How to Use Your Voice and UnF*** the Future! (w/ Jess Lybeck)

Do you fall into the black hole of "doom-scrolling" and feel the weight of climate anxiety? Or have you felt angry and discouraged every time you're trying your best to live sustainably but then you look at the overflowing garbage around you and wonder if there's even a point to trying? ...Same, friend, same. But, we can actually do something about that!

Jess Lybeck, CEO and co-creator of Remark and UnF*** the Future, joins Katie Kurpanek, Eco-Living Coach and Podcast Host, to empower you with 2 tools that allow you to use your voice and give QUICK feedback (like, 30ish seconds quick!) to businesses and corporations that need to change!

We can only do so much as conscious consumers, but Jess points out that if businesses don't know WHY they're losing customers, they won't know how to change. Our voices, together, matter -- a lot.

Never underestimate how powerful your voice is, especially when combined with a crowd. Check out this episode to learn how YOU can join the fight to UnF*** the Future! 
*adult language used... if you didn't guess ;)

Additional Resources mentioned in episode:

• The Earth is Full, TED Talk by Paul Gilding

-------
This show is brought to you by listener support, and I'm sending a huge shout-out to these patrons for making it happen: Elizabeth R, Nancy K, Sarah W, Jodi S, Julia B, Liliana S, Karyn W, Linda M, Detlef K, and Kelly K!
To become a patron and receive all the perks of this community, visit www.patreon.com/allthingssustainable and join for as low as $3/month!
-------
To learn more with your host and Eco-Living Coach, Katie Kurpanek, visit www.thatminimallife.com for blog posts and personalized coaching info!
Instagram: @that.minimal.life
Email: katie.thatminimallife@gmail.com
-------
TRANSCRIPTS FOR EACH EPISODE can be found here: https://allthingssustainable.buzzsprout.com
-------
More about Remark and UnF*** the Future:
https://remark.eco/
Instagram: @remark.eco

Transcript

Katie Kurpanek: 0:06

You're listening to all things sustainable, where we unpack topics related to sustainable living, as well as how to apply specific actions to your own life. I'm your eco living coach and podcast host Katie Kurpanek. Let's jump in. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the All Things sustainable podcast, I am super happy that you've joined us for this interview. This happens to be the last interview of season two of this podcast where we've been focusing on becoming more conscious consumers. We have an amazing and inspiring conversation today. I'm so happy to bring this to you. Just giving you a quick fair warning that this episode, if you may not have guessed already by the title is using some typically adult language. So use your fair judgement. Depending on who you're around when you're listening to this episode, maybe you won't find all of it suitable for younger ears. But this conversation was so motivating and I really hope that you enjoy listening to it as much as I did recording it. After the release of this episode, I will release one more wrap up episode just to share my own thoughts about season two, and then also giving you some direction for where we're going. With season three, I have some really exciting plans coming up in season three will be coming out towards the end of summer. So stay tuned for all that info. If you are not already subscribed to the podcast, be sure that you do that so that you don't miss any of what's coming down the pipeline. And then you can always follow me on Instagram, all of my contact information and everything else that you might want from this episode is linked in the description. So without further ado, let's dive right in. Jess, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast, this just feels like a really good way to round out season two. So anybody tuning in, if you've missed any of the previous episodes, you'll definitely want to go back. But this whole season has been about like conscious consumers. And a lot of what we talked about so far has been very focused on like our purchases and being mindful about using what we have first and then opting for a second hand if we can, supporting small and local businesses or at least businesses that are doing things very ethically and sustainably. We've talked about further into the lifecycle of your consumption of products, then, what do you do when you're ready to like donate and declutter and make sure that that's being done responsibly. So really taking into consideration the full lifecycle of what we bring into our lives. But the reality is, there are just some things that are completely out of our control as individual consumers. And yet, we still want to be able to use our voices to advocate for change, because our voices are really powerful, especially when they're all brought together and we individuals create the masses of people who create change. So all that to say, we are really, really happy to have Jess with us from both Remark, which is an eco app. And then also UnF*** the Future, which is a browser extension. And she's going to talk about like these tools that she's created and co-created and what they do. And it'll allow you to have a way to use your voice and feel empowered to continue making change as a conscious consumer. So, Jess, thank you for being here. Could you start by just telling us a little about you like, who are you? Who are the people in your life? What are you passionate about?

