I’ve published a few commentary pieces this year in the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. Check ’em out! It was fun countering developer hasbara in the Post piece in March ’22. This was my first time getting published in a national gentile publication, and I was impressed by the…

The paradox of food writing, as we careen toward the middle decades of the 21st century, is eaters don’t need writers to tell them what or where to eat. A bevy of lay foodie websites, podcasts, and social media accounts abounds for just this purpose. Why do we still write…

Three Strategies for Communicating with Bad Listeners Last night in our Advanced Listening & Note Taking class, students and I discussed strategies for navigating conversations in which their interlocutor “does not want to understand us”. The three strategies I shared are: 1) Use research-based avoidance of disrespectful people using qualitative…

A Short Story Mom’s in weight-watchers. Every Wednesday night, she joins the group, women of varying shapes and sizes, in the fluorescent basement of a local church. They talk about staying strong, together. About not giving in. Because they know that no matter how good it tastes, you’ll look better…

A Call for Worker Empowerment Over Woke Capitalism on a Vital Baltimore Avenue — A Familiar Set of Complaints Recently, an uproar erupted when it came out that a long vacant former pharmacy building on the 3100 Block of Greenmount was leased by the owner-developer to a corporate dollar store. Those blocks of Greenmount are being gentrified and a store for working class people doesn’t fit into that plan…

“Winter in America” on Day 1 Pre-, During, and Post-Listening Language Learning in the Context of Emergent Curriculum and Culturally Sustaining Andragogy In my Advanced Listening and Note Taking class on Tuesday, our song of the day was “Winter in America” by Gil Scott Heron. None of the students were…

TIAA “Social Choice” Retirement Fund for Teachers is Anything But Last year, I started organizing with a group of mostly New York-based professors, students, and environmental justice activists called TIAA Divest. Here’s why:

Environmental Justice Organizers Call for More than a Market-Based Approach for Addressing Climate Crisis “The concepts of carbon “neutrality” and “pricing” seek to solve the ecological disease of the climate crisis caused by the market-based model and every person/corporation for themselves mentality by giving the patient more of the poison…