YouSaid · the spoken record

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

lines on the record: 88
first: 2022-02-09
most recent: 2022-02-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“That we have at our fingertips. So, this visions of climate futurism. And I think that question is so powerful. Like, what if we get it right? Like, what if we do what we're supposed to do? Like, show me that it's worth the effort because it is effort and change is hard and humans are not often that into change. And so thinking about it through that lens, I find to be really energizing. What if we get it right, you guys? Like, wouldn't that be great? Like, don't you want to be a part of that? And so I'll be doing interviews as a big part of that book and I'm collaborating with artists. I have this very cool fellowship through the Headlands Center for the Arts to have artists help to visualize some of the themes that I'm working with. And so I would just encourage everyone to think about that question. What is the future that we want and how can you be part of shaping that as opposed to fighting the past?”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To be a part of this transformation that we need to have. And there's some comics and poems and stuff in there too. So it's a sort of works on whatever level you want to approach it with on a given day. And that I found really interesting to help to curate because I really see it as like 40 essays or 40 different doors into how we can participate in climate solutions. It's not just solar panels and electric cars, although I like both of those things. There's a lot more to this. And what I'm doing next, which I would say I guess like keep your eye out, is I'm going to stop doing interviews on other people's podcasts and write the book that I was supposed to write last year, which is tentatively titled What If We Get It Right? And it's entirely focused on talking about the futures that we could have if we charge ahead with all these solutions.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's also a website called Climate Base if you are inspired to look for a job more directly in the climate sector. That's a great list of job announcements there at Climatebase.org. Obviously, if folks are curious about all these podcast episodes, we're mentioning how to save a planet on Spotify. I miss that crew all the time. They are cranking them out and explaining stuff and telling us every week what we should do to help. And I guess I would say for those who have trouble seeing where they might fit into climate solutions, I know this is like kind of lame, but I would recommend the book that I co-edited with Dr. Catherine Wilkinson, which is called All We Can Save. And the subtitle is Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. So it's very forward-looking and it'll give you these examples of all these different ways that people have creatively found”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is like a question I should have an answer to, huh I mean, I sort of mention much of the stuff, right? Like environmental voter project, taking your role as a citizen seriously, thinking about Patagonia's action works to think about ways that you can volunteer using your specific skills.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it does, which was very stressful for me for a while because I was like, well, that's a lot of pressure. But turns out there's like a lot of different flowers and they're all beautiful and it's not this sort of singular thing. So now I'm cool with it.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be the full. Yeah, doctor Johnson, occasionally, I mean, you know, sometimes a little gravitas doesn't hurt when you're trying to get your opinions heard. But you may call me Ayana.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Getting diseases and you're putting antibiotics and like things to kill lice and all these chemicals and it's polluting the local environment and I don't really want to eat shrimp that's grown that way and then often in the processing side of things enslaved people are used to peel those shrimp if you get like pre-peeled frozen shrimp from Southeast Asia. I would not feel good about eating that for people or the planet. So that's why I'm like, eh, let's just stop with the shrimp. Unless it's like Oregon trap caught pink shrimp or like recirculating aquaculture Florida shrimp, right? Like, but those are sort of fancy and you'll know if that's what you're getting. I know it's a bummer. Shrimp cocktail, like very iconic, but they're also kind of like, yeah, let's move past it.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so the waste associated with that type of fishing is enormous. The habitat damage is really significant. And also often the labor practices on those boats are truly horrific. And then on the flip side, you can farm shrimp aquaculture in coastal ponds. And to do that, which is mostly happening in Southeast Asia, they're bulldozing the mangroves, which are ecosystems that absorb a lot of carbon and protect the shorelines from things like tsunamis after that big tsunami maybe 10 or 15 years ago, places that had intact mangroves actually did much better than places that didn't have a natural barrier left. And so you're bulldozing this ecosystem, which is also the habitat for all the juvenile fish that you would otherwise be catching offshore. Their nursery, and you're putting in these high density ponds of shrimp, and you're feeding them all those food and all the shrimp are pooping, and then they're all”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So shrimp, if there's one seafood, you should probably stop eating. It is the most popular seafood in America, which is shrimp, because there's basically like two ways that it gets to your plate and they're both horrible. There's very minor exceptions, but you'll know if you're part of the exception because you will be paying a lot of money for these very special shrimps. But in general, shrimp either comes from the wild ocean, in which case that there's a net that's dragged along the seafloor, and shrimp are pretty tiny, so it's a pretty fine mesh net, so it's catching like everything else that's there and sort of bulldozing.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so you can go to the website and search like buy the things that you're good at. Like I'm good at video editing. Okay, great. This nonprofit needs help making a video about installing bike lanes in the community. Or you're good at event planning and you're like, oh, this nonprofit's doing a thing. Like I could volunteer and help them do that. Or this other group needs help with their accounting. Like they just don't have that expertise in house and you're an accountant and you can help with that. So I think things like that that feel like specifically useful can often keep us going and you're contributing to something that's bigger and maybe you like working with those people. Maybe they're delightful.