We're All Being Squeezed. Let's Talk About It.
Thousands of you responded when I named The Squeeze. Now let's talk about it live.
Thousands of you have liked and shared recent posts and Notes about The Squeeze. The most common response: “This is the first time I’ve had words for what I’m experiencing every day.”
I’ve spent the past year helping people stay steady in the face of authoritarianism. And it’s become clear that Trump’s assaults are landing on people who were already struggling to carry the load from all these other systems — employers, landlords, insurance companies, algorithms, patriarchy, racism, surveillance, bureaucracy. All of it. At once.
There are brilliant writers and activists doing essential work on specific systems. That work matters. But each one treats its system in isolation. Nobody is addressing what it feels like to face all of them simultaneously. The tips for navigating patriarchy don’t automatically combine with the tips for navigating healthcare collapse and economic precarity and digital overwhelm into a strategy for getting through Tuesday.
That’s what the squeeze framework is for. And I want to talk about it together, live.
Live Zoom: The Squeeze — Collective Sense-Making Session
When: Tuesday, April 28, 8:00 PM ET Duration: 90 minutes
Cost: Free for paid subscribers
What to expect:
A grounding mindfulness practice to start. A brief talk about why I built this framework and where I’m taking it. Then an open discussion: where is the squeeze landing hardest in your life, and what experiments are you trying to create maneuvering room and protect your humanity and agency despite systemic harms and constraints?
Before the session, please read two posts:
You’re Being Squeezed from Every Direction
Unauthorized: The Power of Subversive Acts Rooted in Love
Ground rules:
Cameras on. Real names. This is not a therapy session, a support group, or a space for venting. This is collective sense-making — thinking together about what becomes possible when we stop blaming ourselves and start seeing the structure.
You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. Sometimes just being in the room together while something hard is happening is enough.
How to join:
Open to paid subscribers. RSVP by direct message here on Substack. If you get this newsletter by email, just hit Reply. I’ll send out the Zoom link that Tuesday afternoon.
If you’d like to become a paid member to participate, you can subscribe here:
In solidarity,
Paul
Stay human. Stay strategic. Shape tomorrow.