This Sustainable Life
763 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 98 ratingsDo 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 downloads
Click for a list of all episodes
Guests include
Dan 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 TEDHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
550: Rick Ridgeway: A Life Lived Wild: K2, Everest, and places no human had seen
January 14, 2022 13:11 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBPrepare to be awed at Rick's stories of adventure, discovery, nature, and humanity. He has summited K2, Everest, and more. He's visited places possibly no other human has. And he's an experienced, brilliant storyteller, so shares his experiences with a vitality that can only come from living it. Hear what it's like for animals that have never seen humans to approach him. His interactions with people show up too, including Sir Edmund Hillary, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and North Face ...
549: Abdal Hakim Murad, part 2: High and low tech in the new green mosque in Cambridge, UK
January 11, 2022 16:55 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBMany people and mainstream society seem to view technology as the solution to our environmental problems---and the more and the newer the better. Abdal Hakim and I agree technology isn't the glowing solution many believe. It can play a role, but as part of a mix, including low-tech and non-tech components. This topic led to the new green mosque in Cambridge that he helped make happen, how to mix technologies and harmonize with its location. It won awards and created networks and support fro...
548: Erik Bottcher, part 1: a New York City politician awesome enough to pick up litter
January 08, 2022 03:09 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBErik Bottcher is my elected legislator. New York City's council presides over a budget bigger than most countries'. Yet I met him picking up litter. He organized weekly clean-ups when the city dropped its sanitation budget during the pandemic. He also sees the problem not as too little cleaning up but too much supply of packaging that becomes litter. Let's pause for a moment. How many politicians have you heard of who bend down and pick up litter, week after week? I think the world would b...
547: Michael Carlino, part 4: What does Christian scripture say about population?
January 07, 2022 01:08 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBMichael is becoming a regular. Would I have expected an extended conversation with a doctoral candidate at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when I started? I don't think so, and I don't think many environmentalists engage with evangelicals and conservatives. I think you'll hear genuine friendship, mutual respect, and mutual desire to learn from each other. I think you'll hear actual learning. In this episode we took on a topic we expected to disagree on: population. This time I ask...
546: Maxine Bédat, part 2: Systemic Change Begins With Personal Change
January 05, 2022 04:01 - 38 minutes - 35 MBMaxine shares her experience with her commitment across the country. She moved partly to enable living by her values. People often suggest it's easier for someone living in New York not to fly since I have access to so much culture here, but access to many cultures only matters if you value it. Not everyone does. I hope you live where you can access things you value. If you don't, no amount of travel will overcome that you live where you don't like. I mention this because Maxine could live ...
545: Jesse Eisinger: Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative reporter for Propublica
December 28, 2021 02:30 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBHow do you become one of the premier investigative journalists at one of the premier publishers of investigative journalism? In general, how do you excel in an area with no established path? I consider figuring out how essential in leading others. I feel sad when I hear people say, "I'd like to help the environment, but there are no jobs in it." Of course not! When culture is the problem, following others won't solve it. Leading others requires leading yourself first. Jesse and I have know...
544: Michael Carlino, part 3: What would Jesus do with an iPhone?
December 24, 2021 03:05 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBMichael shares about avoiding using a smart phone, or at least using a minimally functional smart phone. Do you remember what life was like without yours? What does solitude mean to you? How much time do you spend on a smart phone? Would you like to reduce it? What would you do instead? What are we missing? How about emotion, love, freedom, and joy? He talks about the irony spending money to help us handle our addiction to those who cause the addiction. It sounds like doof. We talk about a...
543: Hilary Link, part 1: a college president leading her school to carbon neutrality
December 21, 2021 03:48 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MBAllegheny College was one of the first 10 institutions of higher education in the United States to be declared carbon neutral by an organization called Second Nature. Readers of my blog know my skepticism of claims of "net zero" or "carbon neutral," but I look for people in leadership positions acting genuinely and authentically toward sustainability. So I bring you Allegheny's president, Dr. Hilary Link. She shares the college's experience starting a decade ago, before her arrival, and its...