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do this with your homies. Like, do this with your family. Do this with your friends. Do this with your group texts. Like, find a thing that you all enjoy doing. And there's a very cool website that Patagonia made, full disclosure, I'm on their board. It's called ActionWorks. And it's what they call skill-based volunteering.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I get it. It's just like, it's this human behavior thing. And I've definitely like. Grumbled that if I wanted to be useful, I should have gotten a degree in psychology because this is all about how people make decisions and what motivates people. And like I'm not an expert in that. But I know that if we each do one little thing, we will not solve the entire climate crisis and prevent apocalypse. I agree. Right. And so figuring out like, that's why the Venn diagram is like, what brings you joy? Like, do that, do it more than once, you know? So I'm here for the delights and the positive reinforcement. And I would say that one way to make that happen is to not do it alone.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I will be so proud of you when you do that one thing. Imagine what happens when you do 10 things. How proud of you I will be.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I will say I appreciate the need for people to have a place to start, but I also object to the framing that there's the way people often ask me the question, which is like, what's one simple thing I can do to like save the planet? And I'm like, maybe like, what's the first thing you can do? So I think. Okay, shrimp. Here's the rundown.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of pesticides. Wheat is like one of the highest pesticide crops, you know. Glyphosate is super dangerous for your murdered beer before we got started.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I've hosted fundraisers where we've been able to like double the campaign budget of these local candidates to help them get their ideas and their platforms out so that more people will know what they stand for. To me, it makes it feel a lot more both possible and concrete to think about local elections. And there's an organization called Lead Locally that focuses on local candidates with great content platforms. So thinking about like who's running your port authority, who's running your railroad commission, who's running your school board, what are our kids getting taught about how we deal with these challenges? All of those positions really matter too because it's at the local level that these policies and solutions are often getting implemented. Like that's where the rubber meets the road.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I don't know how to deal with your allergy per se. I don't know. Take an antihistamine and just fucking jump in. Think it comes down to like choosing the thing that you care about, right? Like, we can't care about everything. And that's why environmental voter project for me is easy. Let's get people who already care, who are already registered to vote to get to the polls. I can do that. I can host phone banks. You could host a phone bank with me. Wouldn't that be a blast? You can tell people to volunteer. You just call your neighbors and be like, hey, we need you to vote, right? Like pick.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are funded. The citizens United Supreme Court case that allowed corporations to fund elections. Really weakened our democracy dramatically. So like, I know it's sort of well card, but like overturn citizens united would be like a great step to climate policy in America because we wouldn't have the Chamber of Commerce and all of these fossil fuel companies and pipeline companies able to literally pay for elections, which is super dangerous. I can't compete with that. So I think just safeguarding our electoral process on the campaign finance side and on the voting rights side are really key.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“1%, like a few hundred people in some cases, so getting people to actually go and use their right to vote is super critical. So those are the things that are on my mind now because they're also like, we're coming up on midterm elections and making sure that we make it clear to politicians that we actually, we want you to have a good climate policy platform. We need you to protect your constituents in every state we're dealing with really wild, extreme weather events from landslides to wildfires to floods to droughts to hurricanes to tornadoes out of nowhere to fire tornadoes. I mean, it's crazy. And so this is not a partisan issue. This is about doing your job and protecting your constituents. But I hear you that like if they don't feel that their re-election is at risk, it doesn't matter. And so we need to protect voting rights. And we also need to think about how elections”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Skewed, and so that is something people I think don't think about enough that like saving the structure of our democracy of representative democracy of the electoral process is actually really critical because we already do have the numbers, but we're losing because of that. And one of the organizations that I'm completely enamored with that is doing work along these lines is called the Environmental Voter Project. And what they've identified is that there are 10 million, 16 million sometimes environmentalists, self-described, who have, you know, environment as their number one issue, who are already registered to vote and who do not go to the polls. That is the lowest hanging fruit, right? Already registered, already care, need to get them out to vote. And so I volunteer with that organization and serve on their advisory board because we know how close these elections are.