Episodes
June 24, 2022
599: A Guy Forced Me to Accept a Twenty Dollar Bill for Picking Up Litter
Here are the notes I read from for this post: Walking through park 2017, pandemic "Thanks" Not thankworthy Restored faith / Nobody does / interrupting / construction worker Office Continual improvement Enjoying Fat / "Titty …
June 24, 2022
598: Bill Benenson, part 2: Dirt! and Kiss the Ground, behind the scenes
I indulge in asking Bill about his and his wife Laurie's passions, filmmaker friends, goals, and so on. He talks about passionate peers he's worked with like Michael Pollan and Paul Stamets. The names Tom Brady and Gisele Bu…
June 23, 2022
597: Josh Martin, part 2: If at first you don't succeed . . .
Josh Martin started to do his commitment to shop at the farmers market, but it didn't connect. I think we didn't connect it to his experience of the environment. We decided to find a new commitment by connecting more intrins…
June 20, 2022
596: Sandra Pérez, part 1: Keeping New York's LGBTQIA+ Pride March clean
Sandra took responsibility when she didn't have to, as the Executive Director of NYC Pride, to respond to my requests to talk to an organizer. Longtime listeners and readers of my blog know that last year, I was disgusted by…
June 17, 2022
595, Jason Slaughter, Creator of Not Just Bikes, part 1: Ending Car Dependency
Watch Jason's Not Just Bikes videos. I've watched them all. They're informative, engaging, funny, researched, provocative, and keep you coming back, but not like Netflix stuff designed to addict. After you watch a few, liste…
June 15, 2022
594: Etienne Stott, part 3: An insider's, activist's view of Extinction Rebellion
Etienne Stott is using his Olympic gold medalist status to augment his impact acting on the environment, including working with Extinction Rebellion on peaceful civil disobedience. He's been arrested, spoken publicly, and mo…
June 11, 2022
593: How I disconnected from the electric grid in Manhattan for 2 weeks (and counting)
" Your story is truly inspirational ": feedback from an attendee. The government advisory Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board invited me to speak on sustainability leadership Wednesday. I spoke on what led to my experiment …
June 9, 2022
592: We're thinking about and using solar and wind wrong. Here's how they could work.
Including their greatest proponents, nearly everyone thinks of and uses solar, wind, and other so-called renewables wrong if their goal is to reach sustainability or to stop reducing Earth's ability to sustain life. They all…
June 8, 2022
591: Whitney Tilson, part 1: Acting on intrinsic motivation versus feeling you have to save the world
Whitney's background and accomplishments are incredible and we start with them. He shares his beliefs and mindsets that lead to his high performance in business, philanthropy, fitness, family, and more. Then we share a fun p…
June 8, 2022
590: Ash Beckham, part 1: Being vulnerable, supporting others, growing yourself
We started from Ash's TEDx talks, which cover vulnerability, intimacy, and support. You can listen to our conversation on its own, but it won't hurt to watch them first. She could easily say, "As a lesbian, I have it so diff…
June 5, 2022
589: Abraham Lincoln and Sustainability, part 1: Is the US a racist nation? What should we do then?
The start of this episode's text: Regular listeners know I’ve been living with my apartment off the electric grid for two weeks, in Manhattan, not off in the woods. Most of the benefits are about connecting more with nature,…
June 5, 2022
588: Mark DiMassimo, part 1: Leading with integrity
We start with one of the great cases of a corporation choosing to act with integrity in the face of pressure and incentive not to. Mark was part of the team that chose for CVS drug stores in rebranding to stop selling cigare…
June 2, 2022
587: Josh Martin, part 1: How to Reach the Ivy League and the NFL When You Start Late and Unprepared
Regular listeners know I love talking with professional athletes. They open themselves to failure every time they compete. They often make incredible feats look so simple and natural, we forget the years of dedication and ef…
May 31, 2022
586: My Kitty Hawk moment, on the way to a Moon Shot
More continual improvement: the more sustainably I live, the easier each next step. Business people know about continual improvement, also knows as kaizen, the Toyota Way. How do you go from the Wright brothers' airplane to …
May 28, 2022
585: Douglas McMaster, part2: If a restaurant can run with no trash, we can too
When a man who founded a restaurant that uses no trash cans meets a guy who doesn't fly and hasn't filled a load of trash since 2019, we start by expressing mutual appreciation. Anyone can do these things. It's a matter of d…
May 25, 2022
584: Freedom, continual improvement, fun, and curiosity: day three only solar in Manhattan
I share thoughts after two days using only solar power in Manhattan. After recording I turned off the circuit to the whole apartment. I'm on the roof now, charging the battery. The recording shares more. The main themes: fre…
May 22, 2022
583: Growthbusters called me extreme, so I responded
The notes I read from for this episode: “Lead by example”. I’m not leading by example. “Extreme” implies values, as does “middle ground” and “balance.” Everyone is extreme by someone else’s views. Everyone I talk to says the…
May 21, 2022
582: Gaya Herrington, part 2: How to change systems
Gaya gets systems, how to change them, and not fall prey to rationalizations that sound tempting but are self-serving excuses like "individual actions don't matter" or "only governments and corporations can act on the scale …
May 18, 2022
581: Dr. Ambrose Carroll, senior, part 2: cultural differences on how we view the individual
Ambrose and I start by reviewing his commitment. After a bit, as best I can tell, we talked past each other. Every now and then, the Spodek Method doesn't resonate and this conversation looks like one of them. His descriptio…
May 12, 2022
580: How wrong your beliefs making you fear living sustainably
Aren't we living in the best time in history? Don't we have to keep pressing forward to avoid returning to medieval serfdom or the Stone Age and everyone dying young? No. History, anthropology, and archaeology show these bel…
May 10, 2022
579: Derek Marshall, part 2: Running for Congress, sharing honest personal experiences
You've heard every politician pay lip service on the environment. They talk abstractly about carbon dioxide levels, solutions to spend more money, and something about a future improved by electric cars and solar panels (conv…
May 3, 2022
578: Warren Farrell, part 2: Sex, race, and intimacy: How to listen and communicate
This episode is available on video . Before our conversations, I tended to see Warren as mainly focused on issues where men and boys suffer that society doesn't see, downplays, or ignores. I still see him as a rare luminary …
May 1, 2022
577: Michael Carlino, part 6: Discussing the moral case for fossil fuels (and more)
If you've been following Michael and my conversations so far, you know to expect thoughtful, considerate conversation coming from different perspectives. Each time we find deeper understanding, share more, and listen more. Y…
April 28, 2022
576: Nakisa Glover, part 2: The need to feel heard and act
Nakisa talks about her community in Charlotte, North Carolina, the environmental and social challenges it faces, the level of engagement, the biases in difficulties in engaging for people who work long or unusual hours, adva…