542: Chad Foster, part 3: Experiencing nature, people, and sex without sight
December 17, 2021 23:40 - 43 minutes - 40 MBChad shares his experience motivating his family to try to bring them camping with him. You'll hear they didn't make it easy. I couldn't resist asking questions about his experience of nature, people, and sex without sight. I didn't want to ask questions everyone asks, but he graciously answered. His mindset also emerged of how to handle life's challenges, which he shared. If I could give people new technologies for sustainability or his attitude, I would pick his attitude, since it would e...
541: My "rant" on "People want to act, Josh, but it's hard"
December 15, 2021 00:53 - 10 minutes - 5.54 MB"People want to act, but it's hard," my business friend said to me, speaking on the environment. I said it to myself for most of my life before learning that acting on the environment, however hard, was fun. Raising a child is hard too, but people do it. This time we happened to be speaking over video and recording it. I'm posting what I happened to say extemporaneously. I wouldn't describe it as a rant, but sort of close. I talked about slavery, abolition, learning, doing hard things, and ...
540: Blake Haxton, part 3: Exploring nature from a wheelchair with a shotgun
December 13, 2021 20:51 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBBlake shares his results about acting on his commitments from last time. He couldn't work much with rowing with temperatures barely above freezing, but he could act on his diet. He also dusted off an old habit of shooting, which he shared about. We also got to talking about nuclear and alternative energy sources. He asked me my views, so I shared the long-term results I saw from it based on humanity's past. We also spoke of the Bible, Job, and ponder the meaning of having dominion over nat...
539: Katharine Hayhoe: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
December 10, 2021 20:33 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBI've been following Katharine for years. If you don't know of her, after our conversation, watch her TED talk and read her book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. It comprises decades of science, leadership, and efforts to live sustainably, the overlap I consider essential to influencing people on sustainability. Our conversation is about hope, faith, science, love, and our sledding hills. We know the science, but enough to know not to dwell it i...
538: How much should I reduce my pollution? How many slaves should Thomas Jefferson have freed?
December 08, 2021 18:32 - 16 minutes - 10.4 MBHere are the notes I read from for this episode: Will hit 70 next week. Dawning on people what has dawned on what we now call the global south, that the projections are more serious than they internalized. That their world is going to be rocked. Maybe they realize, that this will be the coldest Christmas for the next ten thousand years and that billions of people may be displaced. Maybe they realize that you can't move billions of people without many of them dying. The global north, includ...
537: Nate Hochman, part 1: Toward a Conservative Environmentalism
December 07, 2021 17:28 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBI met Nate on Citizens Climate Lobby panel on conservatives and climate, then read his National Review piece, Toward a Conservative Environmentalism, which we talk about in this conversation. I've looked forward to a conversation like this for a long time: a thoughtful approach to the environment that isn't politicized. Nate doesn't hide his values and approach, but understands and respects alternative views. He shares views on questions like How does an approach to conserving the environ...
536: David Pogue: How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos
November 30, 2021 23:49 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBTwo great reasons to listen to this episode. First, David is a tremendous science communicator. He's experienced, thoughtful, funny, and communicates simply without dumbing down. He's worked with some of the most important sources, like NOVA, the New York Times, TED, CBS Sunday Morning, and more. He's accurate and fun, a rare combination. I think it comes from his passion for knowledge and people. Second, his book fills an important role. As we start our conversation, neither of us could be...
535: The best sledding hill in the world, Tommy's Hill in Philadelphia (from my third TEDx talk)
November 29, 2021 01:24 - 11 minutes - 6.73 MBNOTE: I recommend watching the video of this episode, not just listening to the audio. What does the environment mean to you? We are motivated by what's in our hearts more than facts or numbers so I believe we will act more when we connect with what's in our hearts, which inspires us. The fastest, most effective way to influence governments and corporations is to act ourselves here and now, keep acting, keep learning, and then lead others based on our experience acting. I also ask most of...
534: Mom, part 2: Opportunity and oppression: race and religion in my childhood
November 27, 2021 03:45 - 46 minutes - 42.1 MBI recorded my second conversation with my mom about my childhood and before during the pandemic, in the spring of 2020. Shortly after recording our first conversation, which covered race, George Floyd was murdered. You know the rest. I knew we had spent years as white minorities in India and in a black neighborhood in Philadelphia, at least part time. I was curious to learn more of the time she would have remembered better. In this episode we talk about being redlined, being the victim of r...
