Societal Change

I was just graduating high school as the book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s was published.  There was, obviously, a lot going on in my world, so I can’t say that the perspectives in America about homo...

It’s January 28th  1986 and I’ve stayed home from school. I’m sitting in the basement of the tri-level home that my parents owned, when my mom called and told me that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded. I turned the TV channel I was watching to a m...

Some of my earliest memories are watching The Lone Ranger .  I remember cowboys in white hats and bandits in black hats.  When I picked up America’s Gun Wars: A Cultural History of Gun Control in the United States , I never expected to find a reference to ...

One of the most frustrating and hurtful things that can tell someone who is suffering is that it's their fault. Bad things happen to good people, and it has nothing to do with their faith, their character, or anything other than the randomness of life....

What does it take to change the world?  Depending on who you ask, you may hear different answers.  Perhaps diligence, ingenuity, or innovation make the list.  For the authors of Changing the World: A Framework for the Study of Creativity , the answer is...

I use pink to highlight those passages of text that I disagree with. My notes from The Coddling of the American Mind were a sea of pink highlights. Normally, this means that I struggle with what the authors are saying. When I look back at The Marketing...

There aren’t that many television shows I remember from my childhood.  Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is one of them.  In The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers , Maxwell King speaks of the man behind the scenes.  The story is of a man wh...

I’ve heard the stories – or rather I’ve heard the sensationalized stories – about how World War II came to be and how it ended. However, somewhere in the reduction done for history books, I missed the importance of the event. I don’t mean the importanc...

Columbo’s catch phrase, “Just the facts, ma’am,” is strangely appropriate when it comes to understanding the facts around gun rights and gun control.  Gun Control Myths: How Politicians, The Media, and Botched “Studies” Have Twisted the Facts on Gun Contr...

It’s not a Norman Rockwell picture.  There’s no wholesome family sitting in a well-furnished home.  It’s the picture of capitalism that created a market for weapons of destruction.  Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America ...

It’s complicated.  That’s the best way to describe the answers that Guns in America: Examining the Facts seeks to give.  Like all wicked problems , if you define them one way the answers are simple; defined another, still legitimate, way, the answe...

One of the things that I deeply respect is people who are willing to do the reading and research necessary to have a complete and balanced view of a topic. That's what I found in Daniel Horowitz' Happier?: The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired...

I’m by no means a history buff, but there’s something about Iceland that drew me in and made me want to understand the story behind the island nation in the North Atlantic. The History of Iceland  is a tome about the Icelandic people and how this amazi...

I recently finished printing a 3D model of Mister Rogers’ neighborhood trolley.  It brought me a strange sense of joy to think of the little trolley that transported viewers from the real world of Mister Rogers’ house to the make-believe world.  Both ...

It’s fitting that Joanne Rogers, Fred Roger’s wife, would open Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers .  Written in 2005, two years after Fred’s death and using his quotes, the book pays homage to his wisdom.  However, It’s Joanne’s wisdom and pe...

There are probably neighbors you have today – or you’ve had in the past – whom you don’t want to emulate.  They’re the people you didn’t click with and didn’t form relationships with.  However, most of those who grew up with Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood wou...

It has been identified as the sentinel event.  The book No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School is an exposition and review of the events leading up to the Columbine Massacre as well as the aftermath of the event.  I started r...

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for libraries. They’re safe places where you can get lost and eventually become found. That’s why when a deal for purchasing The Public Library: A Photographic Essay  crossed my path, I decided to pick it up a...

Sometimes, it takes a quarter century.  Such is the case of Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering .  Malcolm Gladwell wrote his first book, The Tipping Point , just over 25 years ago, and many s...

The actual source of my memory is lost to the sands of time.  We lived in a few houses during the first few years of my life.  I can remember seeing Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – but I can’t remember which home I was at.  I never knew Mister Rogers a...

I’m concerned.  A lot of people are concerned, really.  It seems like our political system in the United States is spiraling out of control, and it’s not clear what can be done to stop it.  The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels is n...

It wasn’t what I expected, but it was good.  I picked up Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity to understand the issue from a societal perspective and what could be done to address the challenges that so many people face as they’re ster...

One of the benefits of learning software development early is that I got a chance to learn how to pay attention.  Johann Hari’s book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again , argues that our ability to pay attention has be...

Positivity isn’t a bad thing.  However, there’s a point where it becomes toxic.  Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy explores how positivity can go too far.  Two other books, Bright-sided and Happier? , have addres...

I don’t have a particular passion for automobiles.  That’s not why I picked up Unsafe at Any Speed .  Ralph Nader may not have been successful in his presidential bids, but what he did do is disrupt industries that were harming consumers.  He’s lauded f...

Sometimes you have to zoom way out to see what’s right in front of you.  It’s not easy to see patterns that span centuries, but by zooming out the lens, Robert Putnam shows us a pattern that has evolved over the course of a century.  In The Upswing: How A...

It’s Joanne Rogers’ wisdom that starts The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember .  Written the year of his death, his grieving wife was able to share her vision of Fred Rogers in a way that no other could – except perhaps Fred h...