Season 2 Episode 15
Ben Binversie (00:05):
We eat food every day. But how often do most of us think about where that food comes from and the impact it has on the world? Probably not as often as Alex Reich. This is All Things Grinnell. I’m your host, Ben Binversie. On today’s show, we talk with Alex Reich from the class of 2011 about his time at Grinnell, his Watson Fellowship journey, and the dangers of black and white thinking, especially in relation to our global food systems.
Ben Binversie (00:50):
He came back to campus in the fall for the Center for Prairie Studies Local Food Symposium. Alex has some big questions and ideas for how to think deeply about food and the environment in a way that goes beyond simple categories and black and white thinking, either organic or local, vegan or carnivore. Those labels help us guide our lives. But are they accomplishing the desired outcomes for us and the world? That’s coming up next. After I remind you that the information and opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent the views of Grinnell College.
Ben Binversie (01:27):
Alex majored in biology at Grinnell, ran track and cross country, and was very involved in study environmental groups. After graduating, he went on a Watson Fellowship throughout the arctic studying the effect of climate on people’s relationship to food. After that, he started a YouTube channel, MinuteEarth, along with his brother, fellow Grinnellian, Henry Reich.
Ben Binversie (01:47):
MinuteEarth and the brother channel, MinutePhysics, have amassed millions of subscribers. We don’t even get into much of MinuteEarth stories in this conversation, but it’s an incredible series and worth checking out.
Ben Binversie (01:58):
Alex has also continued his studies pursuing a master’s at the University of Minnesota. He’s done a lot during his 30 years on this planet. But I wanted to talk to him about his biggest accomplishment, starring in the winning film of the 2009 Titular Head Student Film Festival. Alex, first, I’ve got to ask, how do you possibly live up to that reputation?
Alex Reich (02:17):
Ooh, I leave the Grinnell College campus, and nobody knows anything about it.
Ben Binversie (02:24):
Your Jedi past is just a remnant of your imagination at that point. No one knows who you are.
Alex Reich (02:30):
No, the force is still within me. No, I don’t know how to answer that question. Tit Head is something that lots of people, even at Grinnell, don’t necessarily fully understand, and I don’t fully understand it. But people outside definitely don’t. And so it’s something that has its cultural context, and I am super pleased that it’s had staying power in the way that it has for making people have fun in this weird, quirky sort of make fun of ourselves moment, that Titular Head was at least when I participated in it. So I’m super pleased.
Ben Binversie (03:08):
Yeah. I think it is. Some other Titular Head films are probably even more, wow, I really don’t understand this, outside of the context of Grinnell, for sure. So I guess you can be thankful that your video is relatively tame.
Alex Reich (03:25):
Yeah. Star Wars is broadly applicable.
Ben Binversie (03:28):
Yes. Okay, so actually though, you’ve made some interesting inroads on working to raise awareness and educate people about these two kind of giant issues, climate change and food, which are obviously intricately linked and huge global problems. But how did you come to those issues as kind of the ones that motivate and guide your work?
Alex Reich (03:49):
That’s a good question. I came to food in the way that I think a lot of people come to food, which is that they eat it. At some point, they realize, “Oh, wow. There are different kinds of foods we could eat,” or, “There are different impacts that this food has on us,” or, “We eat really different food than people eat elsewhere.”
Alex Reich (04:09):
And so, it was actually largely my awakening, if you will, was that I had the fortune to graduate early from high school and travel in New Zealand and do some tramping, as they call it, which is backpacking in the mountains, and also to work on some field research, sort of studying the carbon dynamics of forests in New Zealand. But the house that we stayed in, with the people we were working with, was an old farm house in New Zealand. And one of the people we lived with was like a carrot seed expert, not a carrot expert, like a carrot seed expert. And a bunch of the other folks that we ... They had a goat, and the other people in the house also had this huge garden. I was just staying there. And the way that they lived was just they had this big garden that they ate from. And I was like, “Whoa, that’s interesting.”
Alex Reich (05:05):
My family growing up had had a garden at times, but the mindset of the way that we eat is a big interaction point for us and the rest of the world, and that we can actually be more conscious about it rather than just buying what’s at the store. We can think and act intentionally around it, whether that’s growing our own, or whether it’s buying in a certain way. That struck me as something that I just had not really ever thought that deeply about.
