ESSAY // HEATHER SHAYNE BLAKESLEE // THE GHOST OF TOM PAINE

A mid-pandemic freakout about our fouled information system. Root Quarterly considers itself part of a Citizen Sensemaking Brigade, and seeks to be a trusted, nonpartisan source of information and analysis.

3.2, Beautiful Future, BF - ValuesHeather BlakesleeSeptember 14, 2025Heather Shayne Blakeslee

MEDIA ANALYSIS // WALTER FOLEY // NO GODS NO MASTERS

By Walter Foley

New media is the Wild West. Should we really be pinning a sheriff’s badge on anyone? A deep dive into media production, January 6th, and big tech control of narratives.

2.3, Beautiful Future, BF - ValuesHeather BlakesleeSeptember 14, 2025Walter Foley

ANALYSIS // WALTER FOLEY // CONVERSATION WITH JOHN VERVAEKE AND CHRISTOPHER MASTROPIETRO

By Walter Foley

More and more people are unconnected to themselves, to their families, and to their communities. In what ways are we becoming modern zombies? Can we find our selves as humans again by searching for wisdom? Interview with John Vervaeke and Christopher Mastropietro.

2.3, Beautiful Future, BF - Social FabricHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Walter Foley

ESSAY // HEATHER SHAYNE BLAKESLEE // EUSOCIAL DISTANCING

by Heather Shayne Blakeslee

Be like bees, just not too much, and we might just save our species.

Opening Salvo, 2.3, Beautiful Future, BF - Social FabricHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Heather Shayne Blakeslee

INTERVIEW // JOHN WOOD, JR., AND PATRIOTIC EMPATHY

What is political empathy and how do we find each other again? A 2020 interview with John Wood, Jr., National Ambassador of the grassroots political depolarization organization Braver Angels.

2.2, Discourse, Beautiful Future, BF - Social FabricHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Heather Shayne Blakeslee

ESSAY // WALTER FOLEY // KILLING MOLOCH: Early Pandemic Reflections on Sobriety and Transcendence

by Walter Foley

How did we get here, and where do we want to go? Reflections on self-reliance and sensemaking during strange times.

2.1, Beautiful Future, BF - ResilienceHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Walter Foley

CONVICTED AND BURNED // WALTER FOLEY AND HEATHER SHAYNE BLAKESLEE // WITCH HUNTING, SCAPEGOATING, AND MORAL PANICS

by Walter Foley and Heather Shayne Blakeslee

Humans are already prone to mob rule and moral panics, including frenzies about witches, communists, and Satanists. Is the media’s broken business model playing with our psychology and biology by purposefully stoking outrage and profiting from call-out and cancel culture?

1.2, Beautiful Future, BF - Social FabricHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Heather Shayne Blakeslee, Walter Foley

LOVE IS HELL // LAUREN EARLINE LEONARD // KEEPING YOUR RECORD COLLECTION IN THE AGE OF OUTRAGE

Essay by Lauren Earline Leonard

What do we do when we find out that a favorite artist has behaved badly, or even criminally? Should corporations or individuals get to decide? Lauren Earline Leonard wrestles with her current record collection as she recalls the music of her youth.

1.2, Beautiful Future, BF - ValuesHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Lauren Earline Leonard, FULL

OPENING SALVO // HEATHER SHAYNE BLAKESLEE // WHILE YOU WERE OUT

by Heather Shayne Blakeslee

In this period of our country’s history, will be come together, or be torn apart? The first of our ongoing “Opening Salvo” essays from Founding Publisher and Editor Heather Shayne Blakeslee in summer of 2019.

1.1, Beautiful Future, BF - ResilienceHeather BlakesleeSeptember 13, 2025Heather Shayne Blakeslee