Good news happening behind all the bad news.

Tell me it’s brand in 2026 without telling me it’s brand in 2026

This should be in marketing textbooks as an example of brand building—no direct pay-off, but rather an investment in the long-term feels.

Adopters and adapters A new study shows most Americans are using AI but don't trust it. Why? Plus: OpenAI buys a media company.

“On its face, it’s strange that people would use something they don’t trust.

“But it’s only confusing because this assumes everyone in the 73% are the same, that they have adopted AI.

“It’s more useful to think of the 73% using AI as a menagerie, not a monolith.”
open.substack.com/pub/readtrus...

Just as egregious is its close cousin: “we have limited resources so we have to focus on road maintenance.”

Maintenance is an investment. It is a cost and it is a choice.

What did I miss?

T | 4 TRADE-OFF - what policy, appointment, or action is getting less oxygen because people are focused on this? Right-size your attention there.

I | 3 INTENT - what are they trying to get said audience to think/do/feel? Options: distraction, base activation, policy laundering.

A | 2 AUDIENCE - who is this actually for? Probably not you! All govt comms have a primary audience, even the unhinged ones.

B | 1 BREATHE - notice your reaction. Is it worth even thinking more about? If yes, go to 2. If no, go find something that you do believe in to cleanse your palette.

I know a lot has been said about the social media “style” of this administration.

Someone sent me this DOE post w/ “this is so dumb. I can’t believe how tone-deaf it is.”

I have a mental framework to deal with this—to help move faster from the disbelief. I formalized it (bonus: a fun acronym!):

Hi, I’m Kaitlin and I’m running for local elected office!

Working in the public sector at the MTA in NYC showed me how hard it is to get anything done when people don’t trust institutions.

Local offices are where that trust can be rebuilt—and start a bottom up shift away from suspicion to trust.

For a new audience, Happy City is the move. I really liked Paved Paradise, but even my urbanism-leaning friends took it as too wonky with too much bias.

I just resigned from NASA. It breaks my heart to leave, but I’ve become convinced the best path forward is to do the best science I can, and that can’t be here anymore. I’m still in love with the promise of those four magic letters. Ad astra per aspera, and remember: Earth is the only good planet.

Cincinnati responded to the 70s oil crisis by creating a citywide plan for bike infrastructure that was immediately shelved once oil prices fell.

More accurate headline:

“FCC Approves Dismantling of Civic Information Infrastructure”

"White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter"/Lana Del Rey

"Wood"/Taylor Swift

The best evidence that the same story can be told in COMPLETELY different ways and still be effective as long as you know your audience.

One easy test of narrative and messaging strength is consistency.

“Let’s go back to the good old days of (drilling oil, catcalling women, two genders norms,etc.)”

Is now coexisting with:

“We need to move forward from these old outdated values”

This is not the narrative of a durable movement.

@transitcenter.bsky.social could be informative for your narrative project!

Narratives should help people notice things differently. It’s time this one gets reframed. This post is a brilliant start.

Wait I thought they liked the past?! I’m confused.

Release Harry Styles From the Tyranny of Being Serious The Brit in the big pants yearns to laugh.

I've been trying to explain to people for 15+ years what it means to be authentic but I think I'm just going to start sending them this article on Harry Styles

@vulture.com @franhoepfner.bsky.social www.vulture.com/article/harr...

My 88-year old grandpa is a communications genius. He just didn't know it. Lessons on persuasion, resistance, and why a decision isn't a message. Plus: new polling shows just how much Americans dislike data centers.

Three lessons he taught me—starting with when he joined his company's first "computer department" in the 1960s— that still hold up today.

(He fact-checked the piece himself. He's home now.) readtrustissues.substack.com/p/my-88-year...

He led IT projects in the early days of computing. (He got to meet Capt. Grace Hopper! See photo.)

Preferred HP over IBM. Better software, he said. (He was right. His company's IBM mandate failed.)

He figured out stakeholder engagement, persuasion, and change comms before any of it had a name.

My grandpa had heart surgery, then ended up back in the ICU with a falling pulse rate.

I visited him while he waited for a pacemaker. He didn't want to talk about his health.

So we talked about communications and change management instead. 🧵

Patsy, et al

"The White House is 'looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices,"...

Quick, someone tell them about this thing that has been largely dismantled but still legally exists called the "IIJA."

Real “turning an internship into a job on my resume” energy

I think a lot about trust and your point gets at something so important—the most dangerous opposite of trust isn’t distrust. It’s a mix of indifference and suspicion—“the fix is always in so why bother.”

PSA for the English major