What I'm Reading →

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March 31, 2024
If a comfy living room with snacks/tea/wine had a baby with an amazing bookstore, it would be a magical place called Bibliotheque.  
Which is why Bibliotheque is my new favorite place in New York City.
Plus, it gives me an absurd amount of joy that something that has gone tik-tok viral is authentically aligned with my book geek / inner couch potato self.  Finally!

What Babies Teach Us About Psychological Safety in Meetings→

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February 25, 2024
Psychological safety is the belief that you can take the risks of learning from failure or risking failure. Like, admitting a mistake, asking a question when you are confused, expressing a different perspective, trying something new, or making a suggestion. These are the kinds of behaviors that require an inclusive culture. Those kind of interpersonal risks are scary in many groups and organizations. And they don’t happen in junk drawer meetings. They require more intentional choices.

My Online Dating Picture→

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December 14, 2023
Maybe sparkles are underrated? Maybe sparkles are an act of courage, a defiant long odds bet that something can shine through the darkness of today’s world. Which is all to say, it’s time for the most popular Dear Good People issue of the year, packed with end-of-year pick-me-ups to help us keep fighting the good-ish fight. Long time readers loved the December 2021 Joy Issue and the December 2022 Pep Talk Issue. Welcome to the December 2023 SPARKLE Issue. Enjoy the Spirit, Possibility, Awe, Rejoicing, “Kourage,” Laughter, and Elevation of these eight sparkly moments!

Embarrassing Your Kid 101→

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September 30, 2023
Our Class of 2023 daughter applied to college just months before the June 29, 2023 Supreme Court ruling outlawed race-conscious college admissions while our Class of 2024 daughter is applying just months after. While I am FAR from an expert, here is what I currently do (and do not) understand about the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.

Have You Hung Out With Mick Jagger?→

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August 27, 2023
I try to help others (and myself) see not just what they expect to see but what is right in front of them and hard to see, like when … men see women interrupted or white people see colleagues of color overlooked or people who are not in wheelchairs notice the desks are too close or straight people see how much humor is homophobic and ... these are all examples of when we get better at seeing what is in front of us. If we can see more and be open to growing when we miss things, we are on the road to being what I call a good-ish person.

I Never Thought I Would Say This→

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July 30, 2023
You know that feeling when you miss the fun party or sold out concert or the whole Barbie movie thing? Yes, FOMO “fear of missing out” is real. Before we go any further, here are words I never imagined I would type. See the Barbie movie. Yes, this is coming from a lifelong Barbie hater. Go in knowing as little as possible other than trust me, if you like Dear Good People, I suspect you will like the movie. Avoid FOMO on this one.

Five Ways You Should NOT Honor Juneteenth→

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June 16, 2023
You may find yourself reflecting on the day. Many of us grapple with what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “patriotism a la carte.” That’s why this month’s issue of Dear Good People is coming to you early. It’s a greatest hits issue, bringing back the June 2021 Dear Good People issue on Juneteenth, which elicited a very positive and reflective response from readers.

34 New Books I Am Excited About→

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May 21, 2023
What if we all looked at the world we live in as if we were immigrants trying to figure out a new place (with that new place actually being the place we think we already know)? We might read more stories about people different than us and delve into knowledge we don’t organically have access to. So, that’s my challenge for myself and for you: What if we all read like we were new here? So, from this little Indian-American girl who has yet to return to Earth from a heady trip to the White House, here is the Dear Good People mid-year book buzz issue. It is packed with so many new books that I am excited to read. I hope you find one — or many — that help you decode the “new” world we live in.

5 Reasons I Believe in Second Chances→

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April 30, 2023
Recently, I attended the Second Chance Employment conference co-hosted by the Tamer Center at Columbia University. Over 650,000 people are released from prison each year; after one year, 60 percent of these returning citizens remain unemployed. Those who are working have low-wage jobs. Here are 5 reasons why we want to think intentionally about second chance employment.

