Well, hello there and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you are listening to

episode 165 of the Sustainable Minimalists podcast. On today's show we are discussing how exactly to handle three very specific

and very difficult conversations around sustainability and we're doing this in a way that hopefully

enables us to keep our friendships. If you are passionate about the state of the

planet you may have found yourself in the middle of some very difficult interpersonal interactions.

I know I certainly have, especially when it comes to the intersection of environmentalism and

religion and environmentalism and politics things can definitely get

thorny. Today I am speaking with fellow podcaster Jaco Selka.

Jaco is the host of the hopefully sustainable podcast, a weekly show in which Jaco speaks with extraordinary people who are making the

world a better place. Jaco is cool and calm and collected. She is the opposite of me. So she is the perfect person to offer advice on how to

balance our environmental passions in dicey interpersonal interactions.

So on today's show, I am asking Jaco

to run us through the best ways to respond

to three very specific situations. The first situation is when someone says

your environmental efforts are futile, they're pointless, the problem's too big.

We've all heard this, right?

Jaco's going to tell us how to respond.

The second interaction is when religion gets brought into the mix.

In my own life, I've heard religion and environmentalism brought up in the same conversation as something like

God will take care of climate change or some variant of this statement.

Jacob is going to help us with that.

And then finally, the final interaction

...