A series by Michael J. Sullivan

WWNS: What Would Nate Say?

Each issue takes one new piece of research, reads it in full, and looks at it through ideas from Nate Hagens' The Great Simplification. Every issue closes with a Framework for Action: the fronts the research touches, and what each of the nine archetypes can do about it now.

Start here Read these first, in order

Introduction September 13, 2026

WWNS: What Would Nate Say?

Why the series exists and how it works: one new piece of research per issue, read in full, then held up against ideas from 400+ episodes of Nate Hagens' The Great Simplification, ending with what you can do about it.

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Find your archetype →
All nine archetypes across all thirty facets of the six fronts, in one interactive matrix.

Issues Newest first

#7Systems October 20, 2026

No Bailout Will Save the American Farmer — But Some Farmers Are Already Saving Themselves

The U.S. has lost 23,000 farms a year since 2017, and ninety-three years of federal bailouts haven't stopped it. The land mostly isn't leaving farming; it's being absorbed by ever-larger operations, while subsidies that scale with size speed the process. Yet from Ireland's Burren to Spain's AlVelAl to Virginia's Blue Ridge, farmers and neighbors are already building the alternative: shared risk, shared land, shared labor.

Deseret Magazine, “There's No Bailout for the American Farmer” (2026); Austin Frerick, Barons (2024)

  • InfrastructureEnergy Systems, Food & Water
  • GovernanceAnti-Corruption
  • CultureCollective Sensemaking
  • EconomicCooperatives & Commons, Land & Housing Reform
  • Silvertongue
  • Alchemist
  • Muse
  • Effectivist
  • Governess
  • Wellspring
  • Catalyst

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#6Ecology October 16, 2026

Why Saving Wildlife One Threat at a Time Isn't Working

Wildlife populations are down 73% on average since 1970. A study of 3,129 populations shows why stopping any single threat won't bring them back: the threats compound. What that means for farms, lawns, watersheds and the people who share them.

WWF & ZSL, Living Planet Report 2026; Capdevila, O'Brien et al., Science Advances (2026)

  • EcologyBiodiversity Defense, Non-Climate Boundaries
  • CultureReconnection to Place
  • EconomicCooperatives & Commons
  • Alchemist
  • Muse
  • Effectivist
  • Governess
  • Catalyst

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#5Human Behavior October 12, 2026

Tuning Out the News, Turning Toward Each Other

Interest in the news has fallen sharply and trust is at a new low, but people haven't stopped wanting to understand their world. What happens when they stop trusting how it reaches them, who gains from the division, and why the remedy may lie closer to home: grief shared, neighbors fed, and the long road from "me" to "we."

Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026; Piccardi et al., Science (2025)

  • InfrastructureDigital Commons
  • PovertySocial Cohesion
  • GovernanceTrust & Information
  • CultureCollective Sensemaking
  • Silvertongue
  • Muse
  • Effectivist
  • Governess
  • Wellspring
  • Catalyst

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#4Energy October 8, 2026

What the Oil-Shock Numbers Leave Out

A Dallas Fed paper finds the US far less exposed to an oil shock than it was in 1980. A useful finding, but shipping, fertilizer, LNG, debt and the dollar sit outside the model, and that is where the reassurance runs out.

Kilian, Plante & Richter, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (2026)

  • InfrastructureEnergy Systems, Food & Water
  • PovertyAdapt for Contraction
  • GovernanceDeliberative Democracy
  • EconomicFinance Redesign
  • Silvertongue
  • Alchemist
  • Disarmer
  • Effectivist
  • Barber
  • Governess
  • Catalyst

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#3Ecology October 6, 2026

Connecting 122 Companies' Emissions to the Western Water Crisis

A new attribution study ties roughly half of the past decade's loss of Western snowpack and river flow to 122 fossil-fuel and cement producers. What it says about externalities, and about institutions that keep going even when the damage is plain to see.

Williams et al., Communications Earth & Environment (2026)

  • InfrastructureFood & Water
  • EcologyNon-Climate Boundaries, Regeneration
  • GovernanceDeliberative Democracy
  • EconomicCooperatives & Commons
  • Silvertongue
  • Alchemist
  • Effectivist
  • Wellspring
  • Catalyst

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