All right, lovelies. 📜

Here's our final segment of The Dawn of Everything, the first outing in my #Humanist Book Club at #OnlySky.

In it, we look at pre-colonial histories in North America, and the *wide* range of human groupings that existed before Europeans showed up. It is *so* important to remember that political discourse & nuanced state arrangements existed everywhere. In a more robust #history of humanity, we find the tools we need for all our challenges today.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/humanist-book-club-a-different-history-of-end-states-in-human-progress/

Also, quick update:

I'll be finishing up The Dawn of Everything for #Humanist #BookClub at #OnlySky, but I'm learning from the experience for our NEXT book:

Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future!

While I tried to summarize arguments for TDoE so everyone could partake, it was still a daunting text!

So for the next round of book club?

We're going to look at climate change mitigation strategies centrally, and hang our chats around how they show up in MftF.

Hope you'll join in! 🤞

Okay, loves.

Today's #Newsletter is on the "entertainment" side of things. I use John Wick 4 to reflect on "spectacles of violence" in general: the role of violence in art, the fantasies it can dangerously uphold, the hard realities it reflects, and how much a difference it makes to see the fact of violence in human life represented in a more mature and #Humanist way.

(I obviously loved the film. No spoilers, I promise!)

#CoSoFilms
#BetterWorldsTheory

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/on-john-wick-4-the-spectacle-of-violence

Evening, CoSo! 🕊️

I bet some were wondering if I'd write about Turkey & Syria. I've been following the news the same as everyone else this week, grieving as those wretched death tolls rise.

But today for #OnlySky, I look past the still-rising casualty counts, to highlight the importance of the human stories for our #Humanist work.

This matters because we're still dealing with immense political strife while delivering crucial aid. How can we deepen in our global care? ⬇️ https://onlysky.media/mclark/after-the-miracles-turkey-syria-and-long-term-recovery/

All right, lovelies. 🤗

I just published a #Humanist essay to #BetterWorldsTheory - as part of the new framing for this newsletter, which will more frequently cover media literacy, humanist topics, and spec-lit publishing news.

If you'd like a wee meditation on neurodivergence as a concept that doesn't properly account for the extremism of many different ways of thinking, seeing, & being... Well, hope you enjoy!

(Off to celebrate a friend's birthday with cheesecake! 😋)
https://mlclark.substack.com/p/on-tankies-street-preachers-and-ye

Ha. I just finished my latest article for #OnlySky, on a super important topic related to India's Supreme Court... and saw the news. Well! Okay. Poor timing, but still:

Tomorrow, India's Supreme Court will be reviewing an important case. Today, I outline the ongoing legal struggle around this gang rape & massacre from the 2002 Gujarat Riots.

Not easy reading! But the pursuit of #Humanist policy requires facing head-on the impossibility of full justice in our world.
https://onlysky.media/mclark/a-2002-gang-rape-in-india-is-still-revealing-worlds-of-injustice/

#CoSo, you folks have been amazing. I love that we can share insights in a frank & thoughtful way, & offer genuinely constructive feedback (see: my computer issues as of late, FINALLY resolved, & with no files lost after all, so huzzah!).

I've been tapped to do a 5-10 minute weekly video segment, summarizing key news stories & exploring the #Humanist angle in one.

Any thoughts about what works or doesn't work for you in that format? I'd love to sidestep rookie mistakes in a new-to-me medium.

👋 Happy Tuesday, CoSo!

Today for #OnlySky, something a little different. Ray Nayler is a #SciFi writer to watch and follow if you don't already, so I had a chat with him about his first novel, a richly #Humanist (and then some!) near-future SF that asks pressing questions about ourselves and our systems, and which publishes October 4. It has cephalopods! Advanced AI! But most important of all? A deep dive into systematic thinking.

Worth your time and consideration! ⬇️ https://onlysky.media/mclark/lets-talk-humanist-science-fiction-an-interview-with-writer-ray-nayler/

Quick news brief!

I'm not going to post every brief I write for #OnlySky (I prefer sharing the longer #Humanist essays), but today I saw Langya henipavirus trending in a very irresponsible way, so here's a quick overview of why to be cautious about how you disseminate related intel, even when mainstream media is not.

Simply put: Lots of articles are *definitely* trading on sensational and misleading facts. Don't play along!
https://onlysky.media/mclark/how-to-talk-responsibly-about-the-langya-henipavirus/

Woo! Okay -- green democracy's on the #Humanist agenda today! 🎉 Today's piece for #OnlySky looks at recent initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean that aren't just environmental activism but also complete reframes of how we "do" democracy.

Can we in the West even imagine democracy outside of neoliberalism anymore?

That's a question worth asking when we look at countries trying to reclaim civic agency from forty years of neoliberal reforms. Happy Friday, all! :)

https://onlysky.media/mclark/green-democracy-rising-latin-america-and-the-new-environmentalism/

More detail!

