Podcast

(Formerly Leadership and the Environment)

Community, support, vision, stories, role Models, experience.

Leadership turns feeling alone and complacent into action.

We bring leaders to the environment to share what works. Less facts, figures, and gloom. More stories, reflection, self-awareness, connection, support, and community.

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755: Stefan Gössling: Busting self-serving myths about flying

May 17, 2024

Stefan Gössling is a professor of Tourism Research at Linnaeus University and Human Ecology at Lund University. His research focuses on the sustainability of tourism, transport, and mobilities. He co-edited the book Climate Change and Aviation: Issues, Challenges and Solutions, co-writing its chapter on people who travel most---"hypermobility." He wrote Carbon Management in Tourism: Mitigating the Impacts on Climate Change. From his home page: About my work I have studied interrelationships of tourism, transport and sustainability for a quarter of a century. In the early 1990s, my work focused on aviation and the sector’s contribution to emissions of greenhouse gases. Since then I have started to investigate a wide range of different transport modes from diverse scientific perspectives, including the car, bicycle, and e-scooter. I am specifically interested in climate policy and transport governance; ICT in tourism, transport and mobility contexts; transport economics; urban planning; and social norm change in consumer cultures. I am feeling most at home in interdisciplinary frameworks embracing geography, economics, sociology and psychology. My work has been conducted in a wide range of cultural and geographical settings in the European Union, the Middle East, East Africa/Western Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean. I have also worked as a consultant on behalf of numerous governments and companies, as well as supranational organisations including UNWTO, UNEP, UNDP, OECD and World Bank. My ambition is to contribute to basic and applied science, with the overall objective to develop solutions for a growing number of environmental problems.

755: Stefan Gössling: Busting self-serving myths about flying

People who fly think most people fly, but it's more like a few percent. A small fraction of people fly, let alone across oceans or multiple times per year. If you fly, it's probably your action that hurts people most through its environmental impact, but you probably rationalize and justify it. Unlike many other polluting activities, most of the money you spend on flying goes to polluting, displacing people and wildlife from their land to extract fuel and minerals, and lobbying governments to pollute and extract more.

Stefan has been reporting and publishing on flying for decades longer than I've worked on it. I met him following a panel he participated in hosted by Stay Grounded on the impacts of flying on people and wildlife. That talk was on frequent flyer programs, but Stay Grounded works on many related issues.

After sharing his background, Stefan talks about his research. My biggest takeaway: People believe a lot of myths about flying. Partly the industry promotes the myths, but people will do whatever mental gymnastics they have to to accept those myths, even when they're blatantly false. Some things Stefan shares:

Around 2 - 4 percent of people fly in a given year outside their country
People who fly think more like half the population flies
Flying is heavily subsidizes, so poor people help fund rich people flying
Airports and airlines are often supported and bailed out by taxes
Poor people are hurt more

Stefan shares more information in more detail. Despite knowing much of it, even I was outraged anew

Show Notes

Stefan's home page
His page at Linnaeus University, including links to his recent publications.
Some recent publications:
- Are emissions from global air transport significantly underestimated?. Current Issues in Tourism. Status: Epub ahead of print
- National tourism organizations and climate change. Tourism Geographies. Status: Epub ahead of print
- On track to net-zero? Large tourism enterprises and climate change. Tourism Management. 100. 104842-104842
- Net-zero aviation : Transition barriers and radical climate policy design implications. Science of the Total Environment. 912
- A review of air travel behavior and climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews : Climate Change. 14 (1)

754: (Aunt) Trish Ellis and (Niece) Evelyn Wallace, part 1: Not Even Cancer Holds Her Back

May 6, 2024

"What I do doesn't matter" may be the most poignant sentiment of our time.

A similar rationalization not to act: "I have faith that younger people will solve our environmental problems. After all they will be affected more."

