Home and Away
Before I came to Kyrgyzstan, I spent three months in Central New York, within a hundred miles of where I was born. It was the longest time I’d spent there since 1993 when I headed off to college, and I […]
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What do I tell potential employers about leaving my terrible job?
My job is terrible. My organization is unethical enough that I feel bad working there, but not so much I can gather evidence and expose them. All my colleagues are undermining back-biters and they take three hour lunches. My boss’s […]
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me in other places, job links
If you’ve ever wanted to see me screw up on stage, you’re in luck! A talk I gave on international development is now up in the TED YouTube archive. It was five years ago, but I remember being very pleased […]
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TED 2018 – or, how to survive being surrounded by brillance
So, I’m at TED. Well, almost. I’m at the pre-conference for TED fellows. The big events start on Monday. Being in the presence of the TED fellows every year is an exercise in humility. I mean, I love what I […]
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Me, in person and online
Things will be light around here for the next month. I am off to TED (TED), the Hero Round Table (state of the art information on being brave) in San Francisco, and SwitchPoint in North Carolina (the coolest international development […]
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Two reasons to email me
The first reason: I am sending out my next set of postcards for my postcard project this week. If you’d like to receive one, email me – alanna@needsbrave.com – with your address and I’ll put you on the list. The […]
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Me, in other places
Well, one other place. I’ve got an article in The Telegraph on infectious diseases today.
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How to have a difficult conversation with someone you love
In six not so easy steps: Accept that it’s not going to be pleasant. Lots of things are difficult and unpleasant. Influenza. Traffic court. Surgery. Unlike influenza, a difficult conversation is never fatal. You are strong enough to survive 20-30 […]
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Resources: Emerging Infectious Diseases
A recent piece I wrote for UN Dispatch, on where our next pandemic may come from. (Spoiler: animals!) Exactly ten years ago, here’s what we were thinking about emerging infectious diseases. What is striking about this article is that it […]
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Career Disappointments and Grief
Sometimes – more often than I want – I have to disappoint my career consulting clients. I hate it. But I am coming around slowly to the idea that my job is to tell people the truth so they can […]
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