Exploring All Things Thriving.

Hi, I’m Nate.

I write about what it means to learn, lead, and thrive in the real world. I’ve spent more than twenty-five years in education and leadership. I am a dharma-transmitted Zen teacher. Click here to learn more about me.

My work explores what it means to stay awake in motion—to think, relate, and live— through a Zen lens. Click here to learn a bit more about my work.

Read some recent writing.

Featured
Against Froot Loop Teaching
Against Froot Loop Teaching

This morning I ate a hefty bowl of Froot Loops. Sometimes our teaching can be like this: tasty but bereft of nutrition.

Education as Nutrition
Education as Nutrition

Bad analogies in education abound, so we ought to cherish good ones. In writing of the place of education in American democratic life, John Dewey introduces a metaphor of nutrition that feels useful now.

A Reflective Educator’s Reading List
A Reflective Educator’s Reading List

Conscious teaching does not require reading. But reading won’t hurt. Good hearts and minds have wrestled with questions of teaching and learning since the days of Aristotle and likely before. Let’s learn from our intellectual forbearers.

More writing →