What a terrific insight from Dan that so many of us can relate to - we're 'street thinkers' just trying to connect the granular dots in the big picture! Anand, it seems to give you, though, a very special ability/ lens to bring other people into focus in your interviews. Thank you for all you give to us so generously
I love the way you think/feel/express yourself. You are a very talented communicator and I can feel the cost to you and admire that you don’t back away from wrestling with the whole cloth, the fabric of our lives as we are living it here and now. I can’t wait to read your new book.Thank you Anand!!
"Ideas through people" has so many facets, right? One way the maxim is evident is in your willingness to allow people to wrestle with ideas in real time without trying to correct them or contradict them before they've finished finding their way to what they really think or mean. Watching you speak with others, your curiosity is palpable and keeps you patient. That's why we can trust you when you write about how others think. You really take the time to know; you don't simply assume. Thank you for that.
Your writing is wonderful. I'm so glad your friend helped you find the way to what you are doing so well. So often I am a loss for words, I'm envious. I think I ordered your book, or I will. Keep up the great work.
Your friend is exactly right, and I'm so glad you found your angle, Anand. The same principle is why I find social history so interesting--much more than political or even economic history. It's the story of how people live and what moves them. Can't wait for the book.
This is about my desire to share my book with you, Anand, and your readers. Vulnerability Protected: Visions of a Dancing Mind, Dignity Press, 2026.
Vulnerability as necessary, as edgy and raw, as needing safety and protection. Vulnerability, as essential for empathy, and as a potentially endangered species because it is so hated and feared and has been so in so much of our country.
I joined Substack because I needed to share, as a therapist and as someone who writes. You are one of the only people I subscribe to. But how do you share, how do you share with those who are less known?
For many years, I was something of an outlaw in my work--things I think would interest you, but how much can people take time away from their own path?
Can we learn from each other, and how much space is there for that? Since I just turned 80, you can understand something of a time crunch.
I argued something similar, about how meaningful change goes through the combination of people and powerful ideas and not through institutions, in a different context, fundamental change in learning environments, when I wrote "Models of Growth." Differentiating from a focus on information transfer, I wrote about how powerful personal experiences are fundamental. Obviously, viewing MAGA and its spread, such change does not have to arc towards justice.
Lovely, and the best way to present ideas--through the humans who live them. The perspective reminds me of John McPhee, who can make anything interesting. And, oddly, Dan Pashman's "The Sporkful" podcast, with the motto, "We obsess about food to learn more about people." The new journalism creates a relationship between writer and audience, and also more of an interchange of ideas back and forth. We, the audience, are participating more in the news. Objectivity is a false god in the news business. The way a story is framed is automatically not objective.
In all the works of yours that I have read people are at the core. I think that is one of the reasons that even when you are exploring big profound ideas they are centered in human experience and for which they have much resonance. I pre-ordered your new book a while ago and I am looking forward with great eagerness to read it!
Thank you, Anand: Ideas through people! It's so simple, and yet...This gives me confidence in my own work becuase it really does work that way, I've just never seen it as a rubric.
So happy Dan helped you find your literary self! I wouldn’t have been able to say exactly why I am so drawn to the way you think, but now you’ve told me! Your piece on who gets to be a “New Yorker” was revelatory for me, and endearing because you took the time to explore a nagging feeling. Counting the days until “Man in the Mirror” arrives.
What I appreciate so much about your writing, Anand, is that you are always present. Not in an intrusive way. Not attempting to shove "the truth" down your reader's throat. But your presence is as integral a part of your story as is the story you write. Your friend Dan was spot on. "Ideas through people" is not solely other-directed; the ideas are yours, the stories are theirs. Thank you.
What a terrific insight from Dan that so many of us can relate to - we're 'street thinkers' just trying to connect the granular dots in the big picture! Anand, it seems to give you, though, a very special ability/ lens to bring other people into focus in your interviews. Thank you for all you give to us so generously
I love the way you think/feel/express yourself. You are a very talented communicator and I can feel the cost to you and admire that you don’t back away from wrestling with the whole cloth, the fabric of our lives as we are living it here and now. I can’t wait to read your new book.Thank you Anand!!
"Ideas through people" has so many facets, right? One way the maxim is evident is in your willingness to allow people to wrestle with ideas in real time without trying to correct them or contradict them before they've finished finding their way to what they really think or mean. Watching you speak with others, your curiosity is palpable and keeps you patient. That's why we can trust you when you write about how others think. You really take the time to know; you don't simply assume. Thank you for that.
Your writing is wonderful. I'm so glad your friend helped you find the way to what you are doing so well. So often I am a loss for words, I'm envious. I think I ordered your book, or I will. Keep up the great work.
Your friend is exactly right, and I'm so glad you found your angle, Anand. The same principle is why I find social history so interesting--much more than political or even economic history. It's the story of how people live and what moves them. Can't wait for the book.
How do warnings…even overt signs…prevent a horrification for the World such as the Rwandan massacre?
Is the USA ignoring a ‘child’ playing with actual weapons of mass destruction?
Your ‘love’ is much appreciated…and always visible…
Your acknowledgement of your friend…ADMIRABLE!
🇨🇦🤝🇺🇸
This is absolutely perfect and exactly what I've been searching for for my business. All kinds of inspiration here!
This is about my desire to share my book with you, Anand, and your readers. Vulnerability Protected: Visions of a Dancing Mind, Dignity Press, 2026.
Vulnerability as necessary, as edgy and raw, as needing safety and protection. Vulnerability, as essential for empathy, and as a potentially endangered species because it is so hated and feared and has been so in so much of our country.
I joined Substack because I needed to share, as a therapist and as someone who writes. You are one of the only people I subscribe to. But how do you share, how do you share with those who are less known?
For many years, I was something of an outlaw in my work--things I think would interest you, but how much can people take time away from their own path?
Can we learn from each other, and how much space is there for that? Since I just turned 80, you can understand something of a time crunch.
But you might also see, in this one in particular, https://carolsmaldinolcsw.substack.com/p/breaking-up-with-gabor-mate, the greeting of a new chapter.
You are one of the only people I subscribe to, and you are heartily worth it, as I'm sure your book will be as well.
I argued something similar, about how meaningful change goes through the combination of people and powerful ideas and not through institutions, in a different context, fundamental change in learning environments, when I wrote "Models of Growth." Differentiating from a focus on information transfer, I wrote about how powerful personal experiences are fundamental. Obviously, viewing MAGA and its spread, such change does not have to arc towards justice.
Lovely, and the best way to present ideas--through the humans who live them. The perspective reminds me of John McPhee, who can make anything interesting. And, oddly, Dan Pashman's "The Sporkful" podcast, with the motto, "We obsess about food to learn more about people." The new journalism creates a relationship between writer and audience, and also more of an interchange of ideas back and forth. We, the audience, are participating more in the news. Objectivity is a false god in the news business. The way a story is framed is automatically not objective.
In all the works of yours that I have read people are at the core. I think that is one of the reasons that even when you are exploring big profound ideas they are centered in human experience and for which they have much resonance. I pre-ordered your new book a while ago and I am looking forward with great eagerness to read it!
Thank you, Anand: Ideas through people! It's so simple, and yet...This gives me confidence in my own work becuase it really does work that way, I've just never seen it as a rubric.
I'm definitely buying this book. Looking forward to it!
"Let freedom ring." - Martin Luther King Jr.
I CANNOT WAIT to read this one too!
So happy Dan helped you find your literary self! I wouldn’t have been able to say exactly why I am so drawn to the way you think, but now you’ve told me! Your piece on who gets to be a “New Yorker” was revelatory for me, and endearing because you took the time to explore a nagging feeling. Counting the days until “Man in the Mirror” arrives.
What I appreciate so much about your writing, Anand, is that you are always present. Not in an intrusive way. Not attempting to shove "the truth" down your reader's throat. But your presence is as integral a part of your story as is the story you write. Your friend Dan was spot on. "Ideas through people" is not solely other-directed; the ideas are yours, the stories are theirs. Thank you.