Jess Lybeck: 3:30

Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Katie. So, Jess Lybeck. I'm the CEO of Remark and UnF*** the Future as Katie mentioned, and who am I? I'm a mom to two girls, age seven, and five. And I've been on this sustainability journey for about 10 years or so. So I grew up in the Midwest, went to school got into entrepreneurship. And I really focus on me for the first sort of part of my career. So I was focused on getting to the next sort of hurdle within entrepreneurship. And, yeah, about 10 years ago, I watched a little bit too many documentaries about the climate situation we're in. And it just opened my eyes to not only the food that we eat, and how that contributes to the system and purchases, and I just, it really expanded my level of awareness of the problems out there, how I was contributing to the problems. And so yeah, about 10 years ago, just step by step I started eating a bit differently, shopping differently. Thinking about the things that came into my life. And then it was about four years ago that I jumped ship from my maybe more normal, mainstream startup life to try to think about how to get into sustainability. And all of this coincided with being in Colorado. and Colorado is a very outdoors, makes a lot of space for other types of things outside of work. So I feel like Colorado was a big help in that as well. Yeah,

Katie Kurpanek: 5:10

absolutely. Colorado is a great place that has so many resources for this movement and you know, more are growing. So that's super exciting that you've made that switch. What led you to specifically create, you know, Remark, and UnF*** the Future? and you can feel free to like, you know, take that one at a time, or were they always connected from the beginning, I would just be curious to hear that story.

Jess Lybeck: 5:35

Yeah, they were definitely one at a time. So I knew that I wanted to be in sustainability in my professional life. And I was working really hard to make my home zero waste. But it always really frustrated me to be really diligent about bringing my cup, for instance, to go to a coffee shop. But then you see, the trash can overflowing with disposable things wherever you go. And the talk and the things that I was reading, we're talking about the timeline that we have to make changes to impact climate change, the environmental crisis, biodiversity loss, all of these crazy things, is so short. And so I saw my actions. And I wasn't seeing that adding up, frankly, frankly, like, I wasn't seeing how that was going to, you know, be the thing that made the impact that I wanted to see in the world. And I always held really tightly to, I think it's a quote that's like, make your make your life, you're ah it's going to be terrible I can't remember the exact quote... But I like I always just felt like, Okay, if I can just focus on me, like that will have ripple effects, that will be great. And then I kind of just got fed up with that, to be honest. And around that time, I read a book by Bea Johnson called the Zero Waste Home, which is sort of a Bible for the Zero Waste community. And in that book, she talked about one of the most important things that you can do as a consumer is reach out to businesses with your sustainability feedback. And she gave an example in the book about those little plastic insurance cards that everybody has in their wallets. They're plastic now, but they used to be paper, they used to work just fine in his paper. And so she reached out to her insurance company and said, hey, you know, these aren't recyclable, you can't do anything with them, they're garbage, would you consider moving back to paper, and from that one little email, that company switched to paper, insurance cards. And so I thought of this is like, wow, this is a revelation, like an extension of the things that I'm doing in my home, if I can encourage, you know, other businesses or, you know, frankly, other people to think about these things, then that would be great. And so, whenever I thought about it, after I read that, I would, you know, like, make a little note, like send myself a text or something to remember to reach out to the manager of a restaurant, or if I got excessive packaging, in, you know, an online order, I would reach out to the business. And I was really surprised by the responses that I received, you know, managers of restaurants saying that they were going to retrain their staff to use the Reusables instead of the disposable stuff that I was seeing, or a CEO actually getting back to me and telling me that they were going to pass my feedback along to the product team. And so my entrepreneurial gears just started turning at that point. And I started thinking, you know, what, if it's not just me, what if it's, you know, 1000s, and millions of people that are able to easily send their feedback, and my backgrounds and, you know, product and tech and operations and all the startup stuff? So I built a prototype. And I just started talking to people and started thinking about, you know, is this a pain point that people feel? Do other people feel as frustrated as I do when I get garbage when I don't want garbage? And, you know, do businesses care about this? And are they wanting to hear feedback from their customers, and all of that seemed to point in the right direction. So I found some co founders through that process, and we launched remark, I believe it was February of last year, February 2021. And since then, we've sent about 4000 emails. And I feel like we're still figuring out a lot right now. But we've already seen some really great stories of impact and things like that. So excited to see where this journey goes. And then on UnF*** the Future, You know, I think we were in month six of having Remark out there, and last summer, just like this summer was a summer full of wildfires and drought and these unprecedented events and you know, the IPCC report talking about how dire the situation was, and I feel climate anxiety, my co founders feel climate anxiety. And here we are with an app that's that's a point of leverage for climate for sustainability. But getting businesses to take action is only you piece of the puzzle. And so we started thinking about like, how could we morphed this app into something that maybe allows people to take action at different levels and reach out to the representatives and change habits in their personal life. And so we did all of these customer interviews last summer, around like a new app or like a new and improved remark app. And what was funny is we asked everybody after they looked at our prototype of this new and improved app, we asked people, you know, when would you actually think to open the app? You know, because an app is something that can be easily forgotten on your phone, you know, there's so much going on it, frankly, people who are trying to be more sustainable and more mindful, and things like that are trying to get away from their phones. So like, what actually makes you want to pick it up? And time and time again, people are saying when I read depressing news is when I'd probably be compelled to to use the app. And so that was our little aha moment of like, why would we wait for people to come to the app to, you know, what if we can meet them where they are. And so that's where the idea for the browser extension came? Yeah, and UnF*** the Future is just, you read depressing news and a climate action pops up. And it's snarky, it's fun, it's humorous, that kind of takes you out of that doom and gloom mindset to actually do something, which makes you feel so much better about yourself and about your situation, but also is doing something much more than Doom scrolling for an hour on the state of the world would do so. So yeah, we launched UnF*** the Future in January of this year. And we've had, I believe, around 1000 actions taken with the average user, you know, doing a couple actions a week, which we think is a great start.

