Essays Episodes

March 28, 2025

Essay: Give A Little

This week: You’ve never had a better opportunity to improve one person’s life than you do right now. I would argue, in fact, that there’s never been a better time to improve one person’s life than there is today. Sounds crazy...

Feb. 25, 2025

Essay: The Story of Not Right Now

This week: Not. Right. Now. I hope you enjoy our new show. It’s super, super informal, and fun, and full of profanity, and personal, and — I hope — something you or a parent in your life can identify with, and maybe get some ...

Feb. 10, 2025

Essay: Have Mercy

This week: I’m not religious. But I did (barely) successfully major in religious studies. For better and often for worse, the history of faith and organized religion has been the backbone of human history, political science, ...

Feb. 3, 2025

Essay: Build Something Useful

This week: You're wasting your talent on bullshit while the world burns. You — yes, you — can actually use your very unique set of skills for good. Even and especially at scale, even — yes — right now. Here's What You Can Do:...

Jan. 13, 2025

Essay: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

This week: Be prepared — because these fires that are still burning are only the beginning. Start somewhere, start right in front of you, do what you can. Here's What You Can Do: LA isn’t the only place suffering this week, b...

Jan. 6, 2025

Essay: About 2025

This week: It’s been a minute. Thanks for your patience. Please check out my 2025 preview, and if you’d be so kind, share it widely. Here's What You Can Do: Donate to Everytown to support their efforts to end gun violence, co...

Nov. 1, 2024

Essay: Only 86,000 To Go. You in?

This week: This entire (short!) episode is a call to action. It's time to do this thing...do the thing, but also take care of yourselves and your loved ones these next couple weeks. It's a lot right now. Here's What You Can D...

Sept. 27, 2024

Essay: Why We Made An App

This week: You’d think that -- considering we just spent two years building our new What Can I Do? app -- that I’d have a really good answer for why we were doing it in the first place. But I didn’t. Not until about a week ag...

Sept. 23, 2024

Introducing: What Can I Do?

It’s another big day in a very big month for us. Our extremely tiny team has been busting our asses for almost two years to bring you something fucking extraordinary, something I’m just so proud of, and now it's here: Our new...

Aug. 26, 2024

Essay: How to Eat More Plants (And Less Beef)

This week: Next up in our series of “How to Eat More Plants”. Today’s topic? Beef! Here's What You Can Do: Read the essay and get the links online here Donate to the Humane Farming Association to support their work against fa...

Aug. 12, 2024

Essay: The Sun Machines Cometh

This week: Please enjoy this hopeful ditty on how we have finally harnessed the sun ☀️ — and how we’re just getting started. Here's What You Can Do: Donate to Grid Alternatives to advocate for community-powered solar policy t...

Aug. 5, 2024

Essay: How To Eat More Plants

This week: Today’s post is more of a macro introduction to the why and how of the “eat more plants (and consequently) fewer animals” lifestyle. Deep-dives on how to eat fewer animals, by type, including meat/beef/pork, chicke...

July 29, 2024

Essay: The Turn of the Tide

This week: We're running an updated version of a popular essay from last year. Tolkien described life (and often, his stories) as a "long defeat", where evil frequently, inevitably wins. But he allowed for "eucatastrophe" — s...

June 20, 2024

🌎 A Leading Question

This week: We are occasionally asked why we link to scientific journals, news outlets, and sometimes even opinion pieces that are behind paywalls. In a world where HBO HBO Max Max and Spotify and everyone else raise prices on...

May 27, 2024

Essay: In Bruges

This week: Do you like cookies? What about olive oil cake? What about chocolate chip coffee cake? Listen on. Here's What You Can Do: 🌍️ Donate to support African farmers by increasing incomes and improving food security throu...