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We need to protect voting rights. The majority of Americans understand that climate change is a massive problem. It's only nine percent of Americans who are full-blown climate science deniers. We have the largest percentage of Americans ever now who are like deeply alarmed about the climate crisis. It's about a third. It's not about getting, you know, and then there's like alarm, there's concern, there's like all these different levels, but it's like the vast majority of Americans are like, holy shit, climate change, what are we going to do? And so it's not that we don't have the constituency for it. It's that have you seen the shape of these ridiculous congressional districts the way that they're gerrymandered that they don't actually reflect communities, that they're just designed to elect a specific party, the voter registration laws, the way they're purging the voter roles, the way they're requiring all these more forms of identification. So passing the Voting Rights Act, passing voter protections more generally, is actually a really important step because our voices can't be heard as citizens if we can't elect the people who share our views because the system is so”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have a lot of power in that context. And so seeing people feel like that actually mattered is a way to leverage your power as a citizen. And then we also had a lot of people after the electric car episode. Call to action at the end of every episode, whether it's like try out some seaweed recipes or call your senator. Hopefully there's sort of something for everyone.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Offering specific talking points, this is not partisan. This is just like, we need the federal government to do its part in jumpstarting this transition, just as they did with innovating the internet or funding Tesla to get started. The government funds a lot of really important early stage stuff in R&D and jump starts it. So we had a ton of people calling in, which matters because very few people actually pick up the phone and call their representatives. I'm super, super wussy about it for some reason, even though I know you can call after hours and just leave a voicemail. I still get like really nervous. But because so few people call, your call has outsized weight. They have to log every call from their constituents. If they get 10 calls on anything, they're like, what is our position on this? And they have to develop one. They have to be able to answer to people who elected them. They assume 10 people didn't call who feel the same way. So your voice actually does.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For a bunch of episodes, we had the same call to action, which was call your members of Congress because This is our chance to pass federal climate policy through the combination of the infrastructure bill, which did pass and had some climate measures in it, and the Build Back Better Plan, which has like way more in terms of the energy transition, supporting the shift to electric cars, all sorts of infrastructure and federal related things that we need to see happen. We encourage people to call their members of Congress and say, like, we actually, I support this. I think we should have good climate policy in America. I think we should have a civilian climate corps that puts Americans to work restoring and protecting our ecosystems and building physically this transition. I think we should have offshore wind energy in this country. We've got a lot of ocean, we've got a lot of wind, and I think we should have 100% clean electricity by 2035, which is the goal. We can get there, but we got to get it going. And so encouraging people.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is a question I would love to be able to answer quantitatively, but I can't. I don't think there's robust tracking of who's clicking what and taking what actions afterwards. I sort of like wanted there to be a whole dashboard built out and the whole thing. I did not get my wish. And I also had myself taken off the email distribution for all incoming listener mail because it was just too much. So I don't even have sort of like a firm qualitative grasp after the first few episodes. But I think”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do listen to them all after, and I do a game tape thing. I'm like, how could I have done that better? How could that joke have landed? You do. Oh, yeah. Are you serious? Absolutely. Everyone has a learning experience.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Obviously no good for many reasons. So I think we could be a bit more hedonistic about why we should do something to preserve our Dionysian pleasures in the world.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the other side, just the joy of nature, like the ability to go for a hike, the ability to enjoy springtime, the ability to be outside in the summer and not melt, the ability to go skiing, the ability to go scuba diving on a coral reef, all these pleasures that exist because nature has been relatively stable for a long time. Like I would love to go skiing this winter in driving distance of New York City, but not looking really good right now for snow. And so thinking about it from not just self-interest or financial gain, which there are plenty of arguments for that as well, but thinking about it from the things that we love to do in the world being all at risk. I mean coffee, chocolate, wine, all of this is getting turned upside down by the changes in our climate that we can't grow these things as well anymore. Wildfires in Napa.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That don't exist. Like, we just do not have to live this way on this planet. And so I wish that people would talk a little bit more about that. And it's the same for thinking about our naval bases all on the coast, all at risk of sea level rise and storms. We have, you know, in Norfolk, Virginia, the big base there, access is cut off during high rains, the street floods because of sea level rise, right? And so that is absolutely a national security and safety issue. There's a lot of stuff on that side that I wish more people would appreciate if we're going to say support our troops. That means we have to deal with climate change. I think”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Renewable energies. And I think we don't understand that like, you know, military convoys, like so many of them are actually just transporting fuel for military operations. And that's what's getting bombed, right? Like it is putting our soldiers at risk, this dependence. It is creating wars in places where the weather patterns have changed so dramatically that there is famine that leads to unrest, that leads to violence and leads to the United States getting involved, right? Like this is a national security issue. This is the safety of our military issue. And so in some senses, the military has the foresight to say like, climate change is absolutely happening. How are we going to plan for this? They are taking steps to think through a lot of those practicalities, but this is, it is extremely disrespectful of our troops to be putting people in harm's way for reasons.