It's the Day of the Virgin of Carmen, patron saint of drivers. All sorts of public servants are out: taxi drivers, military, waste management, truckers. The #Humanist in me ever-marvels at all the ways we (sometimes!) choose to use our shared vocabularies to uplift each other.

Happy James Webb Telescope Day! 🔭 🌌 💙

Today we'll be learning more about the macrocosm of our universe, as I wrote about this weekend in a history of astronomy and cosmology.

So this morning for #OnlySky? I offer a wee #Humanist meditation on all the microcosms in our lives, too.

Have you heard of "sonder"? That nifty newer word from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows? Here's a Colombian lesson on its true reach.

Happy Tuesday, CoSo!

https://onlysky.media/mclark/wherever-we-might-sonder-there-are-microcosms-we-will-never-know/

Oh hey! I thought this piece on #Humanist histories of astronomy was going to drop next week, but it looks like #OnlySky moved it up. Well all right then! 🎉

Looking forward to the James Webb Telescope's first images on July 12? Me too. 🙂 That's why I take us on a tour of human history, and share a glimpse of how we have *always* been looking up.

Hope you enjoy it, if you read! But just happy to celebrate the James Webb images next week with you either way. 😊

https://onlysky.media/mclark/for-all-humanitys-failings-weve-never-stopped-wondering-about-the-stars/

The openly #Humanist presidential candidate is now probably going to be Colombia's Minister of Education. 🙂

I freaking love this country. While the West is barely staving off our white nationalists, I deeply admire how hard Colombia fights to innovate and find better social contracts even amid paramilitary/guerrilla/narcotrafficking struggles, & in the face of an economy routinely hobbled by foreign export & political pressures.

*So* keen to see what the new presidential team does come August.

🎉 Woo! #StrangeNewWorlds review day!

And what a chest-burster of an episode this was! 😂

Today for #OnlySky, I review "All Those Who Wander", an episode that draws from classic '70s and '80s SF horror in the best possible way: as smart, engaging backdrop to a deeper quest for belonging. It's a beautifully scripted, strongly #Humanist piece with high stakes, and a gripping hour of sci-fi horror to boot.

CAREFUL WITH SPOILERS!
THEY MATTER HERE!

#StarTrek #CoSoTV
https://onlysky.media/mclark/what-makes-a-home-for-all-those-who-wander/

🎉 #StarTrek day! My latest review of #StrangeNewWorlds for #OnlySky tackles an episode that deals in identity crises, moving past the either/or of our labels, and... pirates! Ridiculous, ridiculous pirates. 🙃

It's a bundle of goofy fun with some achingly good performances framed around Spock's love life. And on the #Humanist side? It invites us to imagine a world where we can all just *be* without fitting neatly into any one box.

Did you watch? 👀

#CoSoTV

https://onlysky.media/mclark/the-serene-squall-and-other-perfectly-human-contradictions/

One more day of sci-fi projects, and then a weekend of tougher #Humanist pieces, including:

El Salvador, cryptocurrency, and global financial exclusions

Men's *actual* mental health crises, and violence-prevention gaps in public policy

Afghan refugees in non-Western countries

So, y'know, easy peasy stuff! 😅

Anyway, one more sci-fi project first.

Happy #Writing, fellow #Writers!
Happy Friday-ing in general, #CoSonauts! ❤️

🕊️ Today for #OnlySky, I get back to sharing my podcast, Global Humanist Shoptalk. The latest episode reflects on what we can do as a society to counteract childhood precarity.

So... I used the episode drop as to talk about *my* childhood precarity, and how it made me the #Humanist I am. The piece also talks about how OnlySky embodies some of the values that my experiences taught me to prioritize.

Hugs to anyone else coming from tough homes!

Glad you're still here. 💙

https://onlysky.media/mclark/the-work-we-do-with-the-time-we-have/

🎉 Woo! Okay, #CoSo, today I'm back to my more serious #Humanist writings. (Don't worry, Star Trek review for episode 5 of SNW on Friday! 😅 #Priorities)

Today for #OnlySky, I ask a deceptively simple question: "What does being a 'person' do?" We shape so much of our activism around getting courts and laws to rule on persons and their rights. But does this always yield the humanist justice that we seek?

When did *you* first realize the fragility of legal text?

https://onlysky.media/mclark/what-does-being-a-person-do/

🎉 Woo! The geekiness begins!

Today for #OnlySky, I introduce a review series for #Trekkies and general lovers of moral philosophy. #StrangeNewWorlds is a terrific site for #Humanist discourse, so I'm going to be reviewing all upcoming episodes on a "happy human" scale, for how well each holds ideas in tension & develops complexity around the problems it presents.

(Not yo' usual reviews, I know! But hopefully a lot more thought-provoking & fun.)

Hope you'll engage! 😅 🌌 https://onlysky.media/mclark/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-a-return-to-humanist-form/