By Julie Bolejack A few days ago, I stood inside the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and found myself lingering in front of one of the displays. Actually, “display” hardly seems adequate. It was large. Powerful. And, for me, unexpectedly moving. The exhibit, Toward a More Perfect Union, looks
By Julie Bolejack I’ve been noticing something. And once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop noticing it. In this strange and increasingly intimidating political moment, when speaking the wrong words can bring the wrath of the President of the United States down upon a journalist, politician, business leader
By Julie Bolejack There are phrases I have found myself saying far too often over the past ten years. I never thought I’d see that. How is that even possible? Surely that can’t happen here. Who would have imagined this? I can’t believe we’re actually talking
Wrong Nancy Grace. 😂 By Julie Bolejack Something extraordinary happened Sunday morning. At 7:26 a.m. Eastern time, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying one of the most remarkable scientific instruments human beings have ever built. Twenty-seven engines fired. More than five million
By Julie Bolejack I heard a phrase this week that stopped me cold. Post-American Europe. Not anti-American Europe. Not Europe frustrated with America. Not even Europe preparing for another difficult four years with an American president it doesn’t particularly like. Post-American Europe. Think about what those
By Julie Bolejack I came across something recently that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It was written by Dr. Philip Low, an award-winning computational neuroscientist and founder of NeuroVigil. Low is also someone who knew Elon Musk personally for years. Musk invested in his company
Most of us experience the economy in very ordinary places. At the grocery store. At the gas pump. When the electric bill arrives. When the car needs repaired. When the property tax bill shows up and we stare at it for a moment wondering whether perhaps they accidentally included the
Part Three of my three-part series: Lean Toward Yes We’ve spent this week talking about one small word. Yes. Monday, we talked about our automatic no. Wednesday, we talked about regret—and why the things we didn’t do can stay with us far longer than the mistakes
Part Two of my three-part series: Lean Toward Yes On Monday, I asked you to notice something. When an opportunity appears, what’s your first instinct? Yes? Or: No? Today I want to tell you why I’ve been thinking about this so much. It has to do with
Part One of my three-part series: Lean Toward Yes I know people whose first response to almost anything new is no. Would you like to go somewhere? No. Want to try this restaurant? No. How about taking a class? No. What if we took a trip? Absolutely not. Sometimes
There comes a point in almost every relationship when you realize something uncomfortable: You can say something clearly, kindly, thoughtfully—and still not be heard. I think many of us spend far too much time assuming that if someone misunderstands us, we must have explained ourselves badly. So we try
There is something about August that feels like living in the doorway between two seasons. Technically, it is still summer. Very much summer, judging by the thermometer. The tomatoes are ripening faster than we can eat them. The zucchini have apparently entered some sort of competitive growth program. The flowers