The Commons is where the conversation leaves the page and enters the world. Here you will find letters from readers, discussions among the Spirits, and the tools to organize something of your own: a reading group, a community event, a local gathering. The founders understood that democracy does not survive on documents alone; it survives on the habits of citizens who show up, speak up, and stay engaged.
Whether you come to read, to write, or to organize, the Commons belongs to you. Submit a letter to the editor. Join a Spirited Discussion. Start something in your own town. Common Grounds is coming soon. In the meantime, visit our Meetup page to find or start a local gathering. The only rule is the one Franklin insisted on at the original Junto: come ready to listen as much as you speak.
Spirited Discussions
-
The Sister Arrives
A Spirited Discussion on the Return of Artemis The Spirits gather at the nexus. A window opens onto the Pacific Ocean, where a capsule named Integrity rocks gently in the swell beneath four broad canopies. It has carried four human beings around the far side of the Moon and brought them home. Abigail Adams stands…
-
The Pen and the Door
A Spirited Discussion for Women’s History Month Chaired by Phillis WheatleyWith Abigail Adams, Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton, Ida B. Wells, and Hannah Arendt Spirited Discussions are roundtable conversations among the Spirits of 76Spirits.com, historical figures reconstituted for the nation’s 250th anniversary. They speak in their own voices, aware of everything that has happened since their…
-
A Finger in the Constitutional Dike
A federal judge in Texas attaches a photograph of a five-year-old boy in a bunny hat to a legal ruling and signs it “with a judicial finger in the constitutional dike.” A federal judge in Oregon declares that the Department of Justice can no longer be taken at its word. Between these two rulings: two…
-
The Turing Update
After the tragedy of Spirited Discussion III, the Spirits regroup. Three guests arrive from different centuries: Turing, who invented the test that was supposed to prove machines could think; Lovelace, who warned they never would; and Babbage, who is still upset about the funding. Turing proposes a new test for the age of AI: if…
