This Sustainable Life

Jeff teaches a class in making a living through a creative life. I've sat in on his class for years for his interviews and the guests. I don't need more formal education. Look at some of the people he's interviewedRalph Lauren, Halston, Brooke Astor, Liza Minnelli, Donna Karen, Martha Graham, Tom Brokaw, Tony Bennett, Renee Fleming, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, Doutzen Kroes, Alessandra Ambrosio, Justin Bieber, Usher, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, Akon, Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Ray Kurzweil, Sanford Weill, Tim Ferris, and Peter DiamandisThe celebrities are not the main reason I like his class. You know how no matter how productive you feel, when you take a vacation, things resolve themselves and you realize your priorities?I get that from his class in an hour or two nearly every time. Jeff brings out creative thoughts, reflection, and solutions. I wanted to bring that culture to the podcast.This episode is about leadership, especially starting without connections or resources. If you've heard 80% of success is showing up, Jeff shows how. You'll hear some iconic names within the first few minutes.If you want to lead, you'll hear how he gets his results, starting from almost nothing, reaching world-renowned icons, living by his values. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First, if you haven't watched Story of Stuff, as much as I love my podcast, watch the videos from the organization Michael O'Heaney leads---the Story of Stuff.You'll hear that simple things he could have always done are available and doing them improves his life, as I heard.As experienced leaders often do, he involves others---in particular, his daughter---in contrast to many others, who tend to think of other people as problems. They think, "I can't stop flying because of family," or because of work. Always someone else.Leaders involve others solutions that affect them a strategy that usually works, at least among this podcast's guests.He's not the first to find acting on his environmental values overcomes separation with children. I recommend listening to Jim Harshaw's episodes for another example of a parent using acting on his environmental values to connect with people he cares about.The links Michael mentioned:The first group is TEJAS, based in Houston.Yvette, a staffer, was featured in the first short documentary that the Story of Stuff released in the run up to the full Story of Plastic.The second is Earthworks, which works with a series of grassroots groups fighting extractive projects around the country, including fracking in Pennsylvania. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First, watch the video Sandy made through Generation 180, the nonprofit he started to promote reducing consumption. His for-profit companies are already responsible for significant increases in solar, wind, and other renewable.I think you'll find the video effective in reaching people in ways the environmental movement have neglected, but work. It presents a new way of looking at renewables: freedom, independence, and creating jobs, coming from an actual veteran experienced in energy.https://youtu.be/jtX-lGOUP8AI'm pleased to announce that the Leonardo DiCaprio foundation tweeted Sandy's last conversation, leading to a big surge in its downloads.Our second conversation covers the origin of video and his vision driving it.Note that reducing consumption achieves more than providing more energy, hence Generation 180 and my focus.Sandy's challenge of reducing his meat consumption is yet another case of someone finding it easier than expected and rewarding---something he wants to continue. Listen for yourself, but to me he sounded happy, laughing, sharing with family.If you're waiting to start your challenge, I hope you'll feel inspired. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're like me, you've heard of Bulletproof coffee. Since I don't drink coffee I didn't think much of it, but since I heard about it, I figured the guy behind it was good at internet marketing.I'd come to hear Dave name. Also I kept hearing about people losing weight on it and saying they had tons of energy. Still, I didn't pay too much attention? Was it keto?When I found out he was speaking at the coworking space where I was hosting one of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew and sustainability events, Assemblage, I decided to go and learn more.I was surprised several times over. First, the place was more packed than any event there that I'd seen. Second, everyone was rapt with attention. Third, he wasn't trying to entertain to get that attention. He just talked. Fourth, a lot of people stayed well after it officially ended.He talked a lot about supplements, eating habits, and behavioral change. I thought:Some so-called leaders lead poorly, even if they have authority.Some leaders lead okay.His followers follow him to put untested things in their bodies, for their reasons, as informed, consenting adults. Followership like that looked like leadership at another level.Hustler that I am, when he finished speaking, I spoke to his people, who introduced me to him. I got an advanced copy and reviewed his book for Inc. That conversation, which we recorded, covered leadership as much as anything else so I asked if I could share it on the podcast and he and his team loved the idea.As with anyone with a big name, you'll find criticism of him online. You'll face criticism when you act on your values. Diversity means people have different values. Some people will think what you think is right is wrong and vice versa. The question is not if you as a leader will face disagreement. That's a given. The question is how you handle it.Remember, he wasn't speaking for his voice to be shared, which to me adds an extra layer of authenticity. This is just him talking to me. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You'll love how I met Ann-Marie, a friend whose perspective I value despite not having met in person yet.After the 2016 election, I posted a piece on Inc., If You Voted for Trump, Let's Meet, because living in lower Manhattan means what Trump voters are around get bullied, effectively, into keep quiet about it. I disagree with many Trump policies, to say the least, especially on the environment, but he won. I wanted to know more about him and his voters.She responded, among others, as I wrote in a follow-up Inc. piece, Leaders Listen: Crossing the Political Divide, What happened when I spoke to people on the opposite pole of everyone around me. I think we both pleasantly surprised each other on our civility, curiosity, and mutual unhappiness with our nation's level of political conversation, if you can call it that.We've kept in touch. My podcast conversation with Jonathan Haidt and reading his book led me to want to bring more diverse views on the podcast. I thought of Ann-Marie, invited her on, and here is the result.She describes herself as a green Republican but says there aren't many of her.I wouldn't balance issues as she does, but frankly I don't see the behavior of people on