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 says about time parallels what I say about energy, specifically energy as physicists describe it, not emotional energy. We don't have infinite amounts of time or energy. If we see life as missing out on what we lack time or energy for, we'll crave what we lack. We'll be insecure. If instead, we recognize we don't have time or energy to do everything we'd enjoy, we can construct the lives we want, which will be abundant.Being an episode 1.5 means he only started doing the commitment from last time, but is gracious enough and a leader enough to share, regroup, and if we can find another way forward. I bring leaders to sustainability because they have learned not to hide vulnerabilities, at least not all of them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast and my mission are about changing culture. The Color of Law compiled our culture's practices that I can only see as cruel and unfair. As long as they're hidden, we can't do much about them. Listen to my episode with Richard and read that book if you aren't on top of America's history of cruel and unfair housing policy.Once you're outraged, then what? In this episode, Leah answers that question. She shares at a high level what people can do in their communities.You'll hear a couple extra notes of interest from me. One is to see what techniques in the culture she's changing can apply in changing our culture in sustainability. The other is that my episodes with my mom talking about the racially integrated neighborhood she and my father chose to raise us in, as well as the neighborhood itself, Mount Airy, Philadelphia, factored into her research.You'll also hear me recognizing a new element in how a cultural practice could start for one reason, say racism, then even after people in that system oppose racism, that system can continue and perpetuate the racism. At a certain level, I knew it already, but it hit me more viscerally when Leah explained it. You'll hear.The Just Action web pageJust Action on Substack Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Click to watch the video of this post.]Can Learning to Lead Sustainability be fun, inspiring, and effective?Yes!I just finished leading my first workshop in leading oneself and others effectively to act more sustainably: enduring systemic change and immediate personal change.Best of all: it was FUN! . . . both the workshop and the action it led to.Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the participants results.Today's post is the audio from a conversation with them on their experiences.Better yet, watch the video.You can learn to help change culture and restore a safe, clean, healthy world.We're organizing two summer 2023 cohorts. If you want to help fix our world, sign up at https://spodekleadership.com/workshop Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some context leading to my conversation with Maya:When I first thought of a constitutional amendment to protect us from pollution, I thought the idea was crazy, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. The more I did, the more it made sense.Since learning about the Thirteenth Amendment prompted me to think of it, I first spoke to previous guest James Oakes about it. Since it involved constitutional law, I spoke to previous guest (and Nobel Prize holder) Seth Shelden, who put me in touch with his constitutional law professor and previous guest Michael Herz. Besides my conversations with them one-on-one, I also spoke with Michael and Jim together. I recommend listening and watching those conversations for context.My conversation with Maya:Then I learned of Maya's work with "green amendments," as she calls them, at the state level as a foundation for the federal level. She has been working on it for years. She shares that history, including a major win in Pennsylvania and New York State's recently becoming the third state with a green amendment.She describes the value of an amendment over statutory law, how current legislation doesn't prohibit pollution it legalizes it, the state of the movement, and goals.If you, as I did, considered environmental amendments interesting but far-fetched, you'll love this episode. Maya is achieving the seemingly impossible and showing it's beyond possible. It's happening.She is the Delaware Riverkeeper, leading the watershed based advocacy organization, the Delaware Riverkeeper NetworkGreen Amendments for the GenerationsHer book: The Green Amendment: the People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

See the video for this episode here.I speak about the concept of a constitutional amendment on the environment with former guests on the This Sustainable Life podcast:Michael Herz: Constitutional scholar and former lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund (Michael's podcast episodes)James Oakes: US historian, focusing on the Revolutionary War to Reconstruction (James's podcast episodes)We approach the concept from many perspectives, especially comparing it with the Thirteenth Amendment.This is my first conversation with two experts on a topic I'm just starting to learn about based on very detailed fields, including law, history, abolitionism, and politics. I have to start somewhere. We recorded this conversation months ago and I've learned tremendously since. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first part of our conversation, we start by reviewing Gautam's commitment to sailing, which seemed and still seems a good idea to him. but maybe too much for now. We revisit what motivated him and come up with a new commitment.The second part gets more exciting. Gautam expresses that we need to develop technology to help people who aren't living as well as us so we can help them. (I may not have summarized accurately; listen to his recorded words for his precise meaning.) This view is like waving a red flag to me since I used to think things like that but now see otherwise.We engage in different views on technology, progress, how humans used to live versus how we live today, values, and such.In other words, we openly talk about the underlying beliefs driving our culture and individual behavior we don't question or talk about, but that guide our decisions and behavior. If we can only imagine a world working a certain way, we can't change course. If that course leads to billions of people dying, being stuck in beliefs is a problem.I greatly appreciate a civil, productive conversation on topic that many find inflammatory.The paper on human lifetimes: Longevity Among Hunter- Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural Examination, by Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan. Michael Guvern was a guest on this podcast. Quoting from the paper:The average modal age of adult death for hunter-gatherers is 72 with a range of 68–78 years. This range appears to be the closest functional equivalent of an “adaptive” human life span. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris returns to share his experience with the Spodek Method. He did something different than he committed to: he stopped using his smart phone---the latest Apple iPhone---in favor of a simple flip phone hearkening almost back to the nineties.What happens? Does his life fall apart? Does he find more calmness?Should you simplify your life by avoiding the call for the latest and greatest?He shares his experience and you can find out (I'm not sure he did it for this podcast, in that I think he was planning to do it anyway. Still, he shares his experience). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon is a mining engineer who both researches the minerals and mining necessary if we were to try powering our culture with various sources. His work has brought him to work with government teams, especially economists and politicians around the world.He shares in our conversation that we will transition to a low-energy future, what it will take, and how little we have tried to figure out if we can do it. It's worrying to hear how poorly we understand the problem, how unprepared we are now, and how poorly we are preparing ourselves.What he shares is challenging to process considering the risk for catastrophe coming up. Situations like he describes is why I act so much. If you think scientists, engineers, politicians, or anyone understands the situation better than you and you can have faith people smarter than you will solve it, don't hold your breath.I don't understand how people don't take responsibility, prioritize solving these problems, and act.Simon's home pageLink to GTK videos: There Are Bottlenecks in Raw Materials Supply Chain – A Glimpse of the Systemic Overview Is Here, Discussion and the Development of the Solutions Have StartedSummary of report: Assessment of the Extra Capacity Required of Alternative Energy Electrical Power Systems to Completely Replace Fossil Fuels, which also links to videos Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The more I move toward living sustainably, the more I learn about cultures that haven't become as polluting, depleting, addicted, and imperialist as ours. I grew up thinking they were stuck in the Stone Age, but they aren't.Conversations with Alan help me learn about the Kogi, with whom he's lived in the mountains of Colombia and made two documentaries with the BBC. The relevant differences is that compared to us, they live sustainably, free, and in abundance.Alan shares more in our third conversation about what he's learned from them, including how they see us, which is sobering. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've made it no secret that sustainability lacks leadership and leaders. If you want to help on sustainability, I suggest that the most valuable thing you can do is learn to lead. If you know how to lead, improve it. Nothing can change as much as leading cultural change.Gautam's passion is to learn how leadership works, how to teach it, learning more about it, writing about it, the military, most relevant to our conversation: conveying what he knows and that passion.The upshot: someone who knows as much as anyone about leadership, what works, what doesn't, learning more about it, how to teach it, and passionate to convey what he's learned. He also knows and has befriended some of today's most effective leaders, whom he mentions in our conversation. He calls General Stanley McChrystal "Stan."Let's see if we can bring Gautam's knowledge, experience, and connections to sustainability.Gautam's home pageGautam's page at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Regular listeners know I've been asking people what the environment means to them as part of the Spodek Method. Many people respond with touching answers that I would call something close to life-altering. Maybe more like life-guiding, life-enhancing, or giving meaning and purpose.I've heard of increasing research into psychedelics recently. Reading reports of people who took psylocibin in clinical settings with guides for the experience, I was struck by how similar their effects to those of quintessential moments in the environment. Both talked about oneness, awe, humility, understanding, feeling understood, connectedness, and similar things, though, of course, each experience was unique. Many said that the effects of their experiences lasted sometimes years, potentially permanently. Many could stop addictions overnight without relapsing. Some improved relationships with loved ones.I hypothesized that some of the experience of psychedelics might have been a regular part of the lives of our ancestors who lived in the 250,000 years or so before civilization, as well as those who live outside it today. Might the drugs just be achieving something remedial that had long been part of our lives?Might we who live in human-built environments be missing deeply meaningful parts of our lives that were regular for nearly all our ancestors? Might that lack be contributing to our not knowing what we're missing when we capitulate, abdicate, and resign to choose comfort and convenience over alleviating suffering and caring for our neighbors?I emailed with Roland Griffiths, the head of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic Research, which I understand to be the premier research center in the field. He put me in touch with Albert. I couldn't wait to compare the effects and potential of psychedelics with the effects and potential of simply spending time in nature.Albert Garcia-Romeu's page at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wolfgang Lutz is one of the world's experts in projecting global population levels and demography. I contacted him to help understand the differences between projections based on demography like his and the United Nations' versus systemic ones like in Limits to Growth.He gave a comprehensive overview of who projects and how, at least as much as can be covered in under an hour. Some highlights:Who projects based on demography: the UN, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the Wittgenstein Center, among others.He described what and how demographers project: Assumptions, methods, variables of age, sex, education, migration, fertility rate, mortality rate. He consistently repeated the importance of education.On Limits to Growth, he pointed out that systems analyses include feedback mechanisms, but their demographics tend to be less sophisticated, for example lacking age structure or effects of education. Demographers don't take them seriously because of their oversimplification.I asked how demographers include feedback. He described a few ways, including