Episodes

April 19, 2025

812: Robert Fullilove, part 3: Politics, family, race, and sustainability

Our third conversation matches the first two in intrigue and quality. We talk about the things that came up for Dr. Bob that got in the way of his commitment. These issues come up for nearly everyone (implying they aren't per...
April 14, 2025

811: Tina Tombstone: A friend I volunteer delivering food to the needy with

Tina is one of the central characters in that group that everyone knows (another is Kevin Fucillo , also a podcast guest). We go back a few years. She was born in the south in 1933, so you can do the math, but you'd never gue...
March 30, 2025

810: Giora Netzer, part 2: Leadership coaching leads to far more than "just" the C-Suite

In our second conversation, Giora reveals more about his developing as a leader. If you listen for it, you can hear the vision he had for himself and his profession, but also the development he needed to realize it. This podc...
March 28, 2025

809: Alexander Clapp: Waste Wars, how we profit off polluting the world claiming to help them

I found Alex when listeners sent me an opinion piece in the New York Times he wrote, The Story You’ve Been Told About Recycling Is a Lie . Getting to where I take years to fill a load of trash means I've researched waste a lo...
March 20, 2025

808: Silvia Bellezza: Sustainable Marketing at Columbia Business School

Silvia created the course Sustainable Marketing at Columbia. It's an elective and has become the class at the business school with the most students from other schools at the university. In looking for a guest speaker on sust...
March 4, 2025

807: Giora Netzer MD MSCE, part 1: A leader I coached to the C-suite

Are you reaching your potential, professionally or personally? Have you wondered what would happen if you got coaching? Giora did. A friend of his who was a client of mine recommended he get coaching from me. We worked togeth...
Feb. 21, 2025

806: Robert Fullilove, part 2: the spirit of the Civil Rights movement

Dr. Bob shares more about his experience acting during the 1960s, as well as today on helping prisoners and more. I hope you can hear the electricity I felt listening. Two kinds of electricity: one for the stories, another fo...
Feb. 19, 2025

805: Osprey Orielle Lake: Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

I was pleasantly surprised in reading Osprey's book The Story is in Our Bones that she also sees the need to change culture, including elements like our stories, role models, images, and beliefs. Focusing on cultural elements...
Feb. 13, 2025

804: Robert Fullilove EdD, part 1: Lessons from America's Civil Rights era and effective action today

People call my behavior extreme, though I'm just acting in service of others. To be more precise, I'm acting in love for others. When people suggest what I'm doing is too hard, I sometimes remark how during America's Civil Ri...
Jan. 28, 2025

803: Nick Loris, part 3: Liberty, freedom, sustainability, and Rock Creek Park

You probably came to hear Nick's experience exploring Rock Creek Park in Washington DC based on his childhood experiences in nature with his father. Since we recorded shortly after my visit to DC, where I missed Nick but visi...
Jan. 14, 2025

802: Lorraine Smith, part 2: The hidden, dirty secrets of corporate "sustainability" work

I start by sharing how much value I get from participating in Lorraine's weekly coaching group. Then she shares her path to coaching on sustainability. She worked in the heart of the corporate sustainability accounting and re...
Jan. 9, 2025

801: Travis Fisher, part 3: Restoring time with family

Meaningful interactions don't have to be complex. Travis simply shares his experiences in nature in childhood and finds ways to recreate the emotional experience today. To me the most meaningful part is the result: he expects...
Dec. 31, 2024

800: Lorna Davis, part 4: After the Sustainability Leadership Workshop

If you haven't listened to my conversation with Lorna before taking the sustainability leadership workshop , I recommend listening to it first: 794: Lorna Davis, part 3: Before taking the sustainability leadership workshop . ...
Dec. 28, 2024

799: Josh Bandoch, part 2: Leadership: Humans feel first, then reason

Josh and I talked about a few aspects of his acting on his commitment from the Spodek Method. For one thing, since he and I both study, practice, and teach leadership, we talked about the technique, how it works, how it impac...
Dec. 25, 2024

798: Nick Romeo: The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy

Regular listeners and readers of my podcast and blog know I grew up with parents who helped form a grocery buying group which folded into a food co-op. Different co-ops work differently, but the general idea is that shoppers ...
Dec. 20, 2024

797: Alden Wicker, part 2: Try and Try Again: E-biking in Vermont

Many people think sustainability requires fixing everything or else we'll collapse. The Spodek Method creates a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not, as they might hope, a mindset shift followed by perfection....
Dec. 18, 2024

796: Jack Spencer, part 3: Authenticity on Acting on Sustainability (also Project 2025)

We start by talking about the internal challenges Jack felt about acting to do something he wouldn't have otherwise. He cares about the environment and lives accordingly. Still, he wouldn't have done what he committed to when...
Dec. 14, 2024

795: Lorraine Smith, part 1: Leaving mainstream "sustainability" to pursue actual sustainability

Lorraine is one of the few people I know who saw mainstream sustainability efforts for what they are: ineffective and often counterproductive but self-congratulatory. I call most of them "stepping on the gas, thinking it's th...
Dec. 12, 2024

794: Lorna Davis, part 3: Before taking the sustainability leadership workshop

Lorna first appeared on this podcast in 2021. We became friends and remained so, though we challenge each other, as you'll hear in this conversation. We don't try to. Just things about the other annoy us. But how much we resp...
Dec. 10, 2024

793: Nick Loris, part 1.5: Heartwarming nature, family, and fatherhood

People I talk to on the political left who care about the environment see people on the political right as opponents to defeat. When I share that I talk to people from Heritage Foundation, where Nick worked, they sound skepti...
Dec. 7, 2024

792: Travis Fisher, part 2: The spirit that America was founded on, Cato, and sustainability

We recorded this conversation just after the election. We talked about it, especially Travis's and the Cato Institute's views. One of his main views is that the US puts too much executive authority in the president. I'm also ...
Nov. 19, 2024

791: Sustainability Leadership Is a Performance Art

I'm following up my recent solo post, 790: Talking to a guy injecting on the sidewalk , with another extemporaneous one. This one is also with a former podcast guest and fellow teacher of our sustainability leadership worksho...
Nov. 16, 2024

790: Talking to a guy injecting on the sidewalk

On a beautiful sunny Saturday, 9:50am, I was walking to Washington Square Park to charge my battery and talk at 10am to my friend Dan McPherson ( he's been on the podcast , where he shared about his heart attack at age 46 the...
Nov. 14, 2024

789: Solomon Schmidt: Author of Legal Gladiator, on Alan Dershowitz

As a podcast host, I get pitched a lot of authors, books, and more. Most aren't relevant or are counterproductive to sustainability. I received an email promoting the author of Legal Gladiator , a biography of Alan Dershowitz...