THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

Comments? Send me a text message. In communist Poland in the 1980s, Solidarity had been driven underground. Martial law. Leaders imprisoned. On the surface, the regime had won. Then an art history student named Waldemar Fydrych — known as Major — painted a grinning dwarf on a freshly whitewashed wall. Not a slogan. Not a demand. A dwarf. Episode 15 of Flourish in Times of Struggle explores Poland&...

Comments? Send me a text message. Continuing the series on humor as resistance, dissent, and liberation, this episode explores what happens when the Dionysian impulse takes to the streets. Freed from the confines of a performance space, the separation between performer and observer dissolves. Performance, provocation, and protest become inseparable. The comedy becomes the political act of liberati...

Comments? Send me a text message. What do a sixteenth century Italian clown, a Nobel Prize-winning playwright, and a man who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent have in common? They are all practitioners of one of the oldest and most enduring forms of political humor: rude humor aimed at upsetting the powerful. In this episode, I trace that tradition back to the market squares of Renaissanc...

Comments? Send me a text message. The court jester is one of history's most misunderstood figures. Not merely an entertainer, the jester was the only person in the medieval court licensed to tell the king the truth — to mock power, puncture pretension, and name what everyone else was forbidden to say. In this episode, we explore what the jester's role reveals about the relationship betwe...

Comments? Send me a text message. There is a word that has been sitting in the English language since the fifteenth century, quietly waiting for its moment. TRUMPERY . The Oxford English Dictionary defines a trumpery as deceit, fraud, imposture, trickery — something of less value than it seems. Worthless stuff, trash, rubbish. Shakespeare used it. The French coined it. And the man who embodies the...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode, I trace the origins of humor as a tool of political resistance to fifth-century Athens, where the playwright Aristophanes used comedy to mock warmongering leaders, puncture male vanity, and make the case for peace — in front of thousands of citizens, at the height of a ruinous war.  Drawing on the history of Aristophanes' two great anti-war p...

Comments? Send me a text message. Dehumanization is one of the oldest tools of political control. And it follows a recognizable pattern. In this episode, I identify and name what I call the Political Dehumanization Template — a five-component framework for understanding how those in power manufacture enemies, redirect legitimate grievances onto scapegoats, and license violence against targeted gro...

Comments? Send me a text message. What gives ordinary people power against those who hold it? One answer is as old as democracy itself: the deliberate, collective withdrawal of cooperation. The Power of Withdrawal draws on three examples spanning twenty-four hundred years to ask what actually makes collective refusal work — and what each teaches us about the art of resistance. In ancient Athens, A...

Comments? Send me a text message. How do human beings come to accept dead children as collateral damage? How does an insurance company deny medical care to a sick child without moral crisis? In this episode, Michael C. Patterson draws on historian Timothy Snyder's powerful distinction between two German words for body: Leib and Körper. Leib is the living, breathing, irreplaceable human being....

Comments? Send me a text message. Drawing on historian Timothy Snyder's book On Freedom , this episode explores why resistance alone is never enough. Using the story of Mariia, an 85-year-old Ukrainian woman living in the aftermath of Russian occupation, Snyder introduces a distinction that cuts to the heart of our current political moment: the difference between Negative Freedom — freedom fr...

Comments? Send me a text message. What does it really take to resist authoritarianism and sustain democracy over time? This episode introduces Movement Ecology —a practical framework for understanding the different kinds of work that go into building a successful social movement. Rather than demanding that everyone do everything, Movement Ecology helps people find where they fit, how their contrib...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode of Flourish in Times of Struggle , Michael C. Patterson explores the difference between NO coalitions and YES coalitions—and why democratic renewal requires both. Drawing on contemporary activism and movement strategy, the episode examines how resistance to harmful policies must be paired with a shared vision of what comes next.  Saying no can stop...