asking experts and translate their responses into different scenarios. What about big events like fish or aquifers depleting? He pointed out extreme events are hard to predict, though humanity's historical resilience suggests we'll figure out ways to level their effects. Demographers also include probabilistic models for tipping points, disease, and such, and report levels of variance.The results of his research and projections: Human population peaking somewhere around 2080 at around 10 billion then declining. It may reach about 3 to 4 billion by 2200, which could be long-term sustainable, though the transition is uncertain. Humanity could reach a healthy, wealthy, more equal, more resilient, and well educated future, but not given.Potential problems: heat waves, drought, floods, sea level rise. Humans can solve to some degree, but we have to prepare.What to focus on: since population changes slowly, behavior, technology, and migration first, then education especially of women in the long term since its effects happen more slowly. Also family planning, women's health, contraception, and sexual equality.We covered a lot, though scratched the surface, gives understandable overview of demographics and global population projections.I put greater weight on difficult-to-predict extreme uncertain events. At least I'd make the uncertainty go down more than the symmetry I see, but our conversation was about learning and understanding, not debate. I've learned a lot each time I've listened to this episode. It's dense with information, but on an important subject.Wolfgang's page at the International Institute for Applied Systems AnalysisTwo of his major papers explaining how he models global population growthThe end of world population growth, Nature, 2001Dimensions of global population projections: what do we know about future population trends and structures?, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2010Executive summary of his book World Population and Human Capital in the Twenty-First Century Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I was very curious to learn more about the Kogi and Alan's interactions with them.Alan is deeply involved with their joint project to learn to restore nature as they have shown they can. "Restoring nature" doesn't do justice for what they are doing. They are also sharing different ways of seeing and interacting with the world, which, as I understand from Alan, is not how they see the world.Alan starts with a couple descriptions of how the Kogis view things differently than Europeans, including in ways we wouldn't have suspected were different. How does a medieval castle look to someone who has never seen a stone building? If they see something a typical European sees daily, how much else are we misunderstanding? What are we missing?Their process for planting includes steps before planting of contemplation. What are they doing? What are we missing? Can we learn from them? Can we learn from them before we wreck them and ourselves?What else about nature are we missing? How common are their views to other cultures that our polluting culture hasn't wrecked yet?The Tairona Heritage Trust, where you can learn about and donate to help the Kogi help usAlan's first documentary on the Kogi (1990): From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brother's WarningHis second (2012): Aluna - An Ecological Warning by the Kogi PeopleAlan's home page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The International Society of Sustainability Professionals invited me to speak to their New York Chapter. Here is that recording. We "whooshed" out the participants' words, so it's just my speaking. Their mission is "ISSP empowers professionals to advance sustainability in organizations and communities around the globe."I described my work, my path to get here, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, how you can't lead others to live by values you live the opposite, and concepts relevant to sustainability leadership.I didn't take them to task as much as I could have for living unsustainably, undermining their credibility and trust. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roz could have stopped at rowing solo across oceans to world records, awards, and national honors.She didn't. She had done those things for a purpose: helping make our world more livable, less polluted. They gave her greater skills to appreciate her purpose and implement it better.As with most people, the challenges looked insurmountable to her. But unlike most people, she had once made a list to row across an ocean and, finding no impossible steps, she did it. Over and over. It's easy to look at her today and figure, "of course she could do it. She's an ocean rower. She was born that way," or something like that. But before she did it, she was a disgruntled employee and spouse looking for meaning and a way to improve her world, not a record-holding athletic champion.So also unlike most people, she looked at what sustainability would take, saw no impossible steps, and knew she could help achieve it. That's my read.I would have been happy to host her for the athletic achievements alone, but they were all stepping stones for greater service to humanity.She describes her latest book, The Ocean in a Drop and her life experience and goals.Roz's web page, which links to her other books, videos, and more. You'll love it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the most famous supermodels, Paulina needs no introduction.She's here because mutual friends introduced us and her recent book, No Filter, that tells a different story than you'd expect of the once-most-highly-paid model. It deserves the positive reviews from the New York Times and elsewhere. As she describes in our conversation, she spent formative years behind the iron curtain, ingraining in her how to thrive with less, not more, which she caries with her until today. She also wasn't always considered beautiful. I'll leave you to read the book to learn about the toilet bowl incident we allude to in our conversation.In any case, you'll hear someone much more approachable, humble, and resilient that you'd expect.We recorded in the winter. She agreed to meet me in Washington Square Park to pick up litter together when the weather warmed up. Since models make great role models, the event could help change minds, behavior, and culture. I can't wait to tell you how it went. