Notes on an Emerging World — Jihii Jolly

Notes on an Emerging World



Over the past six years I’ve been writing about care, time, media, and invisible labor in my newsletter, Time Spent. These questions became more vivid through motherhood, community life, and stepping away from career-centered work. The question I keep returning to: what happens after the professions and systems we’ve relied on to navigate life begin to dissolve? Below is a curated selection of essays organized around four themes I’m still sitting with.



What comes after birth?

Mothering as public practice


no one told me this was work your mother’s texture 7 questions to help parent-artists name what they are doing how many times can you do the thing you love public spaces inside the home where do you see power in your home? designing a system that withstands variability home as a care studio practices over professions tiny little patterns in time on the choice to become parents an inside job seeing my home as a small company

What comes after work?

Care as the organizing principle of daily life


what happens when your art becomes work? common human work defining against vs. defining for who pays for the future? monoliths vs. ambiguity how to design a life the economics of work-life conflict answering the question what do you do? the twin peaks and valleys of consumption and care on why we take breaks (and also don’t) how the women would live

What comes after me?

Intergenerational stewardship


birthday reflections on intergenerational wellness soft skills for a hard world it’s too early to conform the work of awakening on giving up things we might need on longterm care work questions about caring as we age 70 years of dialogue where would you live rare events are common at scale

What comes after news?

Tending shared reality as civic care


a letter to my 2-year-old about power an attempt at media cartography thinking about media, thinking about positions notes on developing a civic heart journalism as art: an exercise becoming critical thinkers reverse engineering the workflow of a scientist divorcing the terms ‘journalism’ and ‘news’ commentary vs. citizenship the fear of irrelevance understanding precedes action tricky moral questions about information who gets to be a journalist? what makes you feel like you belong? so, what’s journalism for again? why it’s important to study audiences why do people exchange misinformation? centering the news consumer instead of the news who would you call in an emergency?

© 2026 Jihii Jolly