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One that comes to mind because you use this example of veterans is the immense risk that our dependence on fossil fuels places on our armed forces, our military. We are literally fighting wars for oil. We would not have to do that. All those lives would be saved if we were just using sunshine and wind instead or geothermal or whatever magical fusion thing you think will happen soon. Hold on, don't put words in my mouth.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Anxiety inducing for anyone who's been trying to communicate on climate for years. Piece of cinema, and the point was to spark more conversation on climate and do it in a way that uses humor. So when you said you appreciated how to save a planet, which the podcast I co-created because it was funny, at least to you, I really appreciated that because I think we need more climate media that is humor because humor quantitatively we know is a way to like have people open their minds to new ideas right when you're laughing you're not fighting you're you're able to listen it helps you let your guard down it helps you like be in community with people in a different way and so i actually just released an op-ed today co-authored with the director the title is why are secret weapon against the climate crisis could be humor”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Adam McKay directed at this new film he directed like I don't know Vice and it was done Saturday Night Live he's a he's a comedy writer and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence and all these other it's star setted Meryl Streep and Tyler Perry and all these folks and it's basically like a satire or a parable where this comet is coming to hit the earth And we sort of ignore it. And there's this whole campaign. This is don't look up. And like Merrill Street placed the president and she's more worried about getting votes than about like deflecting this comment from like ruining all life on Earth and some technologist is like, wait, we could just mine the comet. Like, let's not deflect it. And all of this stuff, right? It is this like.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you're right that for so many of the solutions that we have, they are better jobs, they result in cleaner water, cleaner air, things are just more beautiful and green and we can still make plenty of money. It's just a better world full stop on all these different levels. And so you can actually, in many cases, take climate out of the equation because fossil fuels are bad for our health, right? They are so bad for maternal health, right? It is really dangerous for babies to be exposed to all these toxins. We know that there's like socio like birth weight and birth defects and all of these other problems. Not to mention what's happening in coal mining communities with public health and black lung and all of these things and the pollution of the waterways and the loss of ecosystems. So I think”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Contributing to the changes that we need to see, and honestly, it's stuff that would need to happen even if climate change weren't a problem. Because burning coal is really bad for our health and it's bad for the planet even if it didn't change the climate because fast fashion is really dangerous for people and the planet in other ways, it's toxic and bad for workers, right? Like it's not a good thing anyway eating industrial food full of pesticides is not good for us anyway and it's not good for the planet or the climate and so”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Collection of 40 or so essays by women leading on climate work. And to see side by side an essay by a woman who led the Beyond Cole campaign at the Sierra Club, which has effectively shut down over 300 coal-fired power plants in the US in the last decade. This is not peanuts. This is the transformation, right? To that side-by-side with a supermodel writing about how the fashion industry is part of the problem and an artist writing about how she's part of the solution and a landscape architect talking about how we're going to protect coastal cities by replanting more oysters and thinking about how we design our coastlines differently, right? Having a farmer tell the stories of how they've shifted their practices and our training the next generation. All of these are super interesting and like I haven't said climate once, right? Like it's about this like cool work that people are doing that”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm into it. I think the highlighting people doing the work is interesting because in many cases it's so surprising because people don't think about the full spectrum of ways you can be a part of the solution. So showing like, oh no, you can be like a tycoon and do this. You can be a tech nerd and do this. You can be a technologist and do this. You can be a health nut and do this. Like whatever is your thing, we need you. And I think that's really exciting. That's actually the same approach that we took with the anthology that I co-edited, All We Can Save, which is this.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very good, and their new version, the drawdown review, available for free online, I can share the link with you, is wonderful. And the graphic design makes everything super clear.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And my friend Boris was like, Well, should we just go to more marches? I brought him to a climate protest. He was like, do we just do this again next week? I was like, no, go change your company. Like, you're an executive at Betterment. And nine months later, he launched their sustainable investing fund, which is much more powerful. I don't care if he ever goes to a march again, because that doesn't matter because he has this much greater ability to make change where he already is. So what are you going to do, Tim? Tell us about your Venn diagram.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But this is the work of our lifetimes. And it's like this whole transformation. So if we could pick between doing anything and transforming any sector, like pick something that you can keep working on for a while that will energize you and you want to bring other people in. And so finding our way to the epicenter, each of us, of our personal version of that Venn diagram can be really powerful. So for example, I, as a marine biologist and a kid who grew up in Brooklyn, a coastal city, and a policy nerd who loves thinking about design, I co-founded a think tank for the future of coastal cities. Because I was like, this is what I'm good about and know about and care about and excited about. So let's just mash all that up together and see like how we can help coastal cities change their policies in order to adapt to the climate changes that are coming.