Tell Me What You Want from Sustain What in 2025

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I hope you all are able to find some time for slow breathing and reflection in the last days of 2024, given the turbulence ahead. (See posts here and here.) It’d be great to be like our newly adopted dogs, just marvelling at fresh snow or whatever each new day brings, as in this magical moment after the latest Alberta clipper here in Downeast Maine:

But our human brains make that nearly impossible, as I mused here. We’re burdened with awareness of finite futures - a burden I explored back in 2020 in an amazing conversation on “terror management theory.” If time’s limited, just watch this section, in which Skidmore psychologist Sheldon Solomon describes sobering experiments he and others conducted revealing how such deep feelings and awareness shape our choices (including choices that led to the first Trump administration):

To sustain myself, I’ve increasingly tried to balance my journalism and conversation wrangling with my songwriting and performing, which I no longer see as a sideline and instead see as a vital counterpoint to my work digging in on tough sustainability questions in my webcasts and posts.

In music and the rest of life, collaboration is key

I love songwriting, but I really love playing with other musicians to build out barebones ideas into rich layered compositions. Here’s an example, in which I brought a simple guitar piece I composed in November to an Irish jam at our local cidery. A duo I’d seen perform at another Irish session, Jo and Chris Bergeron, were there with their fiddle and Irish drum (the bodhrán). A pianist, Sky Kust, was also on hand. I asked if I might play the tune and have them join in. I just loved the result (which remains a work in progress). I call it November Farewell.

And that brings me to my ask from you. I would love it if you become more involved in the dynamics of Sustain What. What confuses you, worries you? If you have ideas you want to present here, join the party by emailing me at revkin@substack.com with a pitch for a Sustain What conversation or a guest post.

Since I started this project as a live webcast in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and through the transition to Meta’s shortlived Bulletin platform and - two years ago - Substack, I’ve focused on conversation more than exposition.

That was actually true through my second decade at The New York Times. From 2007 through 2016 my Dot Earth blog was an exchange with readers - a dramatic contrast to conventional newspaper output, which is mostly unidirectional. You can learn about that in this Dot Earth explainer I wrote for The Times in my final months there (gift link; please do read it; Substack data show hardly anyone clicks on links in posts).

Read my 2016 article explaining Dot Earth

Please weigh in in the open comments below (normally restricted to subscribers who make financial contributions) with questions or critiques and I’ll do my best to address them.

Life is a band

I actually have a song that’s been simmering on a far back burner for years called “Life is a Band” that explores how collaboration and creative exchange almost always produce the best result - whether in music or forging energy policy or community reslience - or building a solution hub identifying paths to impact in times like these.

Yours sincerely,

Andy