533: Laura Coe, part 3: The Nature of Love
November 24, 2021 15:37 - 1 hour - 67.1 MBLongtime listeners will remember Laura from episodes 192 and 209, over two years ago. Her book, Emotional Obesity, made a big effect on me, as did her warmth and move from success in tech entrepreneurship to her podcast, The Art of Authenticity. She pursued authenticity in herself and her coaching clients. We became friends and kept in touch since. She's continued exploring, where it led. As you'll hear in this episode she shared with me where it's led, which she's sharing in three new book...
532: Michael Lenox, part 3: How to Decarbonize the Global Economy by 2050
November 22, 2021 13:13 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBAt last, a conversation with a knowledgeable economist! Longtime listeners remember Michael here after his last book. He just published a new one, The Decarbonization Imperative: Transforming the Global Economy by 2050. His book and our conversation cover why should we go to net zero by 2050, is it possible, and, if so, how? We agree on the mission of dramatically cutting emissions and most strategies to achieve it. We disagree on the relative importance of some strategies and measures. Li...
531: Scott White, part 1: The Founder/CEO of an Energy Company on Sustainability
November 19, 2021 22:31 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBTwo of this podcast's top goals are To bring leaders to share and act on their environmental values, from any area, but especially polluting fields To help change culture from expecting sustainability is a chore or burden to expecting joy, lightness, freedom, and reward. Both happened in this episode. On the second, you'll hear when I invite Scott to act, he had something in mind (he knows This Sustainable Life!). It sounded extrinsically motivated so I asked if it connected with the valu...
Cassiano Laureano, part 2: Burpees for the body, banzai tree for the heart and mind
November 17, 2021 03:14 - 55 minutes - 50.6 MBCassiano's first episode led to more listener comments than most. People loved his enthusiasm. I find guys who know martial arts tend to speak with a security. The opposite of insecure or desperate. So I think people found him accessible and engaging. I think you'll find him more so this episode. Of course, we talk a bit about his world record for burpees. As you can tell from this episode's title, he fulfilled his commitment by buying a banzai tree. He loved it! He shares his experience bu...
529: Katie Redford, part 2: No distractions. Keeping oil in the ground.
November 16, 2021 03:49 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBI see exactly two highest priorities for material goals to restore Earth's ability to sustain life. One is keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Down there it's safe. Above ground, it's poison and deadly. However clear and straightforward, almost no one focuses on this simple, effective, attainable goal. Katie does. Our first conversation was just starting when we had to stop. We mostly talked that time about her past, groundbreaking work. In this episode we talk about her present work with p...
528: Don't Bother With Stewardship. It Makes Your Life Worse. Especially If You're American.
November 10, 2021 04:30 - 15 minutes - 8.85 MBI've meant to record this episode for a while, as the idea of saying "fuck it," not trying, forgetting about the future and my effect on others, and enjoying what our society offers seems everyone else's choice. So I'm going full snarky. A rare unedited episode, starting from these minimal notes: Reasons not to care Money Clothes Travel Understanding Disgust, can look away Disposability Kids: was going to say I couldn't look them in the eye Sales and marketing Get credit anyway S...
527: Mike Michalowicz, part 1: Entrepreneurship, stewardship, and engaging, compelling writing
November 07, 2021 14:13 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBMike and I are in an online writing group together. For a while I knew him as the funny and diligent guy whose books have thousands of reviews online. Then I read his big one, Profit First. I know entrepreneurship from living it, so I expected to skim it, but two things. His writing is as funny and engaging as he is and what he wrote was new and valuable. Those who have read it know what I mean when I share that I set up my five accounts right after finishing it. Next I read Fix This Next a...
526: A recent talk on doof, heroin, crack, and sustainability
November 07, 2021 00:09 - 15 minutes - 8.96 MBThis talk gets to the root of what I see destroying Earth's ability to sustain life and our health and happiness in the process. Here is the audio a recent talk I gave on doof, building up to what we can do to get rid of it, and improving our world in the process. I compare its effects with those of heroin, crack, and other addictions. I examine what makes something doof, like if it's advertised, packaged, fiber-removed, or the big one: if the manufacturer engineered it to create craving. ...
