Episodes
April 26, 2022
575: Chef Douglas McMaster, part 1: A restaurant with no trash cans because it produces no trash
Doug is the opposite of the catastrophe we've made of the food industry. He created a restaurant with no trash cans; not for the customers, not for the staff, nor for suppliers. Talk about a role model. You can do it too. He…
April 23, 2022
574: Frances Moore Lappé: Food, Democracy, and Taking Back Control of Our Choices
We spend most of our time talking about Frances's latest book, Daring Democracy . I couldn't help sharing how, decades after reading Diet for a Small Planet , I realized it was the first source that started me on the path to…
April 19, 2022
573: Scott White, part 2: An energy CEO considers leading on sustainability
Scott went above and beyond acting on his sustainability commitment to run. He battled covid during training. Did the extra effort bring him down? On the contrary, since he did it for personal, intrinsic motivation based in …
April 16, 2022
572: Geoff Colvin, part 2: Are we losing humanity when we lose touch with nature?
Geoff's story of his commitment to act on his childhood memories of playing along the Missouri River in South Dakota starts off interesting, then turns exciting, thrilling, and ultimately life-changing. One of the things we …
April 13, 2022
571: Chef Dan Barber, part 1: Supporting the whole ecosystem and farmers at every turn
Dan Barber is helping revitalize our food system. We start by going over his background, how fear drove him maybe most of all. Then we get into what drives food: farms and soil combined with creativity. His goal is supportin…
April 11, 2022
570: Bill Benenson, part 1: Documenting and learning from the fascinating Hadza
If you agree innovation and technology has its drawbacks, you may still worry: if we don't press onward, aren't we risking reverting to the stone age with thirty becoming old age and mothers and children dying in childbirth.…
April 10, 2022
569: Stop funding Russia invading Ukraine
People and nations are funding Russia's invading Ukraine, where tens of thousands have died and millions have become refugees. The laws of supply and demand dictate that any use drives up price, so any use helps fund Russia,…
April 8, 2022
568: Etienne Stott, part 2: When you threaten the power of the establishment, it starts to kick back
Etienne starts by sharing how his government in England is beginning to increase how much it threatens punishment for people protesting, including what he does as an MBE working with Extinction Rebellion. He sees that reacti…
April 4, 2022
567: Nakisa "Sista Sol" Glover, part 1: Environmental Justice, Social Justice, Organizing, and Action
Nakisa describes herself as naturally loving science, born into a hip hop world, combining these starting points. She starts by describing her journey growing up not learning that much about our environmental situation, seei…
April 3, 2022
566: The CEO of Ford and Boeing, Alan Mulally: Leadership environmentalism should learn from
"What I do doesn't matter," say many environmentalists as they order steak or buy tickets to fly some place. That's the addiction speaking. I recently heard Alan Mulally speak on how he led turning Ford around from losing te…
March 31, 2022
565: Sam Quinones, part 2: Fentanyl feels worse but addicts more (like Facebook, McDonald's, flying, etc)
In one of the highlights (lowlights?) of our second conversation, Sam shares that fentanyl users don't like its experience as much as heroin's. On the contrary, it's worse. It pops them out faster from the euphoria, which ma…
March 30, 2022
564: Lauren Carlisle, part 1: Dancer, psychologist, philosopher
Lauren's unusual knack for attracting a refined mix of brilliance and emotional unavailability created a storied dating life from 2010-2019 which included actors, pick-up artists, doctors without borders (or was it boundarie…
March 24, 2022
563: Derek Marshall, part 1: Candidate for California's 23rd Congressional District
Derek is looking to flip a district that has been moving more Democratic through demographic shifts and redistricting. Can he pull it off? He reached out to me partly to share and explore environmental and sustainability iss…
Feb. 24, 2022
562: Sam Quinones, part 1: America's addiction: opioids, meth, fentanyl (and fossil fuels)
You'll hear why Sam's books win so many awards: he deeply, personally explores fascinating, critical, current topics, then tells rich, detailed stories that get to their heart. He cares about the people he writes about and o…
Feb. 16, 2022
561: Scott Hardin-Nieri, part 2: Faith and Personal Challenge
Scott emailed me that he didn't explore wilderness meaninglessly listening to birds as much as he committed. From experience, I know some guests overcommit or for some reason don't complete their commitment. I asked him to s…
Feb. 9, 2022
560: Geoff Colvin, part 1: How to Become an Expert
My first week's assignment to my leadership classes at NYU for years has been to watch Geoff's conversation with Charlie Rose. Geoff got his MBA at NYU, but somehow I took years to connect with him. He was delighted to be a …
Feb. 9, 2022
559: The Silky Smooth Seduction of Addiction
I decided to avoid putting screens on while I ate for a month. I expected to enjoy my food more, to find the euphoria I often feel from fresh, healthy food. I was surprised to find more the feeling of wanting to open a scree…
Feb. 6, 2022
558: Michael Carlino, part 5: Which is the danger, lowering or raising the human population?
This conversation was one of the most fascinating I've had. I couldn't have had it when I was younger. Michael and I are learning each other's world view regarding population, our innate drives, how we create or deplete reso…
Jan. 31, 2022
557: Rollie Williams, part 1: Comedy and climate change
I hope you know Climate Town . Watch a bunch of episodes if you haven't. This Sustainable Life listeners and hosts talk about the show. It's funny and fun, yet intelligent and informative. On top of the content, I watch the …
Jan. 29, 2022
556: Judith Enck: Beyond Plastic's Founder and President
Judith shares her work, motivation, and vision on a problem everyone sees killing people and wildlife, but shies from applying themselves to, maybe because we value our polyester clothes, bottled water, laptops, and such. Ha…
Jan. 25, 2022
555: EJ Perry, part 1: Brown's quarterback on clutch performance
Who doesn't love knowing about something big before everyone else? EJ Perry is something big, a very talented quarterback being scouted by the NFL, coming from the Ivy League. Rarely do people reach pinnacles in multiple are…
Jan. 24, 2022
554: Sea walls won't protect us from our garbage. Stopping polluting gives us our best chance.
My notes that I read from for this episode: Sea wall for Manhattan, like Holland: expensive, huge, likely won't work Controversial already. Natural solutions might work better. Let's say they worked. On Staten Island, Fresh …
Jan. 21, 2022
553: Gaya Herrington, part 1: How far have we passed our limits to growth? What does that mean?
Five months ago, Gaya's work led to headlines like Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction . The 1970s predictions weren't exactly predictions, but the headline refers to the book Limits to …
Jan. 18, 2022
552: Hilary Link, part 2: colleges and universities talk sustainability but rarely act. This college president does.
Hilary describes her commitments as achieving some success and some failure, but learned from both. We start with her personal experiences and memories of ice skating and cross country skiing as a child leading to her someti…