Will Wright: Award-Winning Indie Journalism, Writing, incl SpeechWriting

National Public Radio ran a piece on March 26th about a 20-something Black woman reading “The New York Times” via TikTok, who went viral. Those who find grave news stories depressing, and are turned away welcome this… As a middle-age GenXer who knew the world before the Web and social media came to cultural primacy,…

My 40s began with my making a strategic choice to manage my energy and time in order to refine myself. I was and am driven to maintain certain worldview-oriented skills. A “casualty” of this (to some people’s minds) is me usually ignoring pop culture stories. Becoming no younger, and having misspent too much of my…

I need to process an outburst from a young white male bike mechanic. “You were very difficult to work with”! In the Twin Cities, Scandinavian [the original settlers] aloofness, fear of open emotion, emotional people are a vice. On February 13 I went to Free Wheel Bike so that my commuter cycle could have its…

Authors met on Feb 13 in a cozy space near the rear of Magers & Quinn Bookseller in Uptown. This was in order to mark Black History Month.  Black and Japanese-American authors met in order to mark love, of self, and culture. Twin Cities-based authors and teachers, David Mura (“Turning Japanese,” “We Were Meant to…

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Ethan who killed four classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021, has been found guilty too for permitting her son’s acts. Her son, Ethan, was already found guilty of four counts of manslaughter. He received a life sentence. But after the grotesque number of school shootings, and after…

Michele Norris, a journalist probably best known as a one-time co-host of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” has written another book. It does that, which many of us aspire to, but rarely do. It confronts “Our Hidden Conversations“ (the title of the book) about race. We are cautious about race. From the beginning of…

Richard Moody’s presented the 32nd Annual Holiday Event at the Granada Theatre in Minneapolis’ Uptown area on December 11th. The event exists to help needy youngsters, and a way to encourage Twin Citians to come, be sociable by meeting one another. When you need a social outlet this is a strong candidate. It was convenient…

On Tuesday, December 4 Norman Lear died at the age of 101. Mr. Lear’s shows “All in the Family” and “Good Times” in particular, marked my childhood. As a quiet, introverted boy with shallow and shaky self-esteem, I clung to TV shows. I resorted to TV for a distraction from family drama and emotional neglect.…

To concentrate on gratitude and the blessings each of us has In November can nourish and affirm our wellbeing. That is one way to go through Thanksgiving, Christmas and surrounding holidays. On a day or during a month about gratitude, some people struggle to feel it, or to feel human warmth. On Nov. 19 CNN…

To watch or listen to the 7:00am news is a part of me being a good citizen. When I began drinking my coffee (insomnia sucks) before 7:00am on Nov 7th, MPR told me at the tail of the hour, that the SAG AFTRA union had a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and…