This Sustainable Life

People often ask for advice on how to lead in a given situation, what leadership means, or one tip they can improve their leadership with. Nearly none of the questions help someone improve their leadership.The most useful question I can think of is: How do I learn to lead? In other words, what steps can I take to learn to lead?No leader would answer: read a lot of books, magazine articles, or journal articles. Nor would they suggest discussing case studies of other people's experiences, write papers, listen to lectures, or take tests.They'd probably say something about getting experience, especially related to leadership, not sitting in a classroom. What experience, though? Only random life experience, hoping it will help?Learning the social and emotional skills underlying leadership may once have meant shots in the dark. No longer. Project-based, active, experiential learning teaches these skills as reliably and predictably as playing scales teaches piano and hitting ground strokes teaches tennis.I learned of Tony Wagner and his work through his appearances in a documentary movie on that type of learning, mainly in US K-12 schools, called Most Likely to Succeed, based on a book he co-wrote of the same title. I had started learning to teach that way. The movie accelerated my learning and expanded my horizons.Leadership and teaching this style overlap. You will benefit from learning this style of learning whether you teach or have kids or not. Hearing Tony speak of it will show you it's importance and accelerate your learning. You'll lead yourself and others better.We start by him sharing problems with education. You'll likely be able to read between the lines on our ineffective leadership in politics, business, and especially relevant to the environment. Current education focuses on facts and analysis, not skills. It produces would-be leaders who focus on facts and analysis who create plans they lack the skills to implement, if they even create implementable plans.If you haven't acted, you don't know what you're talking about regarding leading, yet people trained in the mainstream style consider themselves experts. It happens to all of us, all the more the less we know how to learn how Tony shows.What's causing environmental problems isn't lack of knowledge or facts, but acting effectively to engage others. Tony talks about what we don't teach and what we could teach---things missing from many areas in life as people seek compliance through coercion. I see scientists trying to influence legislators by bypassing the public---a process they decry others for doing in the other direction.They think they're right. They may be, but they're trying to bypass democracy. Do they not see the problem? People who disagree think they're right too.When Tony says education, I recommend substituting leadership. In nearly each case, what he says applies equally.I recommend reading his books (listed here) and watching Most Likely to Succeed, especially if you have kids or interact with other people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You'll hear about Rhonda and how we met in the beginning of our conversation, but I brought her in for a different reason than most of my other guests.I invite a lot of people to my famous no-packaging vegetable stew. Though I created the stew with accessibility from the start, people kept saying I didn't understand that for some people they were less accessible, especially the "single mother in a food desert with three kids and three jobs." None of them were single mothers from food deserts.Well, no need to speculate. We can hear from Rhonda. I think you'll find our conversation surprising and enlightening.We met for stew once before, with her son, to eat and record, but got so caught up in cooking and eating, we postponed recording to this time.I believe I can say you'll hear a friendship developing. I find that acting environmentally creates community and connection, every time. Polluting tends to separate. After all, you don't want to pollute your friends' worlds, so we distance ourselves from people when we pollute.In the time I took to edit the audio, we had that potluck in the Bronx, where cooked stew for the community group she assembled. The video is in My Bronx cooking demonstration video. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I used Oskar Schindler in my third TEDx talk along with a few others as examples of people who took risks to do what they considered right—and that I think nearly all of us do. People like Rosa Parks and those who operated the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. I'm going to share about Oskar Schindler in a bit so you learn more than the movie showed.The video of the talk is being edited and should go up soon. I researched more about Dunkirk, as you'll see in the video, but I looked up a bit about Oskar Schindler.Why do we make movies about people like him and not the millions of others who saw what was happening but didn't act, hoping someone else would? Why not, if not to emulate him when the chips are down? There were many like him, but still few. Do you think if you lived then that you would have acted as he did? Don't you like to think you would?In my fifth year of not flying, I estimate I've talked to about 1,000 people about not flying. About 998 of them said they couldn't avoid flying. Suddenly with the pandemic, with their own health at stake, people find they can.I've had dozens of conversations lately and read more articles about people saying how much they enjoy the simplicity they're finding not traveling. I can't tell if I feel more gratified or frustrated at how many say with joy and gratitude—serenity, I remember one guy saying—almost exactly what I told them would happen.When will people get the pattern: acting by your values looks hard. Most people never do, but those that do wish they had earlier and want to share their joy with others.For us to act to stop degrading Earth's ability to sustain life and human society is easy compared to Oskar Schindler. We don't have to risk our lives—only change our diet, our travel plans, walk a bit, have one child.From Wikipedia:Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories in Poland, Bohemia and Moravia. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark and its 1993 film adaptation, Schindler's List, which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit, who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, courage, and dedication to save the lives of his Jewish employees.In 1939, Schindler acquired a factory in Kraków, Poland, which employed at its peak in 1944 about 1,750 workers, of whom 1,000 were Jews. His Nazi connections helped him protect them from deportation and death in concentration camps. He had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the black market to keep his workers safe.By July 1944, Germany was losing the war; the SS began closing camps and deporting the prisoners. Many were murdered in Auschwitz and the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Schindler convinced SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, commandant of the nearby Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, to allow him to move his factory, thus sparing his workers from almost certain death in the gas chambers. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the execution of his workers until the end of the war. By then he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black market purchases of supplies for his workers.Schindler moved to West Germany after the war, where he was supported by assistance payments from Jewish relief organisations. He moved with his wife to Argentina, where they took up farming. When he went bankrupt in 1958, Schindler left his wife and returned to Germany, where he failed at several business ventures and relied on financial support from the Schindler Jews he had saved during the war.Initially Göth's plan was that all the factories, including Schindler's, should be moved inside the camp gates. Schindler, with diplomacy, flattery, and bribery, prevented his factory from being moved and led Göth to allow him to build (at Schindler's own expense) a subcamp to house his workers plus 450 Jews from other nearby factories, safe from the threat of random execution. They were well fed and housed, and were permitted to practice religion.Schindler was arrested twice on suspicion of black market activities and once for breaking the Nuremberg Laws by kissing a Jewish girl, an illegal act. The first arrest, in late 1941, led to him being kept overnight. His secretary arranged for his release through his influential Nazi contacts.What we can do is nothing compared to what he did. Nothing. Eating lentils instead of steak. Having at most one child for a few generations. Going camping or visiting a place nearby instead of flying around the world. Yet the danger to human life is much larger. Billions of lives are at stake now. This pandemic is nothing compared to what will happen if we don't act.Wouldn't you rather follow Oskar Schindler's lead than his neighbors who did nothing?He came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, courage, and dedication to save the lives of his Jewish employees. Be Oskar Schindler. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I thought about recording with parents for a while. Environmental action is personal and people keep asking me what motivates me.Well, now you'll get almost 50 years more background.Another issue with family and changing habits, lots of people talk and ask about challenges of changing others or selves within close relationships. This episode will give you my background, environmental and otherwise, how it affects our relationship, her views, and some dirty laundry.Both my mom and I think or hope you'll enjoy toward the end, where we talk past each other. We think you'll find it funny, though frustrating for us.For context and what precipitated doing this episode now: COVID-19 has led me to live in her and her husband's (my stepfather) house outside New York City. We haven't lived in such close proximity since the 80s. Understandings in some areas have increased but decreased in others.You'll hear at the end that she asks for feedback. I hope you'll give her and me feedback.For my part, I enjoyed the conversation and in a whole mother-son relationship. It's not the worst thing, but I feel misunderstood about my motivations, as you'll hear. I wonder how many people see me as someone actually depriving himself trying to make a point, not realizing I'm just sacrificing.My blog post about my mom running her first marathon: Redefining PossibilityMy telling that story for an audience Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to talk to someone who finds ways to do more, not to get credit for what she's already done.Overwhelmingly, conversations with people about acting on our environmental values seem to find it begrudging---a burden, a chore, deprivation, sacrifice. They imply things like, "God, how much more do I have to do?", "Isn't it okay to use compostable?", "It's so complicated.", etc.Even people who have acted and enjoy the outcome tend to talk about how much they've done, often implying since they've done more than most that they deserve congratulations or a chance to rest on their laurels.Few people sound like they like acting on their environmental values.When you're eating a delicious, healthy meal, you don't say "I've eaten the appetizer, how much more do you want from me" or "Isn't it okay to take a small bite without eating more?" Every bite leads you to eat more.If you enjoy a walk in the woods, you don't say "Now that I've done it do I have to keep doing it?"Talking with Marina is a breath of fresh air. Talking with her about acting environmentally is like talking about someone who loves their food or walk in the park.She loves finding ways to steward. She doesn't try to find ways to stop and say she's done enough. She enjoys doing more. I had to bring her on. I found the conversation getting more engaging as it went on, which is why I let it go longer.Waste Free Earth sustainable eventsMarina McCoy's personal site Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of my goals of this podcast is to bring people with alternative views. I won't deny this motive being mainly selfish. I want to learn and grow from alternative view. I grew up viewing technology and efficiency as better ways for humans to live. I saw them as ways to decrease our impact on nature.I've changed, as my podcast episodes distinguishing raising efficiency from decreasing total waste, to working on values. Most of the world, especially Silicon Valley, seems to think even more