It’s 2026, and after five years of a career break of carenting (yes, that’s a real thing) and moving continents, Turnstone Insights is back. The work has continued, though both big building projects I worked on most recently – in the US midwest and in Japan – are embargoed til the ribbons are cut at the end of the decade, so let’s not hold our breath, but move swiftly on to other endeavours.
Turnstone has relocated to London, city of villages, layers of history and minimal public social interaction. After 25 years in New York, this last detail is quite the culture shock, even though I grew up here, and even though iPhones have curtailed on-the-street eye contact globally. Since I’ve been back, it’s been a sport to get Londoners to make eye contact in public. Sometimes they smile. And trying is an emerging topic on the socials lately. Writer, Ocean Vuong, cultivates a space for overcoming cringe in his classroom, so his students might take risks, look a fool, connect with one another, have a breakthrough. And a February update: Jed Hallam, of Love Will Save the Day, also writes a good case for just trying …and getting somewhere. So I’m joining the murmurs to encourage some risk, for good, in 2026.