Page 19 Thinking, Book Clubs, Resources, Who We'd Give a Book To, & the Magic of Connecting to the Earth

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[00:00:48] Tonya: my name is Tonya Downing and I am a digital strategist from Durham, North Carolina. When I did on the project, was try to jump in and fill gaps where I saw a need. And I ended up doing some writing, copy editing, data visualization. Did some infographic design, and pretty much just like lived and breathed the Almanac and tried to find like sparklers on a day-to-day basis.

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[00:01:47] Anne Marie: I signed up for the carbon Almanac probably for the same reason that a lot of people did because Seth Godin was writing about it. And. I find anything that he writes about immediately. Interesting. But I also knew that because I have, years of magazine experience and writing and editing experience that there was a decent chance that I would have a lot to contribute.

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[00:03:16] Leah: I'm a little bit of the odd man out because I am a voracious consumer of information, I wasn't that familiar with Seth's work before the project. So I have a long history of involvement in the environmental movement. My mom was an environmental organizer in Florida, my whole life growing up. She published in environmental newspaper and in law school, I was an editor at ecology law quarterly. And so, I'm an environmentalist, I'll claim that title is like as fraut is as it is. And, definitely see the climate crisis as, as the existential crisis at this age. Right?

Like this is what we all need to be working on every day in whatever small way that we can. And while professionally, I'm not an environmental organizer. Professionally I'm a librarian. I was really excited at the opportunity to contribute to getting the word out to people for whom this isn't necessarily on their radar every single day.

I think that's the work of the moment. That's the work that needs to be done now. There've been so many interesting parts of working on this project. And even Seth says that he's never run a project quite like this before. Where there are no leaders, there's only people who lead. Law, academia, they're super structured and they're super hierarchical. and it's been really, really interesting figuring out how to swim in this really amorphous space that he's created. It's been really, really, really rewarding.

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[00:05:14] Anne Marie: Yes. I'm glad that we have brought that up because it wasn't the only thing, like if Seth had said I'm doing a book on crypto, I'd be like, Nope, Nope. And right outta here or whatever. Like if he was doing an Almanac about the history of whatever, but I definitely have struggled with climate anxiety and the sense of, I'm like bathing less to save water and I'm, trying to save every scrap of plastic so that we could drive it to the store because no one around here recycles plastic bags. So I've been trying to do all the like incremental. Please help this have some effect on the planet. And when I was given the opportunity to do something with a much larger impact. And then ironically, of course, the first, very first thing I learned about climate change and our attempts to fight it while working on the Almanac was, oh, plastic recycling is a complete lie. And I was like, oh, so yes, I would have considered myself such. And I've done things like phone bank for the non-partisan project, environmental voter project, where you call people who care about the environment, but are low voter turnout people. So I've definitely done stuff like that. And, I was just so grateful to be able to like wrap my arms around a bigger effort around mobilizing people.

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[00:06:51] Tonya: I would say, definitely cared about the climate crisis a lot, but felt, kind of fell into that category. Feeling overwhelmed and just kind of like, I didn't know what to do to affect change to really help in whatever small way I could. I think I kind of always knew that things like recycling and, just the small day-to-day things that we do, weren't going to necessarily be enough. So I always kind of looked to the political level and tried to vote in the right people. So, yeah, I think that I was an environmentalist, but working on the project has really kept it top of mind. And it's given me, just a better way to think about it, a more helpful way to think about it so that it's not completely overwhelming. And I know better what to focus on

