Anticipating Loss, Imagining Grief
My father celebrated his 88th birthday recently and I find myself thinking about his mortality more and more these days.
A Nod to the Blues: On Grief, Ocean, and Sky
As we come to the close of this round of the Fellowship, an image keeps returning to me. It lives somewhere between the depth of the ocean and the expanse of the sky — vast, uncontrollable, and breathtaking in equal measure. That image is grief.
Learning to Hold Stories: How the Media Fellows Are Reimagining Research in Community
Over the past several months, the Media Fellowship at the Wealth and Work Futures Lab has been engaged in two forms of work at once: conducting research in community and rethinking research itself.
Learning to Practice the Future
As I think about 2025, I keep returning to scenes from Star Trek Discovery, a show I completely binged all of 2024. My dear friend and colleague, Dr. Sandra Bloom, encouraged me to watch it. And, I can't overstate how glad I am that I did.
Our 2025 Inspiration Guide
From thought-provoking nonfiction to articles and reports that sparked tough conversations, our team took in a wide range of ideas this year.
Collective Purchasing: A Lifeline For Small Businesses and Local Economies
Small food businesses like corner stores, food trucks, caterers, quick-service restaurants and the hybrid ventures that stitch neighborhoods together, and often run on razor-thin margins, limited staff capacity, and a maze of compliance, insurance and vendor headaches. Collective purchasing of shared services offers a practical way to change that math.
Surviving vs. Thriving in Philly: Getting Honest About What It Takes
At the Wealth + Work Futures Lab, we see economic mobility as two-sided: the floor – stability, security, dignity; and the ladder – opportunity, growth, choice.
Psychological Safety: The Foundation of a Thriving Workplace
Feeling comfortable, respected and connected at work matters. As one employer partner told us, “If you want the best talent, you have to provide the best environment.”
There Is No Future (And That's A Good Thing)
The future seems so bleak these days. Headlines tell us where we’re headed: war, environmental collapse, AI domination. Many of us are grieving. Not only the present state of the world, but also the future that seems to hang over us like a dystopian nightmare. It feels so inevitable. And that sense of inevitability makes that grief heavier.