Episodes
Dec. 19, 2018
108: Awareness Is A Delay Tactic, A Smokescreen
I talk to a lot of people who aren't acting on their environmental values. They explain their inaction in many ways, but one of the top ones is that they claim they first have to raise their awareness or become more conscious...
Dec. 18, 2018
107: Beth Comstock, part 1: Inside the Fortune 5 C-Suite
Beth personifies whom this podcast is designed to showcase: someone whose hard work, risk-taking, and personal challenge brought her to the pinnacle of her craft, which she is willing to share. That is, someone who did what l...
Dec. 16, 2018
106: Exploding the Myth that Technology Will Save Us
Many people believe that technology will save many of our environmental problems. I've written and spoken on how making a polluting system more efficient will lead to it polluting more efficiently. My recent cross-country tri...
Nov. 29, 2018
105: Evelina Utterdahl, part 2: A Month Avoiding Plastic!
Evelina said she'd avoid plastic for a month before she could think twice about it. Did she complain or back out? You'll hear in this episode, but the big picture is that instead of giving up, she worked harder. I've spoken t...
Nov. 29, 2018
104: Jared Angaza, part 2: Motherhood and Apple Pie
Since appearing on his podcast, he and I have become friends. You can't hear it in this recording, but since meeting on line, I've met him in San Diego, where I stayed in his guest bedroom, meet his family, and cooked my famo...
Nov. 25, 2018
103: Geoffrey West, part 2: theoretical physics and the environment
In our second conversation, Geoffrey and I continue to pursue his unique approach to viewing the environment. I find it fascinating because he approaches the environment from a different direction, but he arrives to the same ...
Nov. 24, 2018
102: Col. Everett Spain, West Point's Head of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
Many who serve in the military become leaders in business, politics, entrepreneurship, sports, and many other places. Why? What does the military teach so well? Few people can answer better than Everett, as the head of West P...
Nov. 15, 2018
101: Seth Godin: Work that matters for people who care
I'm posting this conversation today because Seth just launched his book, This is Marketing , already a #1 bestseller. As he points out, his marketing is close to what I call leadership: how to influence people, to discover yo...
Nov. 6, 2018
100: Michael O'Heaney: Story of Stuff
Michael is the Executive Director of an organization that inspired me as much as any---The Story of Stuff. They continue to inspire me to think bigger and to focus on the details it would be easier to ignore but that matter. ...
Oct. 26, 2018
099: Jethro Jones: No Excuse Stewardship
Stewardship is Jethro's core message, as I heard---of his community, especially children in it, his country, and the natural world we share. This world is a beautiful, abundant gift we could wreck if we don't steward it as we...
Oct. 24, 2018
098: Would You Free Your Slaves?
Imagine you were born into a slave holding family. You didn't ask to be born into it. You didn't create the system. You didn't make slavery legal. Every landowner around you would own slaves. You would inherit yours. Would yo...
Oct. 23, 2018
097: Sir Tim Smit: Changing the World with No Special Skills
Tim Smit is the co-founder and Vice Chairman of the Eden Project in Cornwall, in the southwest of England. He turned a lifeless, poisoned abandoned mine into a bountiful green world-class garden people love to visit. Eden has...
Oct. 19, 2018
096: Chris Bailey: Hyperfocus, The New Science of Attention
Chris Bailey shares how to focus and create intention---how to become more productive on the outside and live with more meaning and purpose on the inside by focusing on what is important to you. Focus isn't necessarily easy, ...
Oct. 10, 2018
095: How Would-be Leaders Move Us Backward
I want to differentiate between telling people facts and what to do or what they should do on one side, and leading them on the other. I see a lot of people telling others what to do. Not a lot of people leading. Martin Luthe...
Oct. 9, 2018
094: Where Reason Fails and Leadership Works
Many people think if you just reason enough, you'll get to what's right and wrong in a way everyone will believe. This happens in the environment and many other places in life. In the environment, you may believe we should pa...
Oct. 8, 2018
093: Want to win elections? Clean your neighborhood. Be a steward.
How do we elect people, including a United States President, who act on and steward the environment? I'm going to present a plan that I believe can win the next election that transcends the usual divisions that led to today's...
Oct. 6, 2018
092: Paternalism and pride: why fly to Africa to eek out minor efficiencies when we waste hundreds of times more?
First world people pollute hundreds of times more than third world people yet the material prosperity doesn't translate to greater happiness. We could reduce our waste by 75% while improving our quality of life, yet we claim ...
Sept. 28, 2018
091: What Works That We Can Build On
People ask if I think we can make it out of our environmental mess. I don't know, but I act on my values. Many examples of cultural change suggest we can make it, including Smoking Drunk driving Seat belts Leaded gas and pain...
Sept. 25, 2018
090: Obesity and the Environment
How we treat our bodies is how we are treating our environment. How we treat the environment is how we are treating our bodies. The fat and CO2 concentrations aren't the cause of the problem. The are the effects. The cause is...
Sept. 24, 2018
089: Evelina Utterdahl, part 1: Traveling the world without flying
Evelina Utterdahl travels more than most. She writes travel columns. She loves travel as much as anyone, maybe more. Yet she chooses not to fly, as she wrote in Why I have chosen to travel the world without flying . If you've...
Sept. 20, 2018
088: Bea Johnson: The Priestess of Waste-Free Living
Bea has become a role model, maybe even a hero to me. People keep saying they're impressed with my waste. It's easy to allow your standards to slide. One problem: my fellow Americans waste more than nearly anyone in human his...
Sept. 17, 2018
087: The U.S. Constitution guides my environmental behavior
Why do I think about the United States Constitution when my pressure cooker finishes cooking? Or when I leave a room? The U.S. Constitution guides my environmental behavior and has since I learned it in elementary school. Tod...
Sept. 12, 2018
086: Awareness means nothing. Or less.
Neither the environment nor your life responds to your awareness. They respond to your behavior. People who speak the truth say, "I'm telling the truth." People who lie say the same thing. People who are aware say they are aw...
Sept. 11, 2018
085: Daniel Bauer, part 2, Going car-free is beautiful
Going car-free is beautiful Daniel got rid of a car! He chose to from Texas! And he thanks me for inspiring him. Would you think losing a car would cripple your life? Listen on to hear how it brought him joy and happiness. Ye...