Society featured Archives

The Cascadia Bioregion: Organizations and Resources in the Pacific Northwest

January 23, 2026January 22, 2026 by Miriam Landman

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region is typically defined to include Oregon and Washington, and British Columbia (Canada) and the northernmost section of California are often included, as well. The Pacific Northwest “bioregion”—an area defined by shared natural characteristics, such as watersheds, topography, geography, climate, or ecosystems, rather than by arbitrary human borders—also can be interpreted in different ways.

Beyond the “Cheating” Panic: What AI Could Teach Us in an Era of Consequence

January 22, 2026 by Sharon Stein

If we treat dissensus not as division but as an invitation into shared learning, then AI’s arrival could support a vital pedagogical turn: away from assessing mastery of sanctioned truths, and toward the integration of difficult lessons in this era of consequence.

Human Nature Odyssey: Episode 19: Modern Myths – Flat Earth, Space Colonization, and the Stories We Tell to Escape Reality

January 31, 2026January 22, 2026 by Alex Leff

This episode explores two powerful beliefs. One is the belief that humans could, and should, live in space: that we’re destined to leave our planet behind and colonize the stars. The other is the belief that we’re not on a planet at all—that the Earth is actually… flat.

The Threads That Bind Us

January 21, 2026 by Tara-Sky Woodward

This time of trouble calls for a vibrant forest—a woodland brimming with the stalwart oaks, the slender birches, and the bowing willows. We each offer distinctive gifts and dreams to share in our tenacious striving towards a more resilient tomorrow.

A short history of endurance

January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Charlotte Del Signore

The future remains uncertain. The conditions keep shifting. What remains available is the most basic human capacity. Listen. Then place your energy where it returns coherence.

Social Strikes: Confronting ICE and Resisting Authoritarianism

January 19, 2026 by Alexandria Shaner

Drawing on historical examples of people power uprisings and on his recent work examining how general strikes and broader “social strikes” are built, in this conversation Brecher reflects on where the U.S. is now, what conditions make such actions possible, and what strategic groundwork is required to turn diffuse outrage into sustained, democratic power.

Celebrating King, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the Art of Organizing

January 20, 2026January 19, 2026 by Matthew Miles Goodrich

Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer were each present at many such critical moments of strategic decision-making, and their stances influenced the outcome of the movement as a whole. As Baker put it, “people have to be made to understand that they cannot look for salvation anywhere but themselves.”

The center cannot hold…

January 16, 2026 by Eliza Daley

And while the center burns itself to ash, life goes on. Pretty much as it always has. With bad and good, joy and grief, pain and beauty and such wonder. Give attention to that, to the reality of your life, because that’s the best medicine for bewilderment. And it’s also… just life…

We are in a crisis – How to build communities that can respond

January 16, 2026 by Patrick Mazza

We have our greatest democratic possibilities in the communities where we live, and this is where we can begin to turn around the trend to concentrated oligarchic power that threatens democracy as a whole. We must build the future in place.

Ditching Dualism #8: Sentience

January 15, 2026 by Tom Murphy

Authority, for materialist monists, issues from the universe as directly accessed, assuming matter is real (rather than imagined, as in idealism). Materialist monists do not presume that we know better: that the universe is incapable of producing all that we experience based on the constituents and interactions on full display.

Democracy Rising 34: On Ghosted Nature, Moloch, Alternate Futures, Shatter Zones, Elites, Power Laws, and [d]emocratic Crypto-Revolution

January 19, 2026January 15, 2026 by Tom Prugh

Perhaps our long experience of sitting around campfires together and talking about what’s going on in the world around us, and what we ought to do about it next, can be recovered and put to good use again.

The Things We Take for Granted

January 13, 2026 by Nate Hagens

In this week’s Frankly, Nate shares reflections on what we take for granted in life at multiple scales: from personal health to meaningful work to relative ecological stability.