Leveraging Curiosity in Conversations While walking my 9-year-old daughter Violet to elementary school, we pass “the little physicist in the Radio Flyer Red Wagon.” Always in matching pajama tops and bottoms. Always pulled by his grandfather.1 The little physicist parks the wagon in front of a speed bump. The grandfather…

Quick Note: I rarely write on Medium. Migrate to my Provoked newsletter. Having just published a book on questioning dysfunctional social norms, rules, and authorities (The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively), I’ve noticed how many problems exist in conventional thinking. We treat children and adults as…

Three months after the presidential inauguration and I am still waiting for Democrat and Republican platforms to prove that there is a home for people like me. I am a pragmatist. I am a scientist. Outside of close friends and family, my trust is conditional. I voted for Democratic Presidential…

If the education system refuses to acknowledge conservative leaning and liberal leaning students as people who want to be educated and people who can acquire knowledge and critical thinking skills, you will get divisions instead of understanding. There are some bad ways of educating: Dismiss students who don’t think like…

For all my friends who survived the cluster fuck of 2020, I hope this is a better year. For our family, we lost two of the great ones. Irreplaceable. Vortices never to be filled. Phone calls never to be returned. Cravings for contact that produce often unbearable unscratched itches. Awareness…

Four weeks ago I talked to my father-in-law on the phone about overzealous sports parents in Northern Virginia. The dad on my 13-year-old daughter’s soccer team who feels compelled to whistle multiple times per game whenever his kid is not running fast enough for him. The dad who rings a…

Brace yourself for an unpopular thought — if you ever sent a post, meme, or statement supporting women leaders, asked for more women leaders, or liked a post that someone else sent supporting women leadership, then why aren’t you celebrating Amy Coney Barrett as a potential Supreme Court nominee? …

Be careful of bracket creep when throwing around the words racist sexist and evil. Eventually the words will mean nothing other than someone expressed an opinion you disagreed with. The consequence: you won’t be able to discern who does and doesn’t have bad intentions. …

With reluctance, a few thoughts on this long overdue movement to deliver on the promise of fairness and equality across racial (and other demographic) lines. If you don’t create space for people to present their nuanced views you won’t hear about them. And you’ll think there is more support for…