Why bother not flying if you’re one person out of billions? Aren’t you just missing out and suffering without meaningfully changing anything? These questions flummoxed me for a while. The longer I act, the more I realize the answer. Most people answer that little things add up or that it’s like voting. I won’t argue with those answers, but I think they’re small effects. I’ve evolved since earlier episodes and[…] Keep reading →

Following up my posts Mementos of my high school girlfriend and The Most Romantic Thing I Ever Did, I finally read the letters and cards from her to me and from me to her. We wrote them from around the summer of 1988, after graduating high school, to about a year later, the summer after our first years in college. She went to school outside Boston. I went to school[…] Keep reading →

If you’ve never heard Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, it’s something to hear. It’s a spoken essay. It’s four and a half minutes long. I’m about to play it. I recommend that even if you listen to podcasts at faster speeds to put it back to regular speed because it’s really touching. I still get chills up and down my spine. I get choked up sometimes just listening to it[…] Keep reading →

I recently interviewed Olympic gold medalist and Crossfit Games champion Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias, whom I met through America’s Cup winner and podcast guest Dawn Riley. Given Anna’s achievements, she’s remarkably down to Earth (as is Dawn). In researching her, I found that last year’s Crossfit Games included a rowing marathon—that is, rowing 42,195 meters. The athletes learn what events they’ll do only hours before competing, so they just had to[…] Keep reading →

My series answering the New York Times’ Ethicist column with an active, leadership approach instead of an analytical, philosophical perspective continues with “I Quit Watching Football Because It Harms Players. Can I Still Keep Up With My Team?”. I have decided to stop watching football given the recent findings about the frequency with which concussions occur and the long-term effects of those concussions on the players. I am not trying[…] Keep reading →

I’ve posted a few rather sort of monologues lately about how in a world where environmental issues are front page news on a weekly basis or more and everyone sees the pollution around them and that they create the goal of awareness often delays action. Action creates awareness much more than awareness creates action. In today’s world where everyone’s hit over the head with awareness on environmental issues claiming to[…] Keep reading →

Which is more common–an athlete becoming a business or political leader, or a political figure becoming an athlete? Many athletes and become leaders in business, politics, and so on, but the reverse never happens. The difference tells me that sports teaches skills useful and essential to leadership. I had the honor of interviewing Marquis Flowers of the New England Patriots for the Leadership and the Environment podcast. His vulnerability and raw emotion revealed what athletes learn through their struggles,[…] Keep reading →