This Sustainable Life

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 supporting farming from the most basic level. He doesn't oppose people shopping farmers markets. He comes alive describing discovering what farmers who know the land learned to practice: diversity, rotation, and all what it takes to grow wheat, for starters. The whole ecosystem.I hear him sharing joy, passion, fun, curiosity, discovery, health, and deliciousness. It comes through community, practice, honoring nature and tradition.Prepare to be fascinated.Dan Barber's presentation, The Taste of WheatBlue Hill at Stone BarnsFamily Meal in Manhattan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Don't we store fat so well because our ancestors never knew when their next meal would come?I used to think that way. Learning about cultures that haven't adopted our technology-based culture relieved me of my ignorance. You've heard episodes with authors of books on Hawaiians before Captain Cook and the San bushmen in the Kalahari Desert. These cultures didn't barely eke out survival. They thrived. The San lived for hundreds of thousands of years. They show higher signs of resilience, health, longevity, abundance, equality, and stability than we do. Of course they do. You can't barely eke out 250,000 years.Bill Benenson produced a documentary (free online, click below) on the Hadza in modern Tanzania, who seem to have lived as they do now for about 50,000 years. Watch it to see how they are living just fine, or would be but for their territory being encroached on and traditional ways decimated. We could learn a lot from them. We could use some humility about our culture.Bill shares his journey learning of them, documenting them, and learning from them, including some behind-the-scenes stories of the scenes I found most fascinating.The Hadza: Last of the First, Bill's documentary on themBenenson Productions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, being such a big supplier.Everyone acts like the only alternative to burning fossil fuels is burning different fossil fuels, as if humans haven't thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without them, generally showing higher signs of health, longevity, abundance, equality, and stability than recent times.In this episode, I view this bullshit view from the perspective of having improved my life by dropping my pollution over ninety percent in under three years in ways you can too (even if you believe you can), also improving your life.Here's the article I read and commented on: Germany is Dependent on Russian Gas, Oil and Coal: Here’s Why | Why Germany Can’t Just Pull the Plug on Russian Energy. Here's the graph I described:(If it doesn't show, click here) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 reaction as showing they are making a difference. I hear it is similar to what is happening in my nation, the U.S.In our first conversation, Etienne was already acting and protesting. Sustainability is among his highest priorities. He isn't just talking about it. He's on of the most active people I've spoken to, by no means backing down. On the contrary, increasing his activities, as determined as ever.This episode features two people who have done what everyone can: making changing culture to increase human flourishing our top priorities, including leading others. For my part, I relished being able to talk about achieving the clean air, water, and land we all want without defensiveness. On the contrary, we explore each other's interests, actions, motivations, and results.We're talking about glory, if you ask me. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, seeing it as abstract and unrelated to her world, to being discovered for her ability to communicate, organize, and influence.The more she learned, the more she saw it as more than just affecting her life and community, it was critically damaging it. She saw the environmental problems as intertwined with social issues that were already priorities. The polluting cement factory in her neighborhood that fouled the air wasn't just an eyesore that illustrated a failure of democracy for being an eyesore never considered to be built in a rich neighborhood. It made people sick.She acted. She organized, and the more she got results, the more she committed.Nakisa's home pageNakisa at Hip Hop CaucusNakisa at Sol Nation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"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 tens of billions of dollars to number one in many categories creating joy, teamwork, and fun despite challenging work.Before being CEO of Ford, he led Boeing, among the two greatest promoters of pollution in the world. Nonetheless, because he leads, which I distinguish from telling people facts and numbers, protesting, or cajoling, coercing, or convincing, I contend that he would be more effective than nearly any environmentalist I know of.I consider him one of my top role models because I see his methods among the most effective in results.In this episode I highlight a passage from a recent talk he gave that addresses "what I do doesn't matter" from a leadership perspective. Though he's talking about Ford executives running the company into near bankruptcy, it applies to all of us lowering Earth's