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How Our Feedback Cultures Can Starve Resilience — and What It Takes to Feed It
This essay continues my exploration of resilience that began in The Upside of Collapse. There, I wrote that resilient systems aren’t the ones that avoid…
Nov 3
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First Draft Thinking
October 2025
The Games They Play
Basketball, Betting, the FBI, and the Politics of Distraction
Oct 26
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First Draft Thinking
2
The Talk 2.0: A Bedtime Lesson for My Daughter
On words, worth, and what it takes to raise a Black child who knows her power.
Oct 19
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First Draft Thinking
2
The Reckoning Progressives Still Owe Each Other
The untold story of organizational messes left behind, the silence that followed, and why progressives can’t move forward without first facing hard…
Oct 12
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First Draft Thinking
5
1
The Crying Wolf Chronicles: Re-Forging Bonds Over Bourbon in Bluegrass Country
Seven old friends. A cabin high above Kentucky’s bourbon country. A grainy game tape. We came to celebrate turning fifty, and rediscovered what still…
Oct 7
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First Draft Thinking
America’s Forgotten Architect of Repression — and What He Teaches Us About Today’s Fear Regime
Joe McCarthy was the carnival barker. Pat McCarran stitched repression into law. To fight today’s authoritarian project, we need to pull the seams from…
Oct 1
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First Draft Thinking
2
September 2025
The Crying Wolf Chronicles: Telling A Chicago Story Without Losing Its Truth
Two weeks ago, I joined the monthly all-staff meeting for an organization my team and I are beginning to work with: some long, deep work that we hope…
Sep 27
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First Draft Thinking
1
The Cost of the Center
Cold War Lessons for Philanthropy and the Future of Coalitions
Sep 21
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First Draft Thinking
The Crying Wolf Chronicles
The Studio as Sanctuary
Sep 16
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First Draft Thinking
1
The Upside of Collapse
What I Learned While Tracing Resilience Across Time—and How Leaders Can Put It Into Practice
Sep 14
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First Draft Thinking
15
1
The Crying Wolf Chronicles
Why I Said Yes
Sep 8
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First Draft Thinking
3
1
Trickle Down Disrespect in the Social Sector
I try not to make a stink about the state of the world.
Sep 3
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First Draft Thinking
3
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