TIME recently published an adapted excerpt from my new book, Inside the Next Transition: Seeing Systemic Change Before Pathways Harden.
The excerpt begins with an ordinary family morning shaped by work, school, caregiving, money, and the small demands that keep accumulating. No single moment appears transformative, yet together they begin to narrow the room available for important choices, including whether to have another child.
The article explores one of the book’s central ideas: the future often becomes visible first as pressure inside daily life. Familiar systems may still appear to function, but only because people are absorbing more effort, coordination, and sacrifice to keep them working. That space between the pressure people already feel and the larger consequences that have not yet become obvious is what I call the missing middle.
You can read the adapted excerpt at TIME:
Inside the Next Transition 