Amidst the stressed-mess dipped in doomed-gloom that was 2020, there were memorable cultural events that made us smile, think, dance, laugh, feel schadenfreude and also hopeful for the future. I picked 20 events that are near and dear to my pop culture, politics, science & medicine heart. In listing them all, the goal is to reveal the speckles of light that shined in the otherwise dark abyss that was 2020.

How do Democrats defeat a BasuraSwampMonster? Donald Trump may be resilient, but he isn’t invincible. I outline three key strategies a successful Democratic nominee will need to beat Trump in the general election.

Vision is more than just the ability to see. Vision is the composite image of our goals complete with specifics that spark our imaginations and sustain our joy. Vision is the destination that makes the journey worthwhile.

The Top 100 songs of the Decade. Ranked by me.

Americans are living in a moment dominated by sociopolitcal fear. Provocations of fear inundate our national conversations and declarations that we should fear others are spewed from the White House. At the core of the MAGA message is fear of the future and fear of change. Birdbox shows us what happens to society when we let fear become the primary glue that holds us together.

Investing in our cores is an act of self-guardianship. For things fall apart when the center cannot hold. 

Becoming is a memoir about many things. It’s a coming of age story, a love story, a story of how a young woman finds her voice, her passion, her power. Becoming is a story about the fortitude of family and the promise of education. It’s a lens into America’s failures. It's an ode to the American Dream.  Becoming chronicles how a young girl from the South Side of Chicago, daughter to working class parents becomes the first African American First Lady of the United States.

The only constant in life is change. This adage can be applied to language, which morphs and evolves as the world around us changes. New realities require new words and phrases. Sometimes our lexicon keeps up; other times we need to make up words from thin air (#fetch). Read on for a proposed list of new words describing this moment in time.