Episodes
Sept. 14, 2023
721: Jim Burke, part 1: The Most Beautiful Street in New York City?
After reading about 34th Avenue in Queens and watching the video linked below, I had to ride to see it. Over a mile of a once congested street was transformed into safer, quieter places people enjoyed, especially kids. There ...
Sept. 11, 2023
720: Maya Van Rossum, part 2: You Don't Have a Right to a Clean Environment. You Have to Work for It.
Do you think government should protect people's life, liberty, and property? What if it turned out it didn't, if it said other people could destroy your life, liberty, and property, and would help them do it? That's what poll...
Sept. 10, 2023
719: David Blight, part 1: From Abolitionism to Sustainability
Regular listeners and blog readers know my developing abolitionism as a role model for a sustainability movement. I've hosted several top scholars on the history of abolitionism in England and America, as well as the relevant...
Sept. 8, 2023
718: Albert Garcia-Romeu, part 2: Psychedelics and Appreciating Nature Where You Are
I couldn't help asking question about the field of psychedelics research beyond our last conversation. He's a professional at the top of the field and well-connected. I started by asking him about comedy and psychedelics, aft...
Sept. 2, 2023
717: Pamela Paul: Writing on Controversial Subjects With Confidence
I met Pamela Paul after she mentioned previous guest John Sargent in a piece, There's More Than One Way to Ban a Book . I found her column covered issues others shy away from. I was curious what motivated her. We talked about...
Aug. 29, 2023
716: Arnold Leitner, part 2: How much energy and power do you need to be happy?
How do we affect others and how does it relate to what brings meaning to life? I'm surprised it took this long for one of my conversations to cover the meaning of life, but I'm not surprised it came with a fellow physicist. B...
Aug. 24, 2023
715: My mom, Marie Spodek, part 3: Starting a food coop and making ends meet as a single mom in a food desert with three kids
I've written about how people act like food coops don't work for people without resources like time and money or who have kids. It took me a long time to realize they didn't see food coops being started because the people sta...
Aug. 23, 2023
714: Adam Hochschild, part 3: King Leopold's Ghost
Adam 's book Bury the Chains inspired me to see British abolitionism as a role model movement for sustainability. The writing was simple and clear. The subject inspirational and relevant. We talked about it in our first episo...
Aug. 20, 2023
713: Matthew Matern, part 3: A trial lawyer's view
Matt and I talk about his commitment and how it affected him. I talk about the Spodek Method in general and other leadership tools like creating role models. Matt talked about his hopes and expectations about technology. When...
Aug. 17, 2023
712: Guy Spier, part 1: The Education of a Value Investor
Guy is a successful, well-known hedge fund founder. He's famous for paying a lot of money for one meal with Warren Buffet (hundreds of thousands of dollars), which he found worth it. He and I know each other partly through a ...
Aug. 12, 2023
711: Kate Siber: "Should I Stop Flying? It’s a Difficult Decision to Make."
I was led to Kate's article Should I Stop Flying? It’s a Difficult Decision to Make. from a newsletter from Flight Free USA . I've read, heard, written, and said a lot about not flying. I found her article the most sensitive,...
Aug. 8, 2023
710: Madeline Ostrander, part 2: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth
Since our last conversation, check out the reviews that have come in about Home on an Unruly Planet from past guests of this podcast: “With deep, compassionate reporting and elegant prose … Ostrander finds creativity, vital h...
Aug. 8, 2023
709: Madeline Ostrander, part 1: At Home on an Unruly Planet
What's actually happening with our environmental problems? Scientists predict. Journalists in periodicals tend to write what gets attention and clicks, so we don't know how accurately they represent versus sensationalize. The...
Aug. 5, 2023
708: Chris Bystroff, part 2: Understanding the United Nation's Projections
Talking with Chris has made me more concerned about population projections that only show the possibility of collapse as error bars. I hope to bring him and past guest Wolfgang Lutz on the podcast together to help resolve the...
Aug. 1, 2023
707: Arnold Leitner, part 1: The founder of YouSolar, more than off-grid living
Do you like my work because of my nearly unique background of a PhD in physics, having cofounded a couple companies, and having an MBA? You're in luck with Arnold, who has done the same. We got our MBAs together at Columbia s...
July 30, 2023
706: What I sound like talking sustainability when I forgot I was being recorded
You've heard me talk sustainability leadership on this podcast and probably others. Have you wondered what I sound like talking to friends unrecorded? A friend who also teaches leadership at NYU knew my background and had tal...
July 27, 2023
705: Greg Bertelsen: A bipartisan climate roadmap including a carbon tax
Recent guest Bob Litterman spoke highly of Greg and his work at the Climate Leadership Council, a rare bipartisan effort on climate. He put us in touch. In the meantime, I was curious about a climate group started by Secretar...
July 25, 2023
704: Gernot Wagner, part 1: Guiding Misguided Economic Forces in the Right Direction
Gernot and I go back a few years from meeting online over sustainability issues, finding out that we lived about a mile from each other, then meeting in person. Our first meeting, we got annoyed at each other, but our second ...
July 22, 2023
703: David Gessner, part 1: A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World
What does the world look like today with regard to our environmental situation? Not the latest news about a disaster we can write off as a one-time event, even if yet another once a once-in-a-century event now common, but wha...
July 18, 2023
702: Peter Singer, part 1: Calm, reflective talk considering not flying
With Peter Singer, I could have picked several topics relevant to sustainability leadership: veganism, vegetarianism, and charity come to mind, as does my post about him six months ago, Fixing Peter Singer’s drowning child an...
July 16, 2023
701: Robert Litterman, part 2: "We need legislation, we need a price on carbon."
You won't hear many finance people promoting more taxes, though it's increasing. Bob talks beyond our conversation a few weeks before about a carbon tax, integrity, permanence, standards, measurement, and many different angle...
July 13, 2023
700: Matt Matern, part 2: Plant a Tree
Matt shared last time about the redwoods I keep hearing about in California that I've never seen but find they transform people. His goal was to plant a tree. He ended up with a new tree, plus he planted other plants. Listen ...
July 12, 2023
699: Robert Litterman, part 1: A Carbon Tax and Managing Risk
I met Bob at a conference on climate at my old school, Columbia Business School. He knew another participant, Gernot Wagner, with whom I recorded an episode I'll post soon, and was a peer with past guest Mark Tercek . I didn'...
July 6, 2023
698: Chris Bystroff, part 1: Population Growth and Overpopulation
Population modeling can be hard, as is figuring out a prediction's accuracy, therefore how much confidence to give your conclusions. Many people can't hear talk about population without hearing things like eugenics and racism...