THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
What does it mean to flourish when the systems we depend on are under strain?
Flourish in Times of Struggle is a new podcast series for people who want to move beyond personal resilience and grapple with the deeper structures that shape our lives. In this opening episode, Michael C. Patterson introduces the series’ focus on systems, legitimacy, and collective action—and invites listeners to think together about how healthier, more democratic forms of governance might emerge.
Earlier Flourish As You Age podcasts focused more on personal change and development to promote brain health and mental management.
THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
Latest Episodes
# 12. Humor as Resistance, Part 2 - The Court Jester— Humor, Power, and the Art of Speaking Truth
The court jester is one of history's most misunderstood figures. Not merely an entertainer, the jester was the only person in the medieval court licensed to tell the king the truth — to mock power, puncture pretension, and name what everyone el...
#11 - A Trumpery Campaign
There is a word that has been sitting in the English language since the fifteenth century, quietly waiting for its moment. TRUMPERY. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a trumpery as deceit, fraud, imposture, trickery — someth...
#10 Humor As Resistance: Lessons from Ancient Greece
In this episode, I trace the origins of humor as a tool of political resistance to fifth-century Athens, where the playwright Aristophanes used comedy to mock warmongering leaders, puncture male vanity, and make the case for peace — in front of...
#9. The Dehumanization Template
Dehumanization is one of the oldest tools of political control. And it follows a recognizable pattern.In this episode, I identify and name what I call the Political Dehumanization Template — a five-component framework for understanding h...
#8 Boycotts as Tools of Resistance and Reconstruction
What gives ordinary people power against those who hold it? One answer is as old as democracy itself: the deliberate, collective withdrawal of cooperation.The Power of Withdrawal draws on three examples spanning twenty-four hund...
