Julie explores life with curiosity, creativity, and connection. I share observations with humor, offering perspective on the world and how it shapes us—lightening life’s complexities along the way.
The Richest Country in History. So Why Does It Feel Like We’re Falling Behind? “Some countries use their natural wealth to help their citizens. In America, many people wonder why prosperity seems to flow everywhere except toward the people creating it.” Every once in a while, I stumble across
Where Are All the New Factories? The investment announcements are real. The promised manufacturing boom has not arrived - at least not yet. Monday, July 27, 2026 Hello, friends - another day of heavy lifting (getting my mid-summer work out) If you listen to President Trump, the United States is experiencing
Julie’s Journal Hello, friend—this newsletter involves some heavy lifting - we can do it, right? Preview text: From Obama through Trump, the numbers reveal a problem much larger than one president—or one political party. The central finding is that the deficit fell from 9.8% of GDP in
For generations, Americans have been told that our failure to guarantee health care is simply a disagreement about economics. We are told that universal care costs too much. That government programs are inefficient. That private markets provide more choice. That people should be responsible for purchasing their own insurance. That
There is a notification on your phone right now. You don’t even have to check. You just know. There is also, probably, a tab you haven’t closed in four days, an email you’ve been meaning to respond to since Tuesday, and a low-grade hum in the
History has a way of asking uncomfortable questions. Sometimes those questions don’t arrive for centuries. The Netherlands is living through one of those moments now. For generations, Dutch schoolchildren learned about what was proudly called the Golden Age—roughly the 17th century, when Dutch merchants dominated global trade, artists
There is a question every democracy eventually has to confront. What do you do when your government lies to you? Not makes a mistake. Not gets something wrong because the facts are still emerging. Lies. History tells us this isn’t a hypothetical question. It has happened before, and it
Every nation has a story it tells about itself. Some are built around bloodlines. Others around language, religion, or ancestry. If you are born into the “right” family, speak the “right” language, or belong to the “right” ethnic group, you belong. The United States was supposed to be different. From
A few days ago, millions of Americans celebrated Independence Day. Television cameras once again swept across Mount Rushmore—the familiar faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln carved into the granite of South Dakota’s Black Hills. It’s an iconic American image. But there’s another story written into
There was a time when we thought intelligence was a number. A clean, tidy number. You took a test. You got a score. And just like that, you were labeled—smart, average, struggling. Efficient. Reassuring. Completely wrong. Because if intelligence were just IQ, the world would be run exclusively by
It’s July. The tomatoes are growing. The flowers need watering. The dog wants another walk before the Indiana heat settles in for the day. Dale and I find ourselves watching travel videos, dreaming about where our feet might take us next. I’m celebrating one book already published, preparing
Patriotism Doesn’t Need a Parade. It Needs a Backbone. Happy Fourth of July. Today we’ll wave flags the size of pickup trucks. We’ll wear enough stars and stripes to qualify as temporary national monuments. We’ll grill hot dogs, argue about potato salad, and pretend that setting