Episodes

110: Geoffrey West, part 3: Using science to create a vision for the future
Dec. 26, 2018

110: Geoffrey West, part 3: Using science to create a vision for the future

My third conversation with Geoff covers using his research to figure out what to do. I start with a few questions on how to create a vision for the future based on his research. Can we change our growth trajectory, currently ...
109: Flying and Polluting Helps Elect Trump
Dec. 20, 2018

109: Flying and Polluting Helps Elect Trump

This episode is for people who detest Trump. I'll speak to people who love him in future episodes. If you pollute and emit greenhouse emissions beyond the IPCC recommendations, which one round-trip cross country coach flight ...
108: Awareness Is A Delay Tactic, A Smokescreen
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...
107: Beth Comstock, part 1: Inside the Fortune 5 C-Suite
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...
106: Exploding the Myth that Technology Will Save Us
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...
105: Evelina Utterdahl, part 2: A Month Avoiding Plastic!
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...
104: Jared Angaza, part 2: Motherhood and Apple Pie
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...
103: Geoffrey West, part 2: theoretical physics and the environment
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 ...
102: Col. Everett Spain, West Point's Head of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
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...
101: Seth Godin: Work that matters for people who care
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...
100: Michael O'Heaney: Story of Stuff
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. ...
099: Jethro Jones: No Excuse Stewardship
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...
098: Would You Free Your Slaves?
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...
097: Sir Tim Smit: Changing the World with No Special Skills
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...
096: Chris Bailey: Hyperfocus, The New Science of Attention
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, ...
095: How Would-be Leaders Move Us Backward
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...
094: Where Reason Fails and Leadership Works
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...
093: Want to win elections? Clean your neighborhood. Be a steward.
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...
092: Paternalism and pride: why fly to Africa to eek out minor efficiencies when we waste hundreds of times more?
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 ...
091: What Works That We Can Build On
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...
090: Obesity and the Environment
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...
089: Evelina Utterdahl, part 1: Traveling the world without flying
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...
088: Bea Johnson: The Priestess of Waste-Free Living
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...
087: The U.S. Constitution guides my environmental behavior
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...