This month, Scene Magazine – Silicon Valley’s Guide to Style, featured a four page story by Julia Prodis Sulek all about Fresh Dialogues. Here’s a short excerpt of the article below – click here to see more
Alison van Diggelen coaxes thinkers, activists and the merely famous to talk about green tech – and themselves
“Martin Sheen sends her old-fashioned handwritten letters. Maureen Dowd has invited her out for cocktails in Washington D.C. Marketing guru Guy Kawasaki sought her help with a few edits on his new book.
One time real estate investment consultant and mummy blogger Alison van Diggelen has remade herself into a citizen journalist, interviewing celebrities, Silicon Valley pioneers and the media elite in her fledgling video webcasts she calls “Fresh Dialogues.” Along the way, she also has established herself as a master networker and relationship builder, counting TV interviewer Charlie Rose and KQED’s Michael Krasny among her mentors.
For interview subjects jaded by “gotcha” journalism, they’re drawn in by her gentle charm and enchanting Scottish brogue.
“The relationship between a journalist and the interviewee is usually at best cautious and at worst paranoid,” says Guy Kawasaki, who just published his 10th book. With van Diggelen, “it’s much closer to a conversation between two friends. You can relax in an interview with her.”
Ira Flatow, the exuberant host of NPR’s Science Friday came to Silicon Valley this week. At a reception for KQED at the St. Claire Hotel Atrium in downtown San Jose, Ira took the stage for an animated conversation with Andrea Kissack, Senior Editor of KQED’s QUEST. Here are some of the highlights:
On Japan’s nuclear disaster
“This is an opportunity to build something new – infrastructure for solar thermal (power plants) for example, or wind power…we could be the Saudi Arabia of Wind. Why do you need one solution? We should look at science – see the biodiversity lesson.”
On nuclear power
“Japan was ‘prepared’ but didn’t plan for the Perfect Storm. Nature will find a way to outsmart us.”
On Global Warming
“Over 50% of incoming Republicans don’t ‘believe’ in global warming. The great majority of scientists AGREE on global warming…we don’t talk about ‘the debate’ on Science Friday. Should you bring creationists in to debate evolution? Or have a debate that the world is not flat?”
On Clean Energy and California
“We look to California as a leader in clean energy. We have to get over cheap gas and pay the real value of gas. We expect $2 a gallon while Europe is paying $10.”
How to change the energy status quo?
“If you want change, you have to DEMAND IT. Like in the 60’s. You can’t change people’s minds if they’re entrenched. With Global Warming however, change is happening and the evidence of melting ice is visible.”
On Science Education
“All kids are natural scientists – they need good teachers and mentors to nurture it.”
I was surprised to learn that Science Friday gets only 10% of its budget from NPR. The remainder it has to raise through fundraising. If you enjoy Science Friday and want to learn more about supporting it, check out this link.
For other Fresh Dialogues interviews with an education focus, click here
In February, I interviewed author and environmentalist, John Robbins at the Commonwealth Club, in Silicon Valley. Robbins is most famous for his books “The Food Revolution” and “Diet for a New America”; has been interviewed by Terry Gross, and Oprah; and is a sought-after speaker on environmentalism, food and animal rights. We had a lively conversation about climate change, conscious consumption, and why he chose to say no to a Baskin Robbins future of ice-cream wealth; and carve his own path, teaching conscious consumption for good health and a healthy planet. Listen to the interview here
(check back soon for video – the interview is scheduled to air on Comcast Channel 30 soon)
On climate change
“The science of climate change to my eyes is incontrovertible. It saddens me that public policy is not coordinated.”
On the link between beef and global warming
“Part of it is the carbon footprint of beef, part of it is the methane. Methane is an extraordinary greenhouse gas, it is twenty times stronger than carbon. It’s produced by cattle, it comes out of both ends of them – as a gas. It’s a biological reality. We are producing so much of it through our beef production and our dairy cows that it’s driving us to a climate chaos and we’re so close to some tipping points where it becomes uncontrollable. We need to do immediate things…”
On Climate Change and Public Policy
“I see the gap between what seems to be politically possible in this country – where so many people no longer even believe that humans are contributing to increased carbon, emissions and destabilization of our climate. But the science (of climate change) to my eyes is literally incontrovertible. It really saddens me and pains me that our public policy is not coordinated with what science is telling us. What will it take to wake us up? How much time do we have? How lucky do we feel? We are gambling…”
On approaching the planet’s “tipping point
“We are up against nature’s limits. If we can’t learn from that collision that we’re approaching…and adjust ourselves to live within the earth’s means…we are sentencing our children and grandchildren to a future that is probably barely livable.”
On the food solution
“I’d like to see us create a food system that doesn’t contribute to global warming, instead of one that is the leading contributor to it. If we are serious about feeding ourselves, the imperative to move to a plant based diet is a moral and unavoidable solution. Al Gores says change your lightbulbs – what about changing your diet?”
Advice for consumers – Five baby steps
One: Shop at a farmers market
Two: Eat more plants, fresh food, less animals
Three: Eat less
Four: Stop eating processed food, junk food
Five: Laugh more, eat less, Create more, eat less. Love more, eat less. Care more, eat less…
“This is our generation’s Sputnik Moment,” said President Obama in his State of the Union Speech last night. He’s referring of course to the space race with the Soviet Union, which spurred massive investment in research and development… and massive job creation. Today, he challenges the nation to invest massively in the future again, especially clean energy and green tech. It’s the only way we can catch up with (or surpass) China in the clean energy race.
Is China the invincible leader of clean energy and clean tech? It certainly looks that way. In a Fresh Dialogues interview, New York Times columnist, Tom Friedman explained his China envy… and emphasized that government has a huge role in jumpstarting the green economy. Would he like to be Obama’s Green Czar? Not a chance. He explains why in the video below.
What can we learn from China’s remarkable lead in clean energy? I talked with China expert, Isabel Hilton, founder and editor of China Dialogue who has earned a OBE for her groundbreaking work in this field. Her team’s mission: to give the reader an inside look at China’s environmental policy and encourage dialogue between China and the rest of the world. (Check out the site…it’s in Chinese and English)
“If you think you can ignore China, you don’t know what’s coming down the road,” warns Hilton. She describes the strategic economic shift in China over the last four years, from dirty unsustainable development to a new cleaner, greener outlook. In 2011, a new five year plan will be released to position China for the future. Hilton is impressed by the focus and conviction of China’s new policies which invest heavily in research and development; and support for new cleantech industries; strategies Obama says are necessary here in the US.
Hilton cautions that public opinion is a stumbling block to progress in the West and that the “Merchants of Doubt”community is undermining policy change by generating and sustaining doubt on established scientific issues. She challenges Obama to act decisively. So far, she says, “Obama has failed to live up to his convictions.” Time will tell if Obama’s forceful State of the Union speech last night – with its “The Future is ours to win” optimism – and the bipartisan mood of Congress will create real change.
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“Just Between Us” by Julia Prodis Sulek
Check out interviews with Martin Sheen, Charlie Rose and many other celebrities at the Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channel
