Originally published on 7 Bridges Much has been made and much ink has been spilled over Jason Fried’s team memo at Basecamp last week asserting new cultural values and direction for the company. Rightly, most of the attention has been focused on the first declaration that “societal and political discussions”…

If political parties provided what conspiracy theories do, maybe our parties would be stronger and more useful to our civic life. — Originally published on 7 Bridges Humans need community to survive — belonging is safety, and meaning is direction. Without either, community withers, and we die. While modern society has put all kinds of pressures on community, the pandemic has all but eliminated our weak ties (hopefully temporarily) and left all…

Like all chick-or-the-egg arguments, what matters most is where we go from here. — Originally published on 7 Bridges The intentions of America’s founders and the framers of our constitution still matter. They were animated by profound ideals, however imperfectly implemented, that resonate and provide essential, useful direction today. But when it comes to guns, I no longer care what the founders thought.

Solving our information crisis requires more than one solution because there is more than one problem — This article is part of a series of thinking examining modern media and our civic life including my new book For ALL the People out now. Originally published on 7 Bridges Margaret Sullivan — the brilliant and thoughtful media columnist for The Washington Post — wrote last weekend about how…

Smart, thoughtful people have been showing us the way to a more complete conversation about modern media and civic life for decades . It’s time we listen. — This article is part of a series of thinking examining modern media and our civic life including my new book For ALL the People coming Feb 23, 2021. Originally published on 7 Bridges The weeks since the election have revealed in stark relief the civic crisis America faces. It has…

A new study reveals that verified users on Twitter are sharing more deceptive information than ever — This article is part of a series of thinking examining modern media and our civic life including my new book For ALL the People coming Feb 23, 2021. Originally published on 7 Bridges As more and more public conversation emerges to examine and explore our media systems and how they…

If Trump was a symptom, it’s time to get to work on the dis-ease — For fours years we have been stuck in a bilious, amoral national haze driven by a leader disinterested in leadership and offended by the idea of service. Opposition and resistance were the watchwords on the Left from the day of his election. On the Right, the reality has finally sunk…

Our national civic health needs justice every bit as much as our public health needs the vaccine. — This article is part of a series of thinking examining modern media and our civic life including my new book For ALL the People coming Feb 23, 2021. The Obama Administration came into office during a historic crisis. Avoiding a global depression became the justification for all decisions and political…

Humans are insufficient containers for magic. There’s nothing wrong with us: we have just always needed the strengthening, the tempering, the resilience learned from suffering and survival to prepare us for work with the divine. To be a conduit for creativity. To be in the presence of the eternal. To…