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I bring leaders from all areas to sustainability. The challenges to changing culture to sustainability aren't in technology, science, journalism, activism, or politics, though all those fields are relevant. Their practitioners generally aren't skilled in what changes culture: the social and emotional skills of leadership. Most people don't know that living more sustainably improves their lives, not the reversion to the Stone Age or Mad Max apocalypse our culture teaches us to fear.From the start of the conversation, Derek distinguished that he sees himself as an explorer, not a leader. He's exploring the frontiers of life following his whim or what he finds around him. He suggests that leaders give more direction to others to help them follow. He acknowledged with a "touché" that he does have a lot of followers, one of my main measures of a leader.The next day, he posted to his page some related thoughts in, Explorers are bad leaders, which sparked lively debate in his comments. Many suggested more overlap than you might think.His distinction led me to consider my role. I hadn't thought about seeing myself as exploring the frontier, but I have been. When I've had the option of leading others and exploring more frontier, I've generally chosen to explore more frontier.Some examples: avoiding packaged food seemed impossible and took me six months to start. When I succeeded, instead of helping others follow that difficult challenge, sharing recipes and how I did it, I then chose not flying. Avoiding flying seemed harder than avoiding packaged food. When I succeeded in making a better life without it, instead of helping people along, I unplugged my fridge, then my apartment.Maybe I'm exploring the frontier of sustainability more than leading. Still, it's funny to call a frontier territory where all humans lived for 300,000 years. I'm working on developing leadership skills and techniques that work.Anyway, listen to the episode to hear how Derek got me thinking about my role and what's next for sustainability. We geek out on emacs, vi, and such things. I think I can safely say he sounded intrigued and will likely be back.Derek's home page, which links to all his work Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver's book Four Thousand Weeks deserves the incredible praise it gets. I've recommended it to many friends and can't for the life of me put into words how he refines and changes how I look at time, priorities, how to choose what to do, why, and how to feel about it.The best I can come up with is that instead of worrying what I'm missing or craving doing what I can't, which leads to a life of feeling like I'm missing out and scarcity, it leads me to construct and build, which makes me feel abundant. I can enjoy what I am doing instead of missing what I'm not. It forces me to think deeper questions than just what would increase my productivity. Productivity doesn't help if I'm pointed in the wrong direction.His views resonate with me because I've transformed similarly in how I look at consuming natural resources. Stopping flying, for example, led me from craving visiting places I heard of to realizing the best I can do is enjoy where I am with whom I am as much as possible. The result: I get the life value I wanted without polluting. If I do travel, things I would have disdainfully dismissed as small, like biking somewhere and camping overnight bring me more value than trips I flew to.I think it's fair to say we connected meaningfully and learned from each other. Listen to hear for yourself, but I think the Spodek Method resonated with Oliver more than most. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My passion for the possibility of doing for pollution what abolitionists did to slavery: transform it from something normal, as if part of nature, to forever seen as wrong. The more I learn the difficulty of conceiving of the Thirteenth Amendment, banning slavery, let alone passing it, the more possible a parallel amendment on pollution seems.Jim and I continue our conversation on abolition's history, mainly from the vantage point of his book Freedom National. I understand a lot more of the history of thirteen slave colonies becoming thirteen slave states then a nation of free and slave states, then with the Thirteenth Amendment, a free nation of thirty-six free states. Jim knows it backward and forward. He helps clarify that history for me and you.Then we consider applying lessons from history to today. Jim also clarifies what a movement today would need.I love finding history so relevant.Jim's book, Freedom National Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bringing back Chris for first time since five years ago. Since then, his last book got big, as we briefly discussed.We started talking about meditation and at a high level, framed the conversation to come on how the mind works, outside our control, though we don't notice. More framing: we talk about intention and action, meaning and purpose.The topic of his new book How to Calm Your Mind is interesting to me because I see billions of people on autopilot, sleepwalking into polluting ourselves into oblivion. We spend most of our lives reacting, avoiding the feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, and often guilt and shame keeping us from facing that we are powerful, not powerless.Chris shares a moment of anxiety, becoming burned out that prompted his research into calming down. That moment was performing on stage in front of an audience.His research found that a book was missing and he wrote it. He describes how to calm your mind and to avoid losing our calm and our cultural imperative to achieve more, absent a measure of enough.We share our experiences in our journeys. Calming one's mind and pulling back from "more" and chasing dopamine overlap with sustainability. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last night I had trouble falling asleep because before getting in bed, I noticed I had to record two podcast episodes first thing in the morning but I wanted to cook some stew, the forecast was for rain all day, and didn't think my battery had enough charge to pull everything off. Plus I had lots of computer work to do, which would use more energy from the battery. I could always rely on my "cheat" to charge my computer and phone at NYU, but I prefer not to. I'm trying to avoid polluting. I also didn't have enough time between calls and obligations to walk to NYU without possibly missing the beginnings of calls.I found more and more ways to avoid needing battery energy. Toward the end of the day, I realized I not only would I achieve everything, I wouldn't need to go to NYU and use any grid power.I happened to have a call just when some sun shone before sunset; not enough to charge from but enough to make me feel great. I commandeered the beginning of the call to share how I felt, recorded it, edited his parts out, and here it is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you want a job working in sustainability? If you want to wait for a job in the field, you're going to wait for a long time. Most businesses' models depend on growth, extraction, and