Alex Reich (05:33):
And so, when I ended up at Grinnell and got involved with the food and environmental community here in my first year, it just felt like a really natural fit that this thing that literally everybody in the world does a couple times a day, and if they don’t do it, their life is not as good, or they’re less fortunate, that’s a pretty significant thing in everyone’s experience, and also in the way that we interact with the rest of the world. And so, that’s how I came to food.
Alex Reich (06:04):
And the way I came to climate was similar where it’s the same kind of situation as with food, where everything we do has these kinds of impacts. And some of them are positive and some of them are negative. But you can almost look at any object you see, and there was some amount of work and energy done to create that object, to move that person around, or to grow that carrot, if you will. And often that energy ends up, because of the way that fuel works and the way that metabolism works, we end up putting carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases into the air.
Alex Reich (06:44):
And so, all of our activity, or almost all of our activity, results in these kinds of emissions. And that idea that literally every single thing we do has this hidden footprint that we can’t actually see, but actually has this really big impact on the world. That was really fascinating to me, and also really worrying to me. Because, there are some big, global environmental changes that are happening that are not as good as we would like them to be as a result of our food and then also our other activity.
Alex Reich (07:18):
And so that’s kind of how I came to food and climate. They’re kind of interconnected. The way that actually ... I think I focused more on climate after I graduated than when I was here as a student when I focused more on food and sort of traditional environmentalism. And it was really my Watson Fellowship that led me to think more about the connection between food and climate.
Ben Binversie (07:46):
So how did you get interested in that theme of looking at how climate and globalization were impacting local on the ground, indigenous peoples and the way that they eat and live their lives?
Alex Reich (08:01):
Yeah. So the idea for my Watson came about actually as a result of my grandparents. And they had in their retirement been able to spend some time in the arctic traveling on sort of long boat trips down rivers, and having adventures of that sort, more of a naturalist type. And I really valued learning from them about that and was inspired. And have always loved the outdoors and thought about the idea of going and having an adventure like that.
Alex Reich (08:33):
And I was realizing that the knowledge that older people have in the arctic is changing as the climate changes, because the ice is no longer reliable, or the weather patterns that have always been over this long life of this person are no longer the way they are. And so is there a different relationship with the land that that person has that is no longer actually reflective of what’s the reality, and how has that changed the intergenerational dynamics of arctic people when the elders maybe don’t actually know as much as they used to? And how is that problematic and how is that good? Also, with globalizing forces, if there’s a youngster with a GPS, can they sort of make up for that loss of traditional knowledge with this sort of newfangled technology and incorporate that into their sort of knowledge?
Alex Reich (09:28):
And that was the original idea I had for my Watson, inspired by my relationship with my grandmother and grandfather, that a professor here said is not a very good idea, kind of trash. And it was constructive criticism though, because what he essential said is, “That’s kind of a common idea, and the first level of depth of someone who’s thinking about these kinds of issues who actually has studied them or spent lot of time learning about them or lives in these places. And you need to find something that’s more you and it’s deeper.”
Alex Reich (10:06):
And that’s where I ended up bringing in food as this thing that had been of interest to me through local, food and the health impacts of food, and people being able to have enough food here in the community or elsewhere in the world, and what food means for us where we live and in our own personal lives. And so I ended up bringing together food and climate change. And one of the things that supposedly made my Watson proposal and my Watson itself unique and reflective of my own individuality was that there was also this cold aspect of it. So food, cold, and climate, and those things reflected me. I’m from Minnesota, I love cold. And that’s sort of how all those things came together and how this one year kind of represented a lot of the things that had been a part of me in the past and still are.
Ben Binversie (11:06):
And after that fellowship, how did you then corral all the ... I’m sure there were even more questions going in your mind than when you started. And maybe you got satisfying answers to some of them, but I imagine they just propelled you towards a lot more questions. How did you kind of use that energy from the Watson to move forward and actually work on starting to try to change some of these things?
