Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

Banana Republics

Do you know where the term Banana Republic comes from?

It’s what happened a bunch of times in the 1940s-80s as the US overthrew governments in Central America to install ones favorable to their interests.

One example:

Jacobo Arbenz was president of Guatemala in the 1950s. He was popular and democratically elected. Despite Guatemala’s fertile soil, 80% of the population struggled to survive, so he launched a land redistribution program to the peasants.

This upset the United Fruit Company, who controlled a lot of the land. They called the CIA, who convinced the US President to authorize a coup.

They installed Carlos Castillo Armas as President.
Castillo gave United Fruit 1.5 million acres, placed harsh restrictions on the Indigenous populations, and terrorized opponents.

Peace accords were finally signed in 1996, but the United Fruit Company lives on. You may recognize their new name. Chiquita.

You Really Can't Control It

I hate it when I see all these news stories about stuff like Ukraine or Anti-Asian violence or mass shootings and there’s nothing I can really do to make it stop.

It’s like the weather. You’re affected by it but you can’t really control it.

But then, there’s climate. Which we can’t really control, exactly, but we can affect it.

In fact, pretty much everything we do affects it for better or worse.

Of course some things we do have more influence, especially if it moves the policy needle or shifts the culture- and none of this is the work of one single person but enough of us working together

These Two Mothers

Got a couple of cool moms here!

The biggest Happy Mothers Day to these moms in my life. My kids are so lucky to have them shaping their lives.

Anyone who’s known @deanna.suzanna ever should be completely unsurprised that she’s a terrific mom but it’s still incredible to see it in action. All the little daily decisions that go into raising kids are made with the sharpest insight and wisdom. Becoming a parent of three in a two year window is a lot less intimidating with her as a partner.

I’m also thankful that this season of babies galore has brought my own mom into the mix much more. That’s made the life we have right now possible. Looking after this 3-under
-3 crew is a tall order at any age, but my mom has stepped up so enthusiastically.

Mothers have such a big impact, whether they’re biological, adoptive, foster, or moms in the more spiritual sense and no matter how many holidays they make, our world doesn’t do enough to recognize that. Don’t waste a chance to make a mom know what you appreciate.

The LiNK Shirt

Shout out to this shirt.

I got it back when I joined the @libertyinnorthkorea team as an intern in 2012.

I traveled the US, living in a van, and giving presentations at schools and churches about North Korea.

It was kind of my first formal act of storytelling for a cause.

The people of North Korea remain close to my heart, and so I’m happy to continue to rep.

This shirt has held up extremely well! I mean the neck may have seen better days, but after ten years I can’t complain. I’ve worn this thing all over the world, and the gray color is forgiving.

Lots of cool stuff is being done to make clothing more sustainable but it doesn’t get much more sustainable than caring for the stuff you have and making it last as long as you can.

Thirtytwo

I’m 32 today.

What a year. What a life.

I hope this comes across as grateful rather than boastful, but…

Of all the stories I could possibly be living, I can’t think of one I’d rather be in than the one I’ve been given.

The people I get to be around.
The kiddos I get to raise.
The places I get to visit.
The projects I get to work on.
The things I get to fight for.

There’s a lot going on in the world and there’s no shortage of reminders that everybody is going through something, but I can’t help but think that a real deep gratitude for life and the deliberate decision to live makes it a little better for everyone.

Domestic Adventurers

Domestic adventurers baby.

I think few photos will sum up this moment in our lives any better than this one: stopping in the middle of a hike through desert slot canyons to pull out some bottles to feed the babies.

I loved every time another hiker came around the corner and the backdrop of their desert adventure was suddenly disrupted by a nursery scene.

The two modes that make me happiest are when I’m out exploring and immersed in a new place and when I’m holding one of my kiddos. It’s not so easy to put them together most of the time, but every now and then the magic happens!

Six Americas of Global Warming

I wish more people knew about the study by Yale: Six Americas of Global Warming.

I think it’s easy to think of climate is this polarizing thing where half of people see it one way and half of people are totally opposed.

In reality, about a third of Americans are alarmed about it and another quarter are concerned. These segments are kind of losing sleep over the topic.

Another quarter are a little more disengaged or apathetic. 10% have their doubts but only 9% are the outright dismissive sorts who will shout hoax at anything presented at them.

I really appreciate that one time John Oliver tried to have a climate debate with a more representative sample of panelists.

In order to get meaningful climate action, we don’t need to convince that really small segment, as much as we need to equip the rest of the spectrum.

When we confuse how loud some of these voices are for how few of them there actually are, the climate conversation gets hung up on the question of: is it real? Rather than the more interesting and important: what should we do?

Someone Else's Turf

Getting ready to travel soon, for the first time with my 3-under-3 crew. And here’s a big perspective on travel I’m hoping to pass on.

I think travel is good for people, generally speaking, and I don’t like to gatekeep what travel should look like. If you like cities, cool. Lots of human culture and story there. If nature’s more your thing, I feel that too.

I used to be all about the budget solo backpacking, but now that kids have entered the picture, I’m seeing all the times paying for a few more conveniences is worth it in the long haul.

