This Sustainable Life

I contacted Scott after reading a profile of his work in The Guardian, ‘Within minutes I was weeping’: the US pastor using scripture to mobilize climate action . The story spoke of someone leading by creating meaning and purpose: He’s not alone: across the US, there is a growing movement of religious leaders who are trying to deploy faith as a vehicle for climate action. And Hardin-Nieri’s own jou...

Martin is a legend. How many people craft phrases that become part of everyday language like “The Ultimate Driving Machine," "The Antidote For Civilization,” and “The Tightest Ship In The Shipping Business”? He comes from a different time in advertising and communication, as he describes in our conversation. I met him nearly twenty years ago. He was considering investing in the company I cofounded...

Most of you probably know Forrest for his television shows. He combines the most intriguing parts of being a biologist, an adventurer, and a television star. His passion for each is infectious. Most of all, he loves wildlife. I learned from him first through his new book, Still Alive: A Wild Life of Rediscovery , which gives depth and origins to that passion and love. I can imagine seeing him on T...

I consider Mechai Viravaidya my top role model for sustainability leadership. As I described in a recent episode, We Can Dance Around Environmental Problems All We Want. We Eventually Reach Overpopulation and Overconsumption . Before learning of Mechai Viravaidya, I knew only of China's One Child Policy and eugenics. I couldn't talk about population when I thought the cure was worse than the disea...

When I read Tom's book on sustainability, Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet , I couldn't believe the book didn't exist already. I consider it the science book of the decade so invited him back. He shares about his motivation and goals in writing it. You might read my review of the book first, but you can jump into this conversation too. Here is an excerpt from my review: He taught a co...

Have you ever tasted an heirloom tomato so delicious it was almost a religious experience? I used to think people who complained about supermarket tomatoes sounded full of themselves. How different can they taste? Then I tasted heirloom tomatoes with so much flavor, I couldn’t believe my taste buds. The next time I ate a mainstream tomato it felt like eating wet cotton. Do you know what they used...

Frederick was a great sport in allowing me to explore working on a patterns that happens sometimes but that I had let slide before. We started talking about nature, then his commitment. About halfway through I noticed that his motivation to the commitment from his first episode didn't seem to come from inside, which I believe led to him doing the task for extrinsic, not intrinsic, reasons, resulti...

Longtime readers of my blog know how much James Suzman's first book influenced my thinking and views of possessions, community, ownership, modernity, and a range of similar topics. A top question I've asked anyone who might know is how populations that didn't grow despite sharing our biology that has grown exponentially for centuries. If knowing history is wise and knowing history farther back wis...

Andrew co-hosted me on MAGAMedia with past guest Rob Harper, so we've spoken there several times, but this conversation is our first one-on-one. We start by talking about our meeting and how talking to each other means talking about issues we normally don't in our usual circles, but that we enjoy learning from each other, not getting angry despite different viewpoints. We both want to increase mea...

Isn’t a refrigerator essential? Isn’t life with them better ? I thought so. I’ll quote my mom from my podcast to illustrate where I came from: I grew up where it was easily ninety degrees every single day. In fact, where I worked, the store if it got ninety degrees outside we got to close the store and go home because it was that unsafe. To me, air conditioning was wonderful. And to my mom and my...

The average American watches 5 hours of TV per day. Many fly or drive around for fun. If we want to pollute less, will we lose the ability to enjoy ourselves? I've written before how Vincent Stanley 's commitment to turn off his computer Friday mornings and Nicola Pirulli 's walking me through The Spodek Method led to me turning off all my electronics and practicing singing daily. Since starting,...

I didn’t think of how small my building’s elevators were when I bought a sofa after moving into my current apartment. It didn’t fit. The deliverymen tried to bring it up the stairs too. They made the first landing, but couldn’t make the turn to go up the next flight. They had to take it back. I ended up paying a $300 restocking fee plus big tips for the deliverymen’s extra efforts. Plus I lost wee...