exploiting resources. Many of the biggest and most profitable are built on exploiting people too. I hope I didn't surprise you with news you didn't know.Most places with positions like Chief Sustainability Officers or groups like Sustainability Committees are greenwashing at best, judging by how we're extracting ever faster, nearly all ways places claim reductions are scams like carbon offsets or net zero claims that are the equivalent of creative accounting, and most targets are so far off as to be unaccountable.Yet billions of people want leadership. They want to change. They want justified hope in a brighter future. Nothing says entrepreneurial opportunity like global unmet demand. To serve people wanting to live more sustainably looks like one of the greatest entrepreneurial opportunities ever. I'm working on meeting it and expect to break the market open. Maybe you'll beat me to it. I hope you do.Jeff's latest book covers starting your project. Why would you do it? What will you expect? How does it feel?We talk about the move to self-employment, what's in his book, his personal history, and more. If you want to help humanity reach sustainability, nearly the only path to you impacting us in a big way it self-employment, what Jeff focuses on.Jeff's home page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What can we learn from Buddhism to understand and respond to our ecological crisis? This question is the heart of David's focus, as I understand it.We started by describing his journey from a more mainstream American childhood to Zen Buddhism and forming the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center near Boulder, Colorado. Then we talk about humanity's disconnect from nature and his work to restore it, in the context of his Buddhist path. We also talk about reconnecting with nature, letting go of the cultural forces to disconnect.He shares his work to help people handle these problems and their grief. We talked about how we handle what we humans are doing to our world and what we're doing about it, including from a Buddhist perspective, using Buddhist practice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reading Christopher's story in the Pacific Standard, The Fallacy of Endless Economic Growth What economists around the world get wrong about the future, made me contact him. It was one of the only reviews of criticism of our culture's attempting to grow the economy and population forever that didn't prioritize growth dogma over understanding. The article centered on the book Limits to Growth, its analysis, and the unhinged criticism of it.I had to look up his other work too. I recommend following up at his page, which links to his writing and Denatured, his journalism nonprofit.From the moment he starts talking in this conversation, he lays down basic, common sense understanding of our culture's fundamental tenets, which he calls growthism. To my ears, it sounds like what we see in front of our noses all the time, yet few to no one with prominent voices will say it.He talks about how we got this way, how things could be different, how he came to write for such prominent magazines, and more. He is at times serious, funny, calm, exasperated, and always authentic, genuine, and honest.I hope you know people who understand things as Christopher does and is as outspoken with what they've learned. I believe everyone should hear messages like his periodically. Our culture tries to drown such voices out, but what he says is too clear and makes too much sense to remain silenced.Chris's journalism nonprofit: DenaturedHis site Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The only was I can see how we can avoid environmental disaster leading to human population collapse is by changing our culture---every unsustainable culture but America most, as the most polluting per capita large nation.Can we do it in time? Humanity has changed on a global level within a few generations at least once before. Slavery was legal, normal, and seen as good around the globe since before written history. Then in the late 1700s, abolition increased until within a century people widely viewed it as wrong. Not long after, nations made it illegal nearly everywhere.Jim Oakes is one of America's leading historians of America's abolition movement. I met him at his office, where we spoke about American abolition, Abraham Lincoln, the Thirteenth Amendment, and how it happened. The history is fascinating on its own, all the more since I didn't learn it enough growing up, and more so for seeing its application to sustainability.I see a constitutional amendment as increasingly necessary, however inconceivable it seems to pass. The more I learn of the Thirteenth Amendment, the more it seemed impossible to pass, yet I doubt I've met anyone who would promote repealing it today.This conversation was a pleasure; informative and inspirational for someone looking to learn from history to apply it today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every step I take toward sustainability leads me to learn how much humans have figured out how to live sustainably. I'm far from living sustainably, though I've come a long way. We are wiping out the cultures living sustainably these cultures, now hanging on by threads. Besides practices and viewpoints, I'm learning humility. We don't have all the answers. Far from it. They may not either, but at least they can help us restore lost values of community we're jettisoning in favor of isolation and humility to nature we're jettisoning in favor of ignoring that our attempts to dominate nature are accumulating unintended side effects hurting us more than helping.Such are my views. I haven't lived among indigenous cultures and don't expect to. Mark has, among several for long times. He can speak more knowledgeably, compassionately, and helpfully than many can.In this conversation he shares his decades of learning from experience and research. He describes actual people and cultures, not projections or hopes. I share some views I've developed, which he helps me refine and extend based on that experience. We talk about how life benefits from learning from them, contrary to what our culture tells us, that without what fossil fuels and other tamed energy bring we would suffer.On the contrary, on what means the most to us, we would thrive. And we'd stop wiping them out.Mark's home pageMark's TED talk: What the people of the Amazon know that you don’tMark's podcast: The Plants of the Gods Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony turns out to live a few blocks from me. I met him at his home, where we recorded. He shared his experience knowing E. O. Wilson, who, as Tony described, conceived of the plan to protect half the Earth's land to protect biodiversity and more to sustain