Ep 42 / Tools to Save Our Home Planet with Nick Mucha, Patagonia

Patagonia's Director of Environmental Issues and Strategy talks about the new book from the brand and the current activist moment.

I am a reluctant activist.

I don’t want to fill the family text thread with links to sign petitions and instructions on how to call your Senator’s office.

I don’t want to call out people and businesses that are greenwashing and abusing the trust they’ve built with the public.

I don’t want to tell you how bad of an environmental choice it is to buy that produce out of season. (I still don’t understand why my local grocery stores in Texas and Indiana are filled with tasteless greenhouse tomatoes from Canada, during tomato season and out of it.)

Getting fired from my leadership job at a high flying creative agency for refusing to greenwash oil and gas and mining companies was not on the top of my list of things to do. I would have rather spent the torturous weekend before my firing trying to catch a wave on my bellyboard than trying to untie the knots in my belly.

Half the reason I focus this podcast on artists, musicians, trail runners and foragers is that I don’t want to tell people what to do, I’d rather attempt to inspire them. But sometimes, you just have to call your Senator’s office to ask them to reign in their colleague’s desire to sell off our public lands.

Talking to our latest podcast guest reassured me that the environmental movement needs all types and that activists come in many forms.

Nick Mucha is the Director of Environmental Issues and Strategy at Patagonia.

After more than a decade in the non-profit space, Nick was reenergized by attending Patagonia’s Tools for Grassroots Activists conference back in 2013. That renewed sense of purpose eventually led him to a desk at Patagonia itself where he works on the Tools conference, with Patagonia’s environmental non-profit grantees, and on Patagonia’s overall approach to environmental issues.

In this episode we talk about his path to Patagonia, the recently released Tools to Save Our Home Planet book he edited and contributed to, and the role of environmental activism in the current political environment where many of the gains in the US that environmental activists have achieved over the last several decades are under threat.

We also talk about one way that you can get involved, even if you don’t want to join a march or sit-in - Patagonia Action Works. It is a platform that helps connect Patagonia’s grassroots environmental grantees with skilled volunteers who can help them with everything from copywriting to legal advice. It is a platform I am personally passionate about having completed nearly 20 projects.

In recent weeks through Action Works, I had a call with Friends of the Boundary Waters about advertising strategy and with Save the Yellowstone Grizzly about strategy needs and their new documentary “Return of the Grizzly” narrated by actor Jeff Bridges, which is garnering rave reviews at festivals.

After you enjoy this episode with Nick and snag a copy of Tools to Save Our Home Planet, head off to Action Works to find a project to start with. We can all find our own way to be activists.

Thanks for listening and reading -

Rick

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What We’re Reading & Watching

The Hive Architect | Saving Britain's Wild Bees on YouTube - I’m not exactly sure how I found this video, but it is well worth the 12 minutes of your time. According to WWF, “Pollinators such as bees are worth a staggering £690 million per annum to the UK economy, and more than three-quarters of the world’s food crops are in part dependent on them.” Watch to see out how Matt Somerville builds beautiful hives for vitally important wild bees.

Los Angeles Tree Species and Applications - Our old friends at Angel City Lumber have a new brand identity and website. One of my favorite parts of the new website is a list of tree species found in Los Angeles and how their wood is often used.

Americans Fought Off This Awful Idea in Trump’s Bill in The New York Times - A broad coalition of hunters, hikers and hippies got Utah Senator Mike Lee to drop his provision from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill to sell off thousands - potentially millions - of acres of public lands. Terry Tempest Williams provides a valuable perspective on why Lee’s provision was so un-American.

Natural daylight exposure improves mood in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science - “Exposure to natural daylight is a meaningful contributor to increases in positive mood independent of physical activity. This finding suggests that natural daylight exposure might help to improve mood in everyday life.”