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This Sustainable Life — Science & Medicine
This Sustainable Life

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.

Guests include:

Dan Pink, 40+ million TED Talk views

Marshall Goldsmith, #1-ranked leadership guru and author

Frances Hesselbein, Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree, former CEO of the Girl Scouts

Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done

Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager

Vincent Stanley, Director of Patagonia

Dorie Clark, bestselling author

Bryan Braman, Super Bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagle

John Lee Dumas, top entrepreneurial podcaster

Alisa Cohn, top 100 speaker and coach

David Biello, Science curator for TED

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

580: How wrong your beliefs making you fear living sustainably May 12, 2022

Show notes

Aren't we living in the best time in history? Don't we have to keep pressing forward to avoid returning to medieval serfdom or the Stone Age and everyone dying young?

No. History, anthropology, and archaeology show these beliefs wrong. Humans weren't living on the verge of starvation or nonstop working all day long. Other cultures than the one we descended from enjoyed more health, longevity, abundance, resilience, and freedom than we do, but we keep telling ourselves stories to make ourselves feel better.

This post contains the quotes I read from: Health and longevity of other cultures
I read Kandiaronks' quote from the Kandiaronk Wikipedia page.
The Wikipedia page on sloths.

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579: Derek Marshall, part 2: Running for Congress, sharing honest personal experiences May 10, 2022

Show notes

You've heard every politician pay lip service on the environment. They talk abstractly about carbon dioxide levels, solutions to spend more money, and something about a future improved by electric cars and solar panels (conveniently missing how these "solutions" pollute). How many share their personal experiences? How many share their vulnerabilities we know they have?

Derek shares his personal experience honestly facing environmental challenges himself. What does it feel like to see a plastic bag roll by in the wind like a tumbleweed in what was supposed to be in the middle of nowhere, untouched by people? How does it feel when humans' predominant effect on once-beautiful nature is poison? Do we face our feelings of helplessness, thereby enabling ourselves to do something about it, or deny and suppress them, claiming "solutions" that pollute actually clean, not because they do but because claiming they do mollifies our feelings?

How do you run a campaign polluting less? What if your volunteers want pizza, but its disposable packaging pollutes? Will activating them to make preparing food part of the event engage them more? Will they enjoy local fruits and vegetables more? Can campaigning clean, boldly and honestly become a competitive advantage? If a campaigns ignores its personal impact, can you expect it will stop not caring after getting elected or will you expect it will find ways to excuse polluting after elected? Can Derek run his campaign clean to win loyalty and votes?

Hear Derek face these challenges, the only way I see anyone can solve them.

Derek's campaign page

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578: Warren Farrell, part 2: Sex, race, and intimacy: How to listen and communicate May 03, 2022

Show notes

This episode is available on video.

Before our conversations, I tended to see Warren as mainly focused on issues where men and boys suffer that society doesn't see, downplays, or ignores. I still see him as a rare luminary on such issues. As he mentions, many people, up to the White House, seem unable or unwilling to consider the possibility.

But I'm seeing him focusing on solutions, both systemic and individual. We start this conversation on communication, especially about listening, especially in conflict. We transition to communication tips, especially for men and boys, using ourselves and our challenges as examples. I hear passion in him for helping couples, especially from a man's perspective. Not just passion, effectiveness.

He shares about the origins of the Boy Crisis in society and the importance of effective communication, often lacking. We focus on suicide and rates between males and females versus between people of different races, children raised deprived of fathers, fathers whose responsibilities imposed by society force them to show their love by sacrificing time with family, which sounds heartbreaking for them, yet more so for their children. He explores the consequences to society.

He describes how people exclude men and boys and our problems from considering helping us, even (especially) from groups promoting inclusion.

I predict you'll find this episode evokes compassion and opens your eyes.

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577: Michael Carlino, part 6: Discussing the moral case for fossil fuels (and more) May 01, 2022

Show notes

If you've been following Michael and my conversations so far, you know to expect thoughtful, considerate conversation coming from different perspectives. Each time we find deeper understanding, share more, and listen more. You won't be disappointed this time.

In this episode we talk about concepts from the book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and the philosophy behind it. Since I've started reading the Christian Bible, we talk about Romans and Philippians a bit too. Despite our different backgrounds and views about the universe, we agree on many ways we believe we can improve the world.

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576: Nakisa Glover, part 2: The need to feel heard and act Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Nakisa talks about her community in Charlotte, North Carolina, the environmental and social challenges it faces, the level of engagement, the biases in difficulties in engaging for people who work long or unusual hours, advantages to big businesses, and other challenges. She also talks about her work facing these challenges, organizing and enabling people to solve them.

We talk about civic engagement beyond voting, acting beyond in election years, and running for office. In this episode, you'll hear from her experience and perspective what you face motivating and leading communities on the receiving end of polluting industries, historically locked out of politics, not knowing how to start, but needing to start if they hope to reverse those historical trends.

You'll hear her enthusiasm, which I see increasing since her being discovered to attend the conference she described in her first episode.

I think you'll like the commitment she chooses. I can't wait to hear her results.