Katie Kurpanek: 11:49

Absolutely, I have so many thoughts that have like, jumped into my head while you're talking. And I'm trying to figure out which one to go with first, but I've been using both of these things, since you launched each one just by following you, you know, and this whole journey on Instagram. And so I've been so excited to you know, hear about like the prototype, and then when it launched, like, get this on my phone, get this on my computer. And I have been so impressed and just loving it, it is super, both of these things are super easy to use, because well, with the browser extension, you only have to download, like just add that to your browser one time. And then now it's just consistent, like anytime I'm reading something that really is like, Ah, this is just weighing on me, and I don't feel like I can do anything about it. And then this little pop up thing, you know, notification will come up on my browser. And sometimes it's like, like a very simple act like here, watch this video to get more informed about such and such concept. And that's it or other times, it's like, you know, sign this petition that has to do with this climate justice issue. And whatever the action is, it's usually always, usually always, it's usually doable in that moment. And so it doesn't take a lot of my you know, like personal time, but it still makes me feel empowered, like I've contributed to something bigger. And then with the app, like I've definitely sent so many feedback, emails to restaurants that I've gone to mostly restaurants and coffee shops, and it's like it, I can complete the entire thing in like 30 seconds based on how you have all designed the way that app should work. So I think that the ease of those two things is really important. And I'm so thankful for it. And then also, like you said, as an individual, like, just trying to strive towards this zero waste life that really is impossible, like zero is totally impossible. Like, just by living here. And using this technology, even it's like we are taking up space in the world and resources, and we just can't really get away from it. But what I always tell people, especially when I'm coaching is like, you just do the best that you can, which is why I still strive to live, you know, in a way that's sustainable, and it aligns with a lot of zero waste concepts. But really what's going to make the change is like systematic change. And, you know, it connects to politics, it connects to so many things that feel out of our control. But anyway, I'm rambling at this point, but I'm just so like, happy that these two tools are out there for anybody to access for free. And it's just like a really simple way to get involved in this whole crisis.

