About BOYD
“The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence.”
-Joyce Carol Oates
Welcome to the BOYD Brigade!
I’m Ingrid Wagner Walsh. I am a writer and cultural anthropologist living in Colorado, USA. I write about the human condition, both individual and collective, in all its messy, ugly, beautiful, maddening, hopeful awkwardness. Sometimes I feel like I am perpetually trying to answer the question, “Why are we like this?” And then I remind myself, “Oh right, we’re human. We are like this.”
As my mother-in-law might say, I have a rich inner life. It’s a nice way of saying I am a classic over-thinker, a wild imaginer, and sometimes a resulting over-sharer. My favorite thing in the world is to have an intimate conversation with two or three really good, smart friends about anything that seems like it should have an easy solution but doesn’t, and then getting into the weeds with the possibilities. I love a good research rabbit hole, too.
Bring Out Your Dead is a platform for those exact conversations with a wider audience of deep thinkers. What cultural and social ideas have gone the way of the dodo? Where is the grey area that needs closer investigation? Can our personal and collective belief systems keep pace with the constant reiteration of modernity? Where do old ideas leave us as societies? And what are the viable alternatives?
Sometimes topics will be based on current events. And sometimes they will be chosen out of the attic of my own brain — the more gooey existential stuff that hangs on for dear life.
I will always be open to suggestion from readers, barring hate-mongers, racists, ableists, misogynists, homo- and transphobes, and others torch-keepers of long dead ideas. (We will surely discuss these topics, but hate-based agendas will not be tolerated.)
Check the early posts for discussions on “Why Must Ideas Die?” and “What Makes For A Dead Idea?” If all goes to plan, this should be tons of fun!
Why subscribe?
Free subscribers will get the weekly email summary of topics we are discussing on BOYD. Once we know each other a little better, all subscribers will get a weekly prompt for thinking about a different dead idea, right in your inbox.
Paid subscribers will have access to full-length posts, plus bonus material like my running TBR pile, guest posts, and the opportunity for discussion on current and archived posts.
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
Join the crew
Be part of a community of people who share your interests.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
