Episodes
April 4, 2022
567: Nakisa "Sista Sol" Glover, part 1: Environmental Justice, Social Justice, Organizing, and Action
Nakisa describes herself as naturally loving science, born into a hip hop world, combining these starting points. She starts by describing her journey growing up not learning that much about our environmental situation, seein...
April 3, 2022
566: The CEO of Ford and Boeing, Alan Mulally: Leadership environmentalism should learn from
"What I do doesn't matter," say many environmentalists as they order steak or buy tickets to fly some place. That's the addiction speaking. I recently heard Alan Mulally speak on how he led turning Ford around from losing ten...
March 31, 2022
565: Sam Quinones, part 2: Fentanyl feels worse but addicts more (like Facebook, McDonald's, flying, etc)
In one of the highlights (lowlights?) of our second conversation, Sam shares that fentanyl users don't like its experience as much as heroin's. On the contrary, it's worse. It pops them out faster from the euphoria, which mak...
March 30, 2022
564: Lauren Carlisle, part 1: Dancer, psychologist, philosopher
Lauren's unusual knack for attracting a refined mix of brilliance and emotional unavailability created a storied dating life from 2010-2019 which included actors, pick-up artists, doctors without borders (or was it boundaries...
March 24, 2022
563: Derek Marshall, part 1: Candidate for California's 23rd Congressional District
Derek is looking to flip a district that has been moving more Democratic through demographic shifts and redistricting. Can he pull it off? He reached out to me partly to share and explore environmental and sustainability issu...
Feb. 24, 2022
562: Sam Quinones, part 1: America's addiction: opioids, meth, fentanyl (and fossil fuels)
You'll hear why Sam's books win so many awards: he deeply, personally explores fascinating, critical, current topics, then tells rich, detailed stories that get to their heart. He cares about the people he writes about and ou...
Feb. 16, 2022
561: Scott Hardin-Nieri, part 2: Faith and Personal Challenge
Scott emailed me that he didn't explore wilderness meaninglessly listening to birds as much as he committed. From experience, I know some guests overcommit or for some reason don't complete their commitment. I asked him to sh...
Feb. 9, 2022
560: Geoff Colvin, part 1: How to Become an Expert
My first week's assignment to my leadership classes at NYU for years has been to watch Geoff's conversation with Charlie Rose. Geoff got his MBA at NYU, but somehow I took years to connect with him. He was delighted to be a g...
Feb. 9, 2022
559: The Silky Smooth Seduction of Addiction
I decided to avoid putting screens on while I ate for a month. I expected to enjoy my food more, to find the euphoria I often feel from fresh, healthy food. I was surprised to find more the feeling of wanting to open a screen...
Feb. 6, 2022
558: Michael Carlino, part 5: Which is the danger, lowering or raising the human population?
This conversation was one of the most fascinating I've had. I couldn't have had it when I was younger. Michael and I are learning each other's world view regarding population, our innate drives, how we create or deplete resou...
Jan. 31, 2022
557: Rollie Williams, part 1: Comedy and climate change
I hope you know Climate Town . Watch a bunch of episodes if you haven't. This Sustainable Life listeners and hosts talk about the show. It's funny and fun, yet intelligent and informative. On top of the content, I watch the b...
Jan. 29, 2022
556: Judith Enck: Beyond Plastic's Founder and President
Judith shares her work, motivation, and vision on a problem everyone sees killing people and wildlife, but shies from applying themselves to, maybe because we value our polyester clothes, bottled water, laptops, and such. Hav...
Jan. 25, 2022
555: EJ Perry, part 1: Brown's quarterback on clutch performance
Who doesn't love knowing about something big before everyone else? EJ Perry is something big, a very talented quarterback being scouted by the NFL, coming from the Ivy League. Rarely do people reach pinnacles in multiple area...
Jan. 24, 2022
554: Sea walls won't protect us from our garbage. Stopping polluting gives us our best chance.
My notes that I read from for this episode: Sea wall for Manhattan, like Holland: expensive, huge, likely won't work Controversial already. Natural solutions might work better. Let's say they worked. On Staten Island, Fresh K...
Jan. 21, 2022
553: Gaya Herrington, part 1: How far have we passed our limits to growth? What does that mean?
Five months ago, Gaya's work led to headlines like Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction . The 1970s predictions weren't exactly predictions, but the headline refers to the book Limits to G...
Jan. 18, 2022
552: Hilary Link, part 2: colleges and universities talk sustainability but rarely act. This college president does.
Hilary describes her commitments as achieving some success and some failure, but learned from both. We start with her personal experiences and memories of ice skating and cross country skiing as a child leading to her sometim...
Jan. 16, 2022
551: Chad Foster, part 4: Flying to skiing, but not camping in the back yard
In this episode we talk about how to lead people, but I can't help notice on listening afterward how quick and easy it is for him to fly his whole family across the country several times a season, but impossible to pitch a te...
Jan. 14, 2022
550: Rick Ridgeway: A Life Lived Wild: K2, Everest, and places no human had seen
Prepare to be awed at Rick's stories of adventure, discovery, nature, and humanity. He has summited K2, Everest, and more. He's visited places possibly no other human has. And he's an experienced, brilliant storyteller, so sh...
Jan. 11, 2022
549: Abdal Hakim Murad, part 2: High and low tech in the new green mosque in Cambridge, UK
Many people and mainstream society seem to view technology as the solution to our environmental problems---and the more and the newer the better. Abdal Hakim and I agree technology isn't the glowing solution many believe. It ...
Jan. 8, 2022
548: Erik Bottcher, part 1: a New York City politician awesome enough to pick up litter
Erik Bottcher is my elected legislator. New York City's council presides over a budget bigger than most countries'. Yet I met him picking up litter. He organized weekly clean-ups when the city dropped its sanitation budget du...
Jan. 7, 2022
547: Michael Carlino, part 4: What does Christian scripture say about population?
Michael is becoming a regular. Would I have expected an extended conversation with a doctoral candidate at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when I started? I don't think so, and I don't think many environmentalists e...
Jan. 5, 2022
546: Maxine Bédat, part 2: Systemic Change Begins With Personal Change
Maxine shares her experience with her commitment across the country. She moved partly to enable living by her values. People often suggest it's easier for someone living in New York not to fly since I have access to so much c...
Dec. 28, 2021
545: Jesse Eisinger: Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter for Propublica
How do you become one of the premier investigative journalists at one of the premier publishers of investigative journalism? In general, how do you excel in an area with no established path? I consider figuring out how essent...
Dec. 24, 2021
544: Michael Carlino, part 3: What would Jesus do with an iPhone?
Michael shares about avoiding using a smart phone, or at least using a minimally functional smart phone. Do you remember what life was like without yours? What does solitude mean to you? How much time do you spend on a smart ...