Welcome!

Thank you so much for making your way over here, I’m really excited you’re joining this experiment.

I say experiment because I’m one of the many people who has gotten hooked on social media, on the constant dopamine hits and ever faster news cycles and little bites of content. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met great people on Twitter, and had at least one good experience on Facebook way back when, but I’m ready to try something new, and I’m glad you’re doing the same. I hope that together we can slow down, take a step back, and look at the big picture. The world feels more tumultuous than ever right now, so I want to take the opportunity with you to see if all this chaos makes a little more sense if we zoom out. And here’s where I’ll be doing that.

What it looks like

For now, this’ll be a weekly letter to your inbox, along with the comments and discussion we’re able to have here at a different pace, and with a whole lot less vitriol than other spots on the internet. From there I hope to add shorter pieces a few times a week, but we’ll see how it goes, and see what folks are looking for.

What I don’t want to do is just tell you the news — there are already tons of great indie media outlets and journalists who can do that much better than I can. What I do hope to do is bring thoughtful commentary, ties to history and movements, and synthesize it with other dimensions like the religious, cultural, and social dynamics running through our country. I hope you’ll find it helpful, and I’ll always be open to feedback to making this more relevant to you and your life.

I will also be striving to provide you with links, information about, and ways to plug into great organizations and groups engaged in transformative and radical work, because although this newsletter will prioritize taking a step back to see the big picture, it’ll also tie back to action being taken here and now as informed by the context we explore.

Who I am

If you’ve found your way here you probably know me from Twitter, but in my real life I work at a non-profit and as a teacher. For a few years I taught high school, then adjuncted at community college and college in the CUNY system, then I ended up going back to school during the pandemic to study religion and society, more or less. Now, I work at the Slow Factory, a climate and social justice oriented non-profit where I do social media, grant writing, and assorted odd jobs. Then I work with teachers getting their teaching masters and help them with their writing some nights. When I’m not doing that stuff I’m involved in a local community organizing collective, some mutual aid and abolition work, and of course tweeting too much.

I say all that just to tell you a little more about me, since on Twitter I try not to talk about myself too much, and this platform probably, hopefully won’t be too focused on me, either. But, I do hope it’ll have more room to talk about some of the various searches for meaning I’ve undertaken, searches for ways to be helpful and make a difference, some learning experiences, and a little of the organizing I do. And I hope to upload random pictures I take like the ones on this page. Just one of those hobbies I hope to explore a little more moving forward, and to share with you.

More will be revealed, as they say, and I hope you’ll join me in either a paid or a free subscription. If you’re willing and able to support me doing more of this work, I’ll be eternally grateful, but if you’re not I completely understand, and I’d be just as honored if you subscribe for free and join me in this endeavor. Cheers!