“If the language of war is now aimed at fellow Americans, how long before wartime powers are too?” 1984 Wasn’t a Warning, It Was a Blueprint Ten Lessons From Orwell That America 2025 Is Failing to Learn War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. George Orwell’s slogans weren’t meant as prophecy. They were meant as diagnosis: how fragile truth becomes when power is unchecked. In 2025, the United States is watching an Dean Brady • Society
When Democracy Fails: What the DNC Still Does Not Understand On The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin was handed an opportunity: lay out what Democrats stand for heading into 2026. Instead, what viewers saw was the emptiness of consultant-speak and the absence of a vision. Dean Brady • Society
Crowd-Sourcing Democracy: How the Exhausted Middle Can Rebuild Trust American politics is unraveling inside our closest circles. Families and friendships that survived disagreements for decades are now breaking apart. What once felt like arguments about taxes or foreign policy are now fights about reality itself. The far right has become louder, comfortable speaking openly about racism, exclusion, and authoritarian Dean Brady • Society
Who Holds the Keys? Rethinking Data in the Age of AI Who Owns Data 2.0? We’ve been through this before. In the early days of social media and digital advertising, companies convinced us to trade small conveniences for access to our personal data. At first it was clicks, likes, and browsing habits. Soon, every search query, purchase, and location Dean Brady • Tech & AI
The Next Note: AI, Music, and the Return of Creative Revolution Every new tool redraws the line. Pianos, synths, CGI - each was called “fake” before becoming art. Now it’s AI music. Will we settle for shortcuts, or learn to make this new instrument sing? Dean Brady • Tech & AI
TikTok Ban isn’t about China Listening to the Supreme Court’s hearing on the potential TikTok ban — it’s clear many people don’t grasp the broader implications. Dean Brady • Tech & AI
Photo by János Venczák / Unsplash Everyday Carry (EDC): An Introduction to the Gear We Live With Growing Up with Tools in Hand I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, when kids spent entire summers outdoors - biking, fishing, hiking, exploring. If a bike chain broke or a fishing line tangled, we figured it out ourselves. Tools weren’t optional; they were survival. A pocketknife wasn’ Dean Brady • EDC