ability to sustain life.Alan's original talk I quoted him from Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 makes them want to take more. It's a worse experience that addicts them more.Their suppliers don't care about the experience. They care that it sells more, which makes them more money. It's cheap to make, so they make huge amounts and flood the market, not caring about the waste that they consider someone else's problem (as if a crumbling society didn't hurt them too) nor the health of their customers, as long as they keep returning. They will, doing whatever it takes to get the money, laying waste to society and their lives.I could have just described any number of addictions: sugar, fat, doof in general, gambling, social media, flying, etc. I would have also described our society, increasingly built around supplying products and services that addict, resulting from our valuing innovation, technological efficiency, and such.Sam and I approach addiction from several views. He shares the inside views he's seen and assembled in his latest book The Least of Us and his earlier Dreamland of America's addiction problem. As we discuss, though he focuses on what many of us consider the most extreme substance-based addictions, their poignancy comes from their relevance to increasingly more of our lives and culture. We are addicted to Facebook, Amazon Prime, Netflix, McDonald's, H&M, Delta, Starbucks, and so on.Unless we acknowledge our problem, for starters, and act.Sam's page, with links to his books, videos, news pieces, and more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 boundaries?), CIA agents (who shouldn't have confessed that), astrophysicists, and Daniel J. Jones, author of the 2014 CIA Torture Report, who was portrayed by Adam Driver in The Report (2019), among others.Approaching 600 episodes and a few years into a personal podcast, I'm bringing Lauren on partly as a fascinating person, partly to share more about my past, like my episodes with my mom, whom Lauren met, or the Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll series. Lauren and I dated during the time I was coaching (mostly) men dating and attraction skills. Lauren knew all about that. We learned and grew together. We've kept in touch in the decade since. In this episode we share about the experience.You can hear both Lauren's fascinating experience in psychology, philosophy, and more as well as a view of my growth from protective geek to more open dare-I-say leader. Lauren describes both better than I could, so I recommend listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 issues. After we cover more of his background, he shared the environmental situation of a potentially stunningly beautiful region, including Joshua Tree and Death Valley, but exurban growth threatens it.Many people claim the environment should not be political. Can politicians act on sustainability coming from one party and attract people from another party? I chose to act outside politics because I saw cultural change as the main issue and the people I saw in history who changed culture started without holding office: Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Henry David Thoreau. Derek wants to do it through politics. In today's situation, I see an uphill battle.He shared some of his views and plans. He also responded strongly to the Spodek Method. Listen to hear his commitment. I predict the experience will lead his views and plans to evolve. I believe he'll consider those changes improvements.I can't believe all politicians aren't using sustainability as a winning platform. I mean, I can because they haven't tried to live sustainably so don't know it brings joy, fun, freedom, community, connection, meaning, and purpose, not the deprivation and sacrifice people expect.Note to politicians: be a guest on this podcast to learn to act on sustainability through authentic, intrinsic motivation and you will learn how to make sustainability a winning issue.Derek's campaign page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 our tragic era as you the listener and reader.Meth and fentanyl, you can look in any small town, rural area, or big city---that is, everywhere---to see them sweeping and devastating the United States. Sam shares first his background and interest in learning where it comes from historically and geographically, why it takes root, and what people are doing to stop them.Regular listeners to this podcast and my blog readers know I cover addiction a lot. I focus on it partly because it permeates my neighborhood and twenty-first century culture, not just the illegal addictions like meth, fentanyl, crack, opiates, cocaine, and the list goes on. Also the legal ones that kill the most people, like sugar, fat, and behaviors that burn fossil fuels. But mainly because our loss of self-control amid unawareness and denial are causing our environmental problems.Our community and environmental problems that Sam describes are the physical manifestation of our values, implemented by our behaviors. Addiction changes our values from community-based, compassion, and other forms of altruism to neediness and selfishness.I think you'll find this episode fascinating.Sam's home page Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.