the left so consistent with their environmental values. I don't see almost any Americans polluting less.I don't think people like Ann-Marie are rare, but I do think people acting on the environment prefer to browbeat or insult conservatives and Trump supporters more than listen to them.I hope it's the first of more diverse views. I don't want a bubble or echo chamber for you. I want to learn and expand my network. I hope you this episode broadens your horizons as it did mine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bethany made her name as the first to report that Enron was overpriced, which meant going deep into the numbers and people, understanding them, and then facing overwhelming criticism. Turns out she was right, but can you imagine the friction and hostility she must have faced?Now she's looking at fracking. We want journalists like her investigating and reporting what's happening that we don't know about. Are we increasing our nation's security?She looks at the people and numbers, makes sense of them, and wrote a short, colorful, informative book on it.The short answer is that it doesn't make sense except for some economic anomalies, but getting into more detail helps you understand the direction of the country. She explains the short-term perspective of oil and gas, though the main point seems that the U.S. has no energy policy. This is our world.If you want to influence fracking, environment is not the most effective lever. If you want to understand this critical part of the U.S. becoming an exporter again and what may happen next, you'll appreciate the book.Listen for the intersection of leadership, economics, and finance.(I also recommend reading her Vanity Fair cover story on Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez for two engaging profiles and pictures.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marion Nestle is a hero for me. Food may be the greatest interest that got me into acting on my environmental action. Avoiding packaged food emerged from avoiding fiber-removed foods, which emerged from reading Diet for a Small Planet in the 80s, which also motivated her.She, her books, and blog, Food Politics, are voices of sense in a crowded field. Her most recent book is The Unsavory Truth: How the Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat. I've read most of it and seeing her present on it led to meeting her in person. I recommend it.Her other books include What to Eat, Food Politics, Why Calories Count, Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda, and Safe Food. I've read about half of each of the first three, expecting to finish all, and recommend any to start---whether your interests include food, the environment, acting on your values, health, or nearly anything, really. There's a big overlap between food and the environment regarding leadership, which she and I talk about.This conversation covers the path toward leadership I expect many listeners are on, but that she has experience in since the 70s. Leadership often means starting with no obvious light at the end of the tunnel, only that you care about changing yourself and culture. I see her as a role model for acting in such situations, which probably feel familiar to listeners.I wanted to bring vision that perseverance pays off, to take the long view. We can all learn from her experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My third conversation with Geoff covers using his research to figure out what to do.I start with a few questions on how to create a vision for the future based on his research. Can we change our growth trajectory, currently leading to ever-accelerating growth, without sacrificing the superlinear growth that makes cities and presumably culture stable? Recall that sublinear growth leads to companies' and animals' limited lifetimes.Without leadership, it seems inevitable to me that we'll reach collapse. Leadership---changing cultural beliefs---seems our best hope. Creating new technology keeps us on the same track. We'd have to work hard to stay off the track we're on.He talks about how futurists from generations ago predicted technology would free up so much time we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. History shows we found the opposite. The research I've seen on technology creating efficiency has led to more pollution, not less.Listen to the conversation to see what we can do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is for people who detest Trump. I'll speak to people who love him in future episodes.If you pollute and emit greenhouse emissions beyond the IPCC recommendations, which one round-trip cross country coach flight will nearly do, you personally pulled out of the Paris Agreement so many people criticized Trump for pulling out of.If you defend your flying and other pollution as necessary for your job, congratulations, you used the same excuse behind killing every piece of environmental legislation that's lost.Beyond your actions' effects on the environment, when you tell others to sacrifice for things you don't, you motivate people to vote against you. If you care about issues you differ with Trump on---abortion, gun rights, Supreme Court justices, how the world views our nation---your saying coal miners should sacrifice their jobs while you use your job as an excuse to keep flying motivates people to vote against you. Many people want to stick it to the liberal elite.How to winIf you want to win in 2020, do what you want others to do and show how much you love the results. Change your job to enable meeting your environmental values and share how it improved your life. You might not believe it will now, but it will. I know from experience.Or keep polluting, keep your job, motivate more people to vote against you, lose in 2020, and watch more Supreme Court seats filled by people like Kavanaugh and enjoy a wall on our southern border. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I talk to a lot of people who aren't acting on their environmental values. They explain their inaction in many ways, but one of the top ones is that they claim they first have to raise their awareness or become more conscious.To claim unawareness of an issue making global front page news monthly, maybe weekly, when anyone who has ordered takeout or considered eating less meat or driving fewer miles, everyone is plenty aware of the situation and things they can do about it.Action leads to awareness more than the other way around.People will deny it, but nearly everyone uses the specious, fatuous, self-serving pursuit of awareness as a delay tactic, a smokescreen to distract from action.Sadly, beyond delaying awareness, delaying action also delays transforming the internal conflict they're trying to become aware of into joy, discovery, growth, meaning, purpose, saving money, delicious food, and all I created this podcast to share.If you want awareness, act, and bring more joy into your life.I also read a passage from Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail to illustrate the problem he saw with people delaying action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.