Sometimes the easiest way to start a very large endeavor is with a small one first.
I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, “The good thing about things being so fucked up is that there’s plenty to do.” But how? When the national government is actively working against intelligent learning and cooperation, where do you even start?
"This is also a time of extraordinary possibility."
This week, Heather Cox Richardson posted a video in which she acknowledges that Americans have good reasons to be feeling freaked out by presidential and Supreme Court overreach. But importantly, she urges people not to feel powerless.
That sensation that everything seems broken but feels strangely normal? It has a name.
Ernst Bloch warned that the most profound loss under fascism is not material or even psychological security, but the erosion of imaginative hope—the ability to envision a different, better reality.
A visual exploration of how a critical piece of social infrastructure came to be.
It won’t surprise you to learn that the first libraries were for white men only—and that their eventual spread and democratization was driven largely by the tireless efforts of women.
A civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all
And speaking of defending libraries, Free For All: The Public Library is a feature-length documentary from PBS’s Independent Lens series that explores the history, significance, and current challenges facing America’s public libraries.
The original spirit of Mother’s Day was a spirit of pacifism, progress, community care, and support for mothers.
Ann Reeves Jarvis was an Appalachian activist who organized women during the Civil War to support soldiers on both sides.
Hope is both active and participatory.
Joycelyn Longdon works at the intersection of environmental justice and technology.
The unseen architecture of how we gather and host
Katherine May, author of, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, is known for gently affirming our need to slow down, to feel, and to turn inward when the world wants speed instead.
'Most of us will be lost to history, but we will, nonetheless, move the story forward, even if just a little bit.'
Last week Heather Cox Richardson spoke at Boston’s Old North Church on the 250th anniversary of the lighting of lanterns in the church’s steeple to warn colonial patriots of British troop movements.
'The only meaningful answer is to work even harder for a world of radical equality.'
Last month writer, historian and activist, Rebecca Solnit participated in a Zoom panel titled We Are Not Who They Told Us We Are: Everyday People in Extraordinary Times.
'Maybe the main reward of trying to do things differently is giving encouragement to others that they can create the possibilities they see.'
Around 50 people, with a span of seventy years between the youngest and the oldest, call Cobb Hill CoHousing home.
“Communal eating is the beating heart of coliving.'
In 1970, a New York Times investigation into the “commune phenomenon” identified nearly 2,000 groups living together, “seeking economic advantages, social revolution, love, pot, God, or themselves.” More than 50 years later, people continue to come together to redefine success beyond conventional individualism.
'We need better citizens.'
This book calls for turning local civic efforts into a broader movement to revitalize democracy and tackle issues like inequality, social injustice, political disconnection, and environmental crises.
Communities have long responded to injustice with ingenuity.
What if the solutions to our greatest challenges were already around us? This idea stems from a belief that the wisdom to transform our world exists in our communities.
'There is a very important distinction between what they’re trying to do and what they’ll succeed in doing, between what they’ve launched a war against and the outcome of that war.'
The quote in the headline comes from Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark.
When it comes to changing the values, mindsets, rules, and goals of a system, story is foundational.
In this comprehensive article author Ella Saltmarshe explores the power of storytelling as a tool for systems change and social transformation.
In this world we do not understand, how do we know what to do?
The first edition of this book was dedicated to Pema Chödrön, the Buddhist teacher who emphasizes that peace and resilience are found by facing and embracing life exactly as it is.
Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.
Illustration by Max Guther
Unhoused people want to be housed. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. This choir gives them the mic.
Voices of Our City amplifies the voices of people impacted by homelessness through music and the arts.
Sometimes joy is the greatest form of resistance.
If disinformation thrives in an environment of coordinated inauthentic behavior, how do we create a dramatically different kind of media environment? In other words, what does uncoordinated authentic behavior look like?...
'At the core of our shared sadness and rage is a longing for a better world for all of us.'
Processing and holding my own grief about the election inevitably leads to repeatedly saying, “I can’t believe that people voted for him.” Garret Bucks assures me that this is a reasonable lamentation, a natural expression of grief.
Art is a mirror to society. Artists and illustrators are holding up their view of the election results.
Some might find it unproductive to dwell on the doom and gloom, but for many of the artists interviewed for this story, there is value in sitting with all of these feelings and capturing the mood of this moment before creating calls for action.
