I’ve been learning more about abolition in the United States. In 1776, thirteen slave states, likely no one could imagine a world or nation without slavery. Yet in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment made us one free nation comprising thirty-six free states. Today no one would seriously propose repealing the Thirteenth Amendment, what Lincoln called the “king’s solution.” No law, judicial interpretation, or executive order could achieve what it did. On[…] Keep reading →

Katherine Roth interviewed me about unplugging my fridge and apartment from the electric grid and Bebeto Matthews photographed me cooking and putting my solar panels on my roof. Read the story and see the pictures at A fridge too far? Living sustainably in NYC by unplugging. I hope it helps achieve one of my main goals for this experiment: for a few people to say “You can do that!? I[…] Keep reading →

Regular listeners heard me on the Carbon Sessions podcast, by the community created by podcast guest Seth Godin that created the bestselling book The Carbon Almanac. You can tell that one host of the Carbon Sessions, Brian, had listened to This Sustainable Life. We kept in touch after recording. He was interested in the Spodek Method. We practiced it and recorded the three videos below of me teaching it, conceiving[…] Keep reading →

Part 2 of the introduction shares a few stories that illustrate the Spodek Method, a leadership technique to create mindset shifts and continual improvement on the environment. The optimism girds us for a more challenging next episode.

Ars Technica published a piece I wrote on my experiment disconnecting my apartment from the grid, I disconnected from the electric grid for 8 months—in Manhattan. It goes into more depth than my TIME piece I’ve Been Living Off-Grid In Manhattan for Half-a-Year. It’s in my voice, unlike the New Yorker‘s Off the Grid in the Big City. One of my main points was seeing the experiment like the Wright[…] Keep reading →

I can’t believe how many people parrot things like “Be the change you want to see in the world” and then sustain the status quo. Do you believe what you say or not? Why not live it? In my experience, being the change works. Not living by your values fails.

My letter to the New Yorker’s editor in September led to a reporter, Zach Helfand, visiting and writing a story on me. They published it today (including spotlighting it, see below): Off the Grid in the Big City: It begins, “Josh Spodek disconnected the circuit breaker in his apartment, and now—thanks to solar-powered vegan stew—his carbon footprint is about that of three house cats.“ Along with the New Yorker piece,[…] Keep reading →