Alex Reich (11:35):
I didn’t use it, and I haven’t used it in the sense of using in as straightforward of a way as one might think. And I actually think that’s one of the values of experiences like the Watson allows us to have, which is an experience where we step outside of what our culture or our family or our institutions or society as a whole tell us is what we should do and climb the ladder, do the rat race, get successful, make a lot of money, whatever it is. And that’s not necessarily something that Grinnell had inculcated in me.
Alex Reich (12:09):
But having this opportunity to really totally step away as much as I could from our culture in a more intentional way even than Grinnell where we are trying, the students and the institution itself is trying to be a little bit different than the rest of the country in a lot of really positive ways. And I, on my Watson, kind of the undercurrent was to try to step as far away from our white supremacist, capitalist, live by the clock, doing things fast, get here on time culture.
Alex Reich (12:48):
Part of the culture that had helped me succeed at Grinnell, where I was taking a lot of classes and doing a lot of activities. And so essentially my experience was letting me get outside that and slow down and be in a place that it didn’t matter that we were late, because we would get there when we got there, when Mother Nature let us get there rather than when the clock on the schedule that said we need to get here then tells us to get here.
Alex Reich (13:15):
And so when I returned, I actually spent a couple months not really enjoying being back in American society and having really a hard time expressing why. It’s only been in the last couple years, and I’m sure I will continue to take meaning out of it for the rest of my life. But it wasn’t something that I sort of used in that intentional sort of jumping off point kind of way, but more a thing that has informed my experience of the world and really grounded me in the fact that there are so many different people on earth, and so many different places on earth, and they’re all so different. And yet, we have these shared things that we have in common.
Alex Reich (13:57):
With respect to the environmental and climate aspect of my work or my Watson, there were multiple levels to it. One level was that I wanted to understand and sort of see how bad it was essentially for these people who had done nothing to cause climate change but were on the front lines of it where their climate was changing way faster than ours. And if they go from below freezing to above freezing, it’s much bigger of a difference than if we go from 60 degrees to 62 degrees. Kind of like a doctor in training who wants to go to a place where there’s a lot of medical need to then say, “Oh, there is this need in the world. I’m going to work on it for the rest of my life.”
Alex Reich (14:45):
And I kind of had that interest. And I think it has sort of functioned like that, because there is that need. We have a lot of changes that are happening on earth that are harming a lot of people, and that are going to harm all of us more so than they already are. And we need to figure out how to adapt to them and how to deal with them. But also, one of the biggest takeaways from my year was from the folks who I was with who basically, to sort of summarize, would say, “We’ve been here for thousands of years. Changing climate and environment and conditions are the thing that have allowed us, rather than you white people from the temperate zones, to survive here. And we’re going to keep on doing that even though there’s bigger changes happening now.”
Alex Reich (15:29):
And so it’s a story of resilience that I think is a good thing for all of us to think about, that it’s our capacity to change and deal effectively with it that helps us survive and thrive. And that you don’t necessarily need fancy technology or other things like that in order to succeed. You need knowledge, and you need a willingness to do it. That that comes from lots of different places around the world is something we need to remember.
Ben Binversie (16:01):
Yeah. I’m curious how you see Grinnell as playing a role in your development?
Alex Reich (16:09):
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it’s played a big role. And I also think that going back and looking at photos and videos of people I know when they were like 1 and seeing strong aspects of their personality or their behavior already strongly formed then, I think there’s a lot that in our individual nature is already sort of part of us in our personality when we’re very young. And there’s also the aspects of our privilege of whether we’re born in this century and this country in a middle class family or a lower economic opportunity family or a super wealthy family, and whether we’re male and white or whether we’re black and female. All of these kinds of things influence our opportunity in life.
Alex Reich (17:06):
So to some degree, I’ve had the personality that I’ve had for my whole life, probably for my whole life. And I’ve also had a lot of privilege and a lot of opportunity. And so those things I think fit more with the idea of Grinnell or college as a place that you pass through on your journey of being who you already are. But I also think that it’s not just that. It’s also not just nurture. It’s a combination.