People say these things to avoid acting, avoiding personal responsibility. Well, if anyone can say she deserves to relax and not have to work on problems, nobody would tell someone with incurable cancer she can't spend her time how she wants. Trish has incurable cancer. She worked her whole life to enjoy her retirement. She didn't grow up planning to act on sustainability. She didn't plan to take my sustainability leadership workshops, but her niece, Evelyn, and sister, Beth, told her about taking the workshop so she did.

In this episode, you'll hear Trish sharing why acting on sustainability and leading others is spending her remaining time how she wants. She once envisioned flying around in her retirement. She could and no one would judge her. But having learned that she can make a difference from the workshop, she's acting on sustainability. Living by your values and helping others live by theirs isn't deprivation or sacrifice.

The above is my read of Trish's situation and motivations. Listen to the episode to hear her describe why someone who could do anything she wants and doesn't have to care about people far away or younger finds helping future generations and people far away she'll never meet the best way to spend her precious time. Then sign up for a workshop to create as much meaning in your life.

753: Martin Doblmeier, part 2: Sabbath and Sustainability

April 17, 2024

A blackout struck New York City and a large part of the U.S. northeast in 2003. It happened only two years after 9/11. How could we not first wonder if it was terrorism. I had been at work at the time. After waiting maybe an hour, we all walked down the stairs and went home. Phones worked for a while, so I called the woman I was dating and coordinated to meet at her place. I ended up hitch-hiking a ride there.

The people who gave me the ride were having a great time. In a big van, they were picking up people here and there, navigating intersections with no traffic lights. We all had a great time, which continued when I reached my girlfriend's place. Later I heard of people dancing around bonfires and so on.

For months afterward, when we saw someone we hadn't seen since the blackout, we asked each other's blackout experience. I soon noticed that nearly everyone enjoyed themselves.

At first I thought it odd, since we suspected terrorism at first. After a while, I realized technology wasn't the unalloyed good I had thought it was. I started telling friends I was thinking about taking time off from things that used power regularly. One person responded, "You know, orthodox Jews have been taking time off from technology every week for thousands of years."

Martin Doblmeier returns for a second conversation to talk about his latest movie, Sabbath, which explores the day of rest in culture. The movie explores several groups each of Protestants, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and secular communities. It covers history, stories, motivations, and many relevant viewpoints.

You'll hear me in the conversation considering how to manifest and explore this concept in my like. I predict you'll consider bringing more sabbath to your life. Since recording the conversation, I've been thinking about how to manifest some regular rest in my life, seeing if I can bring others in on it.

Whether you act or not, you'll appreciate how Martin's movie provokes introspection. How did most cultures lose this day of rest? At what cost did we lose it? Do we want to restore it?

752: Dave Kerpen, part 1: Delegation for leaders and entrepreneurs

April 15, 2024

Dave and I go back years, to when we both wrote columns at Inc. I'm surprised I didn't bring him on before. He helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and aspiring leaders develop social and emotional skills, as well as college students aspiring to internships.

We recorded now on the occasion of his new book, Get Over Yourself! How to Lead and Delegate Effectively for More Time, More Freedom, and More Success, on improving your skills working with others, like all his books. He shares stories of himself and clients, often personal, leading to practical advice.

Sustainability requires changing American and global culture, which requires entrepreneurship and leadership.

Erica Frank, MD, MPH, FACPM; Nobel Peace Prize Holder

751: Erica Frank, part 1: Living More Joyfully Sustainably for Decades

April 10, 2024

I met Erica in a online meeting of academics who promote avoiding flying. A major perk for many academics is that universities pay for flying to academic conferences, for research, and for other academic reasons, of where there are many. In other words, they often fly for free. (As an aside, since academics learned about our environmental problems first, people flying free and often include many academics.)

I found her comments valid, including a criticism of something I said, so contacted her afterward and invited her to the podcast. I also think people who hold Nobel Prizes are more influential than those who don't, in general, and a goal for this podcast is to bring the most influential people.