'It doesn't mean that you have lost. It means that you have work to do.'
As somebody who has lived in, negotiated with, been persecuted by authoritarian governments, here are four things to set as a reminder against the onset of despair; remembering over and over again that despair is the privilege of those who can afford it...."
There is only one America, and we’re all still living in it.
This week Liz Lenz challenged the notion of a strict red-blue political divide in America, noting instead that such divisions are exaggerated and largely shaped by socioeconomic factors, particularly wealth.
'What’s a better antidote for anxiety, than empowering youth with pleasure-centric tools and resources that allow them to reclaim control of their bodily autonomy?'
With a new school year in full swing and elections around the corner, it’s only normal that we’re feeling anxious about what could happen this fall.
'Music has a unique ability to bring people together, create shared experiences, and remind us of our collective purpose as citizens in a democracy.'
By placing musicians at polling locations across the country on Election Day, we aim to make voting a celebration of democracy, encouraging more people to participate in the electoral process.
Regular users of public libraries also go to church, frequent bookstores and tend to vote Democratic.
Top library users — those most likely to visit at least monthly — include adults under age 30, folks who attend religious services at least once a month and Democrats."
How to nurture a fairer, happier, more secure, and less stressful society for ourselves and our children.
In 2008 Finnish journalist, Anu Partanen, married an America and moved to the U.S..
'Creativity can shift immutable systems.'
A monograph dedicated to artist billboards shown across America in the past few years—some of them bearing political and topical messages—is timely.
The full realization of democracy is rooted in our psychological experience as individuals.
This week the always insightful Maria Popova posted an article that speaks to the societal tension that we are experiencing in America today.
Democratic backsliding in the United States and around the world highlights an urgent need for a renewed focus on civic education.
Multiple studies have shown that younger Americans are losing faith in democracy, and a significant number of them are no longer convinced that it should endure, given the political failure to address issues that they care about....This aligns with broader findings that show public confidence in the federal government has been low for decades."
Across the country, women are reminding each other to cast their vote freely and privately—regardless of the political beliefs of their spouse or partner.
In a world where the political gender gap is growing as women become more liberal, a clever grassroots campaign is reminding women of a fundamental truth: Their vote is private.
Share banned books.
With more than 180,000 Little Free Library book-sharing boxes worldwide, there is a legion of stewards who take book access seriously — and many go above and beyond when protecting access to banned and challenged books.
“People feel differently about their bookstore than they do about their grocery store or electronics store.”
We all know of food deserts: landscapes where there’s no access to fresh produce, just a Taco Bell or two.
How Norway's national broadcaster reframed its climate coverage to become the most viewed content they produce.
Four years ago, Norway’s national broadcaster set out to completely reshape its coverage of climate change, restructuring reporters’ positions in the newsroom, and investing in producing fewer, but more widely read, climate stories.
An art installation that educates residents on the changes happening within their neighborhood.
Brooklyn-based nonprofit Van Alen Institute has launched a new participatory public artwork in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
To America's founders personal self-government was a prerequisite of political self-government.
In his remarkable book The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, Jeffrey Rosen has documented the Founders’ deep understanding of virtue as an essential antecedent to human happiness."
'By ourselves we are outside the human definition, outside our identity.'
It is not simply that we are here, made of the same matter, sharing the same improbable planet; it is that the sharing makes us what we are, each of us a fractal of this immense and indivisible ecosystem of relationship, a golden strand in a tapestry whose only meaning is in the interweaving of its threads.
An approach to bullying that eschews punishment and focuses on empathy, tolerance, and respect is working really well.
A Swiss initiative is uncovering a measurably effective means of uncovering and addressing bullying in schools.
'This devastating moment in history has the redemptive effect of calling forth our deepest longings to care for each other.'
I often turn to Rob Brezsny for a spiritual perspective on this experiment we've named humanity.
'Mutual learning is only possible when all participants are willing to be wrong…'
I think our notions of leadership are toxic to the ecology of communication and collaboration in a social system.
You don’t need to take on the Herculean task of making new friends to be less lonely. You may just need a third place.
If one of the many crises that befall our society is loneliness, third places offer a solution.
"The good thing about everything being so messed up is that no matter where you look there’s good work to be done.”
- Derek Jensen