Alex Reich (17:35):
I do think that the opportunity to focus on and identify what you are really interested in, which is something that a liberal arts school like Grinnell and that I think Grinnell does better than lots of other places, although I can only speak from experience from one, is to really ask people what they actually feel like they’re interested in. And the opportunity that the college has provided for so many people to be quirky and pretend that they’re a Star Wars character, or go running through the fields, or climb trees and look at things, or do this weird painting series, or whatever folks who come here do that more mainstream culture in our country doesn’t necessarily promote or looks down on even, that lets I think a lot more people in the world and in our culture have a lot more in them than is coming out because of the sort of stultifying effect of culture sort of bearing down on us.
Alex Reich (18:52):
And one thing that I personally miss, being out in the big wide world and that is so refreshing whenever I come back here is that there’s a lot more possibility about what people can be when you’re in a place that says, “Try being who you want to be,” rather than, “You are this, or you are that.” I think that’s, whether or not that’s uniquely unique to Grinnell, it’s here. And that’s great.
Ben Binversie (19:22):
Yeah. So of course, you answered my question, not as an either, or, but somewhere on a continuum in between, which is a great way to segue into what brought you here for the Center for Prairies Studies Local Food Symposium and your talk, which was called, The Whole World is a Farm, Individual Stewardship Amidst a Global Challenge. You asked a lot of big questions and showed us some numbers and charts that made my head hurt to be honest. But you questioned this kind of dualistic thinking in terms of climate and food. Eat local. Forget organic. Those kinds of either, or, black or white thinking. Can you explain a little more how that intersects with the world of food and climate and why it matters?
Alex Reich (20:02):
Yeah. And I’ll start by saying the fact that your head was hurting was either a sign that I was a very poor communicator or that I was very effective. And that when we’re talking about these kinds of big issues, or just in sort of storytelling in general, part of the goal is to bring people to a crisis point, and then say, “Here’s a potential way out.”
Alex Reich (20:25):
And sometimes that way out is actually not the way out. And the goal is for that to be a real way out. And I think that dualistic, either/or thinking is really limiting in the world in general. I could get up and walk out the door, or I could sit here. Those are sort of the two options that we often provide. It’s like, yeah, or I could go stand in the corner, or I could lay on the table, or I could-
Ben Binversie (20:58):
You could watch Bailey, the Lost Puppy, which is this lovely DVD sitting here.
Alex Reich (21:02):
Or I could watch, Bailey, the Lost Puppy. There’s infinite opportunities at any moment. And we often think of just one or two. And in the context of the environment, it’s kind of like we could do business as usual, or we could all be hungry and cavemen and be environmentalists and save the world. And you don’t want to just go back to the past and stuff. That is way too much of a simplification. Because it’s not just, do we have business or do we have a livable planet? There is, and there must be a way, and we have to try to find that way, even if we don’t know exactly what that is, where we can have human life on this planet, and we can also have other living things. And we can have that human life be full.
Ben Binversie (21:54):
Yeah, healthy.
Alex Reich (21:55):
Healthy and meaningful. And I think in the context of food, that looks kind of like it’s not necessarily conventional or organic. It’s not necessarily local or imported or global food. It’s not necessarily vegetarian or carnivore. All of these things are on a continuum. And all of these categories, just like gender categories where we have two large gender categories. There’s actually not just that simple situation.
Alex Reich (22:29):
We have the opportunity to say, what is our actual goal here? What do we want from this as individuals and as a society? And if our goal is to grow food locally, why is that our goal? If our goal is to grow food conventionally, why is that our goal? If it’s local, is it because we want to have a feeling of connection and know the people who we live by? And we like the idea of being sort of reliant on each other locally. And if it’s importing food from elsewhere, is it because we love the idea of being super efficient and growing things where they’re climatically best or where we have built up this infrastructure around them. Like growing corn in Iowa, or growing vegetables in California. And why do we want that? Why is it that we think that kind of thing is valuable?
Alex Reich (23:21):
And in the same context of either, or, I think one of our biggest things that we need to figure out is how to value things that are not yet within the monetary system of the world. And so that looks like the social costs or the externalities of things. If I eat this one thing it costs this much to buy. But if it impacts my health in a negative way, I’m actually paying for that. And we’re all collectively paying for that, whether it’s through the poor health impacts from smoking or diets or lack of exercise or air pollution or any of these kinds of things, there’s a lot of negative health.
