LATEST BLOG POSTS

To all of you out there who say that polluting companies should pollute less, if you pollute an unsustainable amount—that is, 20 percent of what the average American does—why should they change an not you? It’s tempting to say that since they pollute so much, they should stop more, but first: they aren’t polluting for the sake of polluting. They are serving customers who pay them, including you. Second, if[…] Keep reading →

Lorraine is one of the few people I know who saw mainstream sustainability efforts for what they are: ineffective and often counterproductive but self-congratulatory. I call most of them “stepping on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations.” Unlike most others, once she saw their counterproductivity, if not outright lies, she left. She works to promote an “economy in service of life.” I think it’s easy to see that[…] Keep reading →

Since people describe me as “extreme” so often, I experiment with how to respond since I don’t use the measure they do. They compare me with people around them—that is, with culture. I consider how my behavior affects others. I don’t want to hurt innocent people. My book treats the relationship between our culture and slavery, with the main difference that the cruelty of today’s culture is much greater than[…] Keep reading →

Lorna first appeared on this podcast in 2021. We became friends and remained so, though we challenge each other, as you’ll hear in this conversation. We don’t try to. Just things about the other annoy us. But how much we respect and learn from each other outshines that annoyance. Lorna knew about the Spodek Method and workshops for years. I don’t know why she didn’t join one until now, but[…] Keep reading →

I can tell people consistently misunderstand what I’m doing from the questions they ask: how long does it take to charge the battery or what do I do for toothbrushes. Or they say it’s harder for people with kids. In 1930, Gandhi protested the British monopoly on selling salt. Did he attack them with weapons? No, they were too powerful. He marched to the sea, got some salt from evaporated[…] Keep reading →

People I talk to on the political left who care about the environment see people on the political right as opponents to defeat. When I share that I talk to people from Heritage Foundation, where Nick worked, they sound skeptical at best, more commonly incredulous and fearful. In this episode, you’ll hear heartwarming stories of Nick’s childhood with his father, then Nick today finding a way to manifest what he[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis: I read this book after watching the movie based on my expectations on recent legislation. I expect that top-down sustainability efforts like the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, moving trillions of dollars toward technologies that won’t work, will create market bubbles that will burst. In the process, they won’t help on our[…] Keep reading →

I don’t talk much about history here, but my father was a history professor and I grew up with history being a big part of family life and how we viewed the world. My dad knew a lot of history. It was one of his major lenses through which to view the world. Growing up I didn’t like that view. Everything seemed to warrant lectures, from art museums to tourist[…] Keep reading →

We recorded this conversation just after the election. We talked about it, especially Travis’s and the Cato Institute’s views. One of his main views is that the US puts too much executive authority in the president. I’m also We shared our concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act coming from different standpoints, but agreeing with each other. Our main conversation was about approaching sustainability from a view of freedom, not coercion[…] Keep reading →