525: Katie Redford, part 1: She beat a multinational oil company in court just getting started
November 04, 2021 02:44 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBKatie is the sort of role model I do this podcast to bring to the world. Her challenges are huge, but her passion and determination greater. I can find a million people who say they care about the environment. They probably do. I can find some who act on this caring. I can find a few who do things that sound great like starting companies to do well by doing good. Of them, many are helping restore Earth's ability to sustain life. Then there's Katie. She's devoting everything she's got beyon...
524: James Rebanks, part 1: Pastoral Song
November 02, 2021 02:44 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBJames Rebanks' first massively bestselling book, The Shepherd's Life, and the images of that life he posts online, at first make you think he hails from another time. It describes a life both almost unimaginable to most city dwellers like myself and more than half the Earth and traditional, going back centuries or even millennia. He illustrates his relationships with his father and grandfather, the land, the sheep, and history. But he also shows that he is from now, not another time. I sens...
523: Dr. Warren Farrell, part 1: Actually listening to men, what they keep to themselves
October 29, 2021 03:16 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MBIf I measure a book's quality by how much it changes my perspective and enables me to improve my life, Dr. Farrell's The Myth of Male Power (1993) is one of the best books I've read. He's written valuable book after valuable books since, up to and including The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It (2018). I grew up believing in equality between the sexes and believe so now more than ever. Dr. Farrell's insight helped illuminate and clarify ways I and society d...
522: Abdal Hakim Murad, part 1: Britain’s most influential Muslim thinker
October 25, 2021 02:35 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBA reader followed up on my conversations with religious figures and authorities from branches of Christianity and Judaism. He wrote You have presented religious people with «the book». That’s good, and I hope you will find space for a muslim person/scholar and relate it to your concern about the sustainability and climate. I can recommend one person. He is, I believe the leader of Cambridge Muslim College, UK. Abdal Hakim Murad (actually British who converted to islam). He is highly and wel...
521: Blake Haxton, part 2: Teamwork is crucial. How to solve that we're divided
October 21, 2021 02:54 - 1 hour - 77.4 MBI loved Blake and my conversation so much, I'm releasing our first two conversations back to back. Also, our first one didn't reach to The Spodek Method, so he hadn't taken on a commitment based on his environmental values, so we recorded a week later instead of having to wait for him to finish the commitment. He takes on a commitment in this episode, so he'll come back a third time at least. We talked about how life brings us challenges. In his case a disease led to losing both legs. For e...
520: Blake Haxton, part 1: Paralympic victory and maybe the most important message I've heard on sustainability
October 16, 2021 02:21 - 1 hour - 81.8 MBI learned of Blake through the mailing list of the maker of my rowing machine, Concept2. Their piece on him described him as a Paralympic bound athlete. I was impressed, but only thought of him as a potential guest on watching his TEDx talk. I think my message to his agent describes what I saw in him and when we talked about in this episode: In Blake's case, I heard a message I've never heard with such clarity and experience I wonder if he realizes how much it applies to stewardship and th...
519: Terik Weekes, Chief Engineer for Elroy Air: The future of electric flight
October 13, 2021 20:13 - 1 hour - 60.1 MBShould you prepare for a future of clean air travel, curb your flying, or other? I saw Terik speak on a panel on electric flight. As Chief Engineer at a company winning awards for battery-powered planes, he knew what he was talking about. He has to know about the cutting edge of various fields, including batteries, aeronautics, and materials. When the Wright Brothers first flew a heavier-than-air craft in 1903, nobody could have predicted a 747. Are electric planes today at the Wright Brot...
518: Killing cities, gardens, and parks, New York's cruel "Open Restaurants" overreach
October 11, 2021 20:08 - 14 minutes - 9.05 MBDon't outdoor restaurants sound nice? During the pandemic, New York City allowed restaurants that couldn't host people indoors to serve them outdoors. Many restaurant owners credit the rule for keeping them in business. We neighbors happily supported businesses in need. The landlords saw the huge profit in keeping this public space for their private property, started raising rents---profiting from a deadly pandemic---and tried to get politicians to give them that public land permanently. I...
