How to Not Be (Completely) Depressed About Climate Change
J ournalism for P eople B uilding a B etter W orld
Native and White Alliances That Protect the Earth Hurry! Plant Milkweed for Migrating Monarchs
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Y THE MONE D GOO E ISSU
5 OPPORTUNITIES
TO SOLVE INEQUALITY What to Do About a Segregated Economy Give It Away: One Way to Skip Wall Street and Invest in Your Community US $6.50 Canada $6.50
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She’ll Own the Bank Me’Lea Connelly joins the big co-op taking on corporate banks
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“I also advise them to bring their wealth home—out from the shadows of the hidden wealth system, the trusts and offshore shell corporations. Shift wealth from the casino of Wall Street to the real economy of goods and services that people depend on. Use it to invigorate regional food systems and local production and services.” Chuck Collins, page 26
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SOLUTIONS WE LOVE
YES! But How? Hurry! Plant Milkweed 6 Cookbook Author Finds an Ally Against Dementia 8 People We Love: Nuns Shaking Up the Status Quo 12 The Page That Counts 14
THE ONE PLANT MIGRATING MONARCHS CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT PAGE 6
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FOR COOKBOOK AUTHOR, FOOD
Over the past several years, Paula Wolfert has been investigating if and how diet can keep dementia symptoms at bay. She stays current with the latest brain health studies and consults with her neurologist, a naturopath, and leaders in the dementia community.
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IS AN ALLY AGAINST DEMENTIA She can’t remember recipes and food doesn’t taste the same, but Paula Wolfert believes food is a key to helping her slow her cognitive decline.
Linda Ingroia
F
ive years ago, Paula Wolfert suddenly couldn’t remember how to make an omelet as she walked into her kitchen to prepare one. This would be unsettling for anyone who likes to cook, but for 50 years Wolfert was a leader in the culinary world, having popularized Mediterranean and North African cuisines in the United States. Wolfert had published eight awardwinning cookbooks and hundreds of articles. Her culinary adventures were captured in a 2016 book called Unforgettable. In Alice Waters’ foreword to the book, she acknowledged Wolfert’s mastery: “Every element was thoroughly researched and thought out, tested over and over, clearly and logically recorded, and beautifully executed.” Wolfert’s omelet problem, she found out, was due to a rare form of dementia, posterior cortical atrophy, similar to Alzheimer’s disease. Now 80, she is fighting dementia with the same ferocity that she applied to studying the intricacies of French cassoulet and Moroccan couscous. Her primary weapon is what she knows best—food. She follows a strict daily regimen involving nutrient-dense foods, nutrition supplements, and intermittent fasting, along with physical activity, a focused sleep routine, and scheduled social engagement. She keeps up on the latest brain health studies and consults with her neurologist, a naturopath, and leaders in the dementia community. She believes that her changed lifestyle has helped slow her cognitive decline and given her a measure PHOTO BY ERIC WOLFINGER/GETTY IMAGES
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Malik Yakini is executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. “This is us latching onto a historical strategy that Black people have used in this country to try to build collective wealth.� Y E S! PHO T O BY BR I AN ROZMA N
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WHAT TO DO ABOUT A SEGREGATED ECONOMY Co-ops and community farms are important local economy enterprises. Circulating local dollars, though, can’t create wealth when there’s not enough to begin with. Black communities especially need outside money to catch up. Zenobia Jeffries Warfield
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JUST THE FACTS
Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz
The $30 Trillion Baby Boom Inheritance Can Buy a Lot of Equality
W
e are on the brink of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history.
