Jocelyn Sage Mitchell
Bio
Jocelyn Sage Mitchell is a politics researcher, speaker, author, and educator who holds a MA & PhD in Government from Georgetown University. In her career, she focuses on hearing the voices of individuals. https://jocelynsagemitchell.org/
Stories (5)
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Enough: How to Be Satisfied With What You Have (With Music!)
What does it mean to have enough? I’ve been thinking about that question a lot this year. It is so easy to focus on what you don’t have and what you are still striving toward, rather than taking a deep breath and appreciating what is already all around you. I was absently humming along to a fabulous cover by Sarah Jarosz of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” with the repetitive line: “But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Then my 12-year-old son piped up from his seat at the kitchen table: “Then stop looking!” His comment made me laugh but it also made me think. At what point do we recognize that our ambition is getting in the way of our happiness?
By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell3 years ago in Journal
Saying Goodbye to My Dad
My dad was a teacher at heart. He had a lot of wisdom and knowledge and he loved to share it with others. To properly honor him today, I’m going to share with you, word for word, one of the four articles he published in the Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, entitled, “Prenatal Diagnosis of Bilateral Tibial Hypoplasia in Twins.” It begins, “An obstetrical sonogram was performed with a Diasonics Gateway using a 4.0-MHz curved linear array transducer.”
By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell3 years ago in Families
Democracy Was On the Ballot—And Democracy Won
“Democracy is a system in which parties lose elections.” These are concise words of wisdom from one of my favorite political scientists, Adam Przeworski, in his 1991 book, Democracy and the Market. Przeworski’s definition of democracy has been criticized by many as too minimalist, because he focuses on elections (contestation) much more than civil and political rights (who can participate, and how). But for Przeworski, his main focus was the idea that each electoral cycle produces winners and losers, and he defined a stable democracy as the willingness of the losers to accept the present defeat in the knowledge that they may win again in the future. This “long time horizon” is made possible by stable democratic institutions (the rules of the game!) that allow conflicting interests to lose one election and then compete (and possibly win) the next time around. For Przeworski, this long-term agreement between competing parties is the core essence of democracy (and beautifully exemplified by Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 concession speech).
By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell3 years ago in FYI
What I Learned From 300 Days of Doing the Crossword
And the journey of a 300-day streak in the New York Times crossword begins with… crossword #1! In all honesty, I didn’t set out to accomplish such a long streak, in which each puzzle is finished within its allotted 24-hour time period. I’ve never had more than a streak of a couple weeks in a row before. But over the past year, I’ve had the ability to devote a chunk of time to the crossword every day. Once I hit 100, I began to take the streak seriously. And here we are, at Day 300! Over the course of this 300-day streak, I’ve learned a lot —not just about crossword trivia or wordplay tricks, but about myself.
By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell3 years ago in Longevity
February is a Great Month to (Re-)Start Your 2022 New Year’s Resolutions!
Did you make some great new year’s resolutions in January, but haven’t quite stuck to your original plan? Research shows that you have company: 80% of people have given up on their New Year’s resolutions by mid-February—many of them by January 19th! But February is a great month to start your resolutions anew. And with a few tips and tricks from political science, you’ll be able to make them stick!
By Jocelyn Sage Mitchell4 years ago in Motivation