6 Ah-Hah Moments at SXSW→

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March 26, 2023
I was delighted to be invited to be a Featured Speaker and do a book signing at SXSW which is … gulp … a big deal. As I soaked up the experience, I was on the look out for ah-hah moments that Dear Good People readers might appreciate about being the inclusive person you mean to be. There were many! Here are six ah-hah moments I really loved.

My Parking Lot Meltdown→

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February 26, 2023
In talks and podcasts, I have told people, hundreds of times, that an important step they can take towards being more inclusive is to diversify the content they consume, whether it’s social media, books, podcasts, movies, music, tv, or video games. Broaden the menu. We start by looking about the content we have consumed over the last month. What has our consumption been like? When you look at the voices that are centered, how similar are they to each other?  And to your own? Imagine making your content consumption 10% more diverse. This isn’t requiring you to do anything new, just keep consuming what you love consuming, but make it a bit more interesting. 

My Favorite Dolly→

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January 29, 2023
GUESS WHAT. American Girl’s 2023 Girl of the Year is Kavika “Kavi” Sharma, an Indian-American girl from New Jersey that loves Broadway. That’s literally me. I could never have imagined this as a child. Dolls didn’t look like me. Did they look like you? If they did, did you have dolls that looked like other kids? This is a big deal.

10 Pep Talks You’ll Be Glad You Watched→

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December 11, 2022
Making change in ourselves and the world around us is both frustrating and exhilarating. Nobody said being a good-ish person or building a more just future would be easy. We spent every issue of Dear Good People this year focusing on the skills and tools of being a more inclusive person. To end the year, back by popular demand, here are some of my favorite pep talks!

It's Not Every Day That I Meet Chris Hemsworth→

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November 20, 2022
It started with Chris Hemsworth (the mere mortal version, not the Thor/People Magazine Sexiest Man of the Year/Hollywood superstar version) being on a mission. He wanted to know how to live better for longer. So, he teamed up with National Geographic and Disney to find longevity experts to guide him. These experts taught Chris how to practice longevity tools in the most outrageous challenges ever. The result is an exhilarating 6-part streaming series called LIMITLESS WITH CHRIS HEMSWORTH that released on Disney+ this week.

I Was Today Years Old When I Found Out … →

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September 25, 2022
There is a lot about American history that I was today years old when I learned it. What does someone who loves this country deep in their bones do when these blood-boiling, heart-hurting moments happen? How do we respond when we realize that we have been telling ourselves — and our children — stories that are at best, incomplete, and sometimes, untrue? I sense that I am not alone in looking for a way to deal with those negative emotions in a productive and resilient way. That is why I wrote A MORE JUST FUTURE: Psychological Tools for Reckoning with our Past and Driving Social Change. My publisher, Simon & Schuster / Atria, will be releasing the book in a few weeks (October 18!) but they have given me permission to share a sneak peek with you. For the first time ever in public, here are the opening 500 words of A MORE JUST FUTURE (with some bonus pictures)!

It’s Raining … Books!→

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July 31, 2022
In this issue, I share what is on my bookshelf these days (and how we enjoyed a retro night of disco for our 19th wedding anniversary). Keep reading to see the book list and our disco outfits! Also, I am going to devote both the July and August issues of Dear Good People to books; July will be Part 1 — focused on books about diversity and inclusion topics — some of which I have already read and others I am eager to dive into - and August will be Part 2 - focused on books about other topics that are helpful in building our inclusion skills.

The Karate Kid and Me→

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June 26, 2022
In my life, my work, and my newsletter, I am striving to let go of my Karate Kid-like view of being a good person. In that view and movie, either you are or you are not a good person, and whatever your definition of good person is, it got frozen in time when you were 14. Instead, I am aspiring to be more like Cobra Kai, in which the characters are (sometimes) evolving with the times, striving for better, and willing to own and let go of the norms (and fashion choices) of the past. I am realizing that Daniel was the villain in Johnny’s story, that no one perspective is the whole story. I am noticing how stuff that was normal in our youth was really not so inclusive at all.