We're living in history

[Start Here] What you'll find here, and why I'm writing it now

Institutions are changing. Economies are shifting. Work, capital, and the rules many of us learned to navigate are being rewritten while we live inside them.

I want to write about this moment as it’s happening, before outcomes are known and hindsight rewrites what felt true at the time.

I’m Regina Johnson. I work inside a Fortune 5 tech company, advise organizations, and am pursuing a doctorate (Ed.D.) in Adult Learning and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, where I research how entrepreneurs build the capacity to make decisions under uncertainty. Most of all, I care about how business owners and the communities around them shape, and are shaped by, this moment in history.

Since January 2025, I’ve been quietly archiving news that captures this shift, over 140 articles so far, tracking three recurring threads: change in institutions, economic and societal disruption, and the relationship between power and media. I privately call it News of the Times.

This Substack is where I write about what I’m seeing, with the people I want thinking alongside me.

Each week I’ll publish one of these pieces:

• Observation essays from this moment in history

• Current headlines and what struck me about them

• Research from my doctoral journey at Teachers College, Columbia

• Conversations with founders and organizational leaders navigating change in real time

Who this is for: entrepreneurs, advisors, organizational leaders, and anyone watching this period closely and trying to make sense of it before the ending is written.

Everything here is free. Paid subscriptions are available for readers who want to support the work and help keep this publication going.

Comments are open and replies welcome. I'd love to hear what you're noticing too.

If this resonates, subscribe and start with my full intro here:

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