Dilemma/ Solution

Dilemma/ Solution

    “A dilemma is a problem that can’t be solved without creating another problem. At the heart of every story is a dilemma. If we’re not sure what our story is about, let’s consider this for a moment: Problems are solved while dilemmas are resolved through...
No New Normal! Why We Must Resist

No New Normal! Why We Must Resist

You’ve probably heard the idea that a frog that gets dropped in a pot of boiling water will jump out immediately, while a frog that is placed in a pan of cool water heating on a stove will stay as the water continues to get hotter and hotter, gradually adjusting its...
The Hope of the Blank Page

The Hope of the Blank Page

Every day, we said, every weekday, we will post something. We will call it The Daily Dose. Art, links, news, poetry, opinion pieces, rants… We’ve run a free writing class and posted grants, we’ve analyzed events, written stories, created videos. Our...
Heading Upstream

Heading Upstream

A long time ago, an activist told me a story, which I will convey to you now in the mostly gender-neutral terms with which I try to approach our gender-complex world. (This is otherwise not really about gender at all, any more than everything is, in a patriarchy, but...
The Discipline of Hope

The Discipline of Hope

In an interview, I heard Ira Glass say, every episode of This American Life has a particular theme, but in fact, every episode has the same theme: I thought this would happen, and instead this happened. I will talk about this tomorrow evening at a free class Ellen...