This Sustainable Life

In the midst of several episodes on religious approaches to sustainability I learned of today's guest, Rabbi Yonatan Neril's book The Eco Bible: An Ecological Commentary on Genesis and Exodus . He founded and directs the international Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development , including its Jewish Eco Seminars branch. He wrote the book to shine new light on how the Hebrew Bible and great reli...

"What about jobs?" people often ask to counter proposals to constrain some activity. Today's episode answers. Here are the notes I read from: What about jobs? People out of work drain on society, not so happy Store near me that sells trinkets Of any value? I'd prefer a hug, shoulder rub, or make me dinner Many stages to make: plastic from oil, factory to make, transportation, store clerk Factory,...

Vanessa Friedman sees the fashion world from a vantage point few others can as the Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic at the New York Times. She arrived there after pioneering roles covering fashion at Financial Times in a first-ever role there, InStyle, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Elle. She shares the industry's forays into sustainability---or responsible fashion in her terms--...

Former guest and founder of the most popular men’s dating advice website Chase Amante guest-hosted me to continue the conversation I started with Dov Baron on learning attraction, dating, and seduction and applying it to leadership. My conversations with Dov are in earlier Behind the Mic episodes. I start by sharing why I broached this topic at first with Dov, despite it not obviously connecting t...

I'm in my second month since I unplugged my fridge. Why unplug it? Not because I think its power makes anything more than a negligible difference. This episode describes why. Here are my notes I read from: The other two reasons I unplug the fridge. The first was after reading Vietnam and much of the world ferments, I was curious to learn fermentation. Second is reading how much backup power a grid...

Kip Ward is a retired General who, among other things, was the first leader of the Africa Command. He shares his background so you can hear it from him. It's extensive, having served at every level of the army. I met him through previous guest Frances Hesselbein and watched a few videos in which he spoke of leadership, which I linked to below. He spoke of things I don't see in sustainability and e...

If you haven't listened to Brent and my first two episodes, I recommend listening to them first. Also, I recommend reading Milwaukee Brewers’ Brent Suter Sharing Love and Joy . I haven't approached the environment from a religious view and Brent and I spoke about plenty of interesting things the first two times, so we didn't get to it. Lately listeners have probably heard how much William Wilberfo...

We correct two big misunderstandings. First, most people associate acting on the environment with obligation, chore, deprivation, and sacrifice. We lead them to feel that way when we tell them what to do. We may think we're right because the science says so, but leadership depends not on how right you are but how the person you want to motivate feels . Second, people don't know Deming, or associat...

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My second Behind the Mic conversation with Dan McPherson gets to why I've talked about race lately. Why on a podcast about sustainability, leadership, and the environment, do I take the risk as to talk about a topic that straight white men get canceled for? If it didn't further my mission of helping restore Earth's ability to sustain life and society, I wouldn't let another topic divert attention....

I started this podcast November 30, 2017. In this episode I reflect on before starting the podcast, the fears and hopes driving it, the friends it brought me, some challenges, some joys, accomplishments, and such. I also share how it changed me and how if you want to change the world and love doing it, you can too. I've trained a few new hosts starting their versions. Between my personal growth, t...

Let's talk fatherhood and sustainability. "Josh, you don't understand since you don't have kids, it's impossible to avoid producing waste," people keep saying. Since they say other things I've done is impossible before learning I've done them, I expect they're making excuses and that I could solve parenthood problems too. Without kids I haven't solved their problems (though guest Bea Johnson has i...

The Global Top 30 Gurus named Chester the world's number 4 best leadership speaker, trainer, and thought leader , as I happened to find while researching before our conversation. I had to ask him about it, which led to him sharing about it. Naturally, he spoke humbly about it, but we get some inside views of his rarified level of the corporate and government leadership world. (The list named two o...

Between asking about recovering from a heart attack in your 40s and about water bottles, where do you start? As it turns out, they're more closely related than you think. We started talking about recovering from the heart attack. Dan has faced his mortality several times before, so fear of death didn't hit him most. We talked more about changes to his lifestyle, particularly diet, which connected...

In June and July 2019, you may remember reading about Rod Schoonover in the NY Times, State Dept. Intelligence Analyst Quits to Protest Blocked House Testimony , Washington Post, CBS, and more in the links below. He resigned in protest as a long-time government intelligence and security researcher and analyst, focusing on a field he helped create---climate security. He focused on learning how envi...

Food started me on this journey. If it's not a major source of joy, community, and connection, the opportunity is there to make it so. Marion Nestle does it. She returned after recently launching her book Let's Ask Marion , which I consider her most accessible. I read What To Eat , around 500 pages, and loved it, but Let's Ask Marion is under 200, with quick chapters, though still comprehensive in...

We covered two main points: how I inspired him and how he inspired me. If I'm not too presumptuous to say I inspired him, that is, the first part is about his choosing not to fly. Several months into the pandemic at the time, we were all used to not flying, but when he committed, before the pandemic, most people I talked to called not flying impossible. Some backstory: Nir emailed me about 24 hour...

Michael wrote me the morning before we scheduled this conversation to say he ended up spending more time on the screen when he intended less. He wondered if we should skip it. Longtime listeners may remember similar results with guests Jim Harshaw and Caspar Craven . I told him I'm not looking for a Disney version implying that acting sustainable was easy. I believe listeners engage more with hear...

"You heard it here first." We start by reviewing George's experience picking up garbage with a team he organized. We started creating a project. It spontaneously arose, but I see a chance that we'll make it happen. Maybe soon, maybe it will take time. Maybe it will go nationwide. Maybe it will fall apart. Maybe it will change culture. Maybe future generations will look back at these changes as wha...

The notes I read from: Missing messages on the environment we can learn from Churchill. I'll read from some of his most famous speeches, during WWII, then I'll play the close of one, from June 4, 1940 “We shall never surrender.” Some points: It's bad. It's as bad as it's ever been. There's no escape. Your life is in peril. It's huge. Nations have been wiped off the map. The world is at stake. We a...

Here is my second episode with guest Dan McPherson of Leaders Must Lead on race. Probably one more after this one. Say someone doesn't know something about race but wants to. If that person sees others talking about the subject get chastised and even fired, how can that person learn? If anything, won't they learn not to ask? If so, won't they remain ignorant? Doesn't ignorance contribute to racism...

Everyone gets we have to change system, which means global economy. They think we have to start huge. If it's not big enough, it's not worth doing. History suggests otherwise, in particular Edwards Deming's results transforming Japan in the 50s, or the U.S. war efforts before that, or several American companies since. Kevin runs the Deming Institute, which trains people in the Deming philosophy an...

Here are my notes I read from for this episode: Just say no drugs winning Try telling smoker that cigarettes cause lung cancer and see if it stops. Doesn't. It takes work but rewarding Try giving more and more facts. They heard already. Now imagine Nancy Reagan was a smoker or cocaine user while saying just say no Imagine she smoked or did drugs while saying not to. That's Al Gore, DiCaprio, every...

A few months ago I hadn't heard the names William Wilberforce or Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Now they rank among my greatest influences. Eric Metaxas's biographies of these two men were among the main reasons. Once I read them, I had to meet Eric and bring his view here. Read the books, learn about the men, what they did, and the environments in which they did it. Few who spend time with me would expect...

J. B. MacKinnon's book The Once and Future World influenced my view of nature as much as anyone's. I thought I knew what nature was, what we were trying to conserve or preserve, but I wasn't even close. I found his writing gripping and colorful. I'll link to a couple recordings I made that quoted the book at length. We've been talking about our work, his new book he's nearly finished, my book I've...