Emily Mohn-Slate

The Beginning Comes After the End Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit offers a thrilling account of the sheer breadth and scale of social, political, scientific, and cultural change over the past three quarters of a century. In this sequel to her enduring bestseller Hope in the Dark, Solnit surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability. The changes amount to nothing less than dismantling an old civilization and building a new one, whose newness is often the return of the old ways and wisdoms. In this rising worldview, interconnection is a core idea and value. But because the transformation is obscured within a longer arc of history, its scale is seldom recognized. While the white nationalist and authoritarian backlash drives individualism and isolation, this new world embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs, and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.

I wrote a book! It's trickling out, already in some bookstores. And I'm doing a bunch of events for it (see below). More info on book in alt text.

Celebrity eagle Jackie lays another egg after ravens destroy Big Bear couple's first clutch Bald eagle matriarch Jackie laid an egg on Tuesday afternoon, marking a joyous turnaround for a nesting season so far marked by tragedy.

🥚Egg-citing news for Jackie and Shadow fans!!!

The bald eagle couple welcomed a new egg — a hopeful turnaround after ravens destroyed their first two eggs last month. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Anyone else had their life changed by a Reddit thread? A bunch of strangers fixed my plantar fasciitis. I adore them and I don’t even know them.

“hell yes or hell no?” late poet, teacher, and seeker Bobbie Ogletree on her meditation and writing practices and poetry as a path to waking up 🌊

Today’s Beginner’s Mind interview is with late poet, teacher, seeker, and my dear friend, Bobbie Ogletree.

She shared a mantra I love: “If you want to do something, it’s “hell yeah.” If you don’t want to do it, it’s “hell no.” She said, “That’s it. That’s your mantra now.”

“Decades! I’d say a large portion of the book was written over the past five or six years, but more than a few of them are older than my children. My oldest turns twenty-five this year.” Debut poet and author of Mele, Kalehua Kim, on the time spent writing her book. Read on: at.pw.org/KalehuaKim

Ass in Chair Collective | February 2026 🪑New month, same chair! 🪑

Catherine Pierce (@catherinepierce.bsky.social) is guest hosting this Monday’s Ass in Chair Collective! Feb 2nd 12-1 EST. She’ll be sharing inspiration with us AND giving away copies of her new memoir, Foxes for Everybody, & a generative writing session! Join us! 🎉🎉

❄️JANUARY: Ass in Chair Collective❄️ ⚡️WINTER SEASON PREMIERS January 5th⚡️

The next two Mondays are the first weeks Erinn Batykefer and I are taking OFF since we started Ass in Chair Collective – but we’ll be back on Jan 5th to keep us all going through winter ❄️ Get on the list for the January and join us! ❄️⚡️

Do you write poetry? Are you looking to join a poetry group? I'd love to have you apply to join my January - April poetry workshop offered through @brownbaglit.bsky.social. Read more here and reach out with any questions: chloeyelenamiller.substack.com/p/poetry-on-...

❄️Join us for the LAST Ass in Chair of 2025!❄️ It's FREE! 🕯️And it's a Solstice Party! 🕯️

Tomorrow, Mon Dec 15th at 12 EST: Ass in Chair is free! & we'll have some giveaways. Hope to see you there to cheer you on with your creative work💥

"the devotion to return to a creative practice, again and again" badass creativity facilitator Catherine LaSota on the power of limiting your assumptions, approaching your creative practice as a relationship, and being your own daddy💥🌱

💥🌱new beginner’s mind interview up today with badass creativity facilitator Catherine LaSota on the power of limiting your assumptions, approaching your creative practice as a relationship, and being your own daddy💥🌱 ALSO: listen to her podcast, Feed the Art, if you're a writer or creative!

🪑This month's FREE Ass in Chair Collective —Mon, Nov 17th!🪑 This one's open to anyone—Get on the list!

This Monday Nov 17th: it’s our FREE monthly meet-up! Come join Erinn Batykefer & the Ass in Chair Collective crew to steal time for your creative self alone/together! (on zoom 12-1 EST) ❤️🪑

"conscious but gentle collaboration with what is" parent, educator, writer, and meditator Ryan Rose Weaver on how her mindfulness and creative practices help her advocate for care and reciprocity for all beings 🙏🏼🌱

Ryan Rose Weaver shares a rich window into her mindfulness and creative practices in this beginner’s mind interview. If you don’t know her and her awesome community on substack, In Tending, let this be your introduction! 🙏🏼🌱 emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/conscious-...

Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass. We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

This helped me today. Small Kindnesses, by Danusha Laméris

Graphic Rage: An Interview with Writer and Artist Aubrey Hirsch Writer and visual artist Aubrey Hirsch knows Clarence Thomas won’t be reading Graphic Rage – and that’s fine. Her new book isn’t meant to convert opponents; it aims to witness, validate, and …

Had a great conversation with @abbyhiggs.bsky.social about my new book, GRAPHIC RAGE!

