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[…] Keep reading →

I wrote the notes below while watching the documentary Bonhoeffer (2003) directed by Martin Doblmaier. I want to learn from history to apply what people did to now. I don’t want to sleepwalk into disaster that everyone can see happening. The tens of millions of people dying today annually from pollution and being displaced from their homes to get the fuel and minerals under their land are being killed not[…] Keep reading →

I’ve held off on writing this post since I think some people may misunderstand me. My goal is to help raise self-awareness. NYU has posted posters like this one all over campus. I think they are mostly responding to the Israel-Hamas situation, though could apply to others. I grew up not learning much about emotions or making myself aware of them. Leadership classes in business school moved me to increase[…] Keep reading →

Here’s just the segment with me: and the whole episode (I appear about 11:10). I liked it more than the New Yorker piece on me, though that’s not saying much. I laughed out loud several times, partly since I remember the recording. For example, after she put the Skittles in the kombucha, we saw their dye run off and they turned an unnatural ghostly white. I wanted to share about[…] Keep reading →

The Daily Show aired their segment on my disconnecting from the electric grid in Manhattan! I just learned, so haven’t seen it myself yet so can’t comment on it. I hope it was funny, informative, and inspiring. EDIT: I posted the video and some comments on it: See the Daily Show’s segment on me: “Is it Possible to Live “Off the Grid” in Manhattan?”. The point isn’t my personal impact.[…] Keep reading →

I hear young people furious at Boomers in particular, but old people in general, for causing a problem, then abdicating responsibility on acting, instead saying “I am encouraged by young people acting.” What jerks! Act yourself! Stop capitulating and continuing your insouciant damaging. You have more assets, connections, resources, and what it takes to accomplish things. Not acting personally but teaching young people just teaches them not to act and[…] Keep reading →

Talk about acting more sustainably and people act like it’s hard. When they say “you have to make it easy for people,” they mean you have to make it easy for them. They’re saying that they won’t change, but hiding their intent, acting like they’re just doing what everyone else does. And if all you do is make it easier, it will never be easy enough for them. If you’re[…] Keep reading →

You might remember from my conversation with podcast guest Tony Hiss a passage from his book, Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth, that inspired me for the bold story it told. I’m finally copying that passage here. I’ll put in bold the bold part that psyched me up, to ask for what we fucking need: Back in 1997, [Steve] Kallick was with the Pew Charitable[…] Keep reading →

Flying a private jet to a climate conference seems the height of being out of touch and acting counterproductively. If you feel that way, have you considered how much of your expenditures pays for extracting, polluting, and depleting? What fraction of your spending goes to filling your gas tank, flying, air conditioning, heating, industrial agriculture, buying things that require pollution to make like packaged food, takeout, houses, cars, nearly all[…] Keep reading →