Jess Lybeck: 14:38

Awesome. I'm so glad that you find it easy. I experienced that as well. But I'm a little bit biased. Since I did most of the design of the app and browser extension. I think, you know, something I wanted to say in reaction. You know, at the beginning of this talk you talked about But how? You know, a lot of the podcast episodes that you've had thus far are thinking about like your own life. And just like I was thinking about my own life. And it's really easy to think that you can vote with your dollars. But because of my experience in business, when those companies see their profits going down, they don't actually know why. They don't know why they're no longer the leader in this, you know, segment or whatever, and giving businesses data points is, how do we change the system faster than, you know, just waiting for the tide to turn over the next, you know, 20 years, we don't have 20 years for, you know, business CEOs to magically wake up and realize this is not only a good business decision, but it's right for the world, it's rates for their customers, it's right for their employees, all of those sorts of things. And so, sending a Remark, even though it's just an email, it's a data point. And you know, our goal is to get 1000s, and millions of people sending these emails so that we can actually go to, let's say, the CEO of Amazon and say, look, you've gotten 1000 emails a day about these things, let's break it down for you, let's say how much you know what these people spent with you. And this is how, without legislation, we get businesses to change in short order. But right now, even if it's just one email, you know, for instance, we had the CEO of Costco respond to a Remark on a Saturday, last week. And that's just a great example of next time somebody in his leadership team brings up something sustainability wise, he's going to happen is in the back of his mind, I know my customers care about this. And, yeah, it's funny to get so excited about that. But it's it's so it's so exciting, because that's revolutionary, it means that you don't have to wait for politicians to wake up and for the divisiveness in this country to, you know, magically disappear to get things done. Businesses can make those types of decisions right now, if they know their customers care about it.

Katie Kurpanek: 17:08

So revolutionary is totally the right word to describe everything that you're saying. We had to have typically, historically, really slow moving change, because we didn't have the technology that we do today, we didn't have like the internet, and the very, very quick, easy access to communication from one side of the world to the other. And now, this adds to the revolution beyond just like having internet access. But it gives people a very, very simple way to make their voice heard. Like, I know, for me personally, there are times when I know I could do some research on the internet to learn more about a specific cause and get involved or sign a petition. But as soon as I start thinking about how much time and how many steps this is going to take in order for me to do that. I don't always actually take the time. But now with these two tools, I know I can just hop right on to Remark and send an email within 30 seconds that's designed for me, or, you know, I can just do whatever pops up on my browser when I'm already reading the news. So I think that that that revolution is so key, and I think it's going to transform, you know, a lot of what we're seeing, it just needs to take off like this is still really new for you all. And it's amazing to hear how many 1000s of emails and actions have already been taken in the past like year and a half.

Jess Lybeck: 18:31

Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting, we try to think about like, what if there wasn't a global pandemic, and like, these things aren't going away these big these big things. And so I think what's great is UnF*** the Future especially, is a flexible platform where as the world's headlines are increasingly depressing, we're able to put solid actions. So for instance, we do have actions around supporting Ukraine within the app as well. And we're trying not to make it like so squishy, that it's just everything that might make you want to cry when you're reading the news. But these are all things that we care about, and at certain times and places are taking a lot of our brain space. And so instead of doing the Doom scrolling, how can we be taking action and it feels good to be able to steward a platform that's able to address a lot of the things that are happening?

Katie Kurpanek: 19:25

Absolutely. Even if it's simply addressing the mental health state, you know, that Doom scrolling and climate anxiety and just the depression that comes from the state of our world currently, all the things that you've already addressed before. It is a really big deal. And I think since the pandemic like we know how much the statistics have just blown up in people that are seeking out mental health resources, like being able to just have the hope that you can do one thing today that contributes towards solving this part. One that makes a huge difference in a person's life. Hey, just wanted to jump in real quick to talk about Patreon. Patreon is an online platform that allows you to become a patron of the arts, so to speak, a financial supporter of the creators who enrich your life with their content. Thanks to the generous support of my patrons starting as low as just$3 a month, I'm able to continue empowering individuals like yourself through these educational chats with various experts across the spectrum of sustainable living. As a patron of this podcast, you will have the privilege of joining the discussions with guest speakers via zoom and taking part in the exclusive q&a with them too. If you can't make the actual interview live, that's okay, you'll have access to the full recorded episode early before anybody else gets a chance to hear it. You also receive the added bonus of personal shout outs in podcast episodes, and other behind the scenes content sent your way. Plus, you'll receive unique discounts to more than a dozen sustainable businesses that have partnered with me so that you can save money and the earth while you shop. If any of the content that I create adds value to your life, or the perks alone have piqued your interest, check out patreon.com/allthingssustainable to join our community and become a patron today. Thank you so much for your support of this journey to minimize our carbon footprint while maximizing our positive impact on this planet we call home. Okay, let's get back to our show.