Alex Reich (24:06):
And there’s also the same kind of situation with climate impacts. And figuring out how to incorporate the real value of having air to breathe or knowing that there’s a fish in that river, even if I don’t necessarily eat it, that’s a thing that if we were able to do we would actually have our systems reflect the reality of the world in a way that right now they’re reflecting that we’ve decided to value only some of it and not all of that.
Alex Reich (24:38):
And those ecosystem services are life support systems that the fact that we live on planet Earth makes possible. Those are the kinds of things that we need to incorporate more. And we have right now this system where we’re kind of on a continuum from caring about some of those things, but not nearly as many as we could. And where on that continuum we need to be is sort of one way to frame our situation right now. And I think we should value more things. We used to not even value people of all genders or people of all races or ethnicities. And what if we keep on pushing it farther, and farther, and farther and say, “Hey, what if we actually value other species as well?”
Alex Reich (25:23):
I think that that kind of thinking is an expansion of our sphere of caring, if you will, and our sphere of consciousness from I am the individual, I care only about myself to I care about my friend or my family or my neighbor or these other people. And so, we have a totally global society where our species is literally everywhere on earth and there’s very little that actually differentiates us from people on the other side of the earth. And recognizing that I think is a really important part of having the sort of global consciousness or human identity that I think is something that really makes us more humble and more connected at the same time.
Ben Binversie (26:14):
That’s a great way of thinking about the problems of dualistic thinking on a global level and how we can change that. So in the context of individual decision making, this kind of dualistic thinking also comes into play, not just in our relationship with food, but it’s really present in so much of our lives. Our brains seem to enjoy simple answers, yes, no, black, white, either, or. So we end up seeking out guides like vegetarian, vegan, Democrat, Republican, whatever it is to guide our behavior and avoid the alternative, which is grappling with the infinitely complex world in which we live for all the decisions that we make.
Ben Binversie (26:50):
So in the context of food for example, you showed us the Time Magazine cover that said, “Eat Local, Forget Organic.” And it’s catchy, pithy, local food is the way to go, forget about organic. Very black and white. And you poke all sorts of holes in that mantra, and show how in many cases local food isn’t achieving the desired outcomes. But when you talk about the local farmer, or someone who’s a big proponent of local food, how do you try to use your experiences from different vantage points in the food system to empathize and understand and connect with those people?
Alex Reich (27:23):
Well, I should say that I probably do it poorly most of the time. I think really connecting with other people is really hard. And inherently, change is hard. Because all humans are conservative. And we’ve sort of evolved to be that way. If we randomly ate whatever tuber we dug up, that might not be good. We kind of learn over time to not eat everything. And that’s just an analogy for broader life. And that’s why I think most cultures are conservative. They want to do the things that they’ve always done, because that’s how they’ve existed and been able to sustain themselves.
Alex Reich (28:06):
And so I think there’s an inherent challenge or greater than thou-ness that is really hard to avoid. Because I don’t have all the answers. It’s really hard not to imply that one does when you’re saying, “Hey, what if we thought about this differently,” because even the asking of that question is a challenge. And I think I’m personally able to do this in some aspects of my life more than others. And one person cannot do this for literally every aspect of their life.
Ben Binversie (28:43):
That would be a scary existence.
Alex Reich (28:44):
It would be. And in my own life, and in my own perspective on sort of looking at ourselves as this global community of humans. These are some of the kinds of things that I think are really important to think about. And you could have the same questions locally in your own individual life of race relations in Grinnell, Iowa even. That sort of scale rather than human sustainability on planet Earth. And that’s valid.
Alex Reich (29:14):
And I think one of the ways that I try to do this, and like I started with, I’m not very good at, is the idea of really trying to understand what other people are experiencing and what matters to them, and trying to connect with them on values. And so, not just sort of say the same old liberal talking points or environmentalist talking points or whatever have you talking points, because that fits into these dualisms that we’re talking about of you’re an environmentalist or you’re not, you’re a liberal or you’re a conservative.
