Personal narratives have a unique power to help us connect to ideas and issues despite disparate backgrounds.

Courtney Martin has been channeling her “uncomfortable gift” for recognizing hypocrisy and seeking the truth into stories since high school. She’s an author, journalist, podcast host, speaker, and cofounder of organizations who uses words to grapple with contentious topics like race, education, activism, and motherhood.

Today, she shares why she returns again and again to personal narrative in pursuit of change, how writing helps her make sense of the world, and how she holds her values close while making a living as a writer.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How seeing her white, progressive friends avoid their local public school sent Courtney down the rabbit hole of what would become her memoir, Learning in Public.
• How Courtney uses her social and material capital to shape systemic change through collaboration with organizations
• What taking a sabbatical taught Courtney about the throughlines in her body of work and reclaiming space to be alone
• Why she avoids getting overly precious about her writing
• Why change advocates need to be willing to show up for the long haul

Learn more about Courtney Martin:

• The article she wrote after our conversation
• Website
• The Examined Family
• Instagram: @courtwrites

Learn more about Mary Knox Miller:

• Thought Leader Media
• Connect on LinkedIn

Resources:

• Solutions Journalism Network
• FRESH Speakers
• The Holding Co.
• Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter's School
• The Wise Unknown Podcast