This Sustainable Life

The Global Top 30 Gurus named Chester the world's number 4 best leadership speaker, trainer, and thought leader, as I happened to find while researching before our conversation. I had to ask him about it, which led to him sharing about it. Naturally, he spoke humbly about it, but we get some inside views of his rarified level of the corporate and government leadership world. (The list named two other podcast guests and one who hosted me).When I asked about his path, he shared so many wonderful and helpful stories, I kept asking him for more. I wanted to hear about his bottle commitment, but our conversation became a master class in more than becoming a leadership guru, but also to manifest any passion. You'll hear that his passion wasn't to do what it looks like he's doing when you just look at his behavior. That's what you see.He shares what motivated him to start and what kept him going through failure, working for no pay, fear, anxiety, and the things you don't see if you just see bestselling author. He shares about his experience decreasing pollution. I've had several guests who contacted me midway and said they couldn't figure out how to do their commitment. In all cases, with a little reflection and support from me they've surpassed their expectations.I confess I thought Chester might come back with not knowing what to do. On the contrary, he did it and shared the results. I meant to ask him if he felt "I could have done this a long time ago" because it felt like in the end, after he got past what he described we build up in our heads, he found the action simple and easy.He sounds like he'll find other things too so I hope he takes me up on the future invitation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between asking about recovering from a heart attack in your 40s and about water bottles, where do you start? As it turns out, they're more closely related than you think. We started talking about recovering from the heart attack. Dan has faced his mortality several times before, so fear of death didn't hit him most. We talked more about changes to his lifestyle, particularly diet, which connected with sustainability.As a leadership community leader, Dan noticed and shared about his emotional experiences. Since we're friends who talk a lot, I think you'll find the conversation more friendly than most, so I think you'll hear more intimacy than with many podcast conversations.Dan seemed to reach a greater ratio of change to effort than many guests. He sounds like he's just starting, maybe because he's changing a lot of things in his life now, maybe because he's changed before. I love that he's made the term doof a part of his vocabulary and that it's taken root with his family. Man, it clarifies and simplifies choosing what to buy and put in our mouths.His experience to me reinforces how much we do on autopilot that hurts others and instead of facing we put out of our minds because it superficially makes us feel bad. We don't see the life improvement after the transition. Dan has experienced it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In June and July 2019, you may remember reading about Rod Schoonover in the NY Times, State Dept. Intelligence Analyst Quits to Protest Blocked House Testimony, Washington Post, CBS, and more in the links below. He resigned in protest as a long-time government intelligence and security researcher and analyst, focusing on a field he helped create---climate security. He focused on learning how environmental changes would affect the security of the United States. If you're American, that's your life and mine as our nation leads the world in plunging the Earth into uncharted environmental territory.The White House blocked his testimony to Congress---not disagreed, blocked. Even places like the conservative American Enterprise Institute went on record saying how things like that don't happen in the US. He loved his job, his work, the people he worked with. This episode will share what happened from his inside view.We also cover his personal choice to act. We all face choices between what we think is right versus what's easier, and we're inclined to think if we just keep our heads down doing what we're doing we'll be able to act later or our consciences won't catch up to us. Rarely do we risk our careers, livelihood, he was a new first-time father, or see our choices made public.We can learn from Rod.As Rod and I are both former physicists, it felt heartwarming to hear a systems approach, a view few people get. Many who do haven't practiced them. I love getting to talk to someone experience and fluent in them. On the downside, we who view from systems perspectives see how imminent collapse may be and how futile non-solutions are for treating only elements of the system. On the upside, we see how simple and effective systemic solutions can be. And fun.Ecological Futures: Exploring Ecological Disruption as a Security RiskWhy Climate Change is a Security IssueA New DirectionStatement for the Record, Dr. Rod Schoonover, Senior Analyst Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of StateWhite House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony, Documents ShowFormer intelligence analyst says White House tried to delete "basic science" from climate change reportState Dept. Intelligence Analyst Quits to Protest Blocked House Testimony Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Food started me on this journey. If it's not a major source of joy, community, and connection, the opportunity is there to make it so.Marion Nestle does it. She returned after recently launching her book Let's Ask Marion, which I consider her most accessible. I read What To Eat, around 500 pages, and loved it, but Let's Ask Marion is under 200, with quick chapters, though still comprehensive in covering her most important topics.Our conversation covers background not in the book of her and her co-author, Kerry Trueman, who researched the questions, asked them, and planned with Marion the book's structure and content.Since her first appearance on this podcast, I sat in on her class at NYU---one of the benefits of teaching there myself---so got to know her work and history in more depth. She helped found the field of food research. I was glad to get some of that personal touch at the end---the plants Marion grows and her attitude to them.She wrote in the book that her top consideration about food is that it's delicious. It's personal. We can grow it. I hope that connection to our food came out in our conversation and that we can increase it.Most Americans seem to view food, exercise, and the environment with horror, sources of guilt, shame, confusion, and uncertainty. Marion lives the opposite. I think I do too. Knowing all about food and our food systems may seem like work, but it leads to delicious joy, community, and connection. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered two main points: how I inspired him and how he inspired me. If I'm not too presumptuous to say I inspired him, that is, the first part is about his choosing not to fly. Several months into the pandemic at the time, we were all used to not flying, but when he committed, before the pandemic, most people I talked to called not flying impossible.Some backstory: Nir emailed me about 24 hours after our first conversation to say he had already substituted one flight with speaking remotely. In this episode, he shares about how he made it happen.Then we get into a back and forth about technology. We agreed on some and disagreed on other parts. Then I switched to what he inspired me on: barefoot running. When most people say barefoot running, they mean minimal shoe. Nir was the first person I met who ran without shoes. Finally I had a role model who ran in Manhattan without shoes. I had been emailed with him between conversations about it. Finally I could share with him. He shared how he got started, what motivated him.I'm sorry the technology conversation probably sounded annoying. On the one hand it's annoying for everyone, on the other, what do you do when you disagree on something? Not talk about it? Avoiding the conflict doesn't resolve it. It leaves it to fester. That's fine on issues that don't matter, but the air we breathe, water we drink, and soil we eat from matter. I hope to run with him when he gets back so New York can see two old men running barefoot together, laughing.We can not talk about it and just let the ballot box decide. As far as the environment goes, we saw how that worked out in 2016.I closed the episode with a plug based on the couple stories about famous, successful people inspiring me to physical, emotional, and intellectual fitness and life improvement. If you want to bring into your peer group the most amazing people you can think of, start a new branch of Leadership and the Environment. Since we recorded, several branches have started, coming from Sweden, England, Italy, and soon Japan.I will train you in the basics of starting a podcast and the elite skills of connecting with people you only dreamed of.The guy who started Leadership and the Environment Sweden just reported back to me how his third guest was an important government official from his home town and she is putting him in touch with a Parliament member. It happens that fast.If you want to start LatE Acting, LatE Silicon Valley, LatE Hip Hop, LatE Sports, or any field, contact me. I'll train you, you'll meet the people of your dreams, lead them to contribute to a legacy of stewardship, and they'll thank you. It takes some effort, but anyone can do it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael wrote me the morning before we scheduled this conversation to say he ended up spending more time on the screen when he intended less. He wondered if we should skip it. Longtime listeners may remember similar results with guests Jim Harshaw and Caspar Craven.I told him I'm not looking for a Disney version implying that acting sustainable was easy. I believe listeners engage more with hearing the challenges than perfection, though it would mean him sounding human. He magnanimously agreed. So we'll get to hear his challenges.As it happens, his next book is called Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, which overlaps with getting hooked on screen time. We ended up with some sneak preview of the book and how it relates to polluting behavior, especially Michael's challenge.We describe a parallel between changing eating habits and sustainability habits came across, as well as the techniques doof industries use to establish habits that help them, however unhealthy for you or damaging to Earth's ability to sustain life and human society. Since they work to get past your defenses, often with children too young to have developed defenses, I would call them insidious or creepy, like a tick creeping slowly past your defenses.The challenge in changing these habits, from one perspective, is to create new neural pathways. We focus on the objects of our craving and the craving, but looking past our craving to seeing that we are training ourselves and the feelings of withdrawal will pass seems to make iteasier. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You heard it here first." We start by reviewing George's experience picking up garbage with a team he organized. We started creating a project.It spontaneously arose, but I see a chance that we'll make it happen. Maybe soon, maybe it will take time. Maybe it will go nationwide. Maybe it will fall apart. Maybe it will change culture. Maybe future generations will look back at these changes as what sparked the turning point. George's gym, Spartan, Litterati, SoulBuffalo, Generation 180, Living Lands and Waters, The Story of Stuff, . . . there are a lot of organizations that want to act who are part of this growing community.I want to contrast George's motivation from your typical gym's or most organizations'. Most gyms work you now for a later payoff. For George, the future benefit is nice, but it's a side effect. The effort itself is rewarding. We heard it with Joe DeSena and Spartan. You hear it from me with my sidchas.Listen to the conversation. If interested in participating or contributing, let me know, especially if you like organizing or you know sponsors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The notes I read from:Missing messages on the environment we can learn from Churchill. I'll read from some of his most famous speeches, during WWII, then I'll play the close of one, from June 4, 1940 “We shall never surrender.”Some points:It's bad. It's as bad as it's ever been. There's no escape. Your life is in peril.It's huge. Nations have been wiped off the map. The world is at stake.We are dying. Many of us will die.We must act, ourselves. You, me, everyone. We must put ourselves on the line.We can't delegate or pass this off.We can make it. We must join together.We have done it before. We are a great people.We are humble. “We” are just an island.We have a purpose, not just defense.I will give it to you straight. No lies. No dancing around the issues.I'm in it with you.Despite the depth of our misfortune, we have the means to make it our finest hour. We will. Those who give the most will feel the greatest reward.You know what to do—everything you can.You help yourself by helping everyone.Churchill's contextMost of WWII as we know it hasn't happened yet and they don't know what to expect. Do they expect more, less, or what, we don't know.He's 65.He knows every person in the UK will listen to his speeches, as will probably nearly everyone who speaks English in the US, Canada, Australia, and the commonwealth.The King will. Roosevelt and Stalin will. Hitler will. Mussolini will.Nearly everyone remembers WWI and the tens of millions lost then.England once held the largest empire ever. Now they were an island. The Axis powers had destroyed most of Europe. Who knew if help might come from the US, Australia, India, or any place. Hitler was dominating with strategies, tactics, and equipment nobody knew how to defend against.Excerpts‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’13 May 1940. House of CommonsChurchill's first speech in office“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. This is our policy. You ask, what is our aim?I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory, there is no survival.”‘We shall never surrender’4 June 1940. House of CommonsAfter Dunkirk.“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”‘Their finest hour’18 June 1940. House of CommonsTo the pilots of the RAF.“The battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned upon us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”‘The few’20 August 1940. House of CommonsTo the RAF pilots.“The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”Our contextNow consider our context regarding the environment. How many of these points sound true and how many has anyone shared with you? It's bad. It's as bad as it's ever been. There's no escape. Your life is in peril.It's huge. Nations have been wiped off the map. The world is at stake.We are dying. Many of us will die.We must act, ourselves. You, me, everyone. We must put ourselves on the line.We can't delegate or pass this off.We can make it. We must join together.We have done it before. We are a great people.We are humble. “We” are just an island.We have a purpose, not just defense.I will give it to you straight. No lies. No dancing around the issues.I'm in it with you.Despite the depth of our misfortune, we have the means to make it our finest hour. We will. Those who give the most will feel the greatest reward.You know what to do—everything you can.You help yourself by helping everyone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here is my second episode with guest Dan McPherson of Leaders Must Lead on race. Probably one more after this one.Say someone doesn't know something about race but wants to. If that person sees others talking about the subject get chastised and even fired, how can that person learn? If anything, won't they learn not to ask? If so, won't they remain ignorant? Doesn't ignorance contribute to racism.Dan and I discuss these questions and more. He shares some surprising personal stories of being attacked and more, as do I. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone gets we have to change system, which means global economy. They think we have to start huge. If it's not big enough, it's not worth doing.History suggests otherwise, in particular Edwards Deming's results transforming Japan in the 50s, or the U.S. war efforts before that, or several American companies since.Kevin runs the Deming Institute, which trains people in the Deming philosophy and practice. Kevin speaks from experience as the grandson of Dr. Deming. They didn't start by doing big huge things. They started with a systemic perspective, understanding where and how to act. Kevin's personal project of changing light bulbs in his house illustrates how leading this way leads to results beyond what we see with just going big from the start.I won't like that I often felt slack-jawed at Kevin saying exactly what I've tried to share with others but they never get, but Kevin speaks with decades of experience. Actually generations. I also can't wait to start working with leaders and people in organizations who have approached and solved problems systemically, and who saw that they had to change industries and a nation for their personal benefit.What we need to to to reverse our environmental course!Call me crazy, but I see combining my sustainability experience and perspective with Deming company and leadership experience getting results like Japan did in the 50s and beyond.If Japan Can Why Can't We? is the name of the show that restarted Deming's influence in the US. I see the question as poignant today. I believe we can turn around as fast as they did, this time on sustainability.Let's do this.The Deming Institute Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.