The conversation was fun and a blast! She does more than research and promote less flying. She lived off-grid long before I started, for example, something we could bond on.

More than any actions, I found her tone and attitude engaging and infectious. She enjoys living more sustainably. Most of the world acts like each step of living more sustainably means more deprivation and sacrifice. What do you know, they haven't tried it. Erica has, and found joy and liberation as I did.

She is a role model. We can all enjoy sustainability as much as her and more than we enjoy life now, twisted up inside knowing we're hurting people (and wildlife). Enjoy our conversation. Join the club of living joyfully sustainably.

750: Alden Wicker: To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Poisoning Us. You'll Be Shocked

March 20, 2024

Since recording this conversation, I've mentioned to a lot of people, "you wouldn't believe the situation with dyes and poisons in our clothes."

The most common response has been something like, "Oh yeah, I've heard. It's terrible."

Then I share some of what Alden shares in this conversation and they say, "Wow, I didn't realize it was that serious," and become very interested to learn more.

Our clothing touches us intimately. Microfibers enter our lungs. Our children, everyone is affected.

You'll value learning from Alden in this conversation, then reading her book To Dye For, then acting personally, then acting politically.

749: Sven Gierlinger, part 1: Changing the Culture of a New York Hospital Chain as a Chief Experience Officer

March 14, 2024

I heard about Sven through the articles below about the cultural change at Northwell, a chain of hospitals around New York City.

I recommend reading the Post article before listening to this episode. It may read overly positive about the food, but Sven and I ate just after recording at the hospital the regular food they serve patients. It was incredible. I would never have dreamed food at a hospital could taste so good and look so appealing. I figured American hospitals had just capitulated and converted to doof.

From a leadership perspective, I'm most interested in the processes and people behind changing a culture. Serving better food overlaps with the environment in that everyone knows and agrees high-quality food beats low-quality, especially at a hospital, and everyone knows clean air beats polluted air, but we created a culture that makes low quality hospital food and polluted air normal. Sven helped turn around a system and not just any system. Hospitals handle life and death, face heavy regulation, include doctors with special needs, and more things that raise the stakes. He has to deal with people, technology, finances, and everything.

He seems to have succeeded. Can Sven be a role model for we who are trying to change global culture?

748: Stephen Broyles, part 2: A Calming, Life Change From One Small Commitment

March 12, 2024

About fifteen minutes into this conversation, it hit me how powerfully Stephen's commitment affected him. (Sorry I took so long to catch on, Stephen!) All he had to do was volunteer around a body of water.

His experience shows the impact of intrinsic motivation. Maybe observing and spending time by the water means as much to you as to Stephen. Maybe it doesn't mean that much to you. It means a lot to him. Things mean as much to you that may not mean as much to others, but acting on them becomes meaningful. That resonance what happened with Stephen, because he picked his commitment based on his connection to nature.

Wouldn't you love to be able to help others bring things they care about to their lives as Stephen does? You can, by learning the Spodek Method.

747: Go Alan Go!, part 1: The drummer rocking Washington Square Park

February 17, 2024

Regular listeners and blog readers know I talk about litter and how much we wreck nature, especially my neighborhood's back yard, Washington Square Park. Click the links below to see some of the worst litter you've seen, in a supposedly nice part of town.

Today the opposite: someone who brings joy, fun, creativity, music, and dancing to the park. Alan began playing drums in the park three years ago and he rocks the place. Click to watch this video of him in action, though when he plays different music, he creates different vibes, so the video shows only a tiny slice of that magic.

You wouldn't believe how much effort he needs to perform each time he plays. You also wouldn't believe how good playing makes him feel, and everyone else there too.

If I report the awful, I'll report the awesome. Feel inspired to bring value to your community, even if it isn't designed for profit, though you should donate to his funds since he's a street performer and can use your support (I'll post a link when I get it from him). If you have to work as much as him, you'll love it all the more!

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