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[00:08:05] Anne Marie: The number one takeaway that I've had from working on the Carbon Almanac is Seth's statement that none of us feel equipped to write page 19. Therefore we all need to be able to take that leap of faith that we can write page 19. Otherwise the Almanac doesn't get written. So at first, when I volunteered, I was like, oh, I guess I'll be giving two hours a week to maybe do some copy editing because I stopped doing magazine editing because I was so sort of ground down to a fine paste and I didn't think I'd be able to muster the energy to work on this. But once I saw the flat structure across that anybody who wanted to could just grab the reins and take on a project and also that people were being so, kind and respectful and direct. It made it so much easier to be energized by the project instead of drained. At first, I was very hesitant to say, I'd like to developmental edit some of this stuff because it felt like because I had come in a couple months behind everyone else that there was some secret unstated structure. But once I realized that wasn't the case, and then everybody was just trying to sort of do what Tonya was saying, which is fill in the gaps where needed that's when I was like, okay, you know what, now I'm just going to start doing this. And once I started doing that, I'm like, oh, this is actually coming easy to me. And then once the book was put to bed from an edit standpoint, I kind of was just lurking around for the promo part and would be weighing in here and there. I set up a little slack for us to take climate action, separate from the Almanac, not realizing that all of our efforts are going to be needed for the promotional and distribution part.

Seth invited me to lead one of the promotion pillars and I was stressing out cause I was like, oh, I don't want to fail at this. So I had a little like moment of crisis where I'm like, maybe I'll take the smallest piece, an, I wrote out like eventually, the sort of pros and cons and one of the things that came up as I was writing it out was am I waiting for someone to give me permission to lead?

And I was like, I'm going to give myself permission. So I took the biggest thing that was left on the board, which is partnerships. And I was terrified, but I was like, even if it's going to be totally stressful, I know I can do it. The thing that surprised me is that it's been so easy. Not easy in terms of the amount of workload, but in terms of like how delightful and joyful I've been finding, connecting the dots for the team and like kind of helping people to navigate what the next steps are. It's just been so, so fun. And I'm like, wait a minute. I would've never done this. If somebody hadn't said, Hey, I see you. Why don't you give it a shot? And I'm so, so grateful for that.

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[00:11:25] Tonya: I felt like I was outside of my comfort zone at every single turn working on this project. I think maybe generally in life, I just feel that way. I'm very scared person. I'm trying to, still engage in life and do things, even though I am scared all the time. Um, but I think on the project, especially just because I didn't feel like I had a specific skillset to offer. I felt like I'm more. like a tenacity or like a motivation to learn and I just tried to jump in where I could. I think collaboration is the best way of doing things, but it's not always encouraged in settings like this. There is more of a like systemized hierarchy and here working on the project, it just kind of was a free for all and people could step into roles and, try new things. And so it definitely lent itself to being the most collaborative project I've ever worked. And I think that that's really when the good stuff happens, when lots of voices get to be heard and we all get to make each other's stuff better.

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I just want to echo what Ann Marie said about the spirit of collaboration, the no ego and the, let me volunteer and let me help you spirit that. I think Seth and Louise get a ton of credit for creating, made me less afraid to step up to take projects on, because I knew that. 10 people would step up to be like, let me help you with this. So at no point, did I ever feel like, oh no, I'm doing this all on my own. I always felt I had this amazing team of people who are supporting me and backing me to make this happen. And, um, I think there's a larger lesson to take from that. Like, that's, that's really important as we think about how do we move forward with this whole movement.

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[00:14:41] Tonya: There've been tons of moments that have been memorable, funny, and uplifting. It's hard to pick, this one's going to sound pretty cheesy, but it's true. I think finding people like you, um, that I really enjoy working with, really kind of understand in terms of like process and how you work. And I just feel like finding people you really click with has been so rewarding and feels bigger, Bigger than any project. And I remember you saying to me at the start, when I was feeling really overwhelmed and not sure how to do discourse and where I fit and stuff. I just remember you saying that, that's kind of the point and to find your people and to, kinda tackle things together.