Alex Reich (29:52):
We’re all people. And these are aspects that relate to the human condition regardless of whether or not we believe in them, because they’re influencing us through our culture or through our environment. And they’re things that we all therefore could influence positively or have our worlds changed if we were more cognizant of them.
Alex Reich (30:15):
And I don’t know, I don’t think we all can be aware of every single thing at the same time. We would be crippled by that in a lot of ways. But I do think that the breath that you can take before you go into a building can help you get outside of the single frame that is your mind on that day at that moment, and that again in the context of continua, doing that a little bit is better than not doing that at all. It’s not that you have to become the Buddha or whatever in order to be a good person or to be someone who’s trying. The idea of trying and continuing to try harder and really trying to be aware. And I think in many ways you can say I’m a hypocrite in saying this, because I feel this all the time. But I think I’m trying. I think that’s the important thing.
Ben Binversie (31:12):
Yeah, and I think the big takeaway that I took from your talk yesterday is yes, these problems are giant, but you left us with a message of figure out what it is, what are the values in your life that you care about? If it is in the health of our environment, align your approach with what you want to achieve and then do something about it. Especially when we’re thinking about the giant nature of some of these problems. Even those small actions can feel insignificant sometimes. But it’s maybe enough to just propel you to just keep doing it, and give you a little bit of a sense that even if you’re not tackling climate change by yourself, you’re doing the work of a human being, and you’re doing something that’s getting us all a little closer towards that.
Alex Reich (32:01):
Agreed. And what is collective action but a bunch of people individually doing a single little thing that on its own doesn’t really matter, but as a whole ends up electing someone to office because they’re all doing their individual voting, or ends up buying some product that makes some more friendly or more ethical or other type of product possible, or not buying something that sends a message that this is actually not something that humans in this particular context value at this time, totally. And I also do want to say that I think that local food is a good thing to strive for, even though in my talk and in my own life, I question it. One thing that I am working on is not being as critical of everything, including myself.
Ben Binversie (32:56):
Cheers to that.
Alex Reich (33:00):
The people who love us most are most critical of us. There’s some saying like that.
Ben Binversie (33:04):
Yeah.
Alex Reich (33:05):
I think that local food and all of these ... anyone trying to do something slightly different or radically different from the way a thing is conventionally done, it’s a worthwhile kind of effort, because it tries to find something that’s different and make that possible. Let me caveat that statement, because I don’t think that all kinds of efforts are worthwhile, because there are some that, given that I believe in things like human rights and whatnot, I think are probably not adding as much positivity to the world. But the kinds of efforts we’re talking about where it’s people who are being thoughtful and who are thinking about, have their sort of sphere of concern outside of their own self, that are valuable as counterpoints to saying, “We’re just going to keep on doing things the way we’ve always done them.”
Ben Binversie (34:03):
Yeah, I agree. And we need to hold up people who are doing those things and trying to make these changes, and give them a pat on the back and a kick in the butt to keep doing it.
Ben Binversie (34:17):
You mentioned that you don’t know if you did a good job of being empathetic sometimes, and you present a lot of these cold, hard facts, or even just like sometimes the questions that you ask can maybe seem like unfeeling or unemotional. And it’s interesting to hear about how you’re trying to poke holes in your own mind sometimes and be a little more feeling and try to be less critical and these sort of things. I don’t know if you’ve listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History Podcast at all?
Alex Reich (34:51):
I have not.
Ben Binversie (34:53):
But there’s an episode about pulling the goalie. And you’re from Minnesota, I’m sure you’ll understand this metaphor. So traditional knowledge, like if you’re down one or two goals in a hockey game, the third period, maybe with like three minutes left you might pull the goalie, if you’re down a couple of goals.
Alex Reich (35:11):
Yeah.
Ben Binversie (35:11):
But statistically, the evidence shows that if you’re down by two goals, you should be pulling your goalie with 12 minutes left or something like that. It’s much before conventional knowledge. But no coach is going to do that because the coach would get fired, and the fans would just ream them, even if the numbers say, this is how you should behave. Humans have this emotional reasoning as well.
