Desmond Tutu’s wisdom on life’s frustrations.Dear Friends, This June’s idea comes from my manuscript-in-progress, Are We Going to Be Okay? I began this project in response to a question from my daughter (from which the book takes its title). But it’s since grown into an attempt to share with readers everything I’ve learned about how to be okay in a world that sometimes feels full of anguish—and how to work toward a better world together. I’m honored to get to share wisdom from the luminaries...

Gary Slutkin gives us a roadmap in The End of Violence. Dear friends, Last month, we shared Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon’s beautiful and revolutionary book, The Future Is Peace, which takes us on an unforgettable journey through the Holy Land, revealing that war is naive and peace is pragmatic. It became an Instant New York Times bestseller and has been embraced by readers, journalists, and even Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Check out Aziz’s answer to where he and Maoz met, and watch John...

Announcing the loss of our dear author and friend. Dear Friends, I am very sad to share with you that one of the great lights on our planet went out on April 27th: our beloved friend and author Edith Eger died at the age of ninety-eight.I met Edie through Philip Zimbardo, who had run the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. After a lifetime of studying evil, Phil had started studying heroism, which he considered the ability to resist evil. He called me up and said, “You must help Edie tell her...

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon show that war is naive and peace is pragmatic. As a new war rages across the Middle East, it’s easy to surrender to the belief that we’ve entered an era of perpetual war—that bombs will always be falling and people will always be suffering somewhere in the world. But in their new book, Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon insist that the opposite is true: The Future is Peace. This is a book that I am profoundly grateful to get to share with the world...

Suzanne Simard’s new research from When the Forest Breathes. This month’s big idea comes from our dear friend, scientist Suzanne Simard. In her soon-to-be-published book, When the Forest Breathes (March 31, 2026), Suzanne shows that the forest’s cycle of destruction and death, rebirth, and renewal teaches us how to care for ecosystems—and for ourselves. In Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne presented her groundbreaking discovery that trees are intelligent: they communicate, take care of their...

Dear Friends, Life-changing books remain at the core of everything we do, but this year—in this space on Substack—we’re excited to open another window into our work. Every month in 2026, we’re going to share one Big Idea our team can’t stop talking about: an idea that makes us think differently, act differently, and which has the potential to transform our lives, our relationships, and our world. This month, we explore the pivotal role that intimacy and long-term relationships have played in...

At Idea Architects, we have the honor of working with today’s leading visionaries. In our new interview series, we aim to highlight each of their books as they publish. In our first edition, Dr. James Tabor provides a seasonally appropriate look into his account of the historical Mother Mary in The Lost Mary, available for purchase wherever books are sold.How do you describe The Lost Mary to the potential readers you meet? I usually begin by saying that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the most...

Reflections on 2025, a book announcement, and more.Dear friends, This has been a challenging year for many—especially all of us who have been working toward a wiser, healthier, and more just world. But the march of history and of justice continues! It has been a profound privilege to work with so many of you on books that are creating joy, hope, and a renewed sense of possibility in our country and our world. Looking forward to 2026, we are delighted to announce the pre-order campaign for Dr....

Dear Friends, Thank you so much for the outpouring of excitement for our projects from last month and the condolences on the loss of Jim and Jane. We’re thrilled by the incredible response from those interested in being part of the editorial and book ambassador team for Are We Going to Be Ok? If you missed last month’s newsletter, this is my book featuring Jane Goodall, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Stephen Hawking, Edith Eger, Nelson Mandela, and Christiana Figueres—a collection of wisdom...