I’m almost eligible for Medicare now, so have a more personal stake in these issues than I once thought I did, but my tenure at Atlantic Philanthropies, which among its key program areas was the leading global funder of approaches to healthy and engaged aging, taught me a great deal, particularly about the undertapped potential of a rapidly-growing aging population.

I read a lot of books, even as other forms of media, like streaming TV and podcasts, occupy more and more of my mental space.  I find book reviews a great way to pull together my thoughts about an issue — the death penalty, philanthropy, free speech — and occasionally touch on what’s in the books themselves!

A peculiar form of communication, since you usually stand between restless graduates and their diplomas, and most often what you say is the least memorable thing about that day.  But I was privileged to address Bard College graduates who came through its prison education program – in Eastern Prison, where I later taught – and young people who attended the Children’s Defense Fund’s summer program at Haley Farm in Tennessee.

I’m passionate about few things more than the injustices of our criminal justice system, particularly the death penalty, which I had an uncomfortably close view of when I ran the Texas ACLU in the 1980s. Some of my 1980s writings about it are here, along with more recent speeches and essays about mass incarceration, race and democracy.

I’ve been writing and warning about the dangers to U.S. democracy for a long time, and since no one paid attention to me, now it’s REALLY endangered! Kidding and not kidding.

I’ve been fortunate in my work over several decades to work in several international organizations, to get to know a few other countries reasonably well, and to have a number of terrific colleagues in rights and civil society organizations around the world. Here are some reflections on Ireland, South Africa and India.

I spent the first twenty years of my career with the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, and wrote frequently about free speech and privacy issues in the ‘70s and 80s, and international human rights issues in the 90s and again later when I worked for two global foundations that were among the leading human rights funders.

Not all friendly.  I may even decide to put on my tombstone the closing lines of Michelle Malkin’s hit job on me:  “Friend of Barack and Val. Bagman for Soros. Community organizer for progressive billionaires. Chances are, LaMarche and his operators have affected you, your statehouses, your businesses and your freedom, no matter where you live. Know your enemies.”

I like to read other people’s memoirs and diaries as much as anything, and from time to time I’ve veered into autobiography myself.  Here is my 2001 diary of working with returning prisoners at the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, and a 2007 talk at Duke attempting to make sense of my life in several key institutions in the non-profit world.

Philanthropy is too often an opaque and unaccountable sector, and in a series of speeches and articles over the last few decades I’ve sought to demystify it and challenge it.  What’s here includes thoughts on the compatibility (or incompatibility, at times) of philanthropy and democracy, the need to reclaim a moral center for philanthropy, and what has to be considered in spending down the assets of a $4 billion foundation.

My post at the Democracy Alliance moved me from the more political edge of philanthropy to the more philanthropic edge of politics.  I have strong views about an approach to politics that is more grassroots-centered, in contrast to the dominant consultant-industrial complex, and what progressives need to do to counter the assaults on democratic norms in the time of Trump.

I don’t think you can understand America or the world without taking account of the central role of race, and I’ve tried to infuse that analysis in my work over forty years.  The best distillation of the way I see it – and an account of my personal journey there – is in my 2008 talk at Georgetown University.

I’ve run or helped to run large organizations for forty years, and from time to time I’ve reflected on the lessons I’ve learned along the way.  If you stick to the end of the Yale School of Management speech, you’ll find my ten top management secrets!

I guess one aspect of getting older is that many of those who came before me and have made an impact on my life have passed on, and I’ve paid tribute to their legacy. Here are some of those appreciations and remembrances, along with some introductions and celebrations of the very much living.

I’m kind of a 19^th century person when it comes to communicating what I think – I prefer to do it in a long speech, essay or book review, without any bells or whistles.  But I’m often interviewed by others, and a few of those I’m most pleased with are featured here, like my 2017 talk with Irish activist Ruairi McKiernan on his podcast, and a short Ford Foundation video on inequality.