Earth's ability to sustain life.I'd heard Wilson describe the plan many years ago and had seen some analysis that it could protect up to ninety percent of biodiversity if implemented effectively, whereas saving less land or implementing ineffectively might save markedly less, which could put humanity at risk, not to discount the value of other species' existence independent of humans (I confess to valuing humans more than others, but still value other life).I hadn't heard the stories of people discovering the problems and finding solutions. His book, Rescuing the Planet, tells their stories and the project's history and chance for success. Some of the stories give remarkable hope. Our conversation tells the stories behind the stories of some of the people in the book as well as his motivations and history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ethno-botonist Rodrigo Cámara-Leret first describes how podcast guest Alan Ereira chose him to live and work with the Kogi, who want to share, in my language, how to stop wrecking the biosphere.He has visited them and seen behind what they show of themselves in the documentaries. Unlike typical scientific research, he will bring his family and learn beyond what they plant. The condition of their environment is the physical manifestation of their culture, as is ours to ours. They aren't living in the Stone Age or as noble savages. They are living appropriate to their environment, sophisticated in their understanding of nature.Rodrigo and the organizations supporting him are approaching the Kogi with humility, as I understand, not trying to teach them or assimilate them. He shares some of the challenges to overcome as well as what he looks forward to.We all can learn from cultures living sustainably, like how to restore the values we've jettisoned of Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You, Leave It Better Than You Found It, and Live and Let Live.The Tairona Heritage TrustTo donate and support Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nadeem committed to reducing his doof. He bravely shares the challenge.Even in Norway, he's surrounded by messages to keep consuming it. Imagine any other unhealthy addictive substance---cocaine, heroin, etc---was advertised and sold everywhere. On top of extra availability, imagine it was portrayed as like food, which it isn't. Nadeem stopped drinking alcohol long ago despite its prevalence in Norwegian culture, and compares how avoiding doof was harder.If you're struggling with getting clean from doof, you'll appreciate hearing what it's like.He also shares more about living as a Muslim in Norway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've said before and I'll say again that conversations like mine with Mark Mills are what I value and wish we had more of. We do our research, we have strong opinions, we agree on many things, we disagree on some things we care about.Most of all, I believe we learn from each other, respect different opinions, and try to understand the other's view and goals.In this conversation we talk about his book and the challenges of predictions at first, The most interesting parts are challenging each other on our understandings of our environmental problems and what we can do about them. We agree most proposed solutions that humanity is pursuing don't work and people are misguided. We differ on our expectations in what can work between technology and people. He has me opening my mind to some things I'd be closed off to otherwise, in part because he's not just spouting opinion or blind hope. He's done the research. I believe I have too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I can't tell you how valuable (and entertaining) I found Daniel's video series.Regular listeners and readers may know how important I find anthropology to solving our environmental problems. If we want to change our culture, we have to know why it is this way, how other structures have worked, and how we can change.I started realizing this importance when I noticed that I had read podcast guest Sebastian Junger's book Tribe the day I unplugged my apartment. It showed me what we lack in our culture that others have: freedom, equality, community, connection, and what we value when calm, not bombarded with ads and feeling guilt, shame, helplessness, and hopelessness. It gave me something to look forward to beyond being able to fly to see the Eiffel Tower whenever I wanted.Next, reading The Dawn of Everything, another book on anthropology, showed a variety of cultures I hadn't known. We don't have to feel constricted to "returning to the Stone Age." But that book left open its main question: why are we stuck in our current culture?Enter What Is Politics?. In the series, Daniel clarifies what a lot of loose terms mean, thereby simplifying how to understand politics. It led me to understand why we're stuck and what we have to do to free ourselves.Daniel and I went to town talking politics, anthropology, hierarchies, how and why they form, sustainability, and more.Normally when my conversations go longer than an hour, I break them into parts, but if you like our conversation, you'll keep listening. I expect what we cover here and his series covers to ground a lot of what we have to do to change global culture. I'll close by reminding you of my mission statement on my bio page:My mission is to help change American (and global) culture on sustainability and stewardship from expecting deprivation, sacrifice, burden, and chore to expecting rewarding emotions and lifestyles, as I see happen with everyone I lead to act for their intrinsic motivations.In my case the emotions have been joy, fun, freedom, connection, meaning, and purpose.Everyone’s experience will be unique to his or her experience, but I know we all love nature so I don’t have to change anyone. I reveal what’s already there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Martha Nussbaum's new book, Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility, looks like it's about animals, but the more I read it, I found it about us, our values, and our behavior. Regular readers and listeners will see the similarity to how I approach the environment in general.Not having eaten meat since 1990 and no animal products at all about ten years, I don't find new materials on human treatment of animals. Candidly, I thought I'd just browse the book. I also don't read much philosophy, which I find too often hard to read.Instead, I kept reading the book until I finished it. I found her writing style accessible, her material heartfelt, and her motivations genuine. She takes a few controversial points, like predation and whether wildlife still exists. I don't agree with each point but value that she made them.I was interested in learning more of the story behind the story, which she shared in this conversation. She approaches how we treat animals from a more theoretical perspective than I do. She traces a history of humans considering animals' rights, contrasting what worked or not with her view. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 2 of the introduction shares a few stories that illustrate the Spodek Method, a leadership technique to create mindset shifts and continual improvement on the environment. The optimism girds us for a more challenging next episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watching environmental documentaries means having seen the Tickells' work, especially Fuel and Kiss the Ground, which they did with podcast guest Bill Benenson. Bill introduced us, though we scheduled this conversation to release the day before their new movie On Sacred Ground, on the Dakota pipeline.In this conversation, they share about the process of choosing the subject, the story and its roots in their lives at the protests, the actors performances, interacting with indigenous cultures, and the emotion the movie evokes.You'll hear some behind-the-scenes stories, but most of all, you'll feel compelled to watch the movie. The movie tells the story of an outsider coming to the protests of the Dakota pipeline and seeing the community there, particularly Native Americans, as a last stand to stop the pipeline coming through their land.On Sacred GroundAll their movies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 1 of the introduction shares a few stories to frame how I approach sustainability, then describes the outcomes I designed it to bring about, mainly to enable you to lead yourself to a more sustainable future that you'll find preferable to any alternative. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Food touches nearly all environmental issues, as well as health, social, economic, political, and cultural. Cities like New York and their governance do too. Regular listeners know I talk about food waste, doof, packaging, and related issues. I celebrate her boss, Eric Adams's dramatic change in his diet, which tells me his motivations to bring healthier food to New York are authentic and genuine.As the top food official in New York City's government, Kate is in the middle of it all. After covering her background, we talk about what New York is doing about food and doof, some initiatives guarded, some bold and visionary. As a New Yorker since the 1980s, you'll hear I want to offer my service. I want to help make doof go the way of cigarettes in the workplace---that is, no longer allowed. After New York banned them, the policy change received overwhelming support.While she speaks somewhat officially at the start, the conversation grew more personal as we spoke, in part, maybe because I shared with her an amazingly delicious local apple. Who knows, maybe I'll work with the city and get to help stop tragedies like this disgusting litter and this alarming litter, largely doof waste, from happening. New York is one of the most exciting and beautiful cities in the world when not covered with doof and its waste. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald committed to seeking out seeing a wolf. He shares about his experience on this commitment. He shares his deep connection and commitment to nature and how the project affected it.Donald thinks and acts in systems. We know we are a part of nature, but not all of us behave as if we understand what that means. Donald shares what it means to him, given his background in systems based especially in one of my great role models, W. Edwards Deming. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 in general, which he shares. Within that frame, and trying as a host, not an investigative journalist, I've tried to focus him on exposing the larger problems with fossil fuels, nuclear, fusion, and other sources.He doesn't seem to consider their problems seriously. I hear him motivated by the view that lower energy prices and greater supply have benefited society and the concern for society breaking down if energy prices increased or supply decreased.Regular listeners know I find huge potential life improvements in lowering energy use and that I see significant problems with our lives and future if we stay with oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and fusion so I support decreasing energy demand and supply, as I've lived and am living.As you can hear, we two physics-trained examiners of our environmental situation enjoy our conversations. I expect it won't be our last. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 with great passion, he researches what he's talking about and makes it all available. He's not just talking or hoping for the best.His research helps form the Green New Deal. He contributed to the IPCC work that won the Nobel Prize. Coincidentally, he criticized podcast guest Mark P. Mills article I linked to in More Hopeful Calculations for the Energy Transition.We talked about his roadmaps for transitioning the world, countries, states, cities, and towns to 100% clean, renewable wind, water, and sunlight in all energy sectors and his books, 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything (2020) and No Miracles Needed (2023). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 have witnessed my increasing focus on addiction. We live in a culture of addiction. We see it in alcohol, cigarettes, doof, social media, binge TV, gambling, drugs, and so on. We also see it in what pollution brings, I believe: comfort, convenience, and travel, for instance. Medical professionals may not yet recognize these latter addictions in their literature, but it seems clear to me they will.Solving our environmental problems requires each of billions of people overcoming their addictions. Carl shared some of what recovery takes, and it's not just talk or plans. It takes listening, empathy, and support, among other things.You'll hear me in this episode realize I haven't yet figured out how to extend compassion to addicted people, the people I want to help most, as there are billions of us and our addicted behavior is lowering Earth's ability to sustain life.Carl's home page, linking to his bio, book, podcast, and more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second part of my conversation with Noah, going into more detail about Uruguay and sustainability. The first part was episode 646. