We’ve been thinking a lot about mindsets — the frameworks that shape how we interpret the world, often without realizing it.
Aaron started us off by talking about the “bootstrap” stories we grew up with — those tidy promises that hard work automatically leads to success. It’s an appealing mindset, but one that skips over systemic realities like generational wealth, redlining, and unequal access to opportunity. When our worldview is built on incomplete stories, it’s harder to understand why others see things differently.
This week, Lisa came across an Instagram post by Elad Nehorai that inspired our tackling of models and frameworks for today’s episode. He described two models of safety: the hierarchical model — where power is finite and one group’s safety comes at another’s expense — and the solidarity model, where safety and power expand when shared.
That post became a bit of an aha moment for me. Not only because the framework made sense, but because it revealed how both “sides” of a conflict can contain people with either mindset. It’s not strictly left vs. right, it’s about how people see the nature of power and safety itself.
Aaron drew parallels to scarcity vs. abundance thinking and that old pie metaphor we love. In the scarcity mindset, there’s only so much pie to go around; if you get a bigger slice, mine must shrink. In the abundance mindset, we just bake a bigger pie. It’s a simple shift, but it changes everything about how we see possibility, progress, and even peace.
We also revisited George Lakoff’s classic frames: the Strict Father model (authoritarian, rule-based) and the Nurturant Parent model (empathetic, growth-oriented). These lenses shape not only our politics but how we relate to each other. Understanding them doesn’t mean agreeing with them, but it helps us grasp what motivates others so we can find better language for the conversation.
The Frameworks Institute (IG @frameworksinstitute) takes this even further, exploring how deeply these mental models influence our society and how shifting the frame is key to lasting social change. It’s worth a visit if you’re curious about how language shapes thinking.
In a week when local activism met national headlines, with thousands of Bay Area residents mobilizing to defend immigrant rights, it was heartening to see solidarity in action. Safety, shared. Power, expanded.
We can all use a reminder that the stories we tell ourselves shape what we think is possible — and what we believe is worth fighting for. Sometimes the most radical act is simply to turn the cube and see the whole picture.
As always, we like to bring the big ideas down to the level of what we can do — because understanding frameworks is only useful if it leads to better choices and more connection.
This week’s clearest action: vote. If you’re in California, Proposition 50 is on your ballot — a redistricting measure that could influence fair representation for years to come. Ballots are already out, and turnout is strong, but every vote adds momentum. If you’re not yet registered, you can still register and vote in person through Election Day.
For those who want to stay active beyond the ballot box, Postcards to Votershas four campaigns underway, from Georgia to Virginia. Small actions like these build the infrastructure of empathy and representation we’ve been talking about, one handwritten card, one conversation, one mindset shift at a time. And if you want to plug in more directly, Mobilize.us lists dozens of local opportunities every week.
Meanwhile, this week brought a striking local example of solidarity in action: when Trump announced plans to send federal agents, likely ICE, into the Bay Area, thousands of people immediately signed up for resistance training. The sheer speed and scale of that response reminded us that people power is alive and ready. Whether or not that specific action was rolled back because of public outcry or political calculation, it was heartening to see so many neighbors move instantly from fear to courage.
😊 Joyful Moments
We always like to end with joy, because without it, action burns out.
For Lisa, joy this week came from a simple evening in Sausalito, walking by the water with family, breathing in the salt air, and remembering that proximity, whether to people or the ocean, can be healing.
For Aaron, joy continues to arrive in the form of our new kitten, or maybe in the way she’s forced us to clear off our surfaces. It turns out that cats can be tiny, fuzzy Marie Kondos, nudging us toward a tidier home and a fresh perspective. He also reminisced about a favorite childhood book: The King, the Mice and the Cheese, linked as promised, though I couldn’t find it on Bookshop.org so this is an Amazon Affiliate link.
And maybe that’s the metaphor for this week’s conversation: sometimes a small disruption, like a kitten, a community response, a new way of seeing, can shift the whole framework.
