Leadership And The Environment

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 act on environmental values.You can do it too with communities you’d like to join. You would contribute to a mission of changing culture from seeing stewardship and sustainability as a burden, chore, deprivation, and sacrifice to wanting to do it based on experience, expecting joy, fun, freedom, community, connecting, meaning and value.   Why Learn the Spodek Method?Before: Deprivation, Sacrifice, Burden, ChoreAfter: Joy, Freedom, Fun, Community, Connection, Meaning, PurposeIf you would like to lead your community, try it. If you’d like to grow yourself, have others do it on you.This episode presents my teac

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 prone to talking theory, but neither of us would stop there. He shares how he put theory into practice. At first he makes it sound simple, but he also talks about the challenges and struggles he went through and how far back he had to start from.For our common interests in creating community, I've wanted to bring him here for years. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 find yourself surprised at how much more trash you'll find when you pick it up than you expect from just looking.The second part, I walk him through how to lead someone in my technique for this podcast. He's considering starting a branch in the This Sustainable Life family, specifically to reach evangelicals, especially in Texas, a group I'm enthusiastic to connect with. Most environmentalists approach them judgmentally and critically, which prompts division.As you'll hear, Jonathan and I expect to connect with them so they enjoy acting.If you're interested in starting a branch of This Sustainable Life, this episode sho

Our world values cheap and disposable---in food and doof packaging, furniture, cars, and near the top of the list, clothes, especially fast fashion. The world is paying for it in the sense of overfilled landfills, plastic disrupting endocrine systems of animals including us, oil wells everywhere, garbage patches in the ocean, and so on.I see us paying the price. We're always craving. Stuff always breaks. We feel compelled to buy new phones when the old ones should have kept working. We're obese from snacking. We're twisted up inside polluting while trying to convince ourselves we're not.J. B. MacKinnon's new book The Day the World Stops Shopping examines this part of our culture and for this podcast he committed to go against that trend by buying a quality pair of jeans from a place he knew the sourcing, labor practices, and everything else, the opposite of fast fashion. He also paid significantly more for them.Was the premium worth it? Should you do the same? What can we learn from his experience?We talk abo

Today’s guest, Richard Rothstein, is one of the experts on how the law has clearly and explicitly kept freedom, prosperity, longevity, opportunity, and more from people based on their skin color. This is no hard-to-believe conspiracy, tenuous claim, or cancel culture labeling. He shows laws in black and white the law says you can’t rent to blacks. Across the country in many spheres of life for generations. No secret. Plus he traces the repercussions that occur when one group can do things another can’t and how they ripple throughout society.Is his material valuable? Here’s one measure. I’m happy that my book Leadership Step by Step has over 100 reviews, averaging close to five stars. I know a lot of authors, editors, and book marketers. People seek that three-digit barrier. Richard wrote The Color of Law, a book on laws. That’s like a book on accounting. His book has over twelve thousand reviews, overwhelmingly five-star.As usual, I bring you the personal and leadership aspects of the work. I’ll link in the n

What's the Earth's carrying capacity? If we're above it and we choose to lower it, what happens to the economy?I've wondered these questions. I know the mainstream view gets it wrong because humans have lived sustainably. Their models say it's impossible, so they're wrong. They must be missing something, at least.Rapid population growth leads to poverty. It might be a party on the way up, but it's unsustainable. We can celebrate lowering population. Other cultures have. We can too.Bill starts by talking about how we can tell we're over the Earth's capacity, the dangers of relying on nonrenewable resources like oil. How do we achieve a soft landing if things collapse? Bill works on these things and speaks with experience and thoughtfulness, not just political bromides. We also cover birth control and immigration, topics relevant to the environment.These topics are critical, but not covered. For me, it's refreshing to talk reasonably about these things. The media doesn't.I also get him acting on his values. As

Started thinking of book when I worked on initiative but put in background, expecting podcast to improveThat's been the case.Started getting serious about a year ago.You may have noticed a lot of guests with backgrounds in abolition: Eric Metaxas, Adam Hochschild, Manisha Sinha, Andres Resendez, Richard Rothstein (more on racial injustice)That's because abolition became major issue, then George Floyd amplified issueSo spent months talking with people and figuring out approach. Everyone said, “Josh, you could cure cancer, but if it touches on these things people will think you're trying to use someone else's issue.” or they'd say “You couldn't possibly understand, or at least people will think you can't” or they'd say “Some things you just don't talk about or compare because they're in another category.”So I went with people who devoted their lives to these issues and learned a ton.Next step: started writing outline, then text, revised three times.Started a writing workshop. Kicked writing into overdrive. Wrot

