Dear Yuval Noah Harari, My name is Andy Norman, and I count myself a fan of your work. I admire your clarity, your passion for big ideas, and your commitment to clear, accessible writing. I think your books—Sapiens and Homo Deus—are landmark achievements, destined to stimul...

Dear Internet, Optimism has been part of my nature for as long as I can remember. As a child I remember watching my favourite football team thinking we’d never lose. I’d believe we could win until the very end of a game no matter how badly we were losing or who the...

Dear Andy Street, Where I live in Walsall, we have a constant and growing problem with litter. It feels like almost every street, every bit of green, is choked up with everything from cans to fly-tipped freezers. I see the same issue all around the region. There's an ...

Dear Adam McKay, Of course, one wonderful feature of Don’t Look Up is its fierce and literal hit-you-over-the-head message: we have one life, one Earth, and zero room for error. Straightforwardness can be as beautiful as a glance. Yet, subtlety can speak volumes. It...

Dear Internet, Many moons ago, while perusing the dusty shelves of a Cambridge University library, I came by chance across an old and worn copy of Hemingway’s Selected Letters. Several hours later, I had forgotten all about the topic I had visited that library to r...

Dear Internet, You may have read my earlier open letter in praise of letters, and your presence on this platform suggests you likely already hold some affection for this form of writing. In extolling the virtues of letters, then, I may have been somewhat preaching ...

Dear Philip Goff, I am intrigued by your support of panpsychism and would love to run some things past you. I enjoyed your exchange with Massimo Pigliucci on Collate, although I could sense your frustration that some of his key objections seemed to be based on what ...

Dear Bill McKibben, I’ve been following your work since my early days of climate activism. Back in college, when I was first exposed to the unbelievable reality of what we so nicely call “sustainability challenges”, I remember 350.org as one of the only climate organiza...

Dear Yoon Suk-yeol, I congratulate you in advance. Several months from now, when you will be inaugurated as the head of state of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the nation will be facing numerous challenges that require your prompt intervention, like monetary comp...

Dear Internet, [center][i][highlight=transparent]“I should like to open my heart to you henceforth if I may... I plainly see that the truth is the same at Toulouse and at Paris.” — Pascal to Fermat (1654) [0][/highlight][/i][/center] [highlight=transparent]We migh...

Dear Darren Henley, I write to you from Cardiff, after leaving the art world of London in 2020 (I am an artist and writer) to explore creative communities outside the capital city. Your book, The Arts Dividend Revisited: Why Investment in Culture Pays, elaborated on all...

Dear Ollie Barder, I finished watching the 1990s version of Legend of the Galactic Heroes (LOTGH) last night. And I must say that LOTGH is, in my opinion, among the best pieces of space-opera science-fiction ever made. Yoshiki Tanaka is a genius.  So I wanted to thank...

Dear Internet, I alternate my car radio between Classic FM and Planet Rock, as the mood takes me. Yesterday evening, as I headed off to a music event in Birmingham, the radio was still set to Planet Rock from the day before. Yet rather than soaring guitar solos or ...

Dear Boris Johnson, It’s with a heavy heart I wish to resign from my post as CRO (Chief Rave Officer) at Her Majesty’s Government. Sure, I wasn’t technically voted in, nor technically needed, given your cabinet’s skill in organising parties of their own. But the time’s ...

Dear Karen Douglas, A few days ago, I was enjoying my morning latte at my local coffee shop when I overheard a conversation between four men at the table next to me. They were talking about climate change and government inaction. It was interesting stuff. (So I hope the...

Dear Natasha Brown, This may sound strange, but I am learning how to write. While I know how to form words, sentences and paragraphs, I am yet to construct anything with rhythm and warmth.  I realized a few years ago in my dreary life as a management consultant that so...

Dear Barack Obama, America: so much hope and so much disappointment. It seems almost too much to bear. Where is the optimism of 2008? You know how much we have changed? We changed so much that we had more hope and more optimism at the dawn of the second Great Depressio...

Dear Simon Armitage, In response to '70 Notices' You spent a long time looking hard to notice seventy things between greyscale streetlit troughs and Dark and White Peaks, saw a full moon bottled in a drop of dew, felt the full weight of Sheffield and Manchester come ...

Dear Cheryl Abbate, I was walking through my local university recently and noticed something peculiar. Their student union had organized a petting zoo for students who were about to sit their college exams. It was a nice gesture in some ways. An opportunity for young pe...

Dear Dolly Parton, I love your music and you are one of the most prolific, successful and influential country songwriters of all time. As an aspiring songwriter, I would very much like to ask your advice on getting started. I know the industry has changed immeasurabl...

