This Sustainable Life
Joshua Spodek: Author, Speaker, Professor
Do you care about the environment but feel "I want to act but if no one else does it won't make a difference" and "But if you don't solve everything it isn't worth doing anything"?We are the antidote! You're not alone. Hearing role models overcome the same feelings to enjoy acting on their values creates meaning, purpose, community, and emotional reward.Want to improve as a leader? Bestselling author, 3-time TEDx speaker, leadership speaker, coach, and professor Joshua Spodek, PhD MBA, brings joy and inspiration to acting on the environment. You'll learn to lead without relying on authority.We bring you leaders from many areas -- business, politics, sports, arts, education, and more -- to share their expertise for you to learn from. We then ask them to share and act on their environmental values. That's leadership without authority -- so they act for their reasons, not out of guilt, blame, doom, gloom, or someone telling them what to do.Click for a list of popular downloadsClick for a list of all episodesGuests includeDan Pink, 40+ million Ted talk viewsMarshall Goldsmith, #1 ranked leadership guru and authorFrances Hesselbein, Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, former CEO of the Girl ScoutsElizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize winning authorDavid Allen, author of Getting Things DoneKen Blanchard, author, The One Minute ManagerVincent Stanley, Director of PatagoniaDorie Clark, bestselling authorBryan Braman, Super Bowl champion Philadelphia EagleJohn Lee Dumas, top entrepreneurial podcasterAlisa Cohn, top 100 speaker and coachDavid Biello, Science curator for TED Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 21, 2018 • 32min
047: Michael Lenox, conversation 1: Can Business Save the Earth?
At last I spoke to someone with a systems perspective!Michael spoke about how many areas we could work in, not to say it's too much but that you can find a place to contribute.Many people wish there was a silver bullet. As far as I know there isn't one. His about-to-launch book, Can Business Save the Earth, treats action on the environment systemically, a perspective I consider essential for environmental leadership.What may seem initially overwhelming doesn't end up that way when you see the big picture, which is what his book covers, and when you find a place to act.Plus, his personal challenge is one a lot of people think about doing but don't, so if you've thought of changing your diet, I recommend listening to Michael's challenge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 19, 2018 • 21min
046: Systems, values, and learning from the military
Why do people who haven't tried it call not flying impossible, yet it was just as challenging for me and I find it one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.Being in a system without realizing it makes it easy to confuse that system's values with your own or with absolute reality. What looks impossible is just impossible within that system.To change, it's easier to exit the system first so you don't feel constrained by its constraints.We were born to some strong systems that make not flying look impossible but not flying is simple. You're probably not flying right now.I present a couple cases -- one simple, the other complex and expensive -- that illustrate what happens when you're trapped in a system versus when you free yourself from it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 13, 2018 • 35min
045: Anisa Heming, conversation 1: Every day you make choices. Make them conscious
Anisa is another counterexample to believing that working on the environment distracts from getting ahead.She rose to become the director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council despite being early in her career. Though she was doing fine in architecture, she responded to the call for help people and communities in New Orleans after hurricanes Rita and Katrina.Doing what people cared about helped others and led her to positions to help more people, leading her to Washington, DC and being named one of the Most Powerful Women in Sustainability.Still friendly and humble, she shared her environmental values, including where she felt she wasn't living up to them---what many people hide. Then she chose to act on them, recognizing the difficulty.I see her as a role model for improving one's leadership through self-awareness and action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 8, 2018 • 41min
044: Jeff Brown, Conversation 1: Leading means more than reading and writing
Jeff has interviewed authors of leadership books since before I started writing mine. I enjoyed being a guest on his podcast.This time he's on mine, and it's a landmark event, as the next section describes.If you're here for leadership, Jeff is a great example of turning an interest into becoming an important person in a field.If you're here for environmental leadership, listen for Jeff's project---one of the biggest of any guest so far in terms of leading himself and others. I'll let you listen to find out the details, but I'll mention that he takes a leadership role in his community to help people achieve something they all want but no one else has done.Later episodes will reveal how his project goes, but already you can hear his interest in acting over just waiting.Why I'm proudI note that Jeff has read hundreds of leadership books and spoken to hundreds of leadership authors. My book, Leadership Step by Step, and this podcast are the first that led Jeff to lead---not just to talk, read, or write about leadership but to act. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 8, 2018 • 38min