the way I used to. I read Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandas's upcoming book, The Future is Faster Than You Think, wondering what to expect.It's part of their Exponential Technology series that includes Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think and Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World. I read them as pro-technology. My goal with guests is to listen and support so I can learn, and I hope you do too.I'm glad to have spoken with Steven. Before we started recording he told me some of his past interest in the environment. Understanding those views changed how I understood the book, so he repeated it in the conversation you're about to hear.The book is subtitled How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives. It compiles andexamines basically all the big transformations technology is about to create or is creating---Quantum Computing, AI, Networks, Sensors, Robotics, 3d printing, VR/AR, Blockchain, nanotech, and so on. If you've heard or read about them but haven't researched or reflected enough to digest and see how they'll affect you and us, read Steven's book.Steven and Peter researched, reflected, and wrote about them all and projected how they will affect us. They talked to the people at the forefront of these technologies and institutions behind them. The book covers far more than a short conversation does, but this conversation covers what the book doesn't: where Steven is coming from.These things exist and are happening, he points out. We haven't put many technology genies back in the bottle. If you want to know what's coming and what it means, listen and read.You can probably tell I love learning what Steven's book shares. I'd heard about all these technologies and their exponential rates of change. How they combine and reinforce echoes Geoffrey West's research, but Geoffrey talked high-level theory. Steven talks on-the-ground detail.Things are happening, better learn them. I don't see them as inevitable. I'd hope the people developing them would consider more the unintended side effects that have plagued technological advances, like the green revolution or, say, how ride sharing has led to the opposite of expectations of lower miles driven or congestion.The Future is Faster Than You ThinkGeoffrey West's conversations on this podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 70s meant Bruce Springsteen was a part of my life. I’ll always remember a fan in a promotional radio b-roll clip from one of the classic rock stations saying excitedly, definitively, “He’s the best, he’s Bruce. . . He’s the Boss!”One of the earliest albums I bought was Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. My high school girlfriend’s older brother saw every show of his he could. I loved the Beatles most as a kid, but I’ve come to appreciate Bruce more over the years. I don’t know anyone else who does anything like him, so raw, open, and honest, yet able to fill stadiums for weeks on end—not in music anyway. Maybe Muhammad Ali. If Woody Allen kept making movies at the Annie Hall level? Fellini? Malcolm X? I’m sure there are others that did the same but didn’t speak to me as personally. Billy Holiday? I didn’t know his show Springsteen on Broadway was on TV. I watched it and couldn’t believe what I saw—how touching, personal, and meaningful a rock star could make a show. He spoke and sang so personally, the performance defied what I could imagine anyone expecting.The New York Times review, ‘Springsteen on Broadway’ Reveals the Artist, Real and Intense, described it well so I won’t try. Besides, you can watch it.Wikipedia summarized critical reactions:The New York Times said “as portraits of artists go, there may never have been anything as real—and beautiful—on Broadway”.[19] Rolling Stone noted “it is one of the most compelling and profound shows by a rock musician in recent memory”.[20] The Guardian observed “there’s a fragility and a new light cast on the songs and his relationship with Scialfa, as if he stands in her emotional shadow”.[21] Variety reported the show “is as much a self-made monument to its master’s vision and hurricane-force ambition as it is to his life and career, and it bears the mark of a self-made man who’ll write his own history”.[22]On June 10, 2018, Springsteen received a special Tony Award for Springsteen on Broadway.In his words:I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as intimate as possible. I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theaters which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind. In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theatre is probably the smallest venue I’ve played in the last 40 years. My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music. Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work. All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value.InspirationWhy the title of this blog post: The Joshua Spodek Show?I’m writing in the throes of inspiration to stop holding back important parts of my life. People keep asking more about me, what motivates me so much to what they see as extreme, but seems normal to me.My paychecks from NYU and the corporate world kept me from sharing about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Meanwhile, the more I shared, in drips and drabs, the more people appreciated what I shared. Sharing intimate parts of my life led to more coaching clients seeking more rebirth and growth. I haven’t considered these hidden parts meaningful since I thought everyone lived their versions, but I loved hearing Bruce share his on Broadway and realized I loved hearing him share himself his whole life.Meanwhile, the virus decimated my speaking and workshop business despite it revealing the world’s catastrophic lack of environmental leadership. NYU’s culture of academic, theoretical, compliance-based education increasingly clashes with my active, experiential, project-based way of teaching they give lip service to but don’t practice.What have I got to lose?Restoring nature requires change on his scale. Can I do it? I don’t know, but not by holding back.Last year a couple volunteers who helped with my podcast persuaded me to change the podcast name to the Joshua Spodek Show. I held back because I considered the overlapping topics of leadership and the environment the foreground and myself the