“You asked me questions no one has ever asked.”
– Academy-Award winning director Sarah Polley
I started this newsletter because I wanted to have deep, intimate conversations about relationships—relationships with one another, with our art and creativity, and with our world. An interview is a place where these kinds of questions are welcome. And awaited! Unlike, for example, a children’s birthday party, where they tend to send people slowly backing away into a ziggurat of hot dogs.
What I love most is the moment in the conversation when a person’s ideas are listened into being. My interviewees often say, “No one has ever asked me that!” “This is my favorite interview” or “I can’t believe I’m telling you this.”
I believe all understanding is co-created. Deep listening is one of the ways we elicit one another’s wisdom.
The title comes from Adrienne Rich’s poem “If Your Name is on the List,” which ends like this:
suddenly a narrow street a little beach a little century
screams Don't let me go….….do you forget
what we were to each other
What you’ll get if you subscribe
Intimate, provocative monthly conversations with some of culture’s most fascinating thinkers.
About me
I’m Jessica Nordell, an author, journalist, poet, and speaker with a dual background in physics and poetry. My work has appeared in the NYT, Atlantic, Guardian, and the New Republic, among others. My book The End of Bias: A Beginning was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, the Lukas Award, and the Bernstein Award, and has been translated into seven languages. All my work is, in some way, about relationships: human, more-than-human, creative, and sacred.
My poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in FIELD, Copper Nickel, Best New Poets, Conduit, and Scientific American.
In my spare time, I play the drums in a dad rock cover band. I live in Minneapolis with my husband and our two feline overlords.
What others say
“A reflective and capacious thinker.”
— Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Book Review podcast
“The End of Bias presents many convincing accounts of bias being reduced… emphasizes, above all, the urgent need for systemic solutions.”
—The New Yorker
“Jessica’s newsletter is an an exciting diachronic expansion of her first book!”
—Elif Batuman, Pulitzer finalist and author of The Idiot and Either/Or
"I can think of few things more important, more potentially meaningful and actionable to a reader, than what is in The End of Bias."
―Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
“Unconscious bias is one of the most pressing problems of our time. I’ve devoured everything I can find on how to solve it, and Jessica’s Atlantic article was the single most fascinating and useful exploration of it that I’ve read. Ever.”
— Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
“Thoughtful . . . rousing . . .”
—The Guardian
“In need of some hope? Start here!”
— Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
“Informative, compassionate and necessary.”
—Ruth Ozeki, Women’s Prize winner of The Book of Form and Emptiness
“A virtuoso survey of scientific research on the causes of prejudice and programs [to address it] . . . Throughout, Nordell holds her own biases up to scrutiny . . . and draws vivid character sketches of her profile subjects. The result is a refreshingly optimistic and immersive.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
I’m so glad you’re here!
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These conversations are meant to be shared. Please forward to anyone who might enjoy.