Alexandra's commitment illustrates a result I keep finding. People who have acted to live sustainably the most already find new ways to act more than people who haven't. People who haven't done much, or acted for extrinsic reasons like an article suggested "one little thing you can do for the environment" instead of intrinsic, say they can't think of anything. I conclude that reducing polluting is...

A topic making among the most headlines these days are digital mobs and their justice reacting to what people say. I've touched on it somewhat in this podcast and on my blog and I feel the risk teaching at NYU, which has kept me from expressing myself as openly as I could in the past. Another way of looking at this phenomenon is that we have become more vigilant about respecting groups that societ...

Shaun Donovan is running for Mayor of New York City. Technically not a national or global position, but in practice it is. Many call it the second hardest job in America. Most New York City mayors affect the nation and world. With a city this size, there are many issues. I focus on two: leadership, which means character and social and emotional skills, and sustainability. Regarding leadership, cha...

My friend bought a sailboat, I mentioned to him my goal of sailing off North America, he told me about this guy posting weekly videos of circumnavigating the planet without using motors. I watched a bunch of videos. I had to learn more. He's "traveling in one consecutive journey around the world by as many motor less means as possible, including rowing, swimming, kayaking, standup paddleboarding,...

Here are the notes I read from for this episode: 6 months with fridge unplugged Mom's advice, her fridge 2 articles: Vietnam and power grid safety Extreme? Extreme fun 200,000 years "Heirloom tomatoes" used to be "tomatoes" Connect with people Off grid in Manhattan? Solar battery Why LeBron practices free throws To become world class you have to practice the basics Otherwise you don't know what yo...

Brad isn't just a longtime elected legislator, he's also a neighbor who represents me. Most campaigning politicians speak in talking points. Maybe for being neighbors, maybe just out of his personality, I heard him opening up and sharing about the man behind the campaign. We spoke about what motivates him, his vision, New York City, Greenwich Village, and government leadership. He spoke thoughtful...

Heartwarming is the best word to describe Bill's experience that I can think of. In today's episode, Bill and I start by talking about the incomparably larger impact of having fewer kids, especially in a country that pollutes as heavily as the U.S. Then we talked about Bill exploring his snowy yard with his grandson. The opportunity to do so was there for years, but he didn't act. You'll hear how...

My notes I read from: What I did: Kathryn Garcia in Washington Square Park Farmers market (compost, oregano) Ride to Brooklyn Grain de Sail sail boat Visit with friend Calisthenics by candlelight Wake up, no clock Think, reflect, calm Meet to pick up garbage Notes on no power: 29 to 30 hours since recording last episode, 26 with circuit breaker for apartment disconnected Less of a big deal than I...

Here are the notes I read from for this post: --- I posted the other day an exercise to think about going twenty-four hours without using electrical power. To clarify, that exercise was to think about it. I don’t think many people would do it. Even orthodox Jews leave their refrigerators plugged in, as well as clocks. The meters to their homes would register power being used. I’m talking about the...

Jonathan and I have a good rapport. We joke around. I love his expressiveness as an artist. I think he values stewardship more than he's behaved so far in life, so I hear him enjoying aligning his behavior with his values. In this episode we review his leading his kids and wife in The Spodek Method from last time. You'll hear touching family interactions. The I teach the second interaction with gu...

I’ve taught a half-dozen people the technique I use in this podcast---the hosts of the other branches of the This Sustainable Life podcast. They started calling it The Spodek Method, so now I do too. It's enabled me to reach amazing people , many of global renown, who enjoy the experience. It doesn't alone solve all the world's problems, but it works. The Spodek Method leads a person to share and...

Jon is famous for bringing people together and creating community, see the New York Times article on him below. He invited me to a few of his events before the pandemic and they lived up to the reputation. His latest book, You're Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence comes out the day I'm posting this conversation, May 11. We talk about how the book came to be. We're both geeky and...

This episode is really two. Remember that he started art late in life, so the first two-thirds talks about art. Also his experience with his kids and family picking up trash. You'll enjoy hearing his and his family's joy doing it. I imagine you'll also feel sober about his unpleasant surprise at how much trash there was to pick up. I hope you'll feel inspired to pick up trash too. I think you'll f...