I saw a TEDx talk on population where the speaker spoke thoughtfully and persuasively on overpopulation. I consider the topic among the most important on the environment, yet nearly no one talks about it, so I had to find out who she was and invite her to the podcast.She turned out to be a huge celebrity. Most people who talk about population are academics, at least in my experience. They know the facts but tend to present them abstractly. Who was this Alexandra Paul?You could see from her bio that she's acted in movies and television. She cohosts the Switch4Good podcast on veganism with an Olympic athlete. She's also finished Iron Man triathlons and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. She's genuine, authentic, and mission-driven. Where others lecture or tell others what to do, she smiles and does it herself.If I hadn't met her, I wouldn't have believed she existed. She does and here's the conversation with her.Her official siteThe Switch4Good podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-ou

Though I haven't actively practiced physics since defending my thesis in 1999, it felt great to talk science with the author of a book named one of the best non-fiction books of all time. The conversation stayed where nonscientists could understand, but we spoke, I think, how physicists do, though I'm out of practice.We talked about values, the difference between theory and experiment, the beauty of experiment, running experiments by the South Pole and tops of mountains, Einstein, Feynman, and technology. Of course, sustainability too.He shared about the writing of his book, the life that led to it, and the life it led to of becoming a spokesman for science.We also closed with him describing his podcast, where he interviewed me.Click here to see the video of our conversation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How do you face challenges? Not little ones like a pandemic lockdown for a year. Big ones.Regular listeners hear me talk about role models like Viktor Frankl and Nelson Mandela in the context of handling life challenges. During the pandemic, for example, I recognize there was suffering before, there will be suffering after, and there's suffering now. Our challenge is not to take on things outside our control since we can't, but to figure out how to respond, not just to the world but within our hearts and minds.We're locked down. Nelson Mandela was locked down for 27 years. If he could create meaning forced to break rocks, I can find meaning in my home, able to go out every day, with access to communicate with everyone, access all the culture ever digitized, and so on.In the context of sustainability, do we just give up? How do we find hope and resolution to act even when everyone around us says what they do doesn't matter or that only governments and corporations can make a difference? What role models can we

Your blood contains PFOA, also known as forever chemicals. They cause cancer of several types, birth defects, and more.Dupont and other companies produced this stuff after learning it caused harm and dumped it into our environment. As best we can tell, they chose enormous profits over the health of their employees at first, and eventually all Americans and all humans because this stuff takes millions of years to break down and accumulates in our bodies.We know because Robert Bilott, today's guest, took on a small farmer's case. His cows were dying, we now know from water poisoned from Dupont dumping these chemicals. They pulled on the thread and the whole sweater unraveled. Robert's story became on par with those in the movies Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action.The highly-reviewed 2019 movie Dark Waters featured Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Tim Robbins playing him, his wife, his coworker. The New York Times featured him in its 2016 magazine article The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare. The most

Kathryn Garcia, candidate for Mayor of New York City joined. No matter where you live, the mayor here matters. Many national trends in politics, business, culture, education, sports, and more start here. Our output in entertainment, culture, but also pollution and population affect the U.S. and world.I wanted to treat two issues: sustainability and leadership. Also hear Kathryn Garcia as a person, not just a candidate.Talk about a welcome change from all-too-common American politics! You'll hear a public servant speaking with experience, knowledge, and heat.There are more issues than a mayoral candidate could talk about in one episode with the city in the midst of a pandemic, ethnic and racial strife, a cultural scene that's been shut down, disparities in wealth greater than before the depression, and so on. I didn't want to leave them out but wanted to focus on these issues that matter to everyone, but are less covered elsewhere.You'll hear for yourself. I heard someone speaking from her heart and experience

I noticed a trend among podcast guests that the people who have already acted the most on sustainability find new things fastest. By contrast, people who do less say they're already doing all they can, or at least all they can think of.That's backward, or would be if you thought there were a limited number of things you could do. The so-called experts who themselves haven't acted promote big, Earth-saving projects which of course I support, but they end up knowing only big, complex things. Most people can't think of what to do when they want to.That the people doing the most find more to do fastest suggests the more we act the more we want to act, the more we know what we can do, the more we enjoy nature.How big or small you start matters less than if you enjoy it. If you enjoy it, you'll keep acting and eventually reach big. You'll also share with others. Big acts that we share add up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We got into territory I'd wanted to talk to a religious scholar about. I would have expected being recorded would make us more tentative, but I found the opposite. I didn't keep track, but several times I said feel free not to answer. Instead he answered more, sharing what he'd thought and researched about in depth.We cover Joseph, Isaac, the Arch Bishop of Burundi, population, contraception, consumption, and more, both in principle and in ourpersonal lives. We also cover his personal experience in the woods near his home, his family, his work, and how they all interplayed.Family is the number one reason people give about not being able to act. "Josh, you don't have kids, you don't understand how it's impossible." Well, take it up with yet another family man who found nature and stewardship bringing his family closer.This conversation, along with ones with religious guests like Bob Inglis, Brent Suter, and Eric Metaxas, as well as unrecorded ones with friends, make me evaluate the approach of many environment

