Published inGEN·Mar 10, 2021Join the co-founder of #BLM for a conversation about powerHello GEN reader! Medium is hosting a big event tomorrow and we’d love for you to join us. “The Purpose of Power” will be a live Zoom conversation between #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza and Vanessa De Luca, editor-in-chief of ZORA. The event starts at 4:15 ET/1:15 PT and you can register for free here. As the architect of one of the most notable civil rights movements of the 21st century, Alicia Garza has forever redefined what it means to organize with impact. In her chat with De Luca, she’ll answer questions about what constitutes a movement and what doesn’t, how to create coalitions around causes even when everyone doesn’t always agree, and the importance of purpose-driven leadership in these turbulent times.BlackLivesMatter1 min readBlackLivesMatter1 min read
Published inGEN·Dec 29, 2020Member-onlyI Got, Like, Super Into Trees This YearFeeling disconnected, it was time to commune with the Wood Wide Web — On the sad curve of what passed for big fun in 2020, going for a walk in the woods was the Covid equivalent of… I don’t know, checking into a luxe hotel for a three-day weekend? My wife and I went for a lot of nature walks this year: the…Outdoors3 min readOutdoors3 min read
Published inGEN·Dec 18, 2020Member-onlyHow Matthew McConaughey Became ‘Alright, Alright, Alright’Of all the stereotypically Gen X things about my taste and overall worldview, probably the most stereotypical of all is my goofy love for Dazed and Confused. That’s why I couldn’t be more delighted to point you to this excerpt from Matthew McConaughey’s new memoir, Greenlights. And not just any…Matthew McConaughey1 min readMatthew McConaughey1 min read
Published inGEN·Nov 3, 2020Member-onlyTonight your TV diet should consist of 25 percent CNN, 10 percent ABC (for Nate Silver), and just…Tonight your TV diet should consist of 25% CNN, 10% ABC (for Nate Silver), and just a skosh of Fox News. So says Will Leitch, who offers this handy guide…Election 20201 min readElection 20201 min read
Published inGEN·Sep 29, 2020Member-onlyThe 2020 election is tearing retirement communities apart.The 2020 election is tearing retirement communities apart. So I was talking to a source we’ll call my “Mom” (not her real name), and she mentioned that the election-related tension within her North Carolina retirement community has reached a boiling point. Bipartisan dinner parties have become untenable; she was recently…Election 20201 min readElection 20201 min read
Published inGEN·Sep 25, 2020Member-onlyWill Leitch gets misty for Obama after watching The Way I See It, a documentary about former White…Will Leitch gets misty for Obama after watching The Way I See It, a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, now an anti-Trump activist. The nostalgia trip is glorious but also strikingly faded, Leitch writes, “a sort of ‘Behind The Music: The Obama Years.’” …Obama1 min readObama1 min read
Published inGEN·Aug 1, 2020Why Half-Normal Feels Even Stranger Than Total ChaosWelcome back to Flux, a weekly newsletter from GEN about the powerful forces reshaping America. — I’m going to try to capture a mood here, bear with me. I’m not quite sure where this is going, which reflects the mood I’m channeling: Do any of us know where anything is going? We’re in a profoundly in-between moment, and there’s something about this moment that feels even…5 min read5 min read
Published inGEN·Apr 19, 2020New York, I Love You, But This Is Really Getting To Be a LotDear Reader, After a month of near-constant coronavirus coverage here at GEN, we finally had a chance this week to slow down and take a look around—and it feels like a lot of the country was doing the same. …1 min read1 min read
Published inGEN·Apr 5, 2020Pandemics change the world, sometimes for the betterDear Reader, When this is all over, our world will be different. But how? To peer into the future, GEN’s editor at large Steve LeVine took a long look at the distant past. “How the Black Death Radically Altered the Course of History” is a brilliant essay about the plague’s seismic impact on society—and how it might help us understand the world we’ll live in once the coronavirus is vanquished. In a more practical mood? We’ve got you covered with “Your Most Paranoid Pandemic Election Questions, Answered.” (No, Trump can’t cancel the election.)1 min read1 min read
Published inGEN·Jun 12, 2019Member-onlyIntroducing GENToday we’re launching a new Medium publication about politics, power, and culture — Hello out there! And welcome to GEN, a new publication we created to help you (and ourselves) better understand the powerful forces reshaping our world. You say it like this: /jen/. As in GENesis. GENerate. GENuine. GENius. (Fine, that last one doesn’t really work, pronunciation-wise, but let’s not get hung…Medium3 min readMedium3 min read