Ben Binversie (35:35):
We want the easy answers, like either, or thinking sometimes, our brain likes that. But we also at the end of the day want to be emotionally satisfied with the way that our behaviors work. So I think that also is kind of tricky in terms of the conversations that you’re having. Because people want to live lives that sit well with them at the end of the day as well.
Alex Reich (36:00):
Yeah, I think people totally are legitimate in wanting that. And we have less freedom, I think, to change than we often might want because cultural and economic forces are very strong. And that’s why an individual farmer has a really hard time changing or an individual eater can’t change the entire food system on their own. And it’s also why the NHL hockey coach can’t pull their goalie with 13 minutes left in the game. And I think that’s where efforts to ask the questions come in.
Alex Reich (36:37):
I think of like 538. Maybe 538 or some researcher looked at the statistics in the hockey games and said, “Oh, this is interesting. This many goals gets scored in this amount of time when there’s a goalie pulled. If you actually want to score two goals, or whatever, have the highest chance of getting back to the lead, you should pull it earlier.”
Alex Reich (36:59):
Someone had to ask that question, even though I think hockey isn’t necessarily as important as feeding people, it’s analogous. Because someone had to ask that, someone had to write it up. Malcolm Gladwell had to put it on his podcast for us to say, “Oh, isn’t that interesting, there’s a different way that we can be doing things.” And I think stories can connect sort of the quantitative aspect of the world with the way that we think about the world and the mental models.
Alex Reich (37:33):
We used to think that the sun revolved around the Earth. And then someone actually used data and also thought about it and asked questions and said, “Oh, wait a second. Maybe that’s actually not true.” And that was a revolution. And now, we have that as our baseline. And most of us aren’t asking if that’s actually true anymore. We’ve moved on to other things.
Alex Reich (37:56):
And so, I think there has been an incredible amount of progress made in our understanding of the world, and our understanding of each other, and our understanding of how things are. And that one of our biggest challenges is how do we connect with people who are different than us, who believe something that’s different, and not delegitimize what they believe and what they think is important, and share what we think is important. One way to do that is to learn from ... is to not have it be proselytizing or missionizing or an environmental evangelizing. And I think I could do better on this. I think I fall into that camp. I think one way that I am trying to do more of is to think of what is it that we want out of this?
Alex Reich (38:57):
The reason that I’m interested in addressing climate change as an issue is actually basically the same reason that someone is interested in national security. There are different beliefs about the way to get there, but the ultimate goal is some people being able to live well on earth. And what well is, again also-
Ben Binversie (39:21):
Different people, different ideas.
Alex Reich (39:23):
Exactly. But yeah, long, wandering way to say that trying to connect with each other and understand and empathize with each other feels like a really important way to do it and something that I’m constantly working on. Because I find it easier both for maybe the way that my brain works, the science and the quantitative fields that I’ve studied, or being a male, or being an American even, or westerner, it can be harder for me to do those things than it can for someone else who has learned or is more inclined to use their emotional brain, if you will, or their empathetic brain or their connective brain to fuel through things in a different way.
Alex Reich (40:12):
So I think we need all of them. Because there is some ultimate way that physics seems to work, and biology seems to work, and chemistry seems to work. And that’s the canvas on which all of the colors of human culture and experience get painted onto. And understanding what that canvas is can help us understand how to paint better, maybe. I don’t know. There’s a painting behind you.
Ben Binversie (40:44):
Yeah, I don’t like it, but it is a painting. So we talk about a lot of this either, or thinking, and kind of how everything is kind of a continuum, and we need all of the people along it in their own different ways in helping to solve a lot of these big problems. But the lesson you left us with at the talk yesterday was align your life with your values. So broadly applied, what is it that you want and then design things to get to that point.
Alex Reich (41:19):
And hope you’re lucky and privileged, and there’s enough chance, and the world is ready for the things that you’re hoping to have happen and what little you can do as an individual can collectively, along with the efforts of everyone else who’s working for the same thing or for different things, or for their version of the same thing, add up to something that moves us in that direction a little bit.
Ben Binversie (41:42):
Yeah.