Jess Lybeck: 21:29

And these things, these things add up and they snowball. I'll tell a story. Last night I had dinner at this local golf course it's like a mile away from my house with my family. And I've sent them a couple of Remarks. They have dine in, they have real plates, they have all of these things. And they had the little plastic ramekins for the sauces that always just drive me up the wall for dining guests. And I saw out of the corner of my eyes somebody like like pulling a plate by and it was a stainless steel little sauce cup. And then I waited till I got my dinner and it was a stainless steel sauce cup. And I asked my waitress about it. And she's like, Yeah, we're you we're trying to be more sustainable. And I still am gonna follow up with her. And you know, I know that my Email was Read from the app. But I would love to just connect the dots even further. But that's a small thing. It's a really small thing. But how many 1000s of little sauce cups per week does that restaurant go through, and then per year, and then over a decade. And it's really easy to think that your own individual actions don't add up? They do too. And just having a platform where we can start to visualize these things where we can start to tell these stories of impact and get people more excited about using their voice. I think is is super exciting to me.

Katie Kurpanek: 22:55

Oh, yeah, absolutely. All of those things add up the amount of resources that it takes to even produce all of those tiny, little paper plastic cups. It's like, okay, you may think just looking at one that this is so small, how could it be a big deal? But like you said, the numbers add up over the days, the years that they're used, but you have to think about the production of all of this. So, no, these are these are huge changes that are amounting together. Um, what are I mean, this kind of ties into my next question, what are some of the biggest or like most positive impacts that you've seen for sustainable change as a result of either the app or the browser extension?

Jess Lybeck: 23:34

Yeah, so for the app, we have a couple of awesome stories under our belt, more than a couple I should say. So we have an example of a Remark user sending feedback to a grocery store about coconuts being wrapped in plastic. And this was not just at one location, but multiple locations. She sent a Remark. Later that month, she went back the coconuts were no longer wrapped in plastic, we reached out to the manager and based on that one piece of feedback from a customer, they realized that it was a silly practice that was costing them money and hours of employees wrapping something that frankly, already had a wrapper did not need a wrapper. So small, small win for the plastic free grocery shoppers in Minneapolis for that one. Another example. And this is due to Remark but also due to a whole bunch of other customers reaching out. Native deodorants. If anybody's familiar. They are awesome deodorants. One of Remark users reached out and was just like, I love your deodorants. I want to use them but it's all plastic. I don't want this. And a few months later, Viveck the CEO of that company committed to going plastic free by 2023 Due to the overwhelming amount of feedback they received from customers. So our Remark user was just one person from that but it shows the the impact that Having a bunch of customers reach out and being unhappy about something can do to, you know, a relatively mid sized like, you know, biggest company. We've also seen $100 million cleaning goods company say that they were going to commit to removing a piece of their plastic packaging, again from one email from a customer. And then, you know, countless restaurants making switches like I just shared where they're going from Styrofoam or plastic to compostable. We'd love to see more restaurants go to reusable. So that's really what we're, you know, trying to promote in, in emails and in our follow up to restaurants. And then in terms of UnF*** the Future, those ones are going to be a little bit more longer term, we're thinking about how we can sort of track the progress of bills and legislation and things like that, so that we can inform people like, hey, you know, that action you took two months ago, that bill passed, you know, in, you know, some part because you you know, shared your perspective with your representatives and things like that. So I think our biggest impact is going to be yet to come, I get really excited about these, these case studies that things are working. And we're actually just about to kickstart a pilot in Denver, where we actually either call or go in person after a restaurant receives a certain number of Remarks, because we believe that there's a lot of changes that are happening out there that we're just not aware of, you know, if I went to gone back to the golf course, you know, last night and saw that they made the change, we wouldn't know. And so we're trying to create, not necessarily relationships, but create a little bit more of a communication line with these restaurants understand what they're thinking about how we can shift our product and our process to meet them where they're at, so that they can take the steps to be more sustainable, and ultimately, let our users make more impact through their through their actions.