But there is at least one mindset that I am absolutely opposed to, and it’s the one that completely looks past local communities, cultures, and environments and only sees a personal playground. One where a place’s worth is only defined by how much it’ll cater to a visitor’s comfort or interests or Instagram feed.

I’m all about having a good time when traveling, but I actually believe I’ve found travel so enriching because of this perspective.

When you travel, you are not setting foot on your personal playground.

You are on someone else’s soil.

You are in someone else’s home.

Have fun.

But go with appreciation and respect.

Clear's Law of Recurrence

I wish this was more common knowledge…

It’s called Clear’s Law of Recurrence because of the author James Clear.

It goes, an idea that gets repeated more, gets believed more. It doesn’t matter how good the idea is or if it makes sense.

In a lot of ways this seems like such an obvious, common sense thing. It’s kind of the reason people who think they uniquely see the truth all kind of use the same talking points. And yet we do stuff all the time like quote tweeting really bad takes just to argue with them.

First off, algorithms don’t really care that you’re dunking on the original post, they just see that it’s getting a lot of buzz and so maybe more people want to see it.

There’s a reason I follow you, and not that media personality or congressperson with the bad takes. I don’t want that on my feed.

To be nuanced, there’s a time and place to stand up to harmful rhetoric, but be careful that your instinct to react doesn’t play somebody else’s game for them.

Spend more of your energy getting the better idea out there, and figure out how to amplify it.

Strong Vulnerable Earth

There are so many examples of how nature is just plain powerful.

Gigantic redwoods, ocean currents, strong mammals.

This is what I love about spending time outside- you’re forced to humble yourself when confronted with nature’s wild strength.

But if you’re observant enough, you’ll note that nature is also really vulnerable.

Introduce a species to the wrong ecosystem, disregard soil biology when farming, be too zealous or too reckless with fire control, or simply consume way too much and you’ll see how fragile these places we love really are.

It almost seems like a paradox. Nature is strong. Nature is vulnerable. It’s a contradiction, right?

Maybe it’s not. Maybe these things never were opposites to begin with.

The strongest people I know are also some of the most vulnerable, open hearted people, who aren’t afraid to show their scars.

They don’t sweep their fears under the rug, or dismiss them for good vibes only. They know how grieve and mourn with those who mourn. They own their mistakes and their humanness.

Strength and vulnerability. Hand in hand.

Realm of the 52 Remedies

One of my favorite date nights over the past year was this one: a speakeasy hidden within another bar. One that made me feel like a Crazy Rich Asian.

This place was a lot of fun. I loved the ancient Chinese medicine theme, the secret passageway to get in… and the food was pretty great. Not to mention cocktails- loved the earl grey bourbon mix I had towards the end, and the scallop spaetzle.

Eager to go back!

Most Maps are Misleading

Most maps you see are pretty misleading

But I usually use a quick little India-Greenland test to see how off one is.

India is about 1.5x the size of Greenland… if I were to try and trace the country shapes on a globe and cut them out, you can see this pretty well.

But here’s what most paper maps show instead…

Greenland is often way larger than India… sometimes four times as big.

The reason this happens is that distortion is inevitable when you’re going from a 3D sphere to a flat projection, and whenever you try and compensate you usually wind up with a funny shape and have to splice through countries.

It doesn’t have to biased against countries closer to the equator though and in fact could favor them. But don’t forget most map makers live in the Global North.

Slot Canyons


My current aesthetic is all adventure-meets-domestic.

I love this crew so much. Among many other things, they’re my constant reminder that God is good, that so some of the seemingly impossible things we hope for are just around the corner, and not to wish ahead a single day.

Zoo Afternoon

Maurice Sendak was once asked to share his biggest piece of advice about raising children. “Love them,” he said.

At first I was like, well duh. Isn’t that just super obvious?

One day last week, Rhys had a pretty rough day at preschool… long story short he was bit by another kid and that’s not too uncommon at that age, but you wanna know that he’s safe and something you’d have to repeatedly worry about. It was easy to jump into problem solving mode, talking to the school and what not. Now Maurice Sednak’s advice makes a lot of sense to me. The most important thing in the moment was making sure my kid felt loved and safe. Sometimes that response can get buried by overthinking and problem solving.

We figured, getting to go to the zoo on a weeknight wouldn’t be a bad way to show Rhys some love. Kai and Juniper went to the zoo for the first time, and we found the new area opened as kind of an ultimate playground.

Bad days happen, but it’s a lot of fun to respond to someone having a bad day with some creativity, spontaneity, and lots of love.

Panta Rhei

Panta Rhei.

Ever hear of that phrase?

It literally means ‘everything flows.’

It’s attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus to describe how change is constant. He said “You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.”

Even if the river were static, it couldn’t be the same thing twice, because you yourself are changing.

That’s been an especially helpful reminder for me over the past few months, as I’ve been living in a stretch of my life that is simultaneously extremely demanding but incredibly sweet.

At the day to day level, it’s also felt like the same day over and over again, and as someone who thrives off breaking routines and going to the unfamiliar, it’s been challenging in ways that go beyond the physical tiredness.

But lately, I’ve also been delighted more and more by the small moments in between and the sheer sweetness of it all.