A Better World is Possible Newsletter
A free snail-mail newsletter for people who want to make a better world possible
I write a free snail-mail newsletter for other doers, leaders, and change-makers hoping to make a better world possible. I know from my experience in community organizing that relationships and personal connections are a key foundation for making change. While an email can be a to-do list item or something to get rid of, receiving a paper letter in your mailbox is an invitation to engage and makes you feel something. I don’t want to add to the treadmill feeling of your inbox, I want to build a different future where personal connections are at the center of what we do.
How does it work? Every month you’ll get a letter from me. You can be a passive reader, or I invite you to suggest guest writers and/or people, stories and tools that can be highlighted for our community of readers. Together, we can make a better world possible.
What can you expect from the newsletter? The newsletter is intended to be a hopeful and forward-looking communication to the reader that helps to sustain, inspire, and feed doers, leaders, and change-makers. You can expect a fresh perspective on a topic for each issue accompanied by three things: (a) a key reflection question, (b) a tool or resource to motivate action, and (c) suggestions for inspired reading/listening for those who want to dig in more. I will also invite readers to write their own perspectives, tips, and strategies.
Links in the December 2024 edition:
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
Practical Radicals podcast, especially the episodes “Collective Care in the AIDS Crisis” and Momentum with Mae Boeve of 350.org”
“‘Hope is an embrace of the unknown’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times” in The Guardian
“The Right Wants Us to Submit to Nihilism. Here Is Where I’m Searching for Hope.” By Lewis Raven Wallace in Truthout
“Hope Is a Practice and a Discipline: Building a Path to a Counterculture of Care.” by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes
Links in the November 2024 edition:
Our Power is Organized People, by Doran Schrantz and Hahrie Han
People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal, book by Marshall Ganz
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, book by Alicia Garza
Building Power with Doran Schrantz, Fundamentals of Organizing Podcast
Organizing Guide: People, Power, Change, The Social Change Library
Links in the October 2024 edition:
“strategy and kamala feels” by adrienne maree brown
The Importance of Voting: A Public Health Perspective by UC Berkeley School of Public Health
The Other Divide: Polarization and Disengagement in American Politics by Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan
“The Biggest Political Divide Is Not Left vs. Right” on The Ezra Klein Show [podcast]
Links in the September 2024 edition:
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
“Bounded Justice and the limits of health equity.” by Melissa Creary
“South Africa’s Young Democracy Leaves Its Young Voters Disillusioned” in NYTimes
“Cultivating a Long View.” by Chris Dixon in Upping the Anti: a journal of theory and action
Links in the June 2024 edition:
Mutual Aid Hub, website to look for mutual aid organizations across the country
Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, documentary film