Katie Kurpanek: 26:59

Yeah, and then there's just that added layer of accountability. Because I mean, a business that gets an overwhelming amount of emails that already is probably going to instigate some type of change, you would hope and like you're sharing with all these examples, obviously, it is, but as soon as there's a person like in, you know, like face to face with you all of a sudden addressing like, hey, you've been getting all of these emails, and have you done anything with this feedback, like there's just a different type of accountability. So I think that's a great idea. And your stories are so inspiring, we actually just bought some Native deodorant from Target, and they had on their shelf like their plastic bottles. And then right next to them, they had a couple of options in cardboard, like a stiffer cardboard, you know, tube. And so of course, that's what we went with. And I'm just so happy to hear about all of this, like you said earlier in the conversation, it goes back to data points, and businesses aren't going to know all the time why their clients or customers aren't buying from them anymore, unless we tell them so. This definitely gets me excited about it, I can tell it gets you excited about it. And I am curious, when it comes to climate change as a whole and the health of our planet. I mean, I love the name, the snarky name of UnF*** the Future, but do you, Do you feel like we can truly UnF*** the Future? And what specifically is fueling your belief? Like do you have a something that is like giving you that that hope and that drive every day?

Jess Lybeck: 28:41

It's a good question. I will say, it is an up and down journey for me. So if you catch me at a low, my answer to this question will look different than catching me at a potentially high point that I like I feel today, I'm generally an optimistic person. But I think at some points when you're reading headlines and things like that, if you don't have doubts, or don't have, I don't know that you're not human is up or you're just ignoring, you know, a lot, a lot of facts. But, you know, I believe we can UnF*** the Future. I believe humans, in general are terrible at addressing long term impacts or threats. We're not designed for it. We're designed to, you know, run away from a tiger in the woods. We're not designed to like prevent a tiger from coming in 10 years. So, so in that part, we're not great. Why I believe we can UnF*** the Future is we have a lot more people in this movement right now. And a lot more people that are caring. I think the stat is a recent poll of ages 16 to 25. Half of people said climate anxiety is negatively affecting their daily life. So like half of young people are thinking about this stuff all the time. And so I think we can tackle this because there are people in this movement now that care, and there will be more people in this movement as we go on. And I think we are not good at human as humans at addressing a faraway threat. But when a threat is up close, which we are getting, I'd say we're in it. But we're very close to some pretty, I think, dire, you know, negative impacts due to climate change. And I think when we can see those for ourselves, and for naysayers, or politicians, or business owners, who are going to continually be staring these things in the face, and be held accountable by the people who care by their customers, by their constituents. I do believe that we have the ability to pivot and make big actions and big decisions very quickly. We're not at that point right now, which is sad we should be. And I keep thinking, you know, this is going to be the year that everybody's going to wake up and realize we can't just drag our feet on this stuff anymore. Like we have to not just look good on paper or look good in a speech to our constituents, we actually have to take action. And so I think we're getting there. And there's a beautiful if you haven't read or if you haven't watched this, a TED talk called The Earth is Full. If you're in a if you're in a down point, I wouldn't recommend watching it. But it's It's oddly hopeful, in that they gave examples of from World War Two when you know, people are like, Oh, well, we can't turn our whole society around on a dime. Well, we did. We stopped producing cars, and we started producing planes. When the pandemic happened a few years ago, people are like, Well, you can't shut down a global economy. Well, we did. And we we got through that. And so I think that, I hope, this is a weird hope. But I hope that the signs and signals and proof and frankly, the negative consequences in the next few years are enough to bring over a wide swath of people that are maybe on the fence for time taking action right now. And when that happens, when this society decides that they're going to take decisive action, I know that there are tools and entrepreneurs and technologies and innovations that are going to be there to meet them, and they're to scale to meet the demand. So that is where I get my hope from. It's not, it's not in this, like everybody's gonna wake up some time. And suddenly, we're gonna Kumbaya and no, I think it's gonna probably get worse before it gets better. But I believe that humans are generally good that we're gonna figure this out.

