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What being a good mentee looks like and why it matters

People need mentors now more than ever. Career paths are more uncertain. AI, technology, and economic shifts are creating cultures of uncertainty; working with a mentor (or serving as one) can make a huge difference. A mentor is an experienced person who provides guidance, support, and advice and serves as a role model for someone else. This person is often called a mentee. There are formal mentor/mentee relationships as well as informal ones. The tremendous value of a mentor came home to me as I was reading an interview with someone who was being recognized for their positive impact ...

Trump’s retribution campaign

Donald Trump’s retribution campaign brings to mind Richard Nixon’s obsession with getting even with opponents. Even though it was clear his Democratic challenger would be George McGovern in 1972, Republicans broke into the DNC Watergate Headquarters, along with “dirty tricks, one of them creating a bogus diplomatic cable linking John Kennedy to the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. This was heavy-handed and later regarded as over the top. Dick Tuck, an old Democratic prankster, had managed to attract the ire of Nixon. Indeed, he sabotaged several ...

The (non-Christmas) lists

‘Tis the season. No, not that season. It’s the season for end-of-year lists. Time magazine, which, like so much in print journalism has suffered from a loss of readers, has published its annual list called the “most influential people of 2025.” The list includes “Artists, Innovators, Titans, Icons, Leaders, and Pioneers.” Time’s “Person of the Year” is Artificial Intelligence. That might also apply to Congress. Most of the people Time considers influential I have never heard of, so they haven’t influenced me. Maybe it’s a generational thing. You may be ...

President Trump’s inflation trap

What can Donald Trump do to stop morphing into Joe Biden? The two presidents could hardly be more different in most ways — but in the one that counts most with voters, Trump is in danger of resembling his predecessor. Americans rejected Biden and the Democrats last year because they were incensed at the lousy state of the economy. Right now, they’re not much happier with Trump’s economy. Inflation was the No. 1 concern on voters’ minds last year, and it’s still a top concern today. Trump’s team say they plan to tout “affordability” as a theme Republicans can win ...

Living in lockdown USA

“Just FYI if you’re seeing the news right now, I’m totally safe,” a son enrolled at Brown University texted me. “I’ve been home for a few hours now and wasn’t there when stuff started to happen. Seems to be some crazy shooting near brown.” What?! I turned on CNN and saw the quaint streets of Providence’s College Hill — lined with front porches — pulsing under emergency lights that washed the cold night sky an eerie red. Nothing like this ever happens around here. Brown was put in lockdown, and so were those of us living a few blocks away on Providence’s East ...

Shameful conspiracy theories

Few would have guessed that Erika Kirk would have to spend energy these last few, heart-breaking months fending off a right-wing influencer bent on implicating her slain husband’s own organization, TPUSA, in his assassination. Here we are, though. Influential voices on the right have become more and more conspiratorial in recent years, and now, the paranoia is being wielded against its own. In the aftermath of the Kirk assassination, the talk was of an energized MAGA movement picking up his baton. Instead, TPUSA has been slandered nearly every single day by one of the loudest ...