The American Solidarity Party invited me to be one of the featured speakers at their 2020 convention, and I spoke on vulnerability and visibility (in a speech that was an extension of my piece, "Locating Our Invisible Wounds" at Comment). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZVIZ2xmzg0 One way I went beyond the original article was weaving in Lewis Hyde's discussion… Read More
Category: Blog
Recommending Playborhood
Philanthropy Daily is collecting reading suggestions for coronatide. I was obviously tempted to suggest The Ghost Map or Microbe Hunters, both of which I love. But I decided to go with something more focused on how we can gather again. We're still a long way from being able to gather, but, even after a vaccine, many streets will be… Read More
Careers and Coronavirus
Yale offers a series of ongoing fireside chats, where students and recent graduates can hear other graduates' advice about their given field. I joined in recently for a panel that wasn't focused on any particular career path, but rather on how to approach careers during the coronavirus pandemic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V-Wr3RRk6o Obviously, I have no special expertise… Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2020
Technically, I did pretty well on my 2019 reading list, finishing nine of the eleven books on my list. It's just that it sounds a lot better if you didn't see the grocery bag of books I schlepped over Christmas break when I finished three of the books on my list during the Octave. Beyond… Read More
Debating Illiberalism in DC
As one of my last trips before hitting the don't-travel-while-pregnant cutoff, I went to Washington D.C. As part of the Georgetown Initiative on Catholic Thought and Social Life, I was part of a panel with Ross Douthat, Matthew Sitman, and Austen Ivereigh. We were asked to tackle "Nationalism, Post-liberalism, and Pope Francis." It got a… Read More
Reaching Out to Atheists with Bishop Barron
I joined Bishop Robert Barron in Santa Barbara to talk about strategies for having productive disagreements about hard topics. (My part of the video below starts at 15:30). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIY4AP3PbX4 After my talk, I joined Bishop Barron for a discussion that was taped for Word on Fire Institute members. Read More
Books I Plan to Read in 2019
Last year was not a very good year for my "Books to Read in 2018" list, with five of my fifteen books unread. On the other hand, I got to read Middlemarch (for the first time) and Kristin Lavransdatter (second time) with online book groups. And those big, shared books made it hard to find the right… Read More
Living as Foreigners in the Kingdom of Truth
I've been reading* Henri Nouwen's The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey through Anguish to Freedom, one to two meditations a day. Today's meditation, on death to self, struck me with a doubled meaning—one relevant to the apocalypse-as-unveiling that the Church is going through at present. You have an idea of what the new country looks… Read More
Of Sin and Superhero RPGs
In the beginning of the God and Comics podcast where Alexi and I were discussing Avengers: Infinity War, Alexi got to make the recommendation for the listeners and shared the superhero RPG we've been enjoying: Masks. The game is tremendous fun—it's easy to pick up the mechanics, and everything in it is designed to serve storytelling.… Read More
Thanos loses to “Riotous Fecundity”
My husband and I joined the clergymen of God and Comics to discuss the latest MCU movie: Avengers: Infinity War. The full episode is available to stream on the God and Comics site, but I thought I'd type up this teaser for you. Alexi: So if Killmonger is the shadow self of Black Panther, who… Read More