Dear Catherine West, Many MPs, especially female MPs, get a lot of abuse online. The problem is so bad that a parliamentary investigation found it could hamper democracy by discouraging those worthy of public office from running; the weight of public lifebeing just too m...

Dear Fenton Johnson, [highlight=transparent]I want to thank you for writing At the Center of All Beauty. I appreciated your reflections on silence, solitude, and the creative life. I also enjoyed the serenity you evoked as I moved from page to page. More importantly, yo...

Dear Ruth Jones, I am writing to you in your capacity as Shadow Minister for Agri-Innovation and Climate Adaptation. At present, Britain clearly has a long way to go to arrive at a sustainable system of farming. While piecemeal changes are being made, we are not seei...

Dear Ian Stewart, Firstly, I wanted to thank you for writing your book Do Dice Play God?. I enjoyed the tour you took readers on across the “Ages of Uncertainty”. We forget sometimes that quantum mechanics and chaos theory are relatively new discoveries. And that mode...

Dear Pepe Karmel, I have a few questions about artistic merit, art critique, and art history on my mind. And by way of googling, I somehow stumbled onto your papers and publications. So I hope you won’t mind me asking you a few questions about the topic. (For context,...

Dear Chris Beardshaw, First of all, congratulations on another Chelsea gold this year for your impeccably designed RNLI show garden. The sheer amount of thought and attention to detail that went into everything from the use of materials – elm and New Forest green oak to e...

Dear Taylor Swift, I remember when I was a teenager, I was a real music snob. I didn’t like pop music, I didn’t like music that was too ‘girly’ (I’m a woman by the way, which will prove useful context for this letter), and I was very convinced of the things I did like....

Dear Alok Sharma, I am writing ahead of the COP26 which will be held in Glasgow from the 31st of October. This event has been much anticipated around the world, but anticipation does not always equate to action, as was seen in the woeful failures of COP25 in 2019. The...

Dear Paul Krugman, In Britain, we have been mired with a series of right wing governments that were elected on platforms of cheap populism and empty economic soundbites. We suffered a long decade of austerity with a repeated insistence that we must all “tighten our be...

Dear Vivienne Westwood, I am a visual artist, and recently when trying to form some ideas for upcoming projects, I was struck by the way that aesthetics change over time — not only through being reimagined, but through being commercialised. And I was also struck by the inev...

Dear Erik SuarezΦ, [highlight=transparent]I saw your tweet about Collate a few days ago. [1] As an early adopter of the platform myself, I have to agree. I’ve been using Collate as an opportunity to reach out to public figures, to improve my writing, and to muse about ...

Dear Ranil Jayawardena, Congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Among the many weighty responsibilities of your new position is the oversight of Britain’s agricultural policy and food security strategy. You will alr...

Dear Sim Tshabalala, As Africa’s biggest lender, Standard Bank has a responsibility to invest wisely, with a strong regard for the environmental and social impacts of the projects it finances. Yet, the bank is reportedly still considering contributing to financing the 1,...

Dear Charlie Mackesy, I have enjoyed your work for a long time: the whimsical fluidity of your lines, the delicate colours, and the use of curves, all bring your world to life. But the thing I have enjoyed most of all, is the element of storytelling within your oeuvre, in...

Dear Michelle Donelan, Congratulations on your appointment as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. You must be all too aware that two of the key issues you have inherited with the office are the privatisation of Channel 4 and the question of the future...

Dear Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, [highlight=transparent]Firstly, I want to say thank you for your newsletter. For basketball fans around the world, your achievements, both on and off the court, have achieved a sort of mythical status. So it makes me happy that one of the greatest-of...

Dear Mae Jemison, As you know, the Biden-Harris administration has requested an annual budget of $26 billion for NASA in 2023 (with similar sums projected for the years ahead). [1] While this is less than 0.5 percent of yearly U.S. government spending, it is not an in...

Dear Simon Foster, Your remit as West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner of course encompasses a broad spectrum of crime prevention, mitigation and policing, so it must be a challenging task to decide where to prioritise attention and resources. I appreciate that y...

Dear Internet, [h1]Let the people see their Queen[/h1] [justify]The passing of Her Majesty last week marked a time of collective sorrow for the nation, a time where we have put aside our petty differences, and shelved our ongoing worries over inflation to simply re...

Dear Valerie Vaz, I’d like to take the opportunity afforded by the Collate platform to thank you publicly for the excellent work you have been doing to represent your constituents as Member of Parliament for Walsall South. I contacted you in 2020 on behalf of my loc...

Dear Jacqueline Wilson, I read your books widely as a child and teenager, and they were very impactful in helping me grow up. Now an adult, I’m a musician and artist, and was struck recently by the development of ‘Poptimism’ within music criticism, and wondered whether a si...

Dear Liz Harris, I have been a fan of your music under the name Grouper for a long time, but I think it was only when I came to record my own songs and make my own album that I began to understand the intricacy of your ‘less is more’ approach to building soundscapes....

Dear Olaf Scholz, His Excellency Olaf Scholz, the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Germany, I write to you on a critical topic that will undoubtedly have impacts on the German people, the people of the EU, and the people of the World for years and even decades ...

Dear Damian Hinds, I am writing to you with some thoughts on the practice and practicality of the Online Safety Bill, which is currently at Committee stage in the House of Commons. The subject of regulation and responsibility on the internet has long been of interest t...

Dear Internet, [justify][highlight=transparent]A few weeks ago whilst at our usual Saturday night excursion to the village local, our conversation somehow got onto religion. Someone in our group said something seemingly insignificant, but it sparked a small epiphan...

Dear Maria Gianferrari, A few weeks ago, my partner bought a copy of Be A Tree from our local bookstore. She is an early-years educator and read the book to her children recently. The kids loved it. Your story, along with Felicita Sala’s illustrations, warmed them. They had...

Dear Mark Knopfler, I have been a great fan of your songwriting and guitar playing since I was a teenager. I was fairly new to guitar when my mother suggested I listen to Romeo and Juliet. I heard that sparkling fingerpicking on your National resonator, then the casual,...

Dear Tom Brown, I was interested to read recently about your experimentation at West Dean Gardens near Chichester in creating a garden that is drought-tolerant and requires minimal watering. It was particularly intriguing that you said you have tried out using crush...

Dear Lord Charles Moore, [color=rgb(34, 34, 34)][highlight=transparent]It is an honour to be corresponding about Lady Thatcher with the most distinguished authority and interpreter of her in the world. [/highlight][/color]   [color=rgb(34, 34, 34)][highlight=transparent]Brit...

Dear Michael Guillen, [highlight=transparent]A few weeks ago, I bought a worn copy of your book, Bridges to Infinity, from my local bookshop. The intriguing cover and table of contents caught my eye immediately. And having read the book, I can see why you won awards as a ...

Dear Jim McMahon, I am writing to you in your capacity as Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the critical issue of our nation’s food security. In a time of short-termist, sticking-plaster politics, we need a serious, credible, long-term ...

Dear Paul Krugman, During my undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, I attended a talk that you gave there on the response of various governments to the 2008 financial crisis. I was not a student of economics — my knowledge of economics comes from reading, l...

Dear Peter Wong, I am a Cardiff resident in your Council area, and I noticed recently that the Cardiff Council website notes that you have had some involvement with the organisation Artes Mundi, which is of course an important charity in supporting and developing the...

Dear Tracey Emin, A long-time fan of your work, I was struck recently by the words you quoted on Instagram from your friend David Dawson: ‘Painting’s not just about painting but it’s also about waiting.’ I completed my MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2020, wit...

Dear Pamela Gay, I’m marveling at the wonderful breakthroughs, discoveries, and achievements that scientists and engineers have made recently. Over the last few years, we’ve had the COVID-19 vaccine, CRISPR technology, and AlphaFold structures, just to name a few. A...

Dear Jan Hasbrouck, [highlight=transparent]I’ve been wondering about ways to improve global education outcomes around the world. In an ideal world, such a policy or initiative should: (1) help students to discover and unlock their potential; (2) not drain the public cof...

Dear Eleanor, I’m not Paul Krugman. But I enjoyed the letter that you wrote to him on ‘thinking about economics’. Perhaps I can share a few thoughts with you because I am curious as to what you might make of them. (For context, my background is in economics and fi...

Dear Joe Biden, I am writing to you to tell you that you have wasted an opportunity. Eighty one million people voted for you last year, and I feel that you are letting them down. You worked very hard to reach this point, so why are you throwing it away? You are a De...

Dear The next president-elect of the Republic of South Korea, Dear Mr./Ms. President-elect, Whoever you are, I congratulate you in advance. Several months from now, when you will be inaugurated as the head of state of the Republic of Korea(South Korea), the nation will be facing numerous challenges that requ...

Dear Sadiq Khan, I am writing to you today to express my concerns regarding the level of air pollution in London. First, I would like to note that it is encouraging to see that the Capital is striving to act on this problem through the implementation of policies such...

Dear Priti Patel, How would you feel if on your twenty-first birthday you were sentenced to prison? Upon hearing the news that twenty-one year old Louis McKechnie will be sentenced to jail for three months, I feel sick. He is a student of mechanical engineering, hopi...

Dear Councillor Rose Burley, Thank you for your recent letter in support of your renewed candidacy as councillor for Bentley and Darlaston North. You may not remember me, but I rang you during the early stages of Covid regulations after Walsall Council had taken the decision to ...

