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John Stepper

@johnstepper.bsky.social
161 followers 49 following 55 posts

Founder of workingoutloud.com. Current project: "The Best of Men", a not-for-profit program where men explore questions of identity and purpose while cultivating connections and self-efficacy.

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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
At film forum in NYC…
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
The wisdom of tea: “The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgment.”
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
“Building Empathy in a Fractured World”. Seems like a good time to read this….
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
Thich Nhat Hanh Way in upper Manhattan. 😎 🙏
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
You know your kids are in a good school when a senior administrator walks around offering you “pocket poems.” I picked two good ones. 🤓 🥰
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
I ❤️ my local NY public library (100th St between Columbus & Amsterdam). Wonderful service. Super clean and warm. Stewarded by caring and kind staff here. 🤓 📚 🥰
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I mention I missed someone today and was sent this Sesame Street video with Andrew Garfield. How lovely. 🥲 youtu.be/EVlXbiP4x2E?...
youtu.be
Andrew Garfield and Elmo Explain Grief | Sesame Workshop
YouTube video by Sesame Workshop
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
With so many posts about libraries in my feed I thought I would share the latest book I borrowed…about a library. “What you are looking for is in the library” So true… 📚 🇯🇵🤓.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Freak coincidence? Or…“The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion, is a cognitive bias where you notice something you recently learned about, and then seem to encounter it more frequently, even though the actual frequency hasn't changed.”
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
TIL that “sitting in the catbird seat” has nothing to do with a cat. (I used the expression with my daughter, who looked at me like I’m a living anachronism, and realized I didn’t know where the expression came from.) What other wondrous surprises await me? 🤓 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catbird...
en.wikipedia.org
Catbird seat - Wikipedia
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
One of the first Gmail ads I might be interested in. Oh, Canada! 🇨🇦 👏 🥰
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Reposted by John Stepper
Longden Calling @longdencalling.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
'Spring has returned: the Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart' — Rainer Maria Rilke
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Cultural differences summed up as we pack snacks for the plane ✈️ PBJ for me. 🥜 🇺🇸 Rice balls for my wife. 🍙 🇯🇵 🥰
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
On 🎯.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Bless the good people who put dinosaur tracks in wet cement on 95th Street, leading from their front door. 🥰 🦖 Makes me smile every time I walk by. 😊
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Yay indeed. :-) Thank you for all that you share here. Makes social media seem…nice again. :-)
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
“‘Cathy, I’m lost,’ I said, though I knew she was sleeping. ‘I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.’” This lyric is 57 years old, and yet it captures the poignant despair of so many men today. HT @forgottenpoets.bsky.social for attuning me to poetry in life. 🙏 music.apple.com/us/album/ame...
music.apple.com
America by Simon & Garfunkel on Apple Music
Song · 1968 · Duration 3:35
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
😊 👞 👠 🙏
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Love, euphoria, and tragedy all in six lines.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Just started this and it’s fantastic. Insightful, useful, and very funny.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Chilling. I’ve heard this from friends who work in universities, NGOs, and non-profits.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
We got a message from the university to remove any use of the "DEI", "diversity", "equity", or "inclusion" from all public-facing documents. They said that even "biodiversity" is being flagged by the federal government. We live in the dumbest timeline.
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Forgotten Poets @forgottenpoets.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
🖤🖤🖤
E.B. White

I admire anyone who has the guts to write anything at all.
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Reposted by John Stepper
H. P. Friendcraft @starcravingmad.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Nikita Gill.
In 150 Characters or Lesss

Everything is on fire, but everyone I love is doing beautiful things
and trying to make life worth living,
and I know I don't have to believe in everything,
but I believe in that.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
We may succeed (by some measures) on our own, but “all flourishing is mutual.” HT to the NY Public Library for this book. A nice weekend read. 🤓
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Reposted by John Stepper
Joe Newberry @joenewberry.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
This I love. And resemble more each day.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
I’ve done this (after, I admit, checking that no one was watching). Worked like a charm. 🌲 🌳 😊
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Beautiful. Loneliness can be a world-class marathoner. As are self-doubt, fear, anxiety, and sadness. But oh to occasionally leave them “panting behind you on some street corner”! “A victory!” indeed.
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Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken @papawoof.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
“Sometimes the moral arc of the universe does not bend in a direction that comforts us.”
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
And she made *my* day. ☺️ Cheers, Perry!
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
I’m with you, Perry, on all counts.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
I found this fascinating. Not just for the stories and science and de Waal’s insights and personal charm, but for how polarized the review comments are. IMHO it’s useful to examine our closest evolutionary relatives’ gender differences and similarities as a backdrop to our own.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Love this!!!!
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
“Who paid the bill?” Indeed.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
“I will see you out among the stars.” 🥰
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
“We would feast on apple-inspired fare.” 🍎
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Research for “The Best of Men” program I’m working on. 🤓🤓🤓
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Insightful interview with an evolutionary anthropologist and author of “Life of Dads”, Dr. Anna Manchin, on men and fatherhood. Fascinating. youtu.be/4vN8XfMlWxI?...
youtu.be
Why Fathers Matter - Dr Anna Machin
YouTube video by Chris Williamson
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
☺️☺️☺️
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Reposted by John Stepper
Forgotten Poets @forgottenpoets.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
"I don't think I'm allowed to kill something because I am frightened." —Nikki Giovanni 💔 #poem #poems #poetry
I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small spider
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn't
And she scared me
And I smashed her

I don't think
I'm allowed

To kill something

Because I am

Frightened.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
🥰 🌳 🌲
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
“We estimate that 3 % of the total U.S. adult population & 15 % of the African American adult male population has ever been to prison; people with felony convictions account for 8 % of all adults & 33 % of the African American adult male population.” (2010 data) www.publicwelfare.org/wp-content/u...
publicwelfare.org
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Incarceration numbers so high you think, “This can’t possibly be true!” And yet it is. Source: Men without Work by Nicholas Eberstadt.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
“Finally I saw that the worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning. And sang.” Amen.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
🧐
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Reposted by John Stepper
skELLY @ellyzoe.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Oh man, this really got me. 😭❤️
A poem by ALICE WHITE

Title: ANSWERING HER QUESTION

My sister taught me a parenting trick for when kids ask a difficult question like "Is Santa Claus real?" or "What is sex?" Simply ask, in earnest, "What do you think?" and listen. At the least, it buys you time.
My daughter, three, in the car one evening, is silent. Then asks, "Mama, will I die?" I just drive. Try to keep the car tethered to the earth. Somehow the trick surfaces within me and I ask, "What do you think?" In the rearview mirror I see her smile looking out at the purple sky. She says
"I think I will never die." I tell her
"That's what I think, too." And I do, I do.
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John Stepper @johnstepper.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
This platform is a wonderful serendipity engine for discovering beautiful poems I would never in a million years find on my own. Like this one.
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