After I’ve read his recent book The Cloud Revolution, Mark and I continue our conversation on sustainability and what to do based on qualitative and quantitative understanding. I’ve also been listening to his podcast. I came to Mark for his thoughtful research on the problems with solar and wind power, which people call clean, green, and renewable but are none of the above. I mainly want to get his views[…] Keep reading →

After I shared episodes on the hazards of solar and wind, as well as my experiment disconnecting my apartment from the electric grid in Manhattan (in month 8 as I type these words), a listener pointed me to Mark Jacobs. I can’t believe I hadn’t found him yet. I dove into Mark’s prolific research and writing. He makes plenty free on his site. As a professor of engineering at Stanford[…] Keep reading →

I almost couldn’t believe someone could write a book like Carl Erik Fisher’s The Urge: Our History of Addiction. It tells the histories of addiction in human society since antiquity and of him, addicted, including in medical school, jail, and recovery. I don’t know how many people could have shared such vulnerability or connected his experience to the reader’s so we feel empathy. Regular listeners and readers of my blog[…] Keep reading →

The second part of my conversation with Noah, going into more detail about Uruguay and sustainability. The first part was episode 646.

The more I learn about electronic waste, the more disgusted I feel at how huge the problem is that we are exacerbating, often in the name of increasing efficiency or reducing waste. I’ve watched many documentaries, but here’s a short video showing the problem in just one place in Ghana. Look at the land in the background that was once verdant and lush, now poisonous. Or read The Dark Side[…] Keep reading →

In this episode, I answer a question a listener emailed: Can you share more details on what exactly prompted you to make the switch to acting more sustainably and if it was abrupt or gradual. And perhaps more practical ideas on what to do if you have kids, especially picky eaters, or if your schedule is just too busy to prepare meals 100% of the time. If you have questions[…] Keep reading →

Regular listeners know I’m thinking about applying Abraham’s Lincoln solution: a constitutional amendment banning pollution. Here’s an earlier episode on it: 613: Our Next Constitutional Amendment. It sounds crazy, but we’d be crazy not to consider it and learn from the idea. Even if the United States takes a long time to do it, other countries would likely do it first. It turns out others are organizing for a similar[…] Keep reading →

Kris created and runs what I consider one of the top sites online. It has influenced my behavior and expectations to enjoy living more sustainably, including unplugging my fridge, which led to unplugging my apartment, and start seeing that solar and wind aren’t sustainable any more, though we could make them more so. I’ve looked forward to connecting with Kris for years. In our conversation, he shares his transition from[…] Keep reading →

I see our environmental problems and lack of effective solutions as a failure of imagination, as regular listeners of this podcast and readers of my blog know. If we can’t imagine a world without pollution, we won’t try. We’ll resist and push back, which we do. Would-be leaders pollute as much as nearly anyone alive, more than nearly anyone who has ever lived, then say government should force them to[…] Keep reading →