I met Bob at a conference on climate at my old school, Columbia Business School. He knew another participant, Gernot Wagner, with whom I recorded an episode I’ll post soon, and was a peer with past guest Mark Tercek. I didn’t work in finance, but I understand Bob and Mark were like dieties there. Bob brings two huge new things to climate (he talks about climate almost exclusively among our[…] Keep reading →

Population modeling can be hard, as is figuring out a prediction’s accuracy, therefore how much confidence to give your conclusions. Many people can’t hear talk about population without hearing things like eugenics and racism even when they aren’t there. But population is one of the most important factors in sustainability. Everything becomes easier when population isn’t near or above what Earth can sustain and harder when it’s above. I came[…] Keep reading →

In what looks to me like one of the biggest overcommitments of guests on this podcast and participants in the Spodek Method, Dan shares that to free his mind for meditation, he ended up selling his motorcycle and Playstation. Then we spoke about coaching and leading people to reach their potentials, which he experienced on the receiving end in reaching the Olympics twice and does now with others, and he[…] Keep reading →

People who work at fossil fuel companies are people just like you and me. When you buy what the industry sells, you support it too. You rationalize and justify that your money supports lobbyists, advertising, extraction, pollution, depletion, making refugees, dictators, and so on. Want to stop people working there? I suggest it helps to understand them. We can start by understanding ourselves. Stopping ourselves from supporting that industry is[…] Keep reading →

If learning what it’s like to watch your team win an Olympic gold medal from the sidelines isn’t enough, and if learning what it’s like to grow up in a family beset with poverty and addiction before reaching Olympic level competition isn’t enough, and if learning what it’s like after four more years to win an Olympic medal isn’t enough, I’d say the best part of our conversation comes after[…] Keep reading →

Matt invited me to his podcast, A Climate Change. We stayed in touch after recording. He shared that he ran for President, including supporting sustainability. A goal of this podcast is to bring elected officials of all stripes. While he didn’t get that many votes, he ran for several reasons, including to run as a Republican opposing Donald Trump. Listen to our conversation to learn more of his motivation. I[…] Keep reading →

Christopher may be the most direct, accurate reporter on sustainability. Our last conversation treated his helpful and accurate reporting on the book Limits to Growth. Today we start from his (in my opinion) excellent article The Green Growth Delusion, in which he reports on the futility and false promise of chasing growth. It’s tempting, alluring, and seductive to believe technology, growth, or economic trickery will save us, but wanting to[…] Keep reading →

The spiciest parts of this conversation come at the end. It’s possible listeners may think we were annoying each other, but I think I can speak for both of us that we enjoyed the repartee. Anyone who has talked to me about my work since I started watching and listening to Daniel’s What Is Politics? videocast knows it’s shaped how I view politics, meaning how groups make decisions. If we[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been recommending Oliver’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals a lot. When people ask about it, I have a hard time explaining what it says, only that it’s valuable. He has a way of communicating important things about values, time, intent, decision, and related concepts that are hard to express otherwise. In this conversation he shares more. One thing I can express that I value: what he[…] Keep reading →