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of Congo's Cobalt Rush in the New Yorker.If your comfort and convenience come at the price of others' suffering, wouldn't you rather know than hurt people in ignorance? The way out of that internal conflict is through action. Read Brian Merchant's The One Device the secret history of the invention that changed everything-and became the most profitable product in the world, which tells the story of what goes into our devices, focusing on the iPhone, though it applies to our laptops, Teslas, and so on. In our conversation, he gives his back story to his book.At the very least, you'll find reasons to hold on to your phone for a few years longer than you would have otherwise. You'll save money, but the greater effect will be improving your quality of life, especially your mindset, helping resolve that inner conflict.Brian's home page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 on leadership, sustainability, sustainability leadership, doof, a guest, or anything I cover on the podcast, email me.Episodes with guests I mentioned, who are inspirationalBea JohnsonJoshua Becker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 amendment, for the right to a clean environment.Michael's expertise in constitutional law and environmental law make him perfect to give context in those two areas.One day even the U.S. will show overwhelming support for an amendment making pollution illegal, a modern version of the Thirteenth Amendment. Future generations will lament how we took so long to conceive and pass it. It begins with conversations like this one.Michael's Home Page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 reporting on new technologies for others for pay to reporting on technology from the view of improving life and how we keep losing the purpose of technology helping us.He also shares how he lives by the values he writes about, or writes about the values he lives, showing integrity and credibility lacking in most people working on sustainability or technology, also understanding from hands-on experience the systemic effects that Silicon Valley and political types misunderstand nearly every time.Low Tech Magazine: Low-tech Magazine underscores the potential of past and often forgotten technologies and how they can inform sustainable energy practices.Some articles that influenced me or I enjoyed:Vietnam's Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of Decay (this article led me to unplug my fridge, which led me to unplug my apartment)How Much Energy Do We Need?Fruit Walls: Urban Farming in the 1600sUrban Fish Ponds: Low-tech Sewage Treatment for Towns and CitiesMany moreNo Tech Magazine: We believe in progress and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 change.Role models would help. Part of why I unplug my apartment from the electric grid and continue my process of continual improvement is to show people what's possible since nearly no one else is.Then imagine my pleasant surprise on reading an article in the New York Times, What Does Sustainable Living Look Like? Maybe Like Uruguay, that describes a whole nation moving ahead of the rest, led by a President also moving ahead of the rest. Role models!Noah Gallagher Shannon wrote the piece, met with the President and others in government as well as many people there. I recommend reading the article.Noah and I got so caught up in the conversation, I split it into two pieces. This one starts covering Noah, his profession, what he writes about, and writing this piece. He also talks about his personal motivation in his quest to live more sustainably and the challenge of finding effective leadership. Then we talk about Uruguayan life and culture, the difference between theirs and ours, and how shocked they are about ours.The New York Times article that led me to Noah and learning about Uruguay, their work, and their leadership: What Does Sustainable Living Look Like? Maybe Like Uruguay: No greater challenge faces humanity than reducing emissions without backsliding into preindustrial poverty. One tiny country is leading the way.The second part is episode 651. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suggest to people in our culture that we consider not growing the GDP nonstop and most react with fear at what they see as the inevitability of recession leading to depression leading to the tax base declining, infrastructure crumbling, hospitals closing, mothers dying in childbirth, thirty become old age, and reverting to the Stone Age.Yet there remain many cultures that don't buy into our culture at all. Despite our culture invading their lands, what many of us consider the pinnacle of human culture, they choose theirs, and not out of ignorance. They know our culture.If our culture is so great, with electric vehicles, fruit flown overnight around the world, and iPhones, why do they resist it?If we believe we have so much, why do we keep taking their land?Hamilton lived among the Matsés in the Peruvian Amazon for 4.5 years. He shares how he arrived there, how they took him in and trained him to be a shaman, and what differences and similarities he saw there compared to here. We talked a bit about ayahuasca, but as I see one of our greatest challenges is to learn to live sustainably, and electric vehicles move don't help, I was more interested in what I and we can learn from people who still leave things better than they found them.Hamilton shares about how they live and the interface with a westerner who lived with them not as a tourist. I found his experience and education fascinating and accessible. Expect more episodes with Hamilton to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our second conversation, Janet reveals that she did part of her commitment, but found traveling not by car took longer than she expected and didn't do it often.At one point in this conversation, she shares she felt she had to reduce pollution. I point out I didn't say she had to reduce pollution. I invited her to manifest emotions she liked.Our society burdens us with thinking we have to ACT BIG! SCALE! SOLVE GLOBAL PROBLEMS!, which create obstacles to starting and prime us to expect it takes work and sacrifice. Environmentalists create that burden as much as anyone. Yet nature is a joy!The Spodek Method aims at first at the modest effect of leading someone to act on intrinsic motivation, which makes acting meaningful and purposeful. I contend the fastest, most effective way to act big, scale, and solve global problems is to start where you can, engage intrinsically, and keep going.After the Spodek Method's mindset shift comes the process of continual improvement, which I distinguish from lots of people doing small things. It's leading to where you enjoy it so you want to keep improving so you do big things because doing them improves your life, so you do more. Big things that spread out of joy, fun, and freedom scale.You'll hear Janet reset her feelings of obligation---extrinsic motivation---in favor of intrinsic motivation to continue joyfully.She also asked me many questions about what I'm doing and following up many episodes she's listened to. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.