Over the next 30 to 40 years, more than 75 million millennials born between 1981 and 1997 will inherit an estimated $30 trillion in wealth from baby boomers. Certainly, millennials could use some of that money. Adulthood for them began with a recession that saw household savings reduced by nearly half. Homeownership, retirement savings, and easy employment were not part of their general experience. As of June, after the youngest millennials graduated from college, student loan debt averaged $37,172. The total U.S. student loan debt is $1.48 trillion. So just a speck of the $30 trillion could wipe it out. But not much of it is likely to get to those 44.2 million Americans with student loan debt. Because, in general, people with debts are not wealthy, and it’s wealthy people who inherit. HERE’S HOW IT WORKS
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COMMENTARY :: Chuck Collins
GIVE IT AWAY: ONE WAY TO SKIP WALL STREET AND INVEST IN YOUR COMMUNITY
I
r e c e n t ly m e t a p e r s o n w h o , w i t h c o n s i d e r a b l e a n g s t ,
asked what they should do
about their substantial inheritance. My heartfelt response: Give it away. I did it myself over 35 years ago, and it was the best deci-
sion I ever made. In 1986, faced with my own intergenerational wealth moment, I passed the
gift along to several foundations working for “change, not charity.” My other advice: Find others who are in the same boat and invite them to think things through together. When I did it, four friends and I made a pact to give away substantial assets. We collaborated on a book, We Gave Away a Fortune, to chronicle the inspiring stories of people who gave away their wealth and lived to survive and thrive. And if you’re not ready to give away the wealth, set up your life so that you can give it away later on. Learn how to earn a livelihood that isn’t dependent on being wealthy. Build a community of
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YES! ILLUSTRATION BY PABLO IGLESIAS
PHILANTHROPY’S LITTLE SECRET About 93 percent of charitable foundation money is parked in Wall Street investments. But foundations are starting to make better choices. Chris Winters
MONEY NOT DISTRIBUTED, MOSTLY INVESTED IN WALL STREET
$827.3 billion 2015
MONEY DISTRIBUTED
$62.8 billion 2015
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SOURCE: THE FOUNDATION CENTER, 2015 DATA
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PHOTO BY JOHN LUND/GETTY IMAGES
CULTURE SHIFT Powerful Ideas Emerging
Resilience Through Rituals 48 Books + Films + Audio: Unlikely Alliances 52 Truth as Healing 56 Podcasts That Inspire 58 How to Not Be Depressed About Climate Change 60 The YES! Crossword: Making Money 64
Whom is this truth-telling for? Is it to educate White people on colonial violence and how it continues to harm indigenous communities in Maine, or is it for the Native participants to heal and be heard? 56
YES! ILLUSTRATION BY FRAN MURPHY
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A grounding source for connection essential to our mental health.
Resilience Through Rituals Ari Honarvar
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I don’t know if I could have survived seven years of my childhood without the soul-saving rituals of my Persian culture.
I grew up in the midst of the Iran–Iraq
War, which ended up killing a million people. Besides the horrors of the war, freedom of thought and expression were severely restricted in Iran after the Islamic revolution. Women bore the brunt of this as, in a matter of months, we were forced to ditch our previous lifestyle and observe a strict Islamic attire, which covered our bodies and hair. We lost the right to jog, ride a bicycle, or sing in public. Life seemed unbearable at times, but we learned to bring meaning into uncertainty and chaos by maintaining grounding practices and developing new ones. It helped that in Persian culture we had ceremonies to turn to. We clung to 3,500-year-old Zoroastrian ceremonies that correspond to the seasons. Several of these rituals take place during the spring as the equinox marks the Persian New Year. Besides a thorough spring cleaning, we jump over a bonfire to cleanse our inner landscape and give our maladies to fire and gain vitality from it. On the longest night of the year, winter solstice, we stay up all night eating fruits and nuts, reciting poetry, playing music, and dancing. This is to symbolize survival and celebration during dark times. PHOTO BY JASMIN MERDAN/GETTY IMAGES
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BOOKS + FILM + AUDIO
Hear Me Now Podcasts that inspire. Ciara O’Rourke
FROM THE MISINFORMATION that American intelligence agencies have accused Russia of spreading on social media to the negative coverage that President Donald Trump derides as “fake news,” it feels like we’re awash in more reporting—real and otherwise—than ever. It can be hard to know when, exactly, to tune in. But here are some podcasts we think merit a listen for insight into pressing issues such as environmental health, the economy, and racial justice. These shows bring clarity to the daily news cycle. Sometimes, they deliver a little levity, too. Ciara O’Rourke is a freelance writer and editor based in Austin, Texas. Twitter: @ciaraorourke
HEALTH AND HAPPINESS This Is Love Mostly Clean Love is patient, love is kind, love is confusing, complicated, and sometimes completely baffling. Enter Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer, creators of the popular podcast Criminal, back with an investigation into one of life’s enduring mysteries. Hear stories about people dealing with love, obsessing over love, and making sacrifices for love—and not just the romantic kind. In the show’s inaugural teaser, Judge explores the maternal instincts of a spider that encourages her young to eat her.
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The Hilarious World of Depression Explicit What’s funnier than a disease that hampers the health of millions worldwide? Host John Moe expertly uses humor to destigmatize one of the most common mental disorders in the country with a roster of guests including comedian Maria Bamford, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern. The show notes that it isn’t a substitute for therapy, but maybe stories that encourage connection when we’re feeling alone are their own medicine.
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