Today would have been Phil Ochs' 85th birthday. In 2003, I was 15 years old when I discovered Phil Ochs. His flat-picking intro to "I Ain't Marching Anymore" played over the soundtrack to Steal This Movie , a film about Abbie Hoffman. The sound from Phil's J50 Guitar instantly struck me. As fate would have it, my parents already owned the official soundtrack. Once home from the screening, I immediately dug out the CD. When playing the album, I discovered another of Phil's songs. On the disc,...

Today I attended a town hall led by a Ukrainian official. Following their update, the floor was open for a Q&A session. As it was my first time attending a public event surrounding the war, I chose to be a listener. At least that is how my social anxiety justified not asking the many burning questions I had. Thankfully, there were plenty of good ones asked by others, but mine was the elephant in the room. A quiet, endangered elephant shot dead by self-doubt and the fear of insulting the...

This is a book review I wrote for an assignment while studying International Relations at Masarykova University in Brno, Czechia back in...