Five Ways You Should NOT Honor Juneteenth→

/

June 16, 2023
You may find yourself reflecting on the day. Many of us grapple with what Ta-Nehisi Coates calls “patriotism a la carte.” That’s why this month’s issue of Dear Good People is coming to you early. It’s a greatest hits issue, bringing back the June 2021 Dear Good People issue on Juneteenth, which elicited a very positive and reflective response from readers.

34 New Books I Am Excited About→

/

May 21, 2023
What if we all looked at the world we live in as if we were immigrants trying to figure out a new place (with that new place actually being the place we think we already know)? We might read more stories about people different than us and delve into knowledge we don’t organically have access to. So, that’s my challenge for myself and for you: What if we all read like we were new here? So, from this little Indian-American girl who has yet to return to Earth from a heady trip to the White House, here is the Dear Good People mid-year book buzz issue. It is packed with so many new books that I am excited to read. I hope you find one — or many — that help you decode the “new” world we live in.

5 Reasons I Believe in Second Chances→

/

April 30, 2023
Recently, I attended the Second Chance Employment conference co-hosted by the Tamer Center at Columbia University. Over 650,000 people are released from prison each year; after one year, 60 percent of these returning citizens remain unemployed. Those who are working have low-wage jobs. Here are 5 reasons why we want to think intentionally about second chance employment.

6 Ah-Hah Moments at SXSW→

/

March 26, 2023
I was delighted to be invited to be a Featured Speaker and do a book signing at SXSW which is … gulp … a big deal. As I soaked up the experience, I was on the look out for ah-hah moments that Dear Good People readers might appreciate about being the inclusive person you mean to be. There were many! Here are six ah-hah moments I really loved.

My Parking Lot Meltdown→

/

February 26, 2023
In talks and podcasts, I have told people, hundreds of times, that an important step they can take towards being more inclusive is to diversify the content they consume, whether it’s social media, books, podcasts, movies, music, tv, or video games. Broaden the menu. We start by looking about the content we have consumed over the last month. What has our consumption been like? When you look at the voices that are centered, how similar are they to each other?  And to your own? Imagine making your content consumption 10% more diverse. This isn’t requiring you to do anything new, just keep consuming what you love consuming, but make it a bit more interesting. 

My Favorite Dolly→

/

January 29, 2023
GUESS WHAT. American Girl’s 2023 Girl of the Year is Kavika “Kavi” Sharma, an Indian-American girl from New Jersey that loves Broadway. That’s literally me. I could never have imagined this as a child. Dolls didn’t look like me. Did they look like you? If they did, did you have dolls that looked like other kids? This is a big deal.

10 Pep Talks You’ll Be Glad You Watched→

/

December 11, 2022
Making change in ourselves and the world around us is both frustrating and exhilarating. Nobody said being a good-ish person or building a more just future would be easy. We spent every issue of Dear Good People this year focusing on the skills and tools of being a more inclusive person. To end the year, back by popular demand, here are some of my favorite pep talks!

It's Not Every Day That I Meet Chris Hemsworth→

/

November 20, 2022
It started with Chris Hemsworth (the mere mortal version, not the Thor/People Magazine Sexiest Man of the Year/Hollywood superstar version) being on a mission. He wanted to know how to live better for longer. So, he teamed up with National Geographic and Disney to find longevity experts to guide him. These experts taught Chris how to practice longevity tools in the most outrageous challenges ever. The result is an exhilarating 6-part streaming series called LIMITLESS WITH CHRIS HEMSWORTH that released on Disney+ this week.

