I recently published Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy after extensive research on what governance innovations might make American democracy more resilient, adaptable and innovative, able both to meet the immense challenges and exploit the vast opportunities the future holds. Here’s what I found. American democracy is at a crossroads…

I am a doer, not a hoper. I’m a planner, not a dreamer. I look at the dark, scary stuff head on, unflinchingly. I think in terms of contingencies and what ifs, but usually to mitigate downside risk (a lasting legacy from years as a corporate attorney). The last few…

Dad would have turned 100 today. I’ve missed him terribly these last 14 years, but I’m glad he was spared the wrenching disruptions we’ve all been living through in the US during that time. Dad was the son of Jewish immigrants who fled the pogroms in Eastern Europe. My grandfather…

Like a lot of Americans, I lost my sense of invulnerability on 9/11, shedding yet another vestige of American exceptionalism. I was fortunate not to lose friends, colleagues or loved ones. All told, about 3,000 people perished on 9/11. Thousands more have died since from health complications, mostly people who…

Non-Judgmental Listening and Story Sharing Changes Attitudes Around Contentious Issues and Heals our Divides Ushering in a more just and inclusive America is a daunting prospect in a time of heightened conflict and division. Polarization creates incentives for each camp to hunker down, look inward, and activate its in-group or base. The self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing nature of this oppositional cycle makes it hard to…

For the last twenty years, my mother has frequented a diner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan near her home. It’s called Cafe 82. …

A diverse sisterhood of strangers showed me how Two years ago, I joined a Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom local chapter in Manhattan. The Sisterhood brings together equal numbers of Jewish and Muslim women in intimate chapters of between 10–20 members, all across America. The goal is to build personal bonds…

As we mark the the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I want to reflect on what I learned in the last year, about America and our legacy of racism, my own family history, and the power of stories. Exactly a year ago, my husband and I visited Alabama. It was the…

I won’t lie. It’s hard to make a list of things to be grateful for with a pandemic raging, our democracy on the brink, deep divisions in our country, and an economy in distress. …