iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Religion isn't what separates American conservatives from progressives, since most American progressives are religious too. Barack Obama is no less devout than the recently departed Jim Bakker, who once pinned Hurricane Matthew on Obama's presidency.

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A different take on what "power" and "strength" are about. Not the usual viewpoint. That's the subject of my new Substack.

substack.com

Olga Bourlin (@olgabourlin)

Check out my new post! Tell me what you think.

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Read my new Substack! Why does secular humanism provoke hostility when its central demand is so modest: that we use reason, attend to human consequences, and remain willing to change our minds?

olgabourlin.substack.com

What’s Not to Like?

Why the Least Dogmatic Worldview Draws the Most Hostility

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

So here we are, in September 2026, nearly seven years after the virus began transforming the world, and I am suddenly thinking about COVID again. It's the subject of my new Substack:

olgabourlin.substack.com

The Virus Didn’t Get the Memo

On COVID, complacency, and what we owe the stranger next to us on the bus

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I watch old movies because they're often entertaning, and they act as a peek into the past. The critical analysis comes later. Here's Part 2 of "Monsters," my recent Substack.

olgabourlin.substack.com

The Monster Was Already in the House (Part 2)

What 1950s Science Fiction Was Willing to Suspect, and What It Wasn’t

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A meme can look reasonable and still smuggle in an assumption that’s not. My new Substack starts with one that caught my eye and discusses what was being taking for granted. #Relatable #JustSaying #TrueStory #ThoughtOfTheDay: olgabourlin.substack.com/p/the-right-...

olgabourlin.substack.com

The Right to Believe, and the Right Not To

Why religious freedom should include freedom from religious authority

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Cinematherapy is subjective. A film's impact can depend profoundly on the race of the person watching it, and on whether they see themselves reflected in the story, stereotyped by it, or missing from it altogether. Read my new Substack:

olgabourlin.substack.com

The Monster Was Already in the House (Part 1)

What Hollywood Could Imagine People Marrying and the Marriage It Could Not Imagine at All

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

“Post-theological” is not a word one encounters very often, which may be precisely why it deserves a closer look. olgabourlin.substack.com/p/post-theol...

olgabourlin.substack.com

Post-Theological

Gloria Steinem, Humanism, and the World Beyond God

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I may be time haunted, but I am immune to being haunted by “ghosts.” What worries me no end are some of the living, breathing humans among us who believe in weird things. Read my new Substack!

olgabourlin.substack.com

I See Dead People

Ghosts, Grief, and the Uses of Belief

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Republicans can claim their Jesus just as readily Democrats can claim their Jesus. It's not that complicated, but it is very convoluted, and that's what my new Substack is about:

olgabourlin.substack.com

No Exemptions for the Faithful

What Belief Trades for the Comfort of Being Right

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Gounod’s opera "Faust" gave me a psychological lens through which to examine a political phenomenon that has long baffled analysts: why do so many white women continue to support Trump, whose politics are hostile to their own interests? The story ain't pretty. Read my new Substack on the subject.

substack.com

Olga Bourlin (@olgabourlin)

What does Gounod’s Faust have to do with Donald Trump and his enduring alliance with white women? The opera gave me an unexpected psychological and cultural lens through which to examine a political p...

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Read my new Sustack! About how the fairy tales of my youth set me on a course of uncovering make believe in the real world.

olgabourlin.substack.com

Common

I knew this before I could read. Everything since has just been confirmation.

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A new essay on Stephen Fry — atheist, humanist, opera obsessive — and what happens when someone builds an entire moral and aesthetic life without asking permission from anything supernatural.

olgabourlin.substack.com

Stephen Fry and the God He Doesn't Believe In

On opera, movies, laughter, and finding wonder without finding God

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Read my new Substack. Unlike Tennessee Williams's tragic Southern belle, Todd Blanche isn't relying on the kindness of strangers. No, he's just hoping the Senate doesn't look too closely at the legal fictions he's spinning to manage his own fading illusions of Department of Justice independence.

olgabourlin.substack.com

A Streetcar Named Establishment

Todd Blanche and the Kindness of Christian Strangers

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Olga Bourlin @olgabourlin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Read my new Substack, about finding dignity in a world that doesn't last. I poured my heart into this one.