Find a light breeze or crank up your de-humidifier, it’s time to get comfy with great reads to boost your communications.
Who is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service
(Riverhead Books © 2025) Edited by Michael Lewis with essays by Michael Lewis, Casey Cep, Dave Eggers, John Lanchester, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell, and W. Kamau Bell
Well, she proved the adage “mom knows best” because Michael Lewis’s book Who is Government has turned out to be one of my favorite books in years. Filled with the kinds of stories everyone working in the public interest sector needs to be telling, each essay of a government worker is written by a world-class writer.
I have told and retold these stories many times already. Michael Lewis knows how to make us care about the brilliant people who have chosen public service. Take a page out of his book to make everyone care about the people doing your work.
The only downside of this book is that maybe it came out a little too late…
Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World
(Scribner © 2024) by Jen Psaki
Political analyst and former white house press secretary Jen Psaki has gifted us with a book that is clear, actionable, and breathtaking in its lack of pretention. Any communicator who creates or delivers talking points for their organization, boss, program, or policy should read this book.
Psaki emphasizes active listening, connecting and understanding your audience (and even your audience’s audience), preparation in pursuit of agility, flexibility, and more. She cuts right to the purpose of communication: getting people to listen and then maybe even understand.
“Conventional strategies don’t always work; they’re usually more about finding a shortcut and controlling the conversation than about actual effective communication.” Psaki offers you strategies that will work.
Public Interest Communications: Strategy for Changemakers
(Routledge © 2025) by Ann Searight Christiano and Angela Bradbery
The first textbook on public interest communications was published this year by our friends at The University of Florida. While it might be a stretch to call it a summer read, it is chock full of useful strategies and inspiring examples of great communications at work.
Christiano and Bradbery are communications pros, after all, so this book is refreshingly straightforward and has a sense of humor. (There is an anecdote about the board game Monopoly that blew my mind!)
This book should be a cornerstone of communications curriculum, but I also think it is a great read for brushing up your skills after years on the job or as a learning tool for someone entering the field. Warning: it is one of those books that will give you a million more books that you can’t wait to read.
An inconvenient joke? The case for comedy in the climate crisis.
(Article on TheHill.com June 2025) by Michael Oppenheimer, opinion contributor
Your cause is no laughing matter. Or is it?
Michael Oppenheimer, an internationally recognized climate scientist, recently wrote an op-ed entitled “An Inconvenient Joke: The Case for Comedy in the Climate Crisis.” In it, Oppenheimer explains why he believes that it’s appropriate to use humor when addressing an issue as serious and complicated as climate change. We believe Michael has made a convincing case for just about any serious and complicated issue to do the same — even yours, perhaps?
We encourage you to read his essay here.