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[00:15:36] Tonya: I feel like there's so much energy in the youth, you know, like it sound like such an old lady saying that, but I think it's true. Grace was great. She was surprising just in how much she knew for being such a small person. She, I mean, it's like she was addressing all the topics we wanted to address on the carbon Almanac, but from this very direct, childlike or child's perspective, But it was really incredible to see, and it, it felt like we have a lot to learn, from kids and just the way that they communicate and their directness is really nice and refreshing. I am so excited about the kids' parts. I think the kids ebook is just. Hands down, like the coolest thing I've ever seen. And just to see it grow from being this, like, I don't know, 14, 20 page PDF to this beautiful. I mean, I feel like it should be published. It's just fantastic. I definitely, I think giving the younger ones tools to, and kind of normalizing talking about. The climate crisis will help to make it less scary for them growing up. They don't get a choice like this is their reality. And so maybe starting the conversation, in a gentle way, when they're younger will help kind of normalize it and get it into the day to day conversation more.

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with the stories that people were sharing about their small moments with nature like Leah and the little fat bumblebee, but, in her garden. There was a sense of being reminded that connecting to the earth in a tangible, physical way by being outdoors and just quietly observing some piece of nature. Great for replenishing our energy around this work. And it's also a great reminder of why we're doing the work in the first place, so that I actually did go and tell other people. And it's why I started a thread in discourse about, here's a place where we can share little moments with nature. And then I also started it with my creative mastermind group from one of Seth's creative's workshops.

And it's been something that's even if it's not attended to on a daily basis, when people do post people just feel really kind of like they can take a relaxing breath.

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[00:18:55] Leah: Yeah, I loved, Our book group I would love to do a podcast of our book group. I think that like, we should totally run that down and make that happen. Both braiding Sweetgrass was really good for me and I discussion of reading the sweet grass was really good for me. Right. We worked primarily in discourse, and notion, which as Tonya mentioned, are asynchronous text-only platforms. And while I did feel like I got to know people really well, just over the work, there was something really special about connecting with these beautiful women in a more, personal relational way that wasn't on a specific topic.

It felt super nourishing, right? I think that's what Ann Marie is getting to, is that it felt, it felt really nourishing to have that. And to touch back into your previous question about, was there a part of this project. Sort of made us want to tell our friends or really brought a smile to our face, Louise organized in this way to go Wednesdays, which I'm a pretty cynical person. I'm also like a very, like, get the work done full steam ahead. Of course you're going to be excellent, like work hard and just keep moving forward and, and not necessarily stopping them, reflecting on what's being accomplished. Consistently every Wednesday, those way to go Wednesdays brought such a smile to my face and kind of like put a path in my step all day long. And I was like, look at all of these people. So often people I'm not interacting with at all. I don't know anything about these people on the project and they're doing all of these amazing things and this feeling of the power of collective action. Right. And seeing all of this great work that was being done on the project, it really filled me with hope, right.

I was like, wow, this is great. So it's a small thing, but I feel like it made a huge, a huge difference both to the project and to my overall outlook on where we're going with this. There are all of these people that care and who I don't necessarily know, but who were in all of their different corners of the world, right? I mean, that's part of the thing of having like 41 countries represented, right? It's like, oh, there's all these people all over the world that I don't know that are working hard on this too. And that felt really inspired.

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[00:21:38] Anne Marie: All we can save.

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[00:21:42] Anne Marie: There are a lot of people would say who suggested it because it was on our resource list that Leah and I worked together on, for the Almanac. And it just because it was written by 30 women and edited by two women, it just felt like the next logical thing. It covers everything. And as Tonya said, it, it does bring emotion back into the conversation about climate change.

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[00:22:32] Leah: I'm going to jump all over this

plug the resources section of the Almanac. So the Almanac has a lot of really useful sections of it. I feel particularly proud and passionate of the resources section. Um, and one of the things that you will find there is a read, listen, do this, right? So there's, um, a bibliography, not every book in the world, right.

The people who volunteered on the Almanac came together and crowdsourced a list of the books that inspired them to take action. Books, movies, uh, lectures, other podcasts that, they found inspiring, including an incredible podcast by Jennifer Chua so this is a really terrific place for people to start. There's fiction books, there's non-fiction books, there's poetry. And so I think there's a lot of, doors available to people to find a way to learn more and to get involved and to educate others that feel. Accessible and, and Ann Marie did a knockout stand up job of adding the the bibliography, the read, listen do section of it.

