This Sustainable Life

This podcast has featured some world-renowned guests, with more renown to come.Popular downloads include Dan Pink, multiple #1 bestseller, 40+ million TED talk views, Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair and CMO of General Electric, Marshall Goldsmith, #1 ranked leadership guru and author,Frances Hesselbein, Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Ken Blanchard, author, The One Minute Manager, over 13 million sold, Jonathan Haidt, #1 bestselling author, 8+ million TED talk views, Vincent Stanley, Director, Patagonia, David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, over 1 million sold, Dorie Clark, bestselling author, Jordan Harbinger, top 5 podcast, 4+ million monthly downloads, Doug Rushkoff, #1 bestselling author, producer, media theorist, Dave Asprey, founder Bulletproof, NY Times bestseller, Bryan Braman, Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagle, Marquis Flowers, Super Bowl highlight reel star New England Patriot, John Lee Dumas, top entrepreneurial podcaster, and more.Upcoming guests include an Olympic gold medalist, TED speakers with yet more views, and more. I'm speaking with a Victoria's Secret model and a Nobel laureate.I love meeting and talking to successful people who have overcome challenges, and I presume you do too, but I'm serving two goals:Materially measurable environmental resultsEmotional reward in doing so, meaning joy, discovery, meaning, purpose, and such as the leadership partI seek out renowned guests to achieve these goals. This episode explains the connection.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happiness comes from skills, which you can learn, which Nataly teaches.Environmental action does too. Happiness and living harmoniously with the environment and your values go well together, as would make sense given our environmental history.Many people think starting small isn't worth it. Watch Nataly's videos and read her book about improving happiness. Any skill you learn helps you learn other skills. Starting small works.I suspect her experience developing happiness-related skills enabled her to reduce her bottle use by 99%, improving family morale in the process. You tell me if you think she'll apply it more, since you'll hear how she made it meaningful.I suggest that if developing happiness skills helped her act on her environmental values, that acting on environmental skills will also help her become happier.Nataly is all about making things you want to do rewarding, fun, enjoyable. What are you waiting for to start? You can make it enjoyable, even the starting.Naturally, I hope you'll take on acting on your leadership or environmental values, not anyone else's.But act. You won't regret making yourself happy in the process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People seem to have a hard time imagining a world without growth, specifically economic growth or population growth. There's personal growth, but I'm talking about materially measurable growth.People seem to believe that economic growth is necessary. I've looked and haven't found any reasonable proof of its necessity.People say you need inflation to keep motivating people, but I don't see any founding for such a belief besides their unfounded, and apparently self-serving, idealism. We understand people and our motivations better than they used to when these economic theories started. Sadly, our financial and political systems keep operating on these flawed understandings.On the contrary, I've found societies that have lived for tens to hundreds of thousands of years, stably, which disproves that you need growth.Nobody thinks that if a thousand people were stuck on an island that had resources to sustain a thousand people indefinitely -- imagining a time without satellites and our modern ability to find any group of that size anywhere -- that those people couldn't figure out how to sustain themselves on those resources.Actually in such a situation, everyone sees growth beyond a thousand people would be a problem.We are in such a situation, only a bigger island. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hearing an astronaut talk about space is unparalleled. I imagine anyone and everyone wants to hear about seeing Earth from space and what launch feels like. You have to listen to hear it from a man who experienced it.Having walked in space twice is a minor part of his achievements. He earned degrees from West Point, the U.S. Army War College, Columbia Business School, and London Business School, on top of his military and NASA careers.What gets you to space isn't just fitness and technical skill. It's knowing that you will succeed no matter what. That you can work with everyone. Like business, leadership, family, and most of life, success reaching space is about people.Tim talks about integrity, consistency, and followership, which I agree is integral to leading. He talks about finding something bigger than yourself.Something we covered connecting visiting space with valuing and protecting the environment: Before flying, hot air balloons were unbelievable. Now they're nothing. Then flying was unbelievable. Now people get annoyed at it. Maybe one day people will get bored with space.I look at it the other way. If people could find beauty in flying, so can we. If they once found wonder and awe in hot air balloons, so can we. You can find the beauty and wonder of nature everywhere if you know how to look. I try to find it in the basil plants on my windowsill.The view and practicing it makes me feel every part is worth saving.I can't wait to see his gallery show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I played sports competitively, I once watched a pass go by me without trying because I thought I couldn't make a play on it. A teammate asked why I just watched.I said, "Because I couldn't reach it."He said, "At least try!"Larry Bird said something similar: "It makes me sick when I see a guy just watching it go out of bounds."The view has stuck with me. I haven't gone for every pass I could, but I respect when an outfielder sprints to the wall even when he know the ball will carry over the fence. The difference between watching and trying is meaning and purpose. I try for as many passes as I can.The pervasive environmental view, "If I act but no one else does then what I do doesn't matter," and the passive behavior it leads to, embodies a meaningless existence.I try in part today because I tried then. Today's post explores this view and several related ones in more depth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is longer, but full of inside views at a leverage point of leadership and the environment. Consulting firms and business schools wish they had access to global corporate leaders at the frontier of change like Lorna. We spoke in-person about multinationals she's led across the globe. And she takes on one of the longest personal challenges of any guest