My Substack Origin Story
It started with a book.
Well, it started with the idea for a book.
I’ve dreamed of writing one for a long time, partly because I just love books. My shelves are stuffed-to-overflowing, two rows deep, piles on the floor (#ItsNotHoardingIfItsBooks). So, it’s a bucket-list goal for me.
But more than that, I’ve spent the last 15 years building partnerships between communities and universities. I’ve worked alongside folks making real change in education, health, and beyond. I’ve been gifted wisdom from some very smart people. I’ve built partnerships that soared—and others that crashed and burned. In short, I’ve learned a thing or two that might be worth sharing.
That said, there are many great books out there about community-campus partnerships. While there’s always room for more, I wasn’t sure what I had to contribute. And…I was busy. I wrote some articles over the years but the book dream got pushed to the back burner.
Then came an unexpected opportunity: I was asked to do the Sunday sermon at my Unitarian Universalist church (shout out to First Parish Malden). It pushed me to write in a way that was very different from the academic writing I’d been doing. Freer, perhaps. The experience seemed to unlock something in my brain. A book idea came to me almost fully formed, title and all.
It would be called Partnership Work and it wouldn’t be limited to community-campus partnerships. It would be about all the different ways that people bring folks together across divides to work toward something better. Each chapter would focus on a core idea — like trust, or power — and weave together wisdom from different sources, examples, and voices across space and time. It would explore the “how” of partnerships, without being a “how-to.”
The book would draw on knowledge from different perspectives, cultures, disciplines, and professions. How do community organizers think about partnerships? How about artists? Matchmakers? What have scientists learned about how people collaborate? What do religious texts have to say? After all, partnership — with one another, with other forms of life — has been central to humanity as long as there have been humans.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t know enough to write this book. And when I don’t know something, I ask my friends. I decided I would start by interviewing people who do this kind of work day in and day out. I would ask them what they’ve learned, who inspires them, where they think things are heading.
And hey, if I was already doing interviews, why not share them as a podcast?
That’s how Partnership Work: The Art and Science of Bringing People Together was born. Each episode, I talk with someone who spends much of their time bringing folks together across lines of difference — not just to build understanding, but also to take action. To make things better, however they define that.
But a monthly podcast can only cover so much. And my guests often share examples, ideas, and insights that I don’t have time to explore fully.
This Substack is a space to expand on those conversations — and go beyond them. Once again, I can’t do it alone. I’ve asked my friend and colleague Charisse Iglesias to run this Substack with me. We’ll also be inviting podcast guests and other folks to contribute pieces and join the dialogue along the way.
Maybe someday all this writing and discussion will lead to a book. Or maybe it will become something else I can’t yet imagine. In my experience, the magic of partnership work is that the best outcomes are often the ones you don’t expect.