043: Ken Blanchard, Conversation 1: We're here to help each other
21 million books sold among 60 titles---including one I remember from my mom's shelf as long as I can remember---a lifetime of research, speaking, and consulting, and more.Since I don't often get to speak with people who have achieved so much, I was torn between acting like a fan and speaking to him like a regular guy. I hope I balanced them by sharing my One Minute Manager story at the beginning, then talking servant leadership.Ken just released his latest book, Servant Leadership in Action, compiling lessons from top leadership thinkers and writers. He spoke about the book, the people in it, and their stories. More than one has been on this podcast, so click the link to find which.Ken shares increasingly valuable wisdom as the podcast goes on, so I recommend listening to the end. There is no substitute for experience (why I teach experientially) and Ken has more than nearly anyone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 6, 2018 • 20min
042: More valuable than hope
This morning I volunteered to pick up trash along the Hudson River.The experience included baby geese, a crab, lots of plastic and waste, and people not connecting their behavior with all this garbage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 3, 2018 • 34min
041: David Burkus, Conversation 1: Flipping the mental model
David has helped me many times. I felt honored to host him and, I hope, help start his environmental legacy.We covered two main things.First, his new book, Friend of a Friend, on networking. His background as a professor and practitioner means he approaches networking systematically and practically, so beyond learning to network more effectively, you understand networking as a process.Second, his environmental commitment. I loved his choice for reasons you'll hear when you listen. I believe it will improve his life beyond just living by his environmental values.David is direct, knowledgeable, experienced, and plain-spoken. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 19, 2018 • 15min
040: Which is easier, freeing slaves or not using disposable bottles?
Which is easier, for a slave owner to free his or her slaves or for you to stop using disposable water bottles and food packaging, flying around the world, turning down the thermostat and wearing a sweater in the winter, and so on?If you had slaves, would you free them?I think most people would say it's a lot easier to avoid plastic than to free slaves, but they would also say they would free their slaves -- at least when no one can check. But they don't act environmentally.If you believe you would make the difficult choices hypothetically, will you also make the easier choices here and now? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 2, 2018 • 30min
039: Vincent Stanley, conversation 1: business success through environmental support
Vincent shares several stories of Patagonia growing from a few dedicated outdoors people to discovering business growth, the usual ways businesses abandon values besides profit, and their not accepting that abdication of responsibility.The company grew financially, its employees grew emotionally and socially, and its community grew numerically.If you think you're alone in wanting to act, Vincent and Patagonia go farther. Vincent shares how the company made difficult decisions to protect the environment, its employees, its suppliers, their employees, and so on---decisions most people think would hurt companies financially---but didn't.As someone who dislikes many major corporations for what many consider standard business practices, I find in Patagonia and its decision-makers role models we can learn from. Having been there from nearly the start, Vincent gives an inside view.His personal challenge also differs from many others', but I expect you'll like it. Mechanically simple, I bet he'll find it insidiously difficult and incredibly rewarding. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 28, 2018 • 31min
038: RJ Khalaf, conversation 2: Making productive leaders from hopeless martyrs
RJ and I talk about the early success of LEAD Palestine, the organization he began to teach leadership to youths that most of the world abandoned in Palestine.Where their environment made it natural to respond with hopelessness and what comes from it---desperation to the point of aspiring to blow oneself up---RJ is bringing social and emotional development to create hope themselves.They happen to have been born into a world where leadership meant in politics authoritarianism and militarism, which bled into personal relationships. Nobody taught alternatives and those who acted on those models succeeded, however much at others' costs.RJ is teaching an effective style of leadership built on personal skill. I can't help but imagine a lot of it came from my class, though, obviously he deserves the overwhelming credit for implementing it. Though the class he took with me was social entrepreneurship, that semester, several students showed great interest and initiative and I'd stay after class to teach and coach leadership exercises, sometimes for hours. Among those students, RJ stood out.I also ask him about his personal role as a student barely older than the people he's helping, as well as his personal challenge of avoiding plastic bottles.For a self-aware, thoughtful, active leader, the modest personal challenge increased his mindfulness, activity, awareness at no cost in time, money, or other resource. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