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everyone finding their sort of bespoke role in climate solutions is this Venn diagram of just three circles. The first one is what are you good at? What superpowers, what skills are you bringing to the table? Your network, your resources, what you got. And then the next circle would be what part of this transformation do you want to work on, right? Are you really excited about seaweed? Are you really excited about offshore wind farms? Are you really excited about bike lanes or composting or political change or cultural shifts like whatever is the piece? Like there are so many pieces to this puzzle and no one can do them all. So just which ones are you picking? And then the third circle is what brings you joy. So what gets you out of bed in the morning? Because so often people assume that this work has to be miserable in some sort of slog.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we did this whole episode called Is Your Carbon Footprint BS talking about this debate between I hoped you would like that one, this debate between two siblings who one was like individual actions matter and the other one was like no only this big level systems change stuff matters and the answer that we landed on is that your individual actions matter in so much as they contribute to larger scale change and the way that I think about”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because it was asking everyone to do the same thing. We still fall into this trap, right? Like, everybody spread the word, everybody march, everyone donate, everyone vote. And we should do all those things, of course. But if you and I were both doing the same exact thing to contribute to climate solutions, that would be a total waste of both of our time, right? Like we should do the things we're good at. And so the way that I think about it, and we sort of went into this sort of debate between individual behavior change where it does all add up if we all change our diets, if we all change our transportation, if we all change our electricity, that does add up to something, but they're counting on individuals to change things that need whole systems to change. I don't get to choose where my electricity comes from when I turn on my lights in this apartment building per se. So we need to make the system make other things possible in terms of energy, for example.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say don't think about it as a side thing. Think about how this is part of your life already. And so I think often people think, I want to help on some environment thing. They're like, do I go volunteer for a nonprofit? Do I quit my job and like go do this entirely other thing? When the answer is often change your company, change your sports team, change your church, figure out how to put the things you're already a part of where you already have influence and leverage, change those things as opposed to trying to like, I don't know, do some entirely new thing that you have no network in or power in. This idea of power mapping, of figuring out where you actually have the ability to make change, I think is a really important step. And this sort of, I think, in many ways, the environmental movement had like a real problem.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That the word transformation both is appropriate to the scale of what needs to happen but also a bit more welcoming because it implies that we can still sort of shape the future that we want, which is true.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The word I've been using a lot is transformation. Because that's, I feel like the most embraceable word I can think of that indicates just how much things have to change. We're not talking about tweaking little things, tweaks in policy, tweaks in behavior, tweaks in corporate practices. We're talking about transforming our energy system, food system, transportation manufacturing buildings, all of it. And when you think about the climate challenge in those terms, there is a place for everybody in working towards these solutions, in figuring out this green transition or this transformation, because no matter where you work, your company needs to be a part of this. No matter where you live, your community needs to be prepared for this, no matter what skills you have, believe me they are necessary. And so I think of that as”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They doubtly popularized it and trade upon it and try to make it seem like this whole thing is our fault. I'm not sure if they actually coined the term.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That would actually be a former Republican congressman and his son talking about how their perspectives on climate have evolved and how the sun and his sisters played a big role in shifting his father's perspective and how they're working With Republicans on trying to get climate policy and sort of awareness passed, because it doesn't need to be a partisan issue, like we can all care about maintaining a habitable planet”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, the other episode I thought once you gave me that hot tip was that you chose the one where we discussed how to have conversations about Climate change with climate science deniers, the trying to talk to family about climate change. Question mark here's how episode.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm so glad. That's a very good because I have a crush on seaweed and Bren Smith, the fisherman who's now an ocean farmer, is a wonderful human being. And I love his organization, Greenwave, which is training people to become ocean farmers and doing all this great work. I'm so enamored with the whole thing that I joined their board and I'm like saying no to everyone constantly. So that's how big a fan I am of that work.”
2022-02-09 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #570: Marine Biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on How to Catalyze Change with Awe and Wonder, How to Save the Planet, Finding Your Unique Venn Diagram of Strength, and Seeking the Minimum Effective Dose · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT