Fearless Words

😅 Good morning! I met the coolest brothers yesterday. Brent and Kyle Pease are “iron sharpening iron” over a 26.2 mile run, a 2.4 mile bike swim, and a 112 mile bike ride. But wait! Kyle’s a quadriplegic with spastic cerebral palsy. Brent pulls him by canoe in the swim, pushes him in the wheelchair on the marathon, and pedals him forward with a special bike on the cycling. It amounts to about 400 pounds. Yet Brent says Kyle’s voice lightens the load and drives him! https://www.kylepeasefoundation.org/

💥 May we never forget how strong we are together! Dictators like Vladimir Putin want us to. That’s according to Dasha Navalnaya, who gave a riveting TED talk earlier this week. She’s the daughter of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny was poisoned by a military grade nerve agent called Novichok, in 2020. A documentary on it won an Oscar. https://www.amazon.com/Navalny-Daniel-Roher/dp Navalny recovered, only to be arrested by Russian authorities. Sunday will mark his 1000th day in prison. Still, the work of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation continues. Dasha says, “If being my father’s daughter has taught me anything, it’s to never succumb to fear or sadness.”

Here’s her talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/dasha_navalnaya_lessons_from_my_father_alexey_navalny?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

💬 Before his arrest Alexei Navalny teamed up with a group of journalists called Bellingcat. Their investigation implicated FSB agents in his poisoning. Bellingcat uses open source methods. That’s basically anything that is out there in the digital sphere. The sleuths at Bellingcat used telecom and travel data to reveal the attempted assassins. I read an awesome book on these bold truth revealers!

✍️ Here’s the review: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandrashawe/video/7159484317192703278

💭 Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are meeting in China today. The subject? China’s Belt and Road Initiative. That refers to China’s vast infrastructure initiative that spans across much of Eurasia, many seas, and parts of Africa. It now includes digital infrastructure, the Polar Silk Road (expansion into the Arctic), and China’s first military logistics base in Djibouti, Africa. I feature China prominently in my upcoming novel of dystopian hope. “Solhubod” releases early next year. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, the two countries declared a “no limits” partnership last year.

🧠 If dictators aren’t limiting themselves why should we? Jim Kwik wrote a book called “Limitless.” His story is especially compelling because he suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child. Now he runs an online learning platform that teaches speed reading and enhanced memory. https://www.jimkwik.com/ Kwik’s concrete advice for plowing through tough times is this. “ Find the small step. Take the tiniest action now that will give you progress to a goal where you can’t fail.”

🤍 Let’s create that momentum together! I love sharing my musings with you every week and I really hope they motivate you. Thank you. Let’s stay aware, stick together, keep fighting, and shine bright! 🤍