Brad Rourke’s Blog
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Why We Still Need Professional Journalism
The meaning of “professional” has changed drastically over time. It used to solely designate someone who had completed specialized training and been accepted into an organized group of others who pursue the same calling. These days, it often just means “someone who gets paid for what they do,” or “someone who works in an office.”…
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Seven Things I Can Control
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about some things that were troubling me. I was unhappy with the behavior of others. As we discussed the situation, it became clear that the behavior may well have been driven by others’ reactions to my own behavior. “You can’t control what they do,”…
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Freedom And Responsibility In Public Life
In this week’s edition of my podcast, Public Life Today, I talk about the balance that needs to be struck between freedom and responsibility. For people who run online communities this can be especially troubling, as the relative anonymity of the online world makes it easy to go too far and say things that infringe…
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Framework For Deliberating About Childhood Drinking
I have been working on a project with a number of collaborators to create an issue guide for communities to deliberate on the issue of childhood drinking. Our framework is in an early-draft state, but it is gettting better with each iteration. (By “better,” I mean that it will stimulate dialogue.) In preparation for a…
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A Vision For Civic Life
Recently, for various reasons, I’ve been going through my old folders and documents. At various times in my life I’ve toyed with the idea of establishing an institute or center devoted to improving civic life. I’m glad to be able to say that just about all my work over the last decade has been in…
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Permanence
In this week’s edition of my podcast, Public Life Today, I talk about my friend who’s a civil engineer. The other day, he happily observed to me that none of his bridges had ever fallen down. It caused me to rethink a few things about my own work. What if I approached my work with…
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Tell Me About The Time You Failed
I’ve had more than my fair share of occasions to hire someone. I’ve done it on my own, and in teams of people. I’ve been the one making the decision, and I’ve been in an advisory capacity. There’s a question I always ask, but that I myself have never been asked. Indeed, when I ask…
Brad Rourke 