Our Newsletter
Connective Tissue is a newsletter on the connections, communities, and commitments that bind us together.
The work of Connective Tissue centers on the question: What will it take to seed and cultivate our generational project of civic and communal renewal? We believe this calls us to write into both the imaginative and practical, dreaming up new civic possibilities while pointing to tangible actions we can all take to realize these possibilities. We believe this calls us to draw on the spiritual and the material, embracing the mystical immeasurability and ineffability of human relationships while grounding our writing in academic substance. And we believe this calls us to avoid taking ourselves too seriously, approaching our work with the healthy dose of humility, goofiness, and self-deprecation it deserves.
In practice, we publish three types of pieces per month:
Originals highlighting big ideas and practical actions for our generational project of civic renewal. Some subscriber favorites include “Beyond Bob” and “We’ve squeezed the ‘life’ out of civic life.”
Q&As featuring the doers and thinkers who are imagining, seeding, and cultivating the renewal of shared lives in community. Examples of past guests include Gerrel Jones, Hahrie Han, and Elise Granata.
The “Tissue Review” including our favorite reads, resources, and research of the past month, exclusively for dues-paying members.
Our Membership
For community-builders, policymakers, neighbors, funders, thinkers, and readers committed to our generational project of civic renewal.
Our membership is built on reciprocity: Joining is a commitment to support the Connective Tissue newsletter and to support your fellow members. Our members help each other out — teaching each other and learning from each other, inspiring and getting inspired by one another.
Our membership is a mixed digital and IRL experience with many entry points and many opportunities to deepen engagement. Our digital offerings include a monthly curated list of top reads, a member database and Slack, quarterly interactive events, and member-led groups organized around shared interests and opportunities. Our IRL offerings include an annual gathering and microgrants for regional and local member gatherings. The membership includes two options, both detailed in the chart below.
This membership isn’t for everyone, and we think that’s a good thing. We’re looking for members who are animated by what they’ve read in the newsletter, who want to build reciprocal relationships with one another, and who get excited to contribute to something that’s still forming. Want to power Connective Tissue’s writing and help make our generational project a shared project? Consider becoming a member today.
(For a deeper dive on our membership model, check out our membership website.)
Who We Are
The Team
Connective Tissue is led by Sam Pressler and was co-founded by Eric Kotin and David Vasquez II. Margo Miller is our Member Steward who helps bring membership to life.
Founding Members
We are grateful to our growing list of Founding Members, who include Elise Allyn, Sharon Avery, Sara Fenske Bahat, Amar Bakshi, Ben Bain, Hudson Baird, Nellie Beckett, Paul Beyer, Cristin Brawner, Scott Cooper, Nancy Connolly, Brian Corbin, Elias Crim, Pete Davis, Joelle Deleveaux, Lisa Duty, Vanessa Elias, Elizabeth Gish, Eric Goldwein, Chris Griswold, Jonathan Gruber, Kate Hanisian, Sarah Hemminger, Chip Hauss, Ken Himmelman, David Hsu, Sharon Kang, Marty Kearns, Casper ter Kuile, Gabe Lerner, Eric Leslie, Lucas Levine, Susan Lukin, Daniel Marshall, Jason Mangone, Colin Mutchler, Joshua Nesbit, Annysa Polanco, Daniel Polissky, Dylan Pyne, Vivek Ramakrishnan, Beth Pressler, Justin G. Reid, Melanie Roper, Jackson Solway, Rich Speeney, Daniel Stid, Jen Stine, Gordon Strause, Taylor Stuckert, Leslie Thomas, Ryan Thornton, Alina Tomeh, Kate Tucker, James Vancel, Jennifer Wallace, Michael Wear, Louise White, Ross Wiener, Nate Wong, Daniel Yudkin, Bridgette Zorn.