517: Michael Carlino, part 2: Faith, God, the Bible, and Values
October 08, 2021 10:55 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBNearly everyone I talk to who works on conservation or would call themselves an environmentalist or something like it treats American conservatives and evangelicals as adversaries, lost causes, hurdles, or even the enemy. They love Katharine Hayhoe for being on their side while also practicing a Texas-friendly version of Christianity. They figure she'll fix them for them. (We're scheduling her appearing on this podcast, if you're wondering). What do conservatives and evangelicals believe? I...
516: Geoengineering: Prologue or Epilogue for Humanity?
October 04, 2021 23:54 - 48 minutes - 29.8 MBHere are the notes I read from, responding to this op-ed piece and this review for a book I've talked to the author about but haven't read. Geoengineering Prologue or Epilogue for Humanity? Introduction, context Geoengineering is becoming a more common topic as people feel more desperate. The common theme is that when things get serious, we have to put everything on the table, even things that may not work. The problem isn't if they'll work on their intended goal, but everything else. Ove...
515: Chad Foster, part 2: A blind man overcoming the trap of feeling you have to fix the world
October 03, 2021 01:41 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBOur conversation in this episode starts by covering his commitment from last time. After a few minutes, it becomes apparent he picked a commitment based on feeling he had to fix the world---that is, extrinsic motivation disconnected from his heart. We revisited his intrinsic motivations and came up with a new commitment. Acting on intrinsic motivation is leadership. Your emotions create meaning or not. If you've been acting halfheartedly on stewardship, you may have fallen into a trap of fe...
514: Jojo Mehta: Ecocide: why you want this law more than you've imagined
October 01, 2021 00:21 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBFirst, I'm so used to talking to people who don't act and try to convince themselves and others that individual actions don't matter, I loved talking to someone inspiring a movement to change international law, making progress, and enjoying the process. If you like meeting people improving the world, you'll love this episode. If lowering Earth's ability to sustain life is such a problem, why not just make it illegal? Problem solved, right? It sounds too easy, or simplistic, too naive. Or d...
513: Jon Levy, part 2: Which influences more, shame and guilt or support and love?
September 30, 2021 02:01 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBJon and I start by talking about his book, You're Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence. Some of the celebrities he's met and researched come up. Then we started talking about this podcast and how I could apply his work to cultivate influence among my podcast guests, building community. You get to hear him coaching me on his expertise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
512: Perhaps our greatest lesson, from of a Paralympic athlete who endured catastrophe
September 29, 2021 02:35 - 19 minutes - 12.6 MB"Unearned suffering is redemptive," said Martin Luther King. In today's episode I share what I learned today recording with Blake Haxton, a guest whose episode will appear soon. He lost two legs to flesh-eating disease in 2009. Tragedy? Yes. Reason to give up? On the contrary, according to him, his one unlucky event in life. I contend that his outlook on life and message that we all face setbacks, we can still live to our potential can help us learn to live sustainably than any number of ...
511: Joe Collins, part 1.5: Can We Clean South Central Los Angeles?
September 27, 2021 03:42 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBLast time Joe committed to organizing and participating in a beach clean-up as part of his campaign. In today's episode he shares the state of the region, including the extent of homelessness, drugs, and violence, which made acting so far impossible. We revisit the commitment as well as personal thoughts on what's happening to America, at least in its major cities of New York City and Los Angeles. Then Joe recommits and shares his new expectations of success. Joe's campaign page Hosted ...
510: Jonathan Hardesty, part 6: "This method of doing things is making me become a better husband and parent"
September 22, 2021 02:50 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MBJonathan and I continue practicing the Spodek Method. Since last recording, he practiced it with his wife. This time he shares how it went. I picked up on a nuance, that she picked a commitment disconnected from her intrinsic motivation and ended up not finding the task meaningful. What we covered relates to leadership and relationships in general. The major theme we covered is uncovering people's intrinsic motivations. People often suppress them, sometimes consciously often unconsciously. ...
509: Joe Romm: From science to working with James Cameron, leading through story
September 20, 2021 02:24 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBComing from a background in science but realizing that sharing numbers and data didn't influence, Joe had to unlearn a lifetime of mainstream science education. He recognized that the best known scientists, like Darwin and Einstein, were great writers. He followed in their footsteps to learn what works while maintaining scientific integrity, which he shares in this episode. In a world of storytellers and would-be leaders who don't know science and scientists who don't know how to influence,...