It's hard to overstate how fully engaged Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are in this ICE madness. There are neighborhood watch alerts, spontaneous crowds gathering outside schools at pick up & drop off plus madly blowing whistles and honking car horns, this city is fighting back and hard.

"I have time" baker, poet, and biographer Margot Kahn on getting over self-consciousness to begin again (and again) and the power of reminding yourself that you do have time 🌲

Margot Kahn truly lives out the ethos of beginner’s mind in her writing and her life (she opened a bakery! she hosts a podcast about ferries with her son!) Read on & channel some of that potent beginner’s mind energy for yourself.🌲
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/i-have-time

Kid 1, side 2 #NoKings

"Inspiration and spiritual connection are seduced with attention" writer, astrologer, and teacher Jeanna Kadlec on the power of getting out of the house, considering the astro-weather, and balancing your creative inputs and outputs 🪐⚡

🪐a new beginner’s mind interview is up with Jeanna Kadlec (@jeannakadlec.bsky.social), who writes the New York Times featured newsletter, astrology for writers 🪐

IF YOU DON'T KNOW JEANNA AND HER WISDOM, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/inspiratio...

"befriending my subconscious" essayist, author, and environmental writer Christina Rivera on opening and shutting her "subconscious door," holding suffering and grief, and the sparkle of beginner's mind 🌊

New interview up with author and environmental writer Christina Rivera (@crivera.bsky.social) on opening and shutting her "subconscious door," holding suffering and grief, and the sparkle of beginner's mind 🌊 SO MANY GEMS IN HERE! 💎💎
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/befriendin...

🍁FALL SLATE: Ass in Chair Collective🍁 ⚡️NEW SEASON PREMIERS Oct 6th ⚡️

We’re so excited to introduce the FALL SLATE of 🪑THE ASS IN CHAIR COLLECTIVE! 🪑 Sign up at the link in the post to join us for some accountability, community & ass jokes 🎉🔗
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/fall-slate...

"trust the work" Poet, writer, and teacher Cassie Pruyn on the power of patience, casting a wide net for inspiration, and trusting the work ✨✨

Such a rich interview w/ Cassie Pruyn ✨ If you haven’t read her book, LENA, and you need some queer/lesbian love poems or immersive poems that transmute grief, you know what to do.
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/trust-the-...

Dear one who is trying so hard a pep talk for myself & whoever else might need it

In the rush of September, in a time of violence and division, telling our stories and making art matters. Believing you are good enough matters because we just can’t give up. So, here’s a pep talk for you from me. 🩵

How do you respond when a famous person whose ideology you abhor is shot and killed? The same way you respond to every death in a world too full of it

This is less about what you do or don’t say both Charlie Kirk than it is about being alive, together, in a time and place that cares about far too few of our lives.

thewhitepages.net/p/how-do-you...

Traci Brimhall: Love Prodigal

The Southword poetry podcast is back with their latest season and I'm enjoying the latest episode with @tracibrimhall.bsky.social this morning 😀

#poetrypodcast #poetry

open.spotify.com/episode/6phF...

"I am here now, I trust my wise heart." artist, writer & social change facilitator Hanna du Plessis on welcoming suffering in the midst of ALS, and her continuing practice to soften into What Is 🌱

✨ a very special interview for you w/ artist, writer & social change facilitator Hanna du Plessis on welcoming suffering in the midst of ALS, and her continuing practice to soften into What Is✨
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/i-am-here-...

"we are made to create" poet, essayist & memoirist Heather Lanier on her writing and Centering Prayer practices and how they help her access Something Bigger ✨🙏🏼

✨🙏🏼 New interview up with poet, essayist & memoirist Heather Lanier on her writing and Centering Prayer practices and how they help her access Something Bigger ✨🙏🏼

emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/we-are-mad...

⚡️FREE⚡️Ass in Chair Collective: Monday August 18 Now's your chance to test run the best creative meetup on the internet!

This Mon, Aug 18th at noon EST, Ass in Chair is FREE!! Come test drive this warm, supportive crew that will help you get going and see what you think!! We'd love to see you there xo
emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/freeass-in...

waves upon waves of Recs & Links for your melty August days

Be Where You Are is two years old!!!! To celebrate, I made you a recs & links post with many many things I’ve loved this summer 🎉❤️ emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/waves-upon...

Orwell: "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." Except we won't let them fully control it. I believe those reports exist in versions he can't corrupt and erase. bsky.app/profile/afre...

Special Edition Ass in Chair Collective: Monday August 11th 💥With special Guest Host, Maritza Mosquera! 💥

💥Monday’s Ass in Chair Collective is a treat for paid subscribers: Maritza Mosquera will be joining us as a guest host!💥 Maritza is a visual artist, poet & cook whose creations often accompany dialogues with communities.

🔗Details & link to register: emilymohnslate.substack.com/p/special-ed...