And there's really something there for everybody. So no matter what kind of book group you are, the president of there's a book on our list for you, even if it's a movie club that you do. So yes. Use it. Read it.

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[00:24:28] Leah: I'm going to push back on the foundation of that question to say, it's not the next generation that we need to get involved in this work. It's our generation. We need to get involved in this work. There's no kicking the can down the road. We need to do it right now. All of us, no matter what our age is.

We all know a lot about how bad single use plastic bottles are and we can individually say, okay, I'm not going to buy single use plastic bottles when I'm out and about, and that's important and it's a necessary part of creating the big systemic change.

And what we're seeing now, which is super exciting is. Single use water in aluminum bottles. And it's like, oh, this is possible. I just bought shampoo in an aluminum bottle and simple plastic bottle. And without my individual action of saying, I'm not gonna buy single use plastic bottles, we'd never get to the point where the manufacturers are like, oh, Hey, actually we can make aluminum bottles that people can use instead of plastic. And so both of those things are necessary. You need to care as an individual to create the momentum, to create the systemic change that is actually going to make a difference, the world.

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[00:25:57] Tonya: Books for mobilization. It's a great idea. It's a great tool. I love how Seth talked about the book as being the pit of the cherry and really kind of something to mobilize around rather than the end goal in itself. I've always known that, but just to hear that coming from somebody who's such a unaccomplished author is just great and refreshing, and I think it's so helpful for this project too. I think the goal is conversation and just the sheer number of us, kind of taking that idea with us, that it's a tool to create conversation rather than the stopping point or even just like, here's your toolkit and I'll go do stuff like it's, it's more than that. It's something to pass on to somebody else and to kind of spread the ideas that way.

I'm really excited about all the parts of promo. It's really hard to not get sucked into wanting to work on all of them. Just, it's very exciting, corporate strategy. There's a celebrity strategy. The podcasts are incredibly exciting and just so good. It makes me really proud to be working on them. I'm very excited about the tick-tock strategy. Just because I'm a bit of a contrarian and I wouldn't think of tick-tock like my knee-jerk reaction wouldn't be to go to tick-tock first when spreading these kinds of ideas, but I think it just is where a lot of younger, energetic folks are hanging out and it just is. It's where the conversation's happening. And so I really kinda love the juxtaposition of this, this topic that is bigger and heavier and really the conversation is shifting to include their voices. But I think most of us working on the Almanac are older than gen Z. And so it's just really exciting to, think about getting them involved in this way and really kind of asking for their help to spread the message on Tik TOK.

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So, you know, you could spend a book club on the book, the book content itself by just picking, okay, today, this month we're talking about this one page in the book. So I just wanted to give a shout out to that. And also side note. The other thing that I went and ran and told people was that Seth took the quarter million dollar plus book advance and poured it right back into the book.

Like if you need any other information, besides that, I don't know. What's a bigger endorsement than, you know, we are really, this is not a, um, It's the opposite of a money grab it's it's, uh, we're putting everything we can into trying to mobilize everyone else. So in terms of promo, I don't want to publicly say which names I want because I, some things are really in the works, actually.

We're really going after some huge, huge names and I don't want to jinx anything or, um, you know, but I will say if you think of the biggest name possible, you're probably right. That that's who I want.

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[00:30:07] Anne Marie: terms of the corporations, um, it was interesting because one of the things that I felt when we were first trying to get corporate partners and we didn't have anyone, there was the sense of. You know how much dancing I'd have to do, or any of us would have to do to get people on board. Because when you're looking at a blank page, it kind of kicks up a lot of stress and insecurity, but what I'm, so I'm delighted to find out is that, oh, it wasn't just us that believed that this book is amazing.

As soon as people start seeing the book and holding the book in their hands, or even just seeing Seth do a video presentation with some of the pages going by, people completely get it. And so all of our hard work, it shows up on every single page and it's made it so easy for companies like Amazon or McCann world group or the New York public library to be like, of course we're totally in. And that's been so gratifying.

