perez on sustainability leadership. He hosted me on the Radical World podcast. About the podcast: In a world shaped by force, we've dared to envision a different path. Together with like-minded guests startup founders, corporate leaders, and professionals from diverse backgrounds we're challenging the established norms. Our conversations on RADICAL WORLD delve into questioning the system and exploring radical transformation. Join us as we engage with guests who share our vision, charting a course towards our own RADICAL WORLD where new perspectives flourish and old paradigms are reimagined. Radical Pioneers: We will explore the origins of the Radical Movement through conversations with Matt and José. We dive into…

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Hear my presentations to grade school kids on Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Nelson Mandela, and spacetime.

I recently was invited to speak to grade school children about great physicists. The teacher asked me to speak about Newton, Einstein, and Hawking. Since I didn't have any personal connections to Isaac Newton, I focused on Einstein and Hawking, since I knew people who knew them. I love knowing that I know someone who knew some of the most influential, famous people who lived, whose work was mind-blowing. Though he wasn't a physicist, since I also knew someone who knew Nelson Mandela, I included in the talk my one-degree-of-separation connection to Nelson Mandela. I took questions from the audience (they weren't mic'ed so you couldn't hear them; I marked the silences I edited out with a whoosh noise), which led to me talking about…

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Hear me on America Out Loud: “How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community” and “From sustainability to law enforcement”

You've heard me on the America Out Loud network's podcast After Dark with Rob and Andrew before. They hosted me again (just Rob these times) to ask about my becoming an auxiliary police officer. Here's the first of two episodes, "How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community": Rob was very interested in my motivations and my concerns: why didn't I tell people about it until I finished? What response did I expect or fear? I had asked these questions but not really answered them. You'll hear I'm still figuring out the answers, but Rob's questions help me pursue. Here's the second episode, "From sustainability to law enforcement": Here are the show notes for the first episode: Author and speaker Josh Spodek recently returned…

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“We’re Running Out of Time—Can Sustainability Save Us? with Joshua Spodek” Hear me on the Compassiviste Dialogues

Ali Horriyat and I have become friends since we started recording together. He hosts the Compassiviste Dialogues podcast. Friendship doesn't mean always agreeing. On the contrary, I consider one of the roles of friendship---true friendship---is to disagree when appropriate and to confront a friend when you think they're wrong, deserve criticism, or the like. People who aren't friends may hold back from confrontation. That holding back may be polite, but it may hold the person back from the opportunity to grow. We allude in the recorded conversation to our previous conversation where we---to put it politely---disagreed with each other and let each other have a piece of our mind. I think that friendly confrontation led to this conversation being more meaningful. Ali brought out of…

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I spoke to a New York City public high school class on astrophysics and sustainability. Here’s the recording.
My high school---Central High School

I spoke to a New York City public high school class on astrophysics and sustainability. Here’s the recording.

I was invited to speak to a New York City public high school class on astrophysics. About fifteen minutes in, I mentioned how I answer a common question people ask of me: "Do you still use your physics degree?" I consider my sustainability leadership work an application of science so, yes, I still use the science I learn, but not in a white lab coat in a lab. I thought of making a podcast episode of it, but it's too unfocused. I still wanted to share it, because even though only I had the microphone, you can't hear the kids or teachers, you can still tell from their interest and my responses the interests of the kids. They were more interested in sustainability than astrophysics.…

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Hear me on the Inspire Someone Today podcast

I recommend this podcast if you like my work and learning more of where my passion comes from. Srikanth, the host, prompted me to share my origin story and describe the Spodek Method. I haven't appeared on another podcast for a while, so I share things I've been developing how to communicate but haven't. Available on all podcast platforms: Amazon Music - https://tinyurl.com/2z9renes Spotify - https://tinyurl.com/yyuvc8o6 Apple Podcasts - https://tinyurl.com/y26mqkkg YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gv3fD2C Audible - https://tinyurl.com/y4wbywpf https://youtu.be/0COPrMng-Ck From the show notes: Joshua Spodek is a sustainability advocate whose transition from physics to eco-consciousness has been nothing short of inspirational. Together, we recount the small steps and giant leaps we've taken to live in harmony with our planet, from savoring the pure taste of nature's bounty…

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Hear me on America Out Loud’s After Dark: How Pollution Destroys Life, Liberty, and Property

On my seventh appearance on After Dark with Rob and Andrew, I share how I've been diving into conservative history, thought, philosophy, and community. Both hosts have been on my podcast and I meet Rob periodically in person in Manhattan, where he lives too. About the hosts: Rob is the founder of The Multicultural Conservative Foundation, whose mission is to promote the political diversity of conservatism through social media. He has been interviewed by many independent news organizations regarding his views on black conservatism. In addition to writing and blogging, he is the author of a self-help book, “That Job Just Isn’t Into You: Starting Over When It’s Over.” Andrew is a social media pundit, writer, and podcast host. He believes in traditional Conservative values,…

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Nelson Mandela’s daughter and granddaughter don’t get sustainability

I was invited to an event at NYU with the daughter and granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, Dr. Makaziwe Mandela and Tukwini Mandela. You don't have to read or listen to much of my work to know his importance to me so I was interested to learn from family members who knew him privately and work for freedom on their own. It turned out the last question came to me. I thought I was giving them a question that would both give me a useful answer and be straightforward for them to answer. They had spoken about the environment and invited questions on it. I asked, roughly: in many areas people acknowledge individuals can't change everything, but they act. In sustainability, they say "what I do…

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See me on the Compassiviste videocast

Ali Horriyat founded a group called Compassiviste. In its words: Compassiviste is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a more compassionate society. We actively promote empathy, social impact, and environmental conservation through various initiatives. Our mission is carried out by encouraging mindful consumer activism, leading influential charitable drives, and leveraging impactful innovative technology to make a tangible difference. Join us in our endeavor to create a more caring, sustainable world for all. Ali recorded a conversation with me for their second video. First, a few words about Ali from an article about him: "former financier Ali Horriyat was one of the richest people in Canada with a reported fortune of $100 million. However, he decided to walk away from his jet-set lifestyle to rediscover his…

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Me singing, mortified, but how else do we improve? What else are we here for?

I'm going to embarrass myself with this post. So be it. Longtime readers know I didn't sing growing up beyond Happy Birthday, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and some drunk karaoke, but as a result of being led through the Spodek Method, started practicing singing. First I sang fifteen minutes a day, turning off all my electronics. Later I started practicing singing exercises. I wrote a couple posts on it: Thoughts on singing and Why I’m singing. I didn't learn to sing well. I did learn that people who sing well got there through practicing. The better they sing, the more they practiced. Somehow, though I know in every other area people perform, you need to practice, somehow I hadn't put two and…

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Hear me on Success Through Failure with Jim Harshaw

Jim Harshaw invited me back to his podcast Success Through Failure. We've been friends since I first appeared on his podcast in May 2019, Initiative: A Blueprint For How To Make Your Idea Work With Josh Spodek. He posted our latest conversation, From Mindset to Action: Josh Spodek on Living a Sustainable Life, in which we talked about sustainability, including failures. I keep realizing I should talk more about them, so people know I didn't start by just deciding one day to unplug my fridge. I just wrote a chapter in my book on the experiments that didn't work out. Show Notes Stop waiting for the perfect moment to start. Joshua Spodek is back on the show to share how to achieve sustainable success through…

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