508: Eric Orts, part 2: To the U.S. Senate, living the values he leads
September 15, 2021 01:53 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBSince Eric's last time here, he formally declared he is running for office. Now he's reporting back months into his campaign. Did Trump not being in office slow him down? Or did our environmental problems motivate him even more? How about his commitment to avoid flying? Surely he gave it up to campaign, right? Or did he? Whichever way he went on that commitment, the decision must have been difficult, so we'll get to hear about his values. We talked about half about running for office, the...
507: Behind the Mic: Teamwork Versus Leadership
September 13, 2021 20:38 - 11 minutes - 7.18 MBToday's episode explores a subtle but potentially meaningful and large shift, considering focusing on sustainability teamwork more than sustainability leadership. The main difference is that I think people feel taking a leadership role makes them vulnerable and means lots of work. Joining a team is fun. If enough people join it feels natural and odd not to. You're hearing me develop an idea in real time. Here are the notes I read from: Switch to team? Leadership stick neck out Sports, ...
506: I lost $10 million on September 11, 2001. Here is what I learned from those who sacrificed and served.
September 11, 2021 12:57 - 29 minutes - 17.3 MBSorry for the slow pace of this episode, but just before recording I looked at the firehouse across the street from my apartment, the small plaque naming the firemen who died trying to help others, and the flowers people put there for them, which led me to lose it as I started recording. I've never considered the changes to my life meaningful in comparison, despite my losses being greater than anyone I know who didn't die or was related to someone who died for the obvious reason that no mat...
505: Michael Carlino, part 1: From the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
September 10, 2021 03:45 - 57 minutes - 52.9 MBMichael begins by describing himself as a Protestant evangelical conservative PhD candidate at one of the largest and oldest Baptist seminaries, what that description means, and what experience and choices brought him there. These experiences were meaningful and his choices deliberate and considered. We talk about scripture, family, faith, hope, the environment, modern culture, sin, gluttony, and more. In my experience people who work on the environment disengage or oppose conservative reli...
504: Dar-Lon Chang, part 2: Activists on Exxon's Board (and fighting a real estate developer who lied about sustainability)
September 07, 2021 02:07 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MBReading front-page headlines about activist investors gaining some control of Exxon's Board of Directors reminded me of past guest Dar-Lon Chang, who worked at Exxon for sixteen years. I asked if he had inside information on it. He told me he did, which he shared. He also shared his personal experience living in a community striving to live sustainably in Colorado. Living more sustainably is why he left Exxon. Now a real estate developer is undoing their work after apparently lying about hi...
503: Jonathan Hardesty, part 5: Facing and overcoming gluttony
September 03, 2021 03:13 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBI hope you hear Jonathan and I sharing a great rapport---on art, stewardship, Christianity, and enjoying life. If you've reached this conversation, you know what we're covering in this episode: his results doing the Spodek Method, partly doing it, partly learning how to do it. He's an artist and family man. He started picking up trash, which naturally became a family activity and point of personal growth. He then did more. Why? Because he enjoys acting on his values. We all do. I also des...
502: Cassiano Laureano, part 1: The world record for most burpees in an hour
August 31, 2021 03:09 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBWhen I read about Cassiano setting the world record for most burpees in an hour--951---I knew I had to meet him. Though I've maxed out at a mere 370 in a day, I did most of them in under three hours. Still dramatically slower than Cassiano, but I've kept my streak unbroken for about ten years. I had to learn his motivation, his obstacles, how he overcame the obstacles, his training, how the event felt, and all of what goes into setting that record. He wasn't doing it for the money and even...
501: Big City Andrew, part 2: Cleaning small towns and big cities
August 29, 2021 00:56 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MBSorry the audio doesn't show the big Trump flag behind Andrew, because in this episode, I hear a regular guy who sees America's small towns and big cities becoming polluted and acts. Not that Trump supporters aren't regular people, but that I see the mainstream environmental view of Trump supporters as the enemy, people who don't get it, or won't. I think it takes two to tango in cases like this. If you paint people as enemies who can't get it, I don't see how you can expect them to listen ...