Comments? Send me a text message. Written from a jail cell in 1963, Letter from Birmingham Jail remains one of the most rigorous moral arguments in American history. This episode explores what King meant by just and unjust laws, why civil disobedience must be disciplined and strategic, and how these ideas speak to our moment. Support the show If you want to support my work, click above, subscribe...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode of Flourish As You Age, Michael C. Patterson explores the research of Jennifer Karas Montez , showing that life expectancy in the United States is increasingly determined by state-level public policies and systems of social support. Across states and even ZIP codes, differences in wages, healthcare access, education, environmental protections, and...

Comments? Send me a text message. In a time of political, social, and ecological upheaval, personal well-being cannot be separated from the systems that surround us. The Flourishing in Times of Struggle series is an inquiry into how power, governance, and collective action influence our ability to live well—individually and together. This first episode introduces the core questions and direction o...

Comments? Send me a text message. Our accidental mind is a marvel of evolution—capable of breathtaking creativity, yet vulnerable to distraction, self-deception, and runaway ego. In this week’s Welcoming Wisdom podcast, we explore two unlikely partners in this drama: the premotor cortex and the default mode network (DMN). The premotor cortex rehearses actions before we move, allowing us to simulat...

Comments? Send me a text message. The Obstetric Dilemma and the Birth of the Plastic Brain What happens when evolution backs itself into a corner? In this episode of Flourish As You Age , Michael C. Patterson explores one of the most profound evolutionary compromises of all: the obstetric dilemma. As our ancestors evolved upright posture and larger brains, childbirth became a dangerous bottleneck....

Comments? Send me a text message. This month’s podcast episode tells the story of how two remarkable organizations— Encore Creativity , the nation’s largest choral program for older adults, and Pasadena Villages , a thriving part of the Village Movement—came together to launch a new singing ensemble in Southern California. At first glance, it’s a story about a choir. But look closer and it becomes...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode of Flourish As You Age , Michael C. Patterson explores working memory, the fragile mental workspace where consciousness itself takes shape. Think of it as the virtual whiteboard of the mind—a place where perceptions and memories flicker into awareness, linger just long enough to be combined or reshaped, and then fade to make room for new thoughts....

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode of Flourish As You Age , Michael C. Patterson explores the “accidental mind”—not a perfectly engineered machine, but a brilliant kluge (pronounced klooj ): an evolutionary patchwork that works despite its awkward design. Drawing from David Linden and Iain McGilchrist, we look at why the brain’s jury-rigged architecture needs scaffolding —culture, c...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode, Michael C. Patterson traces the creative landscape of later life — from Dr. Gene Cohen’s groundbreaking research on creative aging, to Twyla Tharp’s fierce manifesto for movement, to the wide horizons of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sky Above Clouds . He concludes with a reflection on how artificial intelligence has become a collaborative partner in extendi...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode, host Michael C. Patterson explores Dr. Gene Cohen’s groundbreaking concept of developmental intelligence —the idea that our minds can continue growing in complexity, depth, and wisdom throughout life. Drawing on Cohen’s framework for postformal thinking—relativistic, dualistic, and systematic—Michael shares insights from his book Welcoming Wisdom...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this episode of Flourish As You Age , host Michael C. Patterson explores the often-overlooked strengths of the mature mind. Drawing from his upcoming book Welcoming Wisdom , he challenges the myth of inevitable cognitive decline, offering instead a vision of aging as a period of continued mental development, creative growth, and integrative insight. Through ref...

Comments? Send me a text message. What happens when we finally get the free time we longed for—only to find it strangely unsettling? In this episode of Flourish As You Age , host Michael C. Patterson explores leisure as a vital (and often overlooked) condition of human flourishing.  Drawing from his book Welcoming Wisdom , he traces how cultural expectations around work have shaped our identity, h...

Comments? Send me a text message. In this final episode of our opening series on Flourishing , we explore the deeper dimensions of what it means to live a meaningful and well-lived life. Drawing from awe research, contemplative neuroscience, and classical philosophy, we reflect that flourishing is not a fixed state but an emergent, relational process—one shaped by attention, moral insight, and rev...