In anthropology, the ‘emic’ perspective means the insider’s perspective. In my personal life, I founded The Emic as a social experiment and community for people who, like me, felt that social media did not offer what it promised. We were looking for inspiration and connection, but instead, we got overwhelmed and became digitally addicted. I had wanted to break away from this for a long time but didn’t have the courage to stop; everyone told me I needed social media for my career and also to ‘keep up’.

In 2024, I decided I no longer wanted to believe that narrative. I wanted to live in my life, experience it, instead of hanging above it and judging it based on how visually appealing it looked or how funny it might be described on my feed. I began an experiment that retains only the core of what platforms like Instagram once promised – the rest, I left behind. And now, there is The Emic. Every month, I record a short, carefully crafted audio message for the people in this small, digital community. 

The message talks about a lesson I learned that month that I find so valuable that I believe it’s worth sharing. Often, it is a lesson about a different perspective: how I learned to understand someone’s point of view who thinks very differently from me. It is a personal message from me to you, and it works very simply: you sign up, and I send you an email with the audio message, which you listen to at your convenience.

The Emic does not have a commercial aim. There are no paid subscriptions, you will not be lured into clicking on links, and I don’t offer tips for material things to buy – we have enough, already. Instead, I always hope that receiving your monthly Emic will feel like an audio version of apple pie or lentil soup; that the audio clip warms your heart and makes you curious about what you heard. And most of all, I hope that it helps us learn together about and from each other. Welcome to The Emic; I’m so glad you’re here.