Katie Kurpanek: 32:52

I totally agree. Yeah, and it is definitely an up and down journey, as with everything else in life, but I think that it can be harder on the down days, to realize how many people are actively working towards this cause, and for the greater good of our planet. And on the, you know, the higher days, or at least the days where I feel more connected to a sense of community, and I get to talk with people like yourself, or just on social media, or, you know, a UnF*** the Future browser notification pops up, it's like, oh, there are so many people in the world right now working towards this change and coming up with amazing technology and inventions that I would never even dream of yet. So that is very helpful to be reminded of those things and to then contribute towards the same cause and the same common goal. As we bring our conversation in for a landing, I am curious, thinking through Well, I always ask this routine question at the end of my podcast episodes, but I change up the wording a bit depending on who I'm talking to. So for you, if you consider the listeners on this call, and like various backgrounds, levels of accessibility to resources, like the privilege that they're born into, could you share 1-3 actionable steps that our listeners can take to join the fight to UnF*** the Future, and it could have to do with using the Remark app or this browser extension, or it could just be something that you're personally passionate about, but genuinely like 1-3 top steps that you would recommend taking like as soon as today.

Jess Lybeck: 34:36

Awesome. Step one, take care of yourself wherever you are at. I say that because when you're in that down zone, no amount of grasping is necessarily going to help and sometimes what I need is to take a break from the new cycle. Try to take a break from thinking about those things. so that I can come back to the fight and be ready to fight. So I think that that's always the first step. The second step would be, I think the most powerful thing to use remark for, frankly, is to tell businesses why you left. So you used to give them your business. And now you left us an example of a bank. Hi, Chase, I used to keep all of my money with you and I had several business accounts, then I found out that you are the large world's largest funder of fossil fuels. And so I removed my money from your bank, and I am now banking with this bank, thank you, CEO of Chase, please do better. The Remark app would love to help you draft that. But if you feel like drafting that on your own, that's fine, too. But you know, from the ketchup that you buy, that was in the plastic packaging, to the glass bottle to the like the things that are no longer in your life, you can make a list of those things and then use the Remark app or if you feel like doing, you know internet research, you can do that to reach out to those CEOs and say, I am now spending my money elsewhere, because you are not doing XYZ and sustainability. And sustainability is really important to me. I got your, your catalog in the mail, and I loved the clothes, but I didn't see a sustainability commitment. And that's why I just tossed it in the recycling, like you do these things every day. But start to make that invisible, visible to the people who are actually making decisions. And enough people do that. And it's going to make a world of difference. And then just download and have fun with the UnF*** the Future extension, there's not much to it other than you know, we hope to catch you the next time you're doing scrolling and help lighten your day a little bit by taking action.

Katie Kurpanek: 36:43

I love it. Thank you so much to you and your whole team of people who have created these options. I know that I've personally benefited from it a whole bunch. And it is, you know, on my daily reminder to like do this more often. And you just have to get into the habit of like you said, you throw something in the recycling. Why did you do that? Could you take 30 seconds and use the app to then send a piece of feedback and then go on your way? And yeah, I think it's just all about habit building. But these tools are going to make it so much easier. So thank you so much for joining. I will put in the episode description, all of the different links to what we talked about so far today in our call, as well as that TED talk that you mentioned, The Earth is Full. And then social media like what other ways can people follow you or connect with this journey?

Jess Lybeck: 37:34

Yeah, so signing up for the app gets you on our newsletter list, we send out just about once or twice a month, anxiety, meaning news, things that are stressing us out. And then antidotes which are actions that you can take, whether they be on our apps, or just out in the world. So that's a great way and then just following us on Instagram, where we're posting snarky funny Instagram reels weekly, so that would be a great place to catch up as well.

Katie Kurpanek: 38:01

I love those they always brighten my day. Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. We are going to end the recorded portion of this audio but then for the patrons on the call, we'll be able to have our exclusive q&a chat and for any listeners listening to the podcast if you would like to be part of that community. There's also the Patreon link in the episode description so that you can join our community of patrons and enjoy the live conversation like this and then be able to talk with our guest speakers after the fact. So thank you so much everybody, go help UnF*** the Future and have a great day. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so please consider sharing it with a friend and subscribing to the podcast so you never miss a new episode. Check out the description for important links. And if you'd like to benefit from the perks of becoming a patron to the show, check out patreon.com/all Things sustainable. Until next time, do the best you can with what you have and remember that you can make a positive impact on this world one day at a time.