Social Change

Author Michael Pollan digs through decades of research and plays human guinea pig to illustrate the potential of psychedelics to alter the mind. Please note: This is a summary and analysis of the book and not the original book. If you'd like to purchase the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.

If you struggle with negative thoughts and emotions, you should know that your pain is real. No one should try to diminish it. Sometimes stuff really does suck and we have to acknowledge it. Worry, sadness, loneliness, anger, and shame are big and important, but they can also get in the way of what really matters. What if, instead of fighting your pain, you realized what really matters to you—and put those things first in life? Stuff That Sucks offers a compassionate and validating guide to accepting emotions, rather than struggling against them.

ED-volution is a motivational study of practical strategies for K-12 educators that offers solutions for handling hot button issues, such as grading for equity, the use of electronics, expanding STEM programs, poor attendance, and much more. Each chapter begins with thought-provoking spoken word poetry and continues with leading education research, best practices, and stories of Mohrbacher's roller-coaster journey as an educator. Your school needs you for its ed-volution.

This guide is specifically tailored for rural Indigenous communities. We'll explain digital advocacy and its significance in bridging communication gaps between Indigenous communities and decision-makers. Checklists, recommended tools, and easy-to-follow guides will keep you on track to developing skills in amplifying your voice, lobbying governments, and influencing change in the digital age.

Artist, poet, and performer Jezz Chung (they/them) focuses on cultural change through personal transformation. In This Way to Change, Jezz shares contemporary poetry, accessible prose, and healing practices from different therapeutic modalities to explore subjects like healing your inner child, nourishing friendships, decolonizing your thinking, deconstructing binaries, and intentional community-making.

From the printing press to the television, social movements have leveraged communications technologies to advance change. In this moment of rapidly evolving communications, it's imperative to assess the role that the internet, mobile devices, and social media can play in promoting social justice. But first, we must look to the past, to examples of movements throughout American history that successfully harnessed communications technology, thus facilitating positive social change.

"What constructs in your life must you unlearn to support inclusivity and respect for all?" This is a question that artist, actor, and activist Chella Man wrestles with in this powerful and honest essay. A story of coping and resilience, Chella journeys through his experiences as a deaf, transgender, genderqueer, Jewish person of color, and shows us that identity lies on a continuum - a beautiful, messy, and ever-evolving road of exploration.

If you’re like most people, saying no probably makes you feel uncomfortable. Eventually, you will feel overwhelmed by all the things you said yes to but didn’t really want to do. This can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety, ruined relationships, a lack of identity, and burnout. All of these could have been avoided if you had just said no. But that’s easier said than done, especially since there are emotions and social expectations involved in all our interactions.

In BOOM, prize-winning reporter Tony Horwitz takes a spirited road trip through the wild new frontier of energy in North America. His journey begins in subarctic Alberta, where thousands of miners labor in an industrial moonscape to extract the region's oil-rich tar sands. Horwitz then follows the route of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that may carry tar-sands oil from Canada across Montana, the Dakotas, and Nebraska en route to Gulf Coast refineries.

Unlock the secrets to overcoming the madness of modern times and become the best version of yourself with this timeless mind hack. The moment you check your social media, you’re greeted with that familiar feeling of dread upon seeing all the terrible news from the world. You often wonder how you can grow resilient with all the devastating news on top of your personal struggles. Lastly, you can’t help but ask yourself, “Will I ever find inner peace so I can have a more fulfilling life?”

With Share This! both regular folks of a progressive bent and committed activists can learn how to go beyond swapping movie reviews and vacation photos (not that there's anything wrong with that). At the moment, the same kinds of people who dominate the dialog off-line are dominating it online, and things will never change if that doesn't change. Progressives need to get on social networks and share their stories, join conversations, connect with others - and not just others exactly like themselves.

Is it possible to be both a Catholic and a feminist? Claire Swinarski, writer and creator of The Catholic Feminist podcast, believes it is: "I'm a feminist for the same reason I'm bold and honest and sometimes ragey: because Jesus was all of those things." In Girl, Arise!, Swinarski reconciles the two identities by demonstrating the strength and abilities women have to share with the Body of Christ, the importance of women throughout the history of the faith, and how the love you experience through Christ and the Church can change you and the world around you.

Germany should have been a global leader in combating climate change—its voters consider it a major issue and back the world’s most powerful Green Party. Yet, Germany’s climate policies have been disappointing. What happened?

The balance of power has changed. Consumers have more power and control than ever before. They want everything now. Gone are the days when consumers were restricted to brick-and-mortar stores, websites, or even app experiences. Social Retail Marketing (SRM™) is the future. Marketing is now as much about digital engagement and data as storytelling. The book lays out the data, the strategy, and the tools to effectively reach, sell, and serve consumers inside social media and messaging channels. Discover the future of marketing in this groundbreaking book.

Daniel and Alexander Macmillan arrived in London in the 1830s at a crucial moment of social change. These two idealistic brothers, working-class sons of a Scottish crofter, set up a publishing house that spread radical ideas on equality, science and education across the world. They also brought authors like Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hardy and Charles Kingsley, and poets like Matthew Arnold and Christina Rossetti, to a mass audience. No longer would books be just for the upper classes. In Literature for the People Sarah Harkness brings to life these two amusing, warm-hearted men.

Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

Statues and Storms offers a gripping insider’s account of Max Price’s tenure as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town during a transformative period in South African higher education. In the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall protests, universities across the country were engulfed in sustained and often violent demonstrations, challenging institutional cultures and sparking a global movement. This book provides a unique perspective on the protests, delving into the reasons behind the decolonizing movement’s emergence at liberal universities two decades after the democratic transition.

If you’ve always wanted to socialize with confidence, but your introversion stopped you from doing so, then pay attention. Several studies over the years have demonstrated how introversion is perfectly natural and that you should embrace it. Expert scientists have stated introverts can be great leaders, which means you can become socially confident without sacrificing your introversion. Take a second to imagine how you’ll feel once you become confident in your own skin and how your family and friends will react when you accept your introversion and move forward.

If you are interested in deepening your emotional awareness and in developing your emotional intelligence in ways that enhance conscious cocreative living, then this book is for you.

Are you struggling to make your kid behave in public? Is your child always throwing temper tantrums in restaurants, airplanes or toy stores? Do you always find yourself on the receiving end of complaints about your kid’s bad behavior in school? Raising a child is an ongoing challenge and it’s your responsibility to help your little one develop into a useful member of society, a self-confident individual, and a happy person. Here’s how you can raise happy kids and transform them into thriving, successful adults!