Episodes
Nov. 3, 2025
841: Sandra Goldmark, part 1: Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet
How often does something break that you know could be fixed, but you don't know how and there are no places to fix it? I remember repair stores all over the place, but the field doesn't exist any more. We all know about plann...
Nov. 1, 2025
840: Dr. Leonardo Trasande, part 1: Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future ... and What We Can Do About It
I found Dr. Trasande quoted in a Washington Post article The health risks from plastics almost nobody knows about: Phthalates, chemicals found in plastics, are linked to an array of problems, especially in pregnancy . He said...
Oct. 7, 2025
839: Saabira Chaudhuri: Consumed: Throwaway Plastic Has Corrupted Us
Reading Saabira's New York Times piece Throwaway Plastic Has Corrupted Us told me she saw more about plastic and its effect on our culture than most. A quote from it: "The social costs of our addiction to disposable plastics ...
Sept. 26, 2025
837: Zach Rabinor, part 1: Getting serious about sustainable travel?
I met Zach at an event I spoke at sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization, whose members tend to be successful in business. The criteria to join require it. I knew the people would be friendly, but suspected they would...
Sept. 26, 2025
837: Zach Rabinor, part 2: What if your business and values clash?
Zach and I got so into our first conversation that we had to take a second one to get to the Spodek Method. Listen for yourself, but I hear Zach working with three motivations: His surfer, outdoors self wants to conserve, pro...
Sept. 23, 2025
836 Dr. Robert Fullilove, part 5: Unsustainability is upstream of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and racism
Since our fourth recording, Dr. Bob and I spoke at length about what's driving me and keeping me going beyond where nearly anyone else does on sustainability leadership. We cover in this recording most of that conversation, p...
Sept. 11, 2025
835: At last! I can access my roof to charge solar for the first time in 18 months.
This week, I charged my solar panel and battery on my roof for the first time for over 18 months. My building had to do maintenance during which no residents could access the roof. They told us the job would take 5 months, bu...
Aug. 25, 2025
834: Do Americans Know How to Prepare Food From Scratch?
Late summer means produce at peak ripeness, especially peaches and heirloom tomatoes. Regular readers of my blog and subscribers to my newsletter have read of how my volunteering to bring overstock food from stores to places ...
Aug. 15, 2025
833: Aaron Blaise: A Master Disney Director and Animator on Self Expression, Leadership, and Nature
Aaron and I met after I got to see a screening of his recent short animated film Snow Bear . I knew about Aaron's achievements from participating in some of the biggest animated movies of all time. I expected to talk about ar...
Aug. 6, 2025
832: Robert Fullilove, part 4: Action in the Center of Civil Rights in the 1960s
Dr. Bob worked in the heart of the US Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. He shares stories of his interactions with Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), John Lewis, and more. In earlier conversations with him, I shared wha...
Aug. 4, 2025
831: Glenn Hubbard: Dean of Columbia Business School on Adam Smith and Leadership
I can't help but call Glenn "Dean Hubbard" since I met him as a student at Columbia Business School. That was 2005, making him one of the guests I've known the longest. I invited him to the podcast after seeing a talk he gave...
July 29, 2025
830: Jo Nemeth, part 2: Nature improves time with loved ones
We jumped in to talking about her Spodek Method commitment. She lives in a suburban area. There's a place near her that borders on bush, which I guess is Australian for undeveloped land. This spot with a bench designed for ex...
July 22, 2025
829: Adam Galinsky, part 1: I love that he wrote the book: Inspire
Adam teaches leadership at Columbia Business School, where I learned there were classes in leadership, which changed the direction of my life. Regular listeners know I consider leadership the most important missing element in...
July 18, 2025
828: Richard Reeves: For Boys and Men: support and love over misunderstanding
When people talk about helping men, a lot of people think any and maybe every man might just have latent misogyny, so helping him risks augmenting misogyny. Richard Reeves has researched the situation extensively and for what...
July 17, 2025
827: Chris Berdik: Scientific American loved his book Clamor (so did I)
Sound pollution is pollution. You know it's been growing for your whole life with little sign of decreasing. I wish I lived in a world with less sound pollution, but given that I do, I'd rather be aware and conscious of it th...
July 8, 2025
826: Jo Nemeth, part 1: Living without money frees her to do what she loves
Can you imagine living without money? Humans lived without money for 250,000 years, so it's not necessary for life. Money seems like an invention on par with the big ones, like fire, the wheel, writing, and language. Right of...
July 5, 2025
825: Ryan Mandelbaum, part 2: Rising to the challenge of random acts of friendliness
Ryan shares his experience approaching people to share in his joy. The task is not easy anywhere, least of all the Bronx, where he doesn't live but was visiting. Do people in the big city want to hear why some guy is walking ...
July 1, 2025
824: Dr. Rob Reed, part 2: Learning to love leading effectively
Rob starts by sharing his experience from leadership coaching in the context of a hospital with people in intensive care as well as their families. Situations are often emotionally intense. Treating just facts doesn't work, o...
June 17, 2025
823: Mark Mills, part 5: We’ll Never Have an Energy Transition
Reading Mark's recent piece We’ll Never Have an Energy Transition in Manhattan Institute's City Journal prompted me to write my recent post, When they say “transition fuel,” they mean “more polluting and depleting,” not less ...
June 10, 2025
822: Ryan Mandelbaum, part 1: Wildlife Is Everywhere, Including (especially) NYC (and where you live)
This recording went far beyond my usual preference for recording with guests in person when I can. We met in Prospect Park on one of the peak birding days of the year. Tons of people were out with powerful binoculars and came...
May 28, 2025
821: Rob Reed MD, part 1: Learning leadership transforms your life and work
Rob is one of my coaching clients. I asked him to be a guest here since many people perceive leadership and learning it as different than I mean. His work in medicine may not be at the center of sustainability, but I work in ...
May 22, 2025
820: Andy Samuel CBE: From worry before the workshop to Fun and Community during and after
Are you thinking about acting more but concerned about feeling guilty or judged that you aren't doing enough? If so, you'll love this conversation. I feel honored to work with people with Andy's background and community, whic...
May 12, 2025
819: A Course in Sustainability Leadership: 6: Our Brighter Future
This last recording in the series brings together the opportunities. We can't fix all the world's problems or to go back in time and change history. We can't change that people are already dying by the tens of millions annual...
May 9, 2025
818: A Course in Sustainability Leadership: 5: The Celebrity Opportunities
Look up "Greatest of All Time" on Wikipedia and you'll find Muhammad Ali. This lesson shares how he went from being just the heavyweight champion of the world to the greatest of all time, transcending sport to becoming a stat...