Deborah Fallows

Washington, D.C.

Local Initiatives Fellow at New America

Linguist, author, swimmer. 'Our Towns', the book, documentary, & foundation. 'Dreaming in Chinese', the book.

Articles

Campaigning Cats and Dogs

Sep 17, 2024 | politix.fm | James Fallows |Deborah Fallows

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. This week, Matt and Brian take stock of the many ways Republicans have flailed since Donald Trump lost last week’s debate against Kamala Harris:If they’re trying to change the topic, or convince people Trump won, why are so many MAGA influencers still trying to “prove” ABC rigged the debate for Harris?
How Libraries Are Becoming 'Sustainable'

Aug 5, 2024 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Libraries are having their day. They’re no longer the “best kept secret in town”. They’re no longer whisper-quiet. They’re still about books, but also about so much more. Libraries have come full-circle in a way, with today’s maker spaces harkening back to Ben Franklin’s experiments with electricity at the Philadelphia Library Company.
Sustainability: Suddenly the action is local.

May 9, 2024 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Around the time Our Towns was published six years ago, in 2018, people would occasionally ask Jim and me whether we had found projects about the environment and climate change in the communities we visited. I remember thinking to myself, “a few, but actually not that much,” as we scrambled to come up with examples.
Florida Man! - Our Towns

Feb 16, 2024 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Jim and I had always felt a little guilty about shortshrifting Florida in our Our Towns reporting. We tried, but the right place at the right time never quite came together. We did write briefly about a powerful reparations ceremony in Pensacola, by a family of a local 20th century leader later found to have been an active leader of the Ku Klux Klan. We also wrote about citizen environmentalists tracking sea turtles on the Gulf Coast beaches.
How Story Maps Drive Progress

Dec 12, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows |James Fallows

At Our Towns, we’ve been following the tools and applications of geospatial information systems (GIS), as they have progressed from promise to delivery. GIS helps in countless ways: for cities to track services and engage citizens; for businesses to become more efficient; for responders to react to or ward off disasters, to name a few. Recently, we had the chance to judge a competition of StoryMaps, which is a web-based application that uses GIS tools to enhance storytelling of all sorts.
Mississippi Immortalizes a Lost Moment of Desegregation

Oct 28, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

This could be a story of high school students in Mississippi, raising the profile of a historic moment of school desegregation in the 1960s South and noting it for posterity with a marker on the grounds of the school. That would be quite enough. But the story is really much more than that. It is a story of a “systems success,” of many players working together to celebrate a nearly-forgotten moment and make it indelible.
Reading Banned Books Out Loud.

Oct 3, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Through the coming year, the public library system here in Washington DC is hosting a Centennial Celebration of the life and works of James Baldwin, born on August 2, 1924. This week, libraries in DC are having events as part the nationally designated Banned Books Week. One of our local libraries opened the week with a reading from James Baldwin’s works. I had heard about banned books readings at other libraries across the country and decided to see one for myself.
The 'Civic Soft Power' of Public Places

Oct 1, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Town residents are very good at taking stock of their own community’s natural assets. If you ask people what’s special about their town, they’ll quickly list the walking and biking trails; the parks, lakes, or riverfronts; the wide-open spaces or rolling hills. Sometimes they’ll talk about the natural light, which artists love. Or the fresh mountain air. Or, surprisingly often, the taste of the local drinking water.
Outstanding Programs in Public Education from the American South

Sep 3, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

We check in regularly with our friends at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS). They’ve always got something new and impressive to report. They always spur us to think big-picture about the young people of today, the potential of education, and even the state of Mississippi. Here is what we’ve learned recently and are sharing through two short podcasts. One is about and by an MSMS student on what the Jackson MS water crisis means to young people living through it.
Our Towns Returns to Eastport, Maine, Ten Years Later

Aug 23, 2023 | ourtownsfoundation.org | Deborah Fallows

Deb and Jim Fallows talk with David Dahl of The Maine Monitor. Jim and I returned to Eastport for the sixth time since 2013. Along the way, others in the media came with us: Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal, recording for his series on Our Towns, and Jeanne Jordan and Steve Ascher, the filmmakers of the HBO Our Towns , who captured the stunning beauty of the Bay of Fundy and the tough and gritty comportment of the residents. Eastport has a long list of big fans, including all of us.

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Deb Fallows @FallowsDeb

20 Sep 24

Did your Covid vax experience look like this? Outside. Sunny, warm 72 degrees. Neighbors. Coffee and homemade snickerdoodles. Thanks, Palisades Village, for supporting local community. And thanks, Giant Pharmacy. @PV_Village @OurTowns @JamesFallows https://t.co/2xhChBcGbE

Deb Fallows @FallowsDeb

6 Aug 24

The next step forward for public libraries: Becoming 'sustainable.' What that means and why it matters. (by me). @OurTowns @sustainablelib2 @SDCountyLibrary @SDCLLakeside @ALALibrary @Jamesfallows https://t.co/vr30QcvsOz

Deb Fallows @FallowsDeb

9 May 24

Our Towns update on the remarkable surge in local Sustainability projects, reporting, and funding across the US. https://t.co/bqiKkx1LEL @OurTowns @ClimateCentral @ArcGISStoryMaps @CalVolunteers @Report4America @UofRedlands

Deborah Fallows

Articles

Campaigning Cats and Dogs

How Libraries Are Becoming 'Sustainable'

Sustainability: Suddenly the action is local.

Florida Man! - Our Towns

How Story Maps Drive Progress

Mississippi Immortalizes a Lost Moment of Desegregation

Reading Banned Books Out Loud.

The 'Civic Soft Power' of Public Places

Outstanding Programs in Public Education from the American South

Our Towns Returns to Eastport, Maine, Ten Years Later

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Emails

Socials & Sites

X (formerly Twitter)