Hip Hop Caucus

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575: Chef Douglas McMaster, part 1: A restaurant with no trash cans because it produces no trash Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

Doug is the opposite of the catastrophe we've made of the food industry. He created a restaurant with no trash cans; not for the customers, not for the staff, nor for suppliers. Talk about a role model.

You can do it too. He can't do it for you. Neither can I. Only you can do it for yourself, but now you know you can. Step one: try. Step two: don't stop.

Regular listeners know my disgust and disdain for how much garbage comes from food and doof industries. The streets of my once beautiful neighborhood and city are covered with litter, the overwhelming majority of it coming from places profiting from producing more garbage and doof than food. Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Frito-Lay, Dunkin' Donuts, every takeout place, and nearly every coffee shop, plus more. Millennia from now, our descendants, if any survive, will continue suffering from the poisons we create.

Beyond sharing how he did it, Doug shares his passion motivating him and satisfaction rewarding him. You can hear the camaraderie developing as two guys who discovered the joy of not abdicating and capitulating share what we discovered. I think I can speak for Doug that neither of us will return to our old ways of wasteful consumption.

You'll enjoy this joyful episode of living joyfully sustainably, or doing our best to reach it.

The video I learned of Doug from: A Failure of Imagination
His TEDx talk: Waste is a failure of the imagination
The Silo Book

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574: Frances Moore Lappé: Food, Democracy, and Taking Back Control of Our Choices Apr 23, 2022

Show notes

We spend most of our time talking about Frances's latest book, Daring Democracy. I couldn't help sharing how, decades after reading Diet for a Small Planet, I realized it was the first source that started me on the path to embracing and loving sustainability. I started by describing that path and my gratitude.

If you haven't read the book, if you wonder why I'm so impassioned and feel so much joy where others are bogged down in shame, guilt, helplessness, facts, burden, and such, I recommend reading Diet for a Small Planet's fiftieth anniversary edition. You will connect deliciousness with sustainability, and fun, freedom, community, and other rewarding emotions. Regular listeners will also understand my origins better.

Then we speak about democracy, especially in the US, and restoring it. We talk about Milton Friedman, the Kochs, Donald Trump, their peers, and their motivations; polarization; what to do about our situation. Underlying the facts, economics, and history are her optimism based in knowledge and history. She promotes accountability, especially of concentrated power. We look from a systemic perspective.

We laughed a lot. If you consider sustainability a burden, I think you'll find this episode refreshing. And delicious. We can't change the past, but we can improve our world, which we're doing.

The Small Planet Institute

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573: Scott White, part 2: An energy CEO considers leading on sustainability Apr 19, 2022

Show notes

Scott went above and beyond acting on his sustainability commitment to run. He battled covid during training. Did the extra effort bring him down? On the contrary, since he did it for personal, intrinsic motivation based in his connection to the environment, he valued it more.

I read curiosity on his part so shared my personal actions and systemic strategy different than the typical ones to switch from fossil fuels to so-called renewables. I say "so-called" because they require fossil fuels at every stage plus we have to handle their end-of-life pollution. As I see it, polluting less than the most polluting energy sources but still polluting isn't sustainable, it only buys us more time to become sustainable.

He seemed genuinely interested in my experience improving my life in ways accessible to everyone, especially all Americans, by reducing my polluting behavior. This pattern shocks many so it requires leadership to stick. Listen for yourself, but I hear him considering that leadership role. Why not when it's based in authentic, intrinsic motivation? In his case, it comes from running outdoors. In your case it will be your rewarding experiences.

You'll hear him seeing the effort to act more sustainably, but since he just found joy in the effort of running, I think he sees the potential to get that same extra reward from leading on sustainability, even in a company that profits from providing people with power.

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572: Geoff Colvin, part 2: Are we losing humanity when we lose touch with nature? Apr 16, 2022

Show notes

Geoff's story of his commitment to act on his childhood memories of playing along the Missouri River in South Dakota starts off interesting, then turns exciting, thrilling, and ultimately life-changing. One of the things we most fear happened to him and he loved it.

I think our conversation then grew more interesting. He's a storyteller and educator. He learned from the experience beyond what reading a book or reading a graph on carbon levels could reveal. We explored what nature brings to us, and what its absence deprives us of.

Geoff is an experienced and brilliant thinker and speaker. He explores and shares the interplay between nature and humanity, its loss, and what that loss means to us.

This episode will make you think. I bet it will make you want to go outside too.

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571: Chef Dan Barber, part 1: Supporting the whole ecosystem and farmers at every turn Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

Dan Barber is helping revitalize our food system. We start by going over his background, how fear drove him maybe most of all.

Then we get into what drives food: farms and soil combined with creativity. His goal is supporting farming from the most basic level. He doesn't oppose people shopping farmers markets. He comes alive describing discovering what farmers who know the land learned to practice: diversity, rotation, and all what it takes to grow wheat, for starters. The whole ecosystem.

I hear him sharing joy, passion, fun, curiosity, discovery, health, and deliciousness. It comes through community, practice, honoring nature and tradition.

Prepare to be fascinated.

Dan Barber's presentation, The Taste of Wheat
Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Family Meal in Manhattan

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