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[00:31:26] Tonya: I have a list of people that I'm hoping we'll get their hands on a copy, I would say the Dalai Lama, but I think just somebody with a cult following that would take their opinion in regard it very highly and know that they've kind of vetted the source and done all that work on the front end so that they can take their recommendation take it seriously and, and share it with others. Let's see, David Lynch, Dolly Parton, tim Heidecker Chelsea handler, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Ilana Glazer. And these are just kind of people that I think aren't as obvious to, to maybe get a copy too. There's also. Climate scientists and stuff then probably should have this book.

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It's like, I want this in the hands of those sort of quiet mid-level people whose names I famous, but who can take their small action and that, that small action, right? Like grass or bamboo spreads and networks, it metastasizes. Right? To create this as systemic change that we need. I wanted to go into the hands of all of those people who think. Well, you know, I'm just the office manager for my building. Like what can I do? There's a ton that you can do and we need you to do it. And the book will tell you how to do it. And the book will tell you the information that you need to have in order to explain to your boss why you're spending an extra 75 cents to get recycled paper or whatever it is.

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And I think that's really important to know that all of us have the ability to create some change. And if that was an aha moment for me, I'd like to know if there was an aha moment for you either professionally or personally, or about climate and climate action. Has there been an aha moment for you working on this project?

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[00:35:27] Anne Marie: I mean, um, my aha moment I've mentioned before in part, because it really was about no one is authorized and no one is equipped to write patient 19. So using that as the philosophy behind every action that I've taken since then contributing to the carbon Almanac has meant that just because I haven't done it before, doesn't mean that I don't get to do it now.

And the other piece of it, which really stuck with me. To the extent that I pushed for, um, Seth and Nikki to include it in the promotion for the book was Seth's framing on about how we've been told this is a me problem, and it's not, it's a we problem. So now I just am seeing all of my environmental actions as who else can I get on board?

And how else can I use my network to amplify, whatever action I'm taking. And also just, I'm not taking action by myself anymore. It's like, okay, if I decide to do this, then I'm going to see if I could grab someone else to do it with me. And that will only make the action not only more powerful, but because now I have access to somebody else's brain around it.

They're going to have a zillion great suggestions that I would have never thought.

Yesterday, I said, Seth, can you handle creating this Google form? And then I was like, T like, I just asked them to make a Google form, but the other piece.

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[00:37:14] Anne Marie: Of course, he totally got it. And like in, in five minutes there it was. And I was like, yep, this is exactly why I asked him.

But the other piece of it is, as Leah was saying that, you know, it's, the work has changed our orientation to the world. And a piece of that is just how accessible people who I didn't think were accessible, could be. And part of it is just having the attitude shift of. Oh, I am not worthy to say something to this person.

And especially when you're leading the partnerships team where we're reaching out to the leadership teams of all these big companies, um, being, given the sort of mindset of, oh, I'm actually automatically appear. Like it's not because of my resume or whatever, because I have an important conversation that I'm inviting them to be a part of automatically makes me a peer.

And so, um, and that's only because Seth treated me like a peer and then I'm seeing other people in the network reaching out and just cold calling. Like Michel Porro just cold calling all these people. And my favorite is that his. You know, the reason I'm calling is because I didn't want you to look back two years from now and say, why did no one tell me this? And I'm like, that's genius. And also, so like, you know, disarming and only comes from a place where you already believe that no ones, you already believe in a flat, a leadership system.

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[00:38:59] Anne Marie: I'm grateful to have that.

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And then also just a willing to roll up his sleeves and do the groundwork of like, oh, this tedious task needs to be done. Like let me step in and, you know, get all muddy doing it. Um, yeah, they're just, there's a, there's a ton of respect for, um, both his ability to. Draw people to work on the project with him, but then there's a real ethic behind that of we're going to produce absolutely the best thing that we can. That is, um, yeah, I have a lot of respectful.

