When I first saw an Earthship on the Discovery Channel in the ‘90s, I immediately wanted to live in one. While I now recognize that there are some cons in addition to the pros, I am still inspired by the radical and thoughtful design toward net zero energy use and waste. And I was delighted to stay in one recently and learn more about it first-hand.
One of the two primary goals of our science road trip was to see the Trinity test site, where the first nuclear bomb was detonated. There’s no guarantee of getting in, which is why some enthusiastic travelers line up in their cars the night before. I believe this was the first occasion in my life that I waited in line overnight for anything.
Culture shapes us, and then we shape culture. The intervening time in between those things runs on the order of 30 years, which is often an explanation for reboots, revivals, and remakes of popular culture. The influence of the 1960s on the 1990s, and the 1990s on me was apparently very strong, which I realized this past fall when traveling in the Southwest.
It’s been a long year, and I was feeling too burned out for resolutions (of which I usually make at least 10). But what if I made a resolution to have more fun… and backed it up with my own data on how to do that… and employed a color-coded spreadsheet? I’m embarking on something I’ve never done before: committing to one single resolution.
We will soon have to replace our hot water heater, and I want to invest in something that will save energy and reduce our demand for fossil fuels, while also recognizing an inevitable shift toward home electrification. Initial and ongoing costs were a consideration in the debate between gas and electric models, meaning that this decision called for a comparative analysis. Spreadsheets were used.
My cohort of climate leaders has already met a few times to kick off our year together in the Indo-Pacific Leadership Lab. I am thrilled and honored to be part of such an incredible group of people, and I’m already wrestling with some difficult concepts – notably that I can’t solve climate change on my own, and that we won’t solve it in our lifetime.
The growing use of semaglutide drugs for people who don’t medically need them is causing harm to people who do but also ripples across the business world, with risks and surprising benefits projected in different sectors. Ultimately we need to ask ourselves why weight loss is the goal – and whether thinness is worth the cost: our money, our health, or someone else’s health.
I’ve had several friends comment on this series (publicly and privately), reminding me that body image issues are more widespread than many of us realize. In our quest for thinness over health, we turn to fad diets and products to help us feel better about ourselves. And that desperation among people who don’t really need to lose weight is causing problems for people who really do.
I wrestled with some negative feelings when reading the book Fat Talk, and I wanted to understand the source of those reactions. I’ve since participated in a group discussion, some supplementary research, and a lot of reflection and writing. In the end, I think my disconnect is ultimately related less to my own biases and more to some of the concepts being presented in absolutes.
It goes without saying that parents want what’s best for their kids, but who decides what “best” is or the best way of achieving it? Mealtimes are dreaded in many households because of the potential for fights over what and how much needs to be consumed. And even the healthiest home environments don’t make kids immune to external standards and value judgments related to weight.