I'm fascinated by deep caring.

What do we care about deeply? What is worth tremendous sacrifice? Why?

What does it mean to care deeply?

When do we “fail to care,” or fail to live in accordance with our values?

choosing to love and care, even when it is difficult

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I'm fascinated by beautiful lies.

What stories do we tell ourselves, and why?

These five themes flow through my work, time and again.

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WONDER

  • "transcendence" “significance” “meaning” “beauty” “the sublime”
  • how might we build connection with something larger than ourselves?
  • wrestling with how ephemeral, wispy, easily corruptible this is

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TRUTH

  • why do we believe what we believe?
  • how can our beliefs be so different? // how do good people come to believe in such conflicting perspectives?
  • how might we build a deeper, more nuanced understanding of what is true, what is good?
  • and how might we do so without being overwhelmed, inundated?

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PRIVILEGE

  • how do we exist in the world together, given the various privileges, injustices, and differences that we carry? // given the differences in what we are given?
  • how do we both care for others, and care for ourselves?
  • what stories do we tell ourselves about our own privilege, and how it compares to others'?
  • how might we use the privilege/power we have?

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STORY

  • what makes a story satisfying?
  • how can we make stories that are good for society, as part of a larger information diet?
  • what makes a story satisfying is different from what makes real life satisfying. so, how might we create stories that
  • help us face reality more than they let us escape it? how might we create stories that expand empathy more than they encourage crippling expectations?
  • help our real lives, rather than creating crippling, unrealistic expectations?
  • how might we cultivate an "information diet" that honors both reality and imagination?
  • how might created stories fit into a person’s total “information diet”?
  • how do the stories available to us—and what they center/glorify—affect the way we move through the world?

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COMMUNITY

  • how do we meaningfully connect? how do we meaningfully gather?
  • how might we create spaces where people feel like they belong?
  • how do we simultaneously honor the vibrancy of individuals and the "sheeple-ness" necessary for collective action?
  • how might art extend our capacity for empathy?
  • "shared fictions"

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