I Was Today Years Old When I Found Out … →

/

September 25, 2022
There is a lot about American history that I was today years old when I learned it. What does someone who loves this country deep in their bones do when these blood-boiling, heart-hurting moments happen? How do we respond when we realize that we have been telling ourselves — and our children — stories that are at best, incomplete, and sometimes, untrue? I sense that I am not alone in looking for a way to deal with those negative emotions in a productive and resilient way. That is why I wrote A MORE JUST FUTURE: Psychological Tools for Reckoning with our Past and Driving Social Change. My publisher, Simon & Schuster / Atria, will be releasing the book in a few weeks (October 18!) but they have given me permission to share a sneak peek with you. For the first time ever in public, here are the opening 500 words of A MORE JUST FUTURE (with some bonus pictures)!

It’s Raining … Books!→

/

July 31, 2022
In this issue, I share what is on my bookshelf these days (and how we enjoyed a retro night of disco for our 19th wedding anniversary). Keep reading to see the book list and our disco outfits! Also, I am going to devote both the July and August issues of Dear Good People to books; July will be Part 1 — focused on books about diversity and inclusion topics — some of which I have already read and others I am eager to dive into - and August will be Part 2 - focused on books about other topics that are helpful in building our inclusion skills.

The Karate Kid and Me→

/

June 26, 2022
In my life, my work, and my newsletter, I am striving to let go of my Karate Kid-like view of being a good person. In that view and movie, either you are or you are not a good person, and whatever your definition of good person is, it got frozen in time when you were 14. Instead, I am aspiring to be more like Cobra Kai, in which the characters are (sometimes) evolving with the times, striving for better, and willing to own and let go of the norms (and fashion choices) of the past. I am realizing that Daniel was the villain in Johnny’s story, that no one perspective is the whole story. I am noticing how stuff that was normal in our youth was really not so inclusive at all.

Guess What I Am Doing On Tuesday?!→

/

May 22, 2022
On Tuesday, we say goodbye to the Pearsons as This is Us airs its series finale, the long-anticipated close to the show’s six year arc. My husband and I have watched and loved the show since the beginning. It is the only TV show that is noted in our family calendar. Now, as it ends, I realize that it was not only a great show, but also the kind of show that gives us practice at some key inclusion skills. (I promise: no spoilers ahead and no need to have ever watched/liked the show).

16 Things I Teach My Students→

/

April 30, 2022
I hope my students are the kinds of bosses that both deliver results and change lives for the better, the bosses you would walk through fire for. Those kind of bosses have something in common. Great bosses are inclusive. If you are not inclusive, you are not a boss. You may be good, in certain situations, with certain people. But the greats are not limited to certain situations and certain people.

11 (Fun, Easy) Ways to Tell Hollywood that Diversity Is a Safe Bet→

/

March 27, 2022
We can do far more than we think to shape decision makers in charge of what to greenlight, where to spend marketing dollars, how much to budget, when to stick with a struggling or higher-risk project, and whose work gets publicity and press. We can influence what is seen as mainstream and a safe bet. We just need some inside info on how ... and here it is.

4 Things I Learned from My Wardrobe Intervention→

/

February 27, 2022
We often do not see how the past and present relate because many of us have learned a whitewashed version of our history. The narratives we learned left us in a rut of our own, making it difficult to move forward. Just like my wardrobe, our country is in need of a true, intentional, authentic remix — what I call a “Knowledge Remix.”

Need a Pep Talk? Me Too.→

/

December 19, 2021
When I am running on empty, I turn to a good pep talk. The science of pep talks is known as motivating language theory and highlights three important elements. A good pep talk does some or all of the following:

  1. Provides direction on what needs to be done

  2. Offers empathy for the challenges we face, and

  3. Makes meaning out of the situation and its importance. 

So, in that spirit, here are some of my favorite pep talks.

Must-See TV→

/

November 21, 2021
Documentaries today are entertaining, educational, and best of all, highly accessible, largely fueled by the rise of streaming platforms. Storytellers and the stories they are telling are more diverse than ever. Some say this is the golden age of “docu-mania.” I don't watch as much TV as I used to, but I still love it. And, I no longer view being entertained versus educated as mutually exclusive; I love a good documentary. Many are in the Dear Good People spirit. Here are five recent documentaries I loved.