Sometimes AI doesn’t just help you write. Sometimes it tries to control how you sound. It tries to push you into safer, softer words. Words that don’t make anyone uncomfortable.
So many of us were shaped by conditional belonging. Be good. Be quiet. Be grateful. Be less. Pain was inconvenient. Anger was unattractive. Need was weakness. So we split ourselves. Public woman. Private ache. Competent exterior. Silent interior.
Working with denial is excavation. From the outside, it sounds profound—helping people uncover truth, peeling back layers, revealing what’s hidden. It has a poetic quality. But in real life, it looks more like mapping a site before anyone ever lifts a tool.
There are real things blocking equity in this country-structural, emotional, patriarchy. This is Part 2 of my conversation with Maya Nelson. Join us.