background.For that matter, I sat down years ago to tell my mom, sister, and others close to me about my partying, the girls, and how influential they were in making me me. Nobody had a problem. I still held back.Springsteen on Broadway led me to say fuck it and share myself. I’ll follow the advice of people who believed in me and the mission that’s swept me up and change the podcast name. I have to figure out how in WordPress and the podcast hosting site so it might take a while. I’m not sure if I’ll try to figure out how to start or just dive in and scuttle my ships like Cortes.I hope I don’t fuck up. Wish me luck.Here's the Risky Business scene on video.The New York Times review, ‘Springsteen on Broadway’ Reveals the Artist, Real and Intense Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before we recorded, Marni humbly said what she did wasn't that big of a deal, just a bit more than she normally did. She wondered the point of sharing it. So this second conversation with Marni was short and we talked as much about the podcast as about what she did. Which is to say, the episode narrated itself.I look forward to where it's mainstream for stewardship to feel second-nature, for people not just to say they care but act that way naturally. I don't feel that everyone doing little things adds up. I don't argue that it won't, but I believe that if leaders don't, then most others will follow their inaction with inaction of their own. Actually, I think I described the past 50 years or more since global warming was predicted. Plus plastic, deforestation, mercury, and nearly every other form of pollution.The exciting part of Marni and my conversation, for those interested in dating, attraction between men and women, and my past, is referring to my appearing on her podcast, The Ask Women Podcast: Dating Advice For Men.I can't mention here what I mentioned there, but you might be able to figure it out from the title. Here's the description:Ep. 326 How To Be A Leader With Women | The BJ TechniqueWant to know the most attractive thing you can be with women? A LEADER. Now I don't mean a man that bosses women around and tells them what to do. Leading women means gently guiding them towards something and requires the man to know who he is and what he wants. Being a real leader with women is easier than you think and doesn't require you to be a jerk. Guest: Joshua Spodek PhD MBA http://www.joshuaspodek.com.By doing what others don't, Marni is swimming upstream so everyone else can swim downstreamEnvironmental action doesn't have to be a big deal. On the contrary, one day it won't be a deal at all.Sometimes I think of the first women to wear pants. Can you imagine the vitriol and scorn they may have faced? Now it's normal. Soon stewardship will be too. The sooner each of us acts, the more people will see us as leaders of the movement we create. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I got a taste of what I believe leads people to tell me they can't avoid packaging or buying fresh, local produce.Living in a semi-rural area led me to shop in a large supermarket for the first time in a year or two. They carried only doof and stuff shipped from across the country and world.I share the story and the uplifting results.Here are the notes I read from:When I talk about taking over a year to fill a load of trash, people often say "You can but I can't."I'm staying outside the city and shopped with my stepfather in a supermarket for the first time in at least a yearOnionsEverything packaged, almost nothing looseProduce out of season, can't tell from wherePears from ArgentinaBulk food sectionAll doofRealized why people say they can't do itBut I don't acceptPlan to talk to manager about bulk foodsResearched farmers marketJune startEmailed people, they respondedMom and stepfather knew oneVisitedLearned about HubOrdered Hub yesterdayLiving by environmental values always leads to joy, community, connectionIf you just accept what they offer, you're bull with ring in noseResult is obesity, dependence, Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Food is fundamental to our environmental problems.Most of what American restaurants and supermarkets sell looks like food but isn't by my definition. It makes us obese, diseased, fatigued, poor, dependent, and such, whereas food, like fruits and vegetables, bring us together. Many of us are addicted to salt, sugar, fat, and convenience.Yet people addicted to salt, sugar, fat, and convenience can point to addicts to other things, like alcohol or cocaine, and say, "they don't need their thing but we need to eat." But no one confuses Doritos with broccoli. But the terms "junk food," "fast food," and even "frankenfood" have the term food in them, leading people to confuse them with food.I introduced the term doof---food backward---to distinguish between doof and food. Doof is all the stuff sold to go in your mouth refined from food, usually designed and engineered to cause you to crave more of it, usually through salt, sugar, fat, convenience, or other engineering.Here are my notes I read from:What motivated the problem: reading about food, nutrition, health, and the environmentMy favorite food writers, and podcast guests, Drs. Joel Fuhrman and Michael GregerTheir books Eat to Live, Fast Food Genocide, How Not To Die, and How Not To DietTheir videosThe problem: the term "food" in junk food, fast food. Other addictions, like tobacco or alcohol, people say you don't need them, but they need food.Beer versus water versus Doritos versus broccoliSolution: New termOne that isn't sticking as well: craving-oriented mouth fillerOne that people like: doofSounds like doofus. Helps you not confuse doof with food, like you don't confuse poppy seeds with heroin.Next episode I'll share my story of shopping in a supermarket for the first time in years, nearly all doof.Michael Pollan's "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much." Doof clarifies.Won't confuse McDonald's, Gatorade, Starbucks with food since they don't serve it.Enjoy food. Avoid doof.Spread the word!Dr Joel Fuhrman'sEpisode on this podcastBooks Eat to Live, Fast Food Genocide, and the new Eat For LifeHis bio and TEDx talkHis videosMichael Greger'sEpisode on this podcastBooks How Not To Die and How Not To DietHis About pageHis videos and Nutritionfacts.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.