so far.Lest you think the conversation was all about mega-corporations, we also talked about vegetables and leaders reduced to tears on seeing what environmental values they could have acted on but had put off too long and felt the consequences.Lorna has influenced big, global business, helping shift Danone USA to become a B-corp, working directly with the CEO of the company that made about $30 billion last year with over 100,000 employees.What's a B-corp? What difference does it make? Lorna will explain everything, largely from her personal, inside experiences. I've known about B-corps since studying them in business school over a decade ago. Lorna makes things clearer and more engaging from her experience.The shift in corporate structure is huge, likely a systemic change to capitalism enacted voluntarily by capitalists, not government. I find it intriguing. Even if you know about B-corps, hearing her inside view will -- I don't know any other way to say it -- blow your mind. It's one of the greatest signs of hope and expectation of success I've seen.She also shares her story about changing from wanting to win the rat race but not achieving it to living by her values and succeeding more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dawn Riley has sailed in 3 Americas cups, won around the world races, and led other teams. I wish you could see the context for our conversation. We're at the sailing center she runs to restart the elite level of American sailing.Before this conversation she sent me out to see Olympic medalists competing on the Long Island sound. Shortly after, they all came in for a barbecue -- Olympic medalists, a gold medalist, a Crossfit Games champion, and more.You'll hear these world-class athletes, trainers, organizers, and so one talking in the background over the course of the conversation. My top measure of leadership is who follows them. Dawn is surrounded by people who are themselves global leaders, and she is taking them to the next level.She leads athletes, business people, educators, parents, and more. I wish I could describe the force of nature she is in action. Her results speak for themselves. I hope this conversation shows the potential of leadership and cultural changeIf you didn't know, I met her because I'm learning to sail, which I'm doing to travel off North America without flying. Most people think of what they miss by giving something up, even to live by their values. What you replace it with matters more. When you replace something you devalue with something you value, you've improved your life.Sailing and meeting people like Dawn and her community are what others would fly to meet. When you live by your values -- that is, when you lead yourself with integrity -- you attract similar people. I guess if you live by "what I do doesn't matter," you'll also attract similar people. Your choice!Besides, I've spent far less money on sailing than on flying.What everyone says they don't have time for -- bothering with the environment -- Dawn does without a second thought. You'll hear in the conversation her visceral connection to the environment. I hope it rubs off. If as a world-class athlete, educator, and businesswoman, she can make stewardship an effortless part of her life, you probably can too.In the meantime, get out on a sailboat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm trying something new for my third conversation with John: releasing the conversation unedited. While no editing means the sound is raw, you also hear everything.Why?Because you can hear how our relationship is developing into a friendship. in contrast to most conversations about the environment that I hear. They're about facts, doom, gloom, what the government should do, how nothing matters, and other analytic, academic, abstract, philosophical stuff.Anything but saying, "I'm going to act and do something new."John acted. He led me back to act. We both enjoyed our new actions though neither of us would have loved picking up garbage for no compensation for no reason. When connected to our values and our little race to the top, we both love it.We both still pollute more than we need to, but when you enjoy each step, you take more steps. Even after a year, you'll hear he's still just starting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David and I could have talked about growth and how many people think growth is sustainable and non-growth isn't, which seems based on a system hurtling toward collapse, whereas a steady-state economy and population can be sustainable.Instead we just talked about the fun of riding more and getting outside. He lives in Colorado with hills. What looked like a challenge before starting became part of the joy. The natural environment is like that. I see it over and over with guests.We talk about how one joyful thing leads to another when you shift from making excuses to avoid acting to acting. David's stronger than before, finding things about his neighborhood and himself.One of my life's great experiences was riding my bike from Philadelphia to Maine and back the summer between high school and college, with tents on our bikes at 16 years old.After listening to David, I recommend listening to some of these episodes:Dov Baron found something similar in his conversation, considering getting rid of his Jaguar.Danny Bauer found similar results after getting rid of his car as his commitment.I haven't heard back from Jethro Jones about riding his bike through the winter in Alaska, but he chose to do it.Michael O'Heaney found similar results riding his bike with his daughter in Golden Gate ParkAfter talking to John Lee Dumas I went from talking about plogging to starting ploggingYou can debate pros and cons of bikes. You can't debate they're having more fun, getting in better shape, enjoying life more.It's about fun. The opposite of feeling guilty. Everybody loves nature, it seems. Especially if you have kids. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sally plays a big role leading an iconic brand, with her team taking it in directions no one has taken media before. She's also played major roles in the New York Times and other major media outlets.In this first part of my conversation with her you’ll hear Sally’s passion about the art of storytelling, what evolves and what stays the same as media evolve, and how she leads people and teams.Sally shares about caring and passion, which are integral to success in business, at least how she does it. I think you’ll appreciate her take on fashion's reputation regarding the environment.The conversation went long enough -- I think we both enjoyed it that much -- that I couldn’t fit it all into one episode. This episode ismore about leadership, journalism, fashion, Sally's growth and personal development, and a bit of Chelsea Manning.Stay tuned for episode two, on her challenge and her takes on leadership and the environment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.