Episodes

Oct. 30, 2024

785: Josh Bandoch, part 1: Teaching persuasion and leadership

I participated in an online workshop in influence and persuasion that Josh led. We got in touch afterward and found our approaches to the practices and how to learn them overlap. We start this episode talking about his backgr...
Oct. 11, 2024

784: Serving in Uniform on September 11, 2024

If you haven't listened to episode 781: My New Major Life Volunteering Community Project, four years in the making , listen to it first for context. That episode describes my journey to start volunteering as an auxiliary poli...
Oct. 9, 2024

783: Jan Mulder, part 1: Listening to every episode of this podcast, starting from episode 000

Jan is a listener of this podcast who contacted me about how it changed his life. He is listening to each episode, starting from the beginning . I invited him to be a guest and he accepted. We've also crossed paths through wo...
Sept. 17, 2024

782: Jane Muncke PhD MSc: Toxins in your food from plastic packaging. You'd rather know.

Toxic chemicals leach from food packaging into your food. Some of these chemicals disrupt your hormones. Some cause cancer. Some affect your children more. Some disperse into the environment and harm wildlife. For 300,000 yea...
Sept. 13, 2024

781: My New Major Life Volunteering Community Project, four years in the making

I started a new project volunteering in my community that is also a big life change I wouldn't believe I'm doing except that I am. In a sense I started the project over four years ago and it's only seeing the light of day now...
Sept. 5, 2024

780: Jack Spencer, part 2: Policy and the Individual Choosing

Jack shares his love for nature and passion to care for it, how central it is to his life, how much of his time and focus he devotes to it. He shares his principles of individual choice over top-down regulation. He especially...
Sept. 2, 2024

779: Nick Loris, part 2: Freedom to Explore, Freedom to Choose

Nick and I talk about freedom, liberty, personal action and, however paradoxical to most people, how important personal behavior is in changing systems. Then we talk about markets, regulation, and democracy and how they inter...
Sept. 1, 2024

778: The Entrepreneurial Strategy to Restore Sustainability Globally Without Waiting for Governments and Corporations

This episode follows up the last one, on how you can learn sustainability leadership through our workshops, so you can practice sustainability joyfully. You can teach others to, and teach others to teach others. If the proces...
Sept. 1, 2024

777: How the Spodek Method Workshop Differs From Other Sustainability Work

If you've listened to a lot of this podcast, you've heard me walk guests through sharing their values on sustainability and acting on them. Why do they enjoy what most people consider deprivation and sacrifice? You can learn ...
Aug. 31, 2024

776: Chuck Marohn, part 1: Strong Towns and Sustainability Leadership

I'd heard of Strong Towns for years, mainly through guest Jason Slaughter 's Not Just Bikes video series, and finally joined the community by taking a couple of their courses . I can't recommend them enough. Chuck Marohn foun...
Aug. 29, 2024

775: Bruce Alexander, part 4: The Spodek Method clicks at last!

You've probably listened to Bruce's past three episodes, so you probably know he wants a path to exist that leads people to want to live more sustainably and spread that change to others. It would mean them overcoming their a...
Aug. 27, 2024

774: Alden Wicker, part 1.5: Foraging Is Fun

I ask guests to do episodes 1.5 when they tell me they couldn't do their Spodek Method commitment or keep postponing. Sometimes they say they don't want to share that they didn't do it. But experience has shown that talking a...
Aug. 18, 2024

773: Frederic Laloux, part 1: His program, "The Week," creates space for conversations on the environment

Frederic describes his program The Week in our conversation. I did it last year, invited by a friend (whom I misname in our conversation, sorry) and recognized him. Podcast guest and mutual friend Lorna Davis had introduced u...
Aug. 3, 2024

772: Bruce Alexander, part 3: Advanced Spodek Method

I find this series of conversations with Bruce to be ending up excellent examples to learn advanced Spodek Method from. I think they're also engaging. I certainly enjoyed the conversations with Bruce. You can tell he believes...
July 30, 2024

771: Jack Spencer, part 1: The Heritage Foundation, limited government, free markets and the environment

Regular readers of my blog know I took a course, Conservatism 101, from the Leadership Institute, which led me to read conservative literature I hadn't before: Edmund Burke, Frederic Bastiat, Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, an...
July 27, 2024

770: Nick Loris, part 1: A limited government free market approach to our environmental problems

Regular readers of my blog know I took a course, Conservatism 101, from the Leadership Institute, which led me to read conservative literature I hadn't before: Edmund Burke, Frederic Bastiat, Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, an...
July 25, 2024

769: Kevin Fucillo, part 1: An inside view of our community fridge and its volunteers

Kevin and I talk about volunteering at the Chelsea Community Fridge, how it formed, how it's evolved, and our roles. You'll hear he's involved with it more. I was curious to learn about parts I don't know about. It's outdoors...
July 17, 2024

768: Trish and Evelyn, part 2: The birth of sustainability awards

Trish and Evelyn took the workshop , and neither seriously acted on sustainability before it, so one thing to listen for in this conversation is what people who look at personally living more sustainably sound like. I think i...
July 16, 2024

767: Andrew Bennett, part 2: Behind the scenes with a New York City chef

If you like food, you'll love this episode. I shared before how unbelievably delicious Andrew's food was, even if it were at a top restaurant. But he works at a hospital, so it was healthy too. I almost don't go to restaurant...
July 13, 2024

766: Chip Conley, part 1: Learning to Love Midlife

I'd heard about Chip long ago but only met him recently at a launch event for his book Learning to Love Midlife . It resonated since at 52 years old, I was smack in the middle of the part of life he was talking about, after a...
July 10, 2024

765: Bruce Alexander, part 2: Can the Spodek Method scale from the individual to the world?

I think I can safely say Bruce and I have formed a friendship, both professional and from similar interests, even though he's retired and I'm not a psychologist. I learn psychology to help lead. We're both intrigued by addict...
July 6, 2024

764: Erica Frank, part 2: "No Hairshirt At All." Instead: Abundance

I rarely get to talk to people who expect living more sustainably to be joyful and rewarding from personal experience, not just hoping for the best. I enjoyed sharing that perspective with Erica last time, I invited her back ...
June 28, 2024

763: Guy Spier, part 2: Limited government, free market, low tax sustainability solutions

I loved where this conversation led. We began by talking about recent news: Greta Thunberg taking a political stand and acting publicly on it on an issue unrelated to the environment. Guy described how he saw this action dist...
June 22, 2024

762: Chef Andrew Bennett: Changing the Culture of Hospital Food

I start my conversation with Andy with what brought me to him: the meal after recording with the guy who hired him, podcast guest Sven Gierlinger , and the Washington Post article that read like a paid ad for their food, Hosp...