Alex Reich (41:43):
I want to change the world. I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid from Grinnell or from growing up at this moment in time in this place. And it’s really hard to realize that we only have a certain amount of ability to do that. There are certain things we can do to make that higher or less, and we can’t let the fact that we only have that limited ability stop us from doing it. It’s not we have an infinite power or we have zero power. It’s a continuum from zero to, I don’t know that anyone’s approaching infinity, but somewhere along that is where we are. And that’s worth working on making greater.
Ben Binversie (42:23):
Yeah.
Alex Reich (42:24):
Because the more power you have, the more power you have to bring into the world your vision, I guess.
Ben Binversie (42:30):
Yeah. So thank you for using whatever power you have, whether it’s through MinuteEarth and the YouTube stuff, I think you’re continuing to ask the questions. And I feel confident and happy to know that there are people like you out there asking those questions. So thank you for doing that, for coming to Grinnell and visiting and talking with us here, and for coming on the podcast.
Alex Reich (42:56):
Well, thank you. And today, you asked most of the questions. So thank you for what you’re doing. And for anyone who wants to get in touch, you can send me a message on Twitter at AlexHReich, that’s A-L-E-X-H-R-E-I-C-H. I’m happy to connect with Grinnellians of all stripes and colors.
Ben Binversie (43:13):
Cool. Thanks, Alex.
Alex Reich (43:14):
Thank you, Ben.
Ben Binversie (43:17):
Check out links to MinuteEarth, the PBS show, Hot Mess, and some beautiful pictures from his Watson Fellowship on the episode webpage.
Ben Binversie (43:25):
Right now, it feels like a scary time to be asking the big questions, pondering the meaning of life and the future of our existence on this planet is heavy. But many people are being forced to think about these questions right now. And it honestly might also be a perfect time to do it anyway. Alex had a few more things to say about taking time to pause and think about the big questions as he reflected on his Watson Fellowship.
Alex Reich (43:47):
What is the meaning of all of this, or what am I interested, or how does this work, and essentially pause and not get up and do the same thing we do yesterday, today and tomorrow, and really take that moment and say, “What are my interests? What is the meaning of life? Are we doing well? Where did we come from? Where are we going?”
Alex Reich (44:08):
These are the kinds of things that I think we would all be better off if we thought more about it and asked more of ourselves. And having the luxury or the privilege of doing that is something that I want more people to be able to have. And I think we can all practice that even in our daily life.
Alex Reich (44:25):
Before I came into this building, I stood for like 10 seconds and looked at the sky and was like, “Okay, here I am in the middle of Iowa. Going to go talk about things.” And I could have just run right into the building and just gone through it. But I think taking that kind of breath is important. We never think about our breathing, and we just do it. And if we actually take a moment and consciously think about it, it can help us. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be an entire year of experience. It can be 10 seconds every day.
Ben Binversie (45:11):
Before we go, a few things. We’ve reached episode 15 of this second season of All Things Grinnell. And I’m going to take a break before I start with the next season. I’ve got plans to do some exciting stories on Titular Head and the classes of 1970 and 2020. And I’ve still got tons of interviews from the past year to share. Feel free to check out old episodes that you missed in the meantime, or take that extra couple hours and do something to take care of yourself or someone else if you’re able.
Ben Binversie (45:48):
Then, I just want to give a shout out with some new music out there with a connection to the podcast. Pink Neighbor, who we talked with a few weeks ago just put out a new album, Lounge Sounds Two, available on Bandcamp. If you’re feeling cooped up, these tracks will transport you to another world.
Ben Binversie (46:04):
And then there’s Brett Newski who provided me with the theme song for this podcast long before it was even a real, live breathing entity. He’s got a new album out too, titled, Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down. This song, Grow Your Garden, is about taking care of yourself during these crazy times. But I think the literal interpretation works well, too. If you’ve got a garden, probably not a bad idea to tend to that right now.
Ben Binversie (46:35):
Music from the show comes from Brett Newski and Podington Bear. If you’d like to contact the show, email us at Podcast@Grinnell.edu. Or check out our website, Grinnell.edu/podcast. Make sure you subscribe to the show to get new episodes when they come out. And follow us on the college’s Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep up with the podcast.
Ben Binversie (47:28):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, pass it along to a friend, and take care. I’m your host, Ben Binversie. Stay weird, Grinnellians.