Going to retake the frame, right? Like where are we taking the frame? We're like this isn't the, this over here. This is the frame.

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[00:40:20] Jennifer: And I do keep saying that. I think that this project is a social experiment in its own because as Ann Marie said, you know, you can't write page 18, 19, sorry. As Ann Marie said, you know, you might not have what it takes in your mind right now to write page 19, but you can do it, but

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[00:40:54] Jennifer: but that thought is really that, although each one of us have the ability to take the action. And contribute in that way. None of us would have been able to write the Almanac on our own. None of us would have been able to create the impact that we were doing with the promo team on our own. And it's very much been that collaborative effort and that communication and all the things we just talked about. It's almost like the creating of the carbon Almanac and the creating of this movement is exactly mirroring that idea. Do you know what I mean?

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Like those, this huge team that will step up to support me. And all I have to do is say, um, here are the steps, here's the vision, here's the plan. And now you're, I think that what Seth created was the opportunity for people to step into what their heart was already calling them to. Um, and yeah, that lived experience is true. Just the profound.

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And I didn't think it would be because it's like I had to tap into my like seventh grade, you know, science project brain that I hadn't tapped into in 40 years. And it's like, oh, I can still read this stuff. I could still read like, you know, scientific abstracts. And it doesn't feel like, um, you know, eating castor oil. No, this is actually so, so fun and, and seeing other people get lit up and delighted and just running with the work is it's so fun. You know, like if you look at like what people are creating, and I'm glad that we have mentioned the fact that the way to go Wednesdays got us to all have an overview of what every single person was contributing in a huge way. It's unbelievable. Cause I'm like in my little silo and then suddenly I'm like, wait, there's four podcasts. Plus maybe now a book called podcasts question mark.

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[00:44:31] Tonya: I think though the entire crew is magic and I think it's, it's been fun to watch it shift and morph over time, but I think, yeah, there's definitely people on this team that have like the staying power and I could see. Kind of continually shifting and morphing over time I think that was a very exciting day when Seth offered for the contributors to invite some people, um, or a person, I, I felt like I had kind of this life-changing opportunity to give to somebody. Um, but also it was really hard to think of somebody that I wanted to. Invite. Cause I felt like if I could only, if I could find the right person that would take it seriously and really dive in and be committed. It's a big ask, but also such a huge opportunity for life-changing growth and just incredible. Ripple effect change. I think I was very excited to find somebody.

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[00:45:55] Tonya: yeah, that's, that's really what I felt like. I'm excited to see how people take this information and apply it to their own lives. It's a weird thought that discourse in our community there won't be around forever that the project will come to an end.

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And to say that is just such an understatement to say that this is only the beginning. This is just the spark that we're at now. So do I feel like we'll be having this conversation in a year for sure. In 20 years, maybe, maybe our book club turns into an international, who knows, who knows, where this may take us.

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And so, one of the refrains was like, we're kind of building the airplane while we fly it. And you know, it kind of like it just acknowledging, right? Like, okay, it's okay that we've been doing this thing this way for two weeks, we're going to change it now because we realized that we need a different rule or a different system around this. This is part of flying the airplane while you're building it. But now I feel like there's this sense of. Oh, we built an airplane. Like where are we gonna find it too? Like, why would you just land the airplane and walk away from it? And it's like, no, we built it. Let's really do something with it.

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[00:48:28] Leah: Which is like incorrect, like as a systems person, this is incredibly rewarding. You guys, right? Like, it's been really fun to, you know, to sort of say, okay, like, so this is a volunteer project. People come and go. We need a way to make sure that articles have continuous ownership, even as people come and go and to think about like, how do we create.

You know, it's like a hot potato in the hot potato game, or like somebody is holding the potato led all times and it's like, okay, how do you create that in this asynchronous completely digital environment? And then you experiment and you tweak and, and then you find something that works. And then all the new people who come in, they're like, oh, okay, this is the way it works.

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