Category: Non-Fiction
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How Can We Make the U.S. Better?
We received a lot of thoughtful feedback about our last post on why we don’t want to live in the U.S. One valid point is that in many cases it’s not an option to move. And there are ways we can fight to make the U.S. better from the inside. Here are ten things you can do while…
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Why Do You Want to Live Outside the U.S.?
One of the questions we’re asked most often is “why do you want to live outside the U.S.?” At first, we answered that we love travel and want to pursue our dream careers in countries with a low cost of living. While this answer still holds true, there is a second question we have to answer now that we’ve been traveling…
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Of Heroines and Heroes: Three Stories
In light of the Stanford rape travesty, I’d like to share three true stories about heroines, heroes, and villains, and the stories we tell our children about them. The Campus On a sunny day in May, Sinead was walking to class when a friend materialized out of the crowd of students and began to walk…
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Podcast Spotlight – Tropical MBA with Venkat Rao
February was dreary. I created distractions to avoid the big push forward on things that matter. I know the steps I need to take but I’ve prioritized planning over execution, playing out what-if scenarios and researching solutions to reassure myself that we’re making the right decision. Plain and simple, I’ve been afraid to commit and fail. March is a great time to refocus, find new ideas that challenge…
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This is Not a Parenting Article
You know those parenting articles with titles like “5 Things Parents Shouldn’t Say to Childless Friends,” or “6 Ways Non-Breeders Can Relate to Parents”? This is not that kind of an article. You will not find a list of #parentingfails here, or a list of “ten ways you didn’t know you were emotionally stunting your kid,” or inexpert but strident views…
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That Kind of a Woman
I asked my mother if she ever thought she’d find herself sitting naked on a toilet in Africa with a shaved head and a tattoo on her hip. She thought about it. No, she hadn’t, she said. She and Dad have come to visit us and their grandson for three months. Her head was not…
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Getting Dissed by a Dolphin
Growing up, there were two kinds of kids in the world: kids who had been to Disneyland and kids who hadn’t. If you were in the first group, we poor kids naturally hated your guts. My own family’s version of a vacation was a 13-hour non-stop drive to Salt Lake City to visit relatives…
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Nannies: Paranoia
Every night before she leaves to go home, our nanny makes a joke about taking Spencer home with her. I don’t think these jokes are very funny. Call me paranoid, but with each new joke I get a little more uneasy. It’s not in A’idah’s favor that she wears these thick-rimmed bifocals that make her…
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Watching His Children Mourn Him
The night Nelson Mandela died, a violent wind blew dark clouds across the yellow sky in Cape Town. The air here is never completely still; it brushes against your face with the weight of the sea every time you step outside. Once every few weeks it’s so windy that the flower sellers pack up early,…
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An art collage that measures public sentiment
Aleta Michaletos was interviewed on the Africa News Network last night about her collages and their unforeseen connection with Nelson Mandela. Michaletos began making the collages in Pretoria, SA in 1989. Mandela was still in prison, and politics were tenuous. Clashes between supporters of the ANC and the National Party erupted in anonymous bombings throughout…