Olga Bourlin
@olgabourlin.bsky.social
Skeptic, progressive Democrat, anti-racist, anti-MAGA, anti-fascist, secular humanist, movie and opera buff. Former Board Member at The Freethought Society. Former Editor Kurtz Institute. Views are mine. No DMs. #StandWithUkraine #BLM #LGBTQ
Like how he didn't put a "finger on the scale" at CBS News? What a load of horse shit. #BlockTheMerger www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
David Ellison Breaks Silence on Antitrust Lawsuit: It’s Not About Market Share, It’s About CNN
"While I was silent, others were happy to write my story for me. No more," Ellison writes in a new op-ed.
hollywoodreporter.com
Read my new Substack, about finding dignity in a world that doesn't last. I poured my heart into this one.
Lived Life
Finding dignity in a world that doesn't last
open.substack.com
My new Substack is about how one’s vote isn't a private act, but a decision about whose life gets harder because of it.
He'd Rather They Starve
Cured in 1973. Still Preached as Sin.
open.substack.com
Why has Steve Schmidt turned his fire on the Democratic Party? My new Substack takes a wrecking ball to his argument, examining why — despite his insistence that he has left the Republican Party behind — his political instincts still seem deeply rooted in the GOP of his callow youth.
The Receipts
Steve Schmidt has a diagnosis. Democrats have a track record.
open.substack.com
The seventh Skazka in the Doomerica series, where the impossible is not necessarily surprising, where witches may have opinions about civil liberties, cats may have outlived several of their allotted lives, and a jester with a balalaika may be the only person in the room willing to count aloud.
The Proclamation of Ancient Law — Skazki of Doomerica VII
How the Old Law Was Invoked by a Man Who Could Not Name It Past the Fourth
open.substack.com
James Talarico recently answered that question with a few simple sentences at a campaign rally in Texas. His answer was thoughtful, generous, and politically careful. Mine is less careful. My latest essay:
Real Men Are Not White Supremacists
Notes on Counterfeit Strength
open.substack.com
Of all of Nathan's relationships on Old Dogs & New Tricks, Lydia may be my fav. Amanda Gari & I were friends before ODNT and I think that real friendship shines through every scene. 9 days until the 15th anniversary! #OldDogsAndNewTricks #15thAnniversary #AmandaGari #LGBTQ #GayComedy
That's my then-husband holding an infant — our firstborn, a baby boy — and a newspaper, the Boston Globe, dated July 20, 1969: MAN WALKS ON MOON. I am holding the camera. The baby has no idea that the piece of paper his father is holding up will still be worth holding up fifty-seven years later.
Moonshot
July 20, 1969
open.substack.com
My new Substack began with a piece of political language that many people who consider themselves humane and opposed to cruelty shared without apparent discomfort. That distinction matters, particularly when we are so certain that we are on the right side of the moral question.
Trash
How the Compassionate Left Learned to Dehumanize
open.substack.com
Have been thinking about this essay for decades without realizing it. It began with a window washer outside a twentieth-floor office, reached back to stories my grandmother told me about her own life, and somehow passed through the Titanic and World War II before arriving where it does.
Olga Bourlin (@olgabourlin)
I've been thinking about this essay for decades without realizing I was thinking about it. It began with a window washer outside a twentieth-floor office, reached back to stories my grandmother told m...
substack.com
Imagine you’re sitting in a public high school classroom, and your teacher tells you “… you belong in hell.”
You Belong in Hell
A Kearny, New Jersey Story
open.substack.com
Inspired by the recent death of Lindsey Graham, this sixth Skazka of Doomerica isn't really about one politician, but about a type of person history keeps producing: the anxious courtier who can always recognize danger—until recognizing it becomes personally inconvenient.
A Thousand Months — Skazki of Doomerica VI
What Was His to Keep
open.substack.com
Sometimes supremacy begins with certainty: we alone possess the truth; we alone are chosen; everyone else is outside. This is not as an accusation against all Christians, but as a recurring political and theological impulse that emerges when religious exclusivity becomes a claim to power.
Christian Supremacy
The Family Resemblance Between Religious and Racial Supremacy
open.substack.com
This essay is essentially — but maybe not so directly — about the racists (whether covert or overt) who were initially energized by Trump’s birtherism and subsequently may have gotten more than they bargained for.
Olga Bourlin (@olgabourlin)
A president can stand at Mount Rushmore warning that communism is the enemy of civilization, then go home and spend the small hours of the morning photoshopping a senator's teeth out. This essay is es...
substack.com
Every Independence Day, Americans celebrate with familiar rituals: backyard barbecues, flags, parades, and fireworks that have become so customary many rarely stop to think about them. Unexpectedly, a family of crows on our roof led me down the path to write... this Substack.
Bombs Bursting in Air
Crows, Combustion, and the Anthem’s Third Stanza
open.substack.com
As with all fairy tales, the magic is only a disguise. The real subject is our own animal nature.
The Hidden Egg – Skazki of Doomerica V
A Tale for the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Year
open.substack.com
Relevant for this 4th of July weekend, I’m reposting a Substack I wrote back in March: Who has been doing the heaviest lifting for American democracy over the past sixty years? The statistics are publicly available, the historical record is well documented… and here’s the evidence.
The Most Patriotic Americans
Black Americans, by every modern metric.
open.substack.com
The third in a series, when I only planned to write two. I explained why I needed to write about this scary incident that happened to Pete Buttigieg's family.
Hidden in Plain Sight (Part 3)
The Weapon They Already Had
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The story doesn't end with Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter, Alan Turing, or marriage equality. It reaches all the way to Seattle, the World Cup, and our own families. Here's Part 2 of "Hidden in Plain Sight."
Hidden in Plain Sight (Part 2)
What the Silence Cost
open.substack.com
Poppycock "Why Humans Often Prefer a Wrong Answer to No Answer at All" <- Read my new Substack. It has a happy ending.
Poppycock
Why Humans Often Prefer a Wrong Answer to No Answer at All
open.substack.com
This essay examines misplaced scrutiny, racialized dehumanization, the long history of questioning Black women's womanhood, and the curious way the burden of explanation often shifts from the perpetrator to the target
Michelle Obama Was Never the Question
Josh Hokit, misplaced scrutiny, racial entitlement, racialized dehumanization, and the burden of explanation being assigned to the wrong person
open.substack.com
My friend Leon Acord — an award-winning actor, writer, and producer who knows Hollywood from the inside out — has just written a striking and informative post about the troubling state of the film industry today. I encourage you to read and share it. www.leonacord.com/post/read-th...
Read: The Final Film Studio?
Why WB/Paramount Merger is Bad for Hollywood, Audiences & America
leonacord.com
Writers are often asked where ideas come from. In this case, the answer is simple: a spider in my bathroom sink. My latest Substack grew out of that small encounter and the larger questions it raised. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The Instinct for Tomorrow
The Spider in the Sink: Going Against the Drain
open.substack.com
The Unnamed — Skazki of Doomerica III Read my new Substack, and you will see that reality continues to outperform fiction in the category of things that keep us awake at night.
The Unnamed — Skazki of Doomerica III
A Skazka for Those the List Forgot
open.substack.com
I got so much information on this subject, that I've had to do it in two parts. Part 2 will be coming along before the month is out. olgabourlin.substack.com/p/hidden-in-...
Hidden in Plain Sight - Part 1
The Lives They Hid in the Work
olgabourlin.substack.com