Do you know anyone whose company pollutes more than they'd like, who wants to change things, but whose company keeps not acting?I think that situation describes almost everyone. Even the most sustainably companies aren't close to sustainable. They just pollute a bit less than everyone else, from Patagonia to Greenpeace. Maybe it describes you. Maybe it fits your elected officials, school administration, church leaders, etc as much as your employer.Today's guest worked at Exxon for 16 years. If any place qualifies as the poster child for contributing to climate change, well Dar-Lon Chang can tell us the view from the inside.If you'd like to change but feel frustrated, Dar-Lon probably faced bigger hurdles, with more to lose. After 16 years, with wife and daughter, with no job, he left for a new life. He'll share his story, but a preview of what to listen for, he prepared, but he also shares why he wished he had acted earlier.Another major theme that I consider more valuable coming from someone who knows the sc

Here are my notes I read from for this episode------It hit me recently that nearly nobody knows what's so bad about climate change. I've started asking people and nobody knows. Actually, of the dozens I've asked, one knew, though it took prompting for her to say it.Everyone gets sea level rise, biodiversity, loss of coral reefs.I'll grant we have to move cities. But I'll respond that after some loss, we'd rebuild, which could create meaning.I'll grant more and bigger hurricanes, but I'll respond that we'll learn to build hurricane-proof buildings. Katrina's losses in lives and property, while tragic, are nothing compared to the material gains. Most people see fossil fuels brought billions out of poverty, longevity, prosperity. That trade seems worth it.You've maybe read books like The Uninhabitable Earth or ones describing the hellscape we may turn the Earth into, but most people see science and technology able to fix those problems. We'll live underground or undersea.To describe the problem I have to retell

Longtime listeners and readers of my books and podcast know I draw the analogy to learning and mastering a skill to learning to play piano or a sport. You start by playing scales or practicing groundstrokes. Likewise with leadership or taking initiative, acting entrepreneurially, both performance arts you can master. Also acting in stewardship. People don't get that learning to cook without producing tons of garbage took training from when I started, producing a bag a week. Maybe I should explain better.Some listeners my have heard how I once found but lost a web page of a guy who sketched every day for a year and posted each day's sketch. Chicken scratches for 300 days, then a month of interesting stuff, then beauty. Anyone can master if they train. It takes neither a lot of time or money, just keep at it. Most people spend much more time and money watching TV or scrolling social media, which they get good at instead.Jonathan Hardesty, today's guest, kept at it. Starting without experience, connections, or r

I learned of John's work through his statement at Macmillan's Sustainability page while researching Ray Anderson: In 2009, after reading Ray Anderson’s “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist,” I decided it was Macmillan’s responsibility to lessen our impact on the earth, and in particular, to lower our carbon emissions. We created a senior position in the company and spent well over a year measuring our carbon footprint. We then set ourselves the daunting goal of reducing our scope one, two, and “major” three carbon emissions by 65%, and we gave ourselves a decade to get it done. Over the course of the last nine years, we have made sustainability a major component of all our decisions at the company. In 2010 we instituted a carbon offset program to supplement our efforts. Over the last nine years, we have lowered our carbon emissions by roughly 50%, and with our offsets, we have been carbon neutral globally for the last two years.Getting here has not been easy. We have initiated lots of projects. We have oft

About six months ago the parallels started forming for me between our global economic system today that creates great suffering on the scale of hundreds of millions of people with nightmarish cruelty, but also people benefiting from it looking the other way or saying "what I do doesn't matter" or "the youth will solve it". . . And the systems of slavery.Also looking for role models who changed systems of that scale.My historical knowledge of abolition and slavery was limited. You've heard guests Adam Hochschild, Manisha Sinha, Eric Metaxas, and others sharing historical background on the systems of slavery and abolition, as well as individual abolitionists. I believe we can learn from them and honor them by learning from them. Our situation is different, but on the scale of billions and we are alive to act.Today's guest, Andrés Reséndez, wrote The Other Slavery, a book on the enslavement of Native Americans, mostly by the Spanish. I knew little about it and what I did know was off. Our conversation covers the

Here are the notes I read from for this episodeHow to fix TexasJust got off conference call a Texas attendee couldn't attend because her power was out.There are helpless people suffering. I empathize with them and feel compassion. I support helping them.If we want to prevent future suffering, we have to look at systems. That's not ignoring present pain or loss. It's preventing future pain and loss.In that call, one person had been in touch with the Texas person. She told us of ice forming inside her house and other problems.The present attendees lamented each mention of a problem as if she were suffering some horrible hardship. For tens of thousands of years, humans have lived without power including in the cold, including sudden, unexpected cold.Is it not obvious that what we call technology and innovation has made us dependent, needy, and the opposite of resilient?I'll repeat that people in hospitals, homeless, elderly, and others have always needed extra help and they do today. Nothing of what I'm saying s