#207 – iChange Justice Podcast – Ethics, Sustainability and Regeneration with Milt Markowitz

#207 – iChange Justice Podcast Ethics, Sustainability and Regeneration with Milt Markowitz This episode offers a refreshing, thoughtful, human-focused perspective on the future of life on Earth — one that begins not with technology, tools, or tactics, but with the ethical soil from which all lasting solutions must grow. Whether you’re working in community building, environmental advocacy, justice reform, or simply seeking to live with greater purpose, this conversation is an invitation to reimagine sustainability as a deeply ethical human endeavor. Co-hosts Joy Gilfilen and Karen Ball sit down with community visionary Milt Markowitz to explore one of the most important — and often overlooked — dimensions of building a vital future: the ethical foundations that underwrite vitality, culture, and make sustainability possible. Rather than diving straight into technologies, policies, or programs, he shows how they play support roles, not primary ones. Milt invites listeners to take a step back and examine the living systems, values, and principles that must guide any effort to regenerate our communities and our planet. Sustainability isn’t just about “going green” or managing resources — it’s about how nature itself, and how we treat one another, how we make decisions, and how we define success in a way that honors people, place, and purpose. Milt Markowitz focuses on the difference between surface-level change and true transformation. He explores why regeneration requires not only new systems but new stories — stories grounded in integrity, accountability, and our shared responsibility to each other and the Earth. It’s a call to shift from short-term gain to long-term stewardship, from competition to cooperation, and from scarcity thinking to an ethic of care and interconnection. Milt’s work extends beyond this conversation into the pages of Language of Life: Finding Answers to Modern Crises in an Ancient Way of Speaking, co-authored with Dr. Ruth Miller. This groundbreaking book blends Ruth’s understanding of ancient cultures and systems with Milt’s study of Ancient Hebrew as a “living language,” revealing nine life-processes essential to sustaining life. It shows how the wisdom embedded in language can help us build cultures of balance and harmony — and why embracing that wisdom is vital to creating an ecologically sustainable future. Language of Life is available on Amazon and through Portal Press: https://www.amazon.com/Language-answers-modern-ancient-speaking/dp/1936902117