Who am I and what's even happening here?

May 20, 2025

Hello! I wrote something last week that got picked up by the algorithm gods and drove way more traffic to my obscure corner of the internet than I’ve ever experienced before. It was, truthfully, quite overstimulating and I had to turn off notifications and step away for a while (tell me you’re neurodivergent without telling me you’re neurodivergent). But I’m so grateful you’re all here! Welcome!

My first response to all this traffic was to cringe and assume I unintentionally published something so clickbaity and polarizing that the algorithm loved it (and it did certainly encourage some capitalism loving trolls to come crawling out). But the overwhelming response to it was positive, which made me think, perhaps what’s going on is people are just hungry to connect over our intuitive understanding that capitalism is a rotten system, and there’s no reason we can’t create something better for all of us and this beautiful planet we’ve got. That which is human-made can be unmade, after all.

I haven’t introduced myself here, well, maybe ever really? So now seems as good a time as any since there are so many new friends. I’m a financially comfortable suburban White mom living in the U.S., with two young kiddos (8 and almost 6), a husband who teaches 4th grade in a public school, an old, blind dog, and a yard full of native gardens that are wild and abundant (or unkempt, depending on how you look at it). I was diagnosed with ADHD at the ripe old age of 40 and it explained a lot of things about my quirky brain. I grew up somewhere pretty rural outside of Cleveland, and now live five blocks from the Chicago city limit (in what is really better described as an urban village than a suburb). Despite being in Chicago for 20 years, I’ve never really adjusted to all the concrete.

This is one of my happy places in northern Michigan. I love the Midwest and I love the Great Lakes.

I’ve been writing stories basically ever since I learned how to hold a pencil and spell, so I studied creative writing in undergrad. I also minored in religion with a focus on Buddhism, despite being raised Catholic. Or maybe because of that, and my desire to run away from it? Perhaps, had I ever been taught the cool, liberation theology version of Catholicism, I might not have been so eager to exit the institution?

After I graduated from college, I got a job at a wind energy company. I’ve been an environmentalist basically all my life, and 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth was my go-to resource as a little kid. (Do you guys remember that book??) And yes, I watched Captain Planet, too.

I have a law degree from Northwestern University, where I studied environmental law and policy, as well as entrepreneurship and business law. Early in my career, I worked in the clean energy/clean tech space, and I briefly practiced law, which I hated. I went back to school to rekindle my relationship with writing and got a masters in journalism, focusing on climate science and environmental reporting. Instead of becoming a journalist (I wasn’t organized or efficient enough to make a go of freelancing), I managed communications for a sustainability/climate research center. I eventually pivoted and taught social entrepreneurship, business ethics, and business communications at Northwestern, thinking perhaps I’d make a go of a career in academia (and perhaps radicalize some kids along the way by encouraging them to start worker-owned co-ops). But alas, the life of a non-tenure track faculty member is a precarious one.

Now I manage communications for a small environmental nonprofit, while also working on the manuscript for a climate fiction book. And I write these essays.

I think about land use in suburbia a lot, and dream about radicalizing and rewilding the suburbs. I’m trying to figure out how to help create genuine communities of care and mutual aid where I live, while also being a hardcore introvert. It’s not easy.

Just last week, the Chicago area had a massive dust storm blow through. The first we’ve had since the Dust Bowl, from what I hear. This was yet another event reinforcing my interest in individual and community preparedness, since, you know, the climate’s getting pretty wild these days.

I’m suspicious of environmentalists who aren’t also vocally and ardently opposed to war, imperialism, empire, and oppression in all its forms (there’s no climate justice without a free Palestine, friends!). It really bothers me that the environmental movement in the U.S. is still dominated primarily by White men who are obsessed with technology and mostly want to talk about EVs and solar panels. I wish they’d read more Robin Wall Kimmerer. That said, I cringe when White people co-opt indigenous worldviews. I love Joanna Macy and the Work that Reconnects, but there’s definitely a pipeline from spiritual environmentalism to New Agey cult vibes that doesn’t sit well with me. Basically, I think environmentalism needs a healthy mix of science, spirit, and anti-imperial, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist political praxis, and that’s a tough mix to make work (I definitely lean toward the scientific/rationalist side of things too much).

Also, it’s high time to let people of the global majority, young people, and indigenous peoples lead when it comes to climate action. And most other things, too, for that matter.

Here’s another shot from my happy place, this time at night, with the aurora.

I think class awareness is either a blind spot or a taboo for a lot of Americans, and doesn’t factor into social and environmental justice spaces enough (and is nearly absent in the nonprofit industrial complex that’s supposed to “solve” these issues). So I try (not always successfully) to bring a class analysis to anything and everything, which probably annoys my financially comfortable friends, family, and neighbors.

I’m an unapologetic wet blanket, but I have a pretty good sense of humor. My kids tell me I’m funny, anyway.

I try to write here every week, mostly about the topics I’ve mentioned above. But with book-writing work ramping up, there are likely to be some quiet weeks here and there.

Here’s a selection of some of my favorite/most popular essays:

“Screw hope. I want power.”

“The Revolution will not be Celebritized”

“Three liberal snowflakes walk into a shooting range…”

“The Uncharted Territory of the Suburbs”

“A Letter from the Future”

“To Blow or Not to Blow”

“Making the Suburbs Subversive”

“Can we build community if we don’t show up?”

“I turned 40 and all I got was this mental health diagnosis”

I appreciate you all being here and look forward to being in (virtual) community with you!