Dear Olaf Scholz, I am writing you as a concerned member of society, who cares about having the least amount of humans possible die from the effects of the climate crisis we are in. You will likely become the new chancellor of Germany. Within that role, you will hav...

Dear Boris Johnson, It is with deep sadness that I am writing to you to resign from the Government. It has been an enormous privilege to serve our country as Chancellor of the Exchequer and I will always be proud of how during the pandemic we protected people’s jobs an...

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Dear Robert Courts, I am writing to you with a question: is it right that we throw away perfectly good-to-eat food whilst 1 in 8 families in the UK struggle to afford to eat? I would like to think that, for most people, the answer to this question is an obvious 'no'. ...

Dear BJ Campbell, Hello BJ! I had an idea for a potential line of inquiry to pursue, in the spirit of Impossible Conversations and Adversarial Collaborations. The general domain of inquiry is guns, gun violence, and the relationship between gun control, gun rights,...

Dear Boris Johnson, I had desperately hoped that I could avoid writing this letter, but alas there seems no other option left but to step down from my role as Secretary of State for Wales. You will be remembered as a Prime Minister with energy, vision, determination an...

Dear Boris Johnson, Destruction of homes. Mass starvation. Devastation on a mass scale. My future isn't looking too great right now. Climate change always felt so far off, and for your generation, Mr. Johnson, you may be lucky enough to avoid its most dire consequen...

Dear Michelle Donelan, Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself and the reason I am addressing you. I am writing this letter to express my concerns about the environment, and its impact on us students of Brunel University London and other young adults who share the...

Dear Tony Blair, Social issues demand a social element. They are issues that bind us to one another as a community, as a state, and as individuals. As such, it is essential to communicate with the neighbour, to speak to our friends, to convey how we feel to the world...

Dear Jo Stevens, I have been a Cardiff resident in your constituency for around a year now, and am writing to you regarding my experiences of train price rises across Wales. I have not travelled by train in perhaps more than a year due to the constantly increasing pr...

Dear Boris Johnson, With sincere regret I am resigning from HM Government. I stood for Parliament because I want to make our country a better place to live. I am grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to serve as Arts Minister, Care Minister and Exchequer Secret...

Dear Boris Johnson, It was a privilege to have been asked to come back into Government to serve as Secretary of State for Health & Social Care at such a critical time for our country. I have given every ounce of energy to this task, and am incredibly proud of what we ha...

Dear Boris Johnson, It is with real sadness that I write to tender my resignation from HM Government. I have been honoured to serve in a number of roles within government over the past few years, most recently as the Minister for Housing. This is a role, although havin...

Dear Jennifer Dresden, [highlight=transparent]I am an ordinary citizen who is concerned about the future of democracy. You know better than I that the US midterm elections will be a bellwether for things to come.[/highlight] [highlight=transparent]You gave a fantastic int...

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]I have sometimes wished for an edit button on this platform. I even went as far as to send the founder of Collate a request for this very feature. I happen to be a clumsy perfectionist, you see. I have an uncanny knack for find...

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]A few months ago, a family-friend who we will call Valerie bought two tickets for herself and her friend for travel long overdue. They were excited to visit someplace exotic after extended lockdowns and closed international bor...

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]A few weeks ago, I wrote a short letter about the “[/highlight][color=rgb(17, 85, 204)][highlight=transparent][url=https://www.collate.org/closed_letter/dealing-with-our-gelatinous-ignorance/sender]gelatinous ignorance[/url][/h...

Dear Michael Kasumovic, [highlight=transparent]I came across an interesting article on [/highlight][color=rgb(17, 85, 204)][highlight=transparent][url=https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/why-do-we-play-violent-video-games#:~:text=Kasumovic%20says.,to%20satisfy%20...

Dear Alexandra Stein, [highlight=transparent]In light of recent political developments, I was looking for books and papers to better understand the nature of human organization and social structure. I found your research on cults especially illuminating. So t[/highlight]h...

Dear Rachel Elnaugh, I have been visiting the Peak District National Park for many years and regard Cressbrook Dale as one of its gems of natural beauty and biodiversity. The woodland and wildflowers through the seasons are a particular joy, and as National Park access l...

Dear George Mumford, [highlight=transparent]I bought my second copy of The Mindful Athlete a few days ago. This time, I plan to give it to a friend as a Christmas gift. You see, this friend of mine is facing a series of setbacks and personal hardships. But I am hopeful t...

Dear Internet, When a nobody like myself writes in letter form to a public figure, there is only a small probability that she will see my words amidst the flood of mail and messages that she inevitably receives. Beyond that, there is an even smaller chance that she...