You know the story about the two women each claiming a baby was hers, where King Solomon says to cut the baby in half and the woman who says to let the other woman keep it must be the mother? Have you ever thought about this story? How has it become a model of wisdom? It fails at every level. First, are we supposed to believe a woman simply claims[…] Keep reading →

Award-winning journalist Nancy Colasurdo, who writes the Unfettered: The Power of Pure Expression blog, interviewed me for a profile of me and another executive leadership coach, Daniela Bryan. The piece is What Happened When I Talked Sustainability with Two Coaches (the same piece on Medium). You’ll find it provocative for the comparisons I make between pollution and historical atrocities others consider incomparable, but are smaller already, with the death and[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers of my blog and listeners of my podcast know that before I started coaching executives and leading famous people and after decades of struggling with social and emotional skills, limiting my intimacy, especially with women, I dove headlong into learning attraction skills. I shared about it in depth in my Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll series on my podcast, where I was the guest, particularly the episode[…] Keep reading →

Picking up litter has its joys. A friend wrote about our meeting, in which we walked around Washington Square Park and picked up litter, also talking business. The meeting certainly was inspirational and I think back to it every time I see a piece of trash on the ground. So, you certainly made a difference in my life. I always tried to pick before, but now I make it a[…] Keep reading →

This morning as I walked to Washington Square Park to pick up litter, then to drop off my food scraps for compost in Union Square, I saw someone on the steps of a brownstone, curled up, fiddling with something. I’d seen that look before, of someone concealing doing drugs. Sometimes they pull their shirt or jacket over their heads. When not that many people are around, they just do the[…] Keep reading →

When myths and stories contradict, the ones that persist aren’t the ones that are right. The ones that people remember and share persist. I’m writing about it after reading this quote from E. O. Wilson: Creation stories gave the members of each tribe an explanation for their existence. It made them feel loved and protected above all other tribes. In return, their gods demanded absolute belief and obedience. And rightly[…] Keep reading →

Since I grew up taller than average, adults often asked if I played basketball. My parents weren’t athletic, so younger than high school, I got little experience practicing. When my mom lived on Rockland Street, an economically depressed block where we were a small minority as one of I think three white families out of about a hundred households, it was Philadelphia in the 70s. Dr. J was huge, so[…] Keep reading →

I finished six marathons and my exercise habit began by joining the cross country team in high school in 1986. Ultimate had a lot of running in it. Practice led me to love running. I didn’t at first, when I struggled. I’ve had my share of running injuries. Last year I started running barefoot, inspired by podcast guest Nir Eyal. Over the winter I tend to row inside on the[…] Keep reading →

Once in college my bike got a flat tire, so I took the subway home. It was probably before my year off, so likely 1989-90, but I forget. Back then I rode everywhere. I’d ride from campus to practice up at Baker Field at the north tip of Manhattan. I’d ride it to Prospect Park to play pick up. In both cases, each ride was a decent workout, but I’d[…] Keep reading →