---
title: "Change Convos monthly top picks: 5 links we loved in January"
description: Here are our monthly top picks from around the web in January, plus the top five stories from here on the Change Conversations blog.
---

[Change Conversations2 ](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2)

# [Change Convos monthly top picks: 5 links we loved in January](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/change-convos-monthly-top-picks-5-links-we-loved-in-january)

 Written by [Pat Heffernan](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/author/pat-heffernan) | Feb 4, 2016

 

This is a little bit of a cheat because our five favorite posts for change makers and communicators were actually published over a six-week period rather than a month. But we’re guessing that like many of us, you missed a few things between the end of 2015 and the start of the new year. So this is your first not-to-miss ICYMI for 2016.

## Monthly top picks: 5 links we loved in January

### Animated Life: Mary Leakey (NY Times - VIDEO)

Make a moment to watch this (fantastic) short documentary remembering the [paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey,](http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004050688/animated-life-mary-leakey.html?playlistId=1194811622182&region=video-grid&version=video-grid-headline&contentCollection=Times+Video&contentPlacement=0&module=recent-videos&action=click&pgType=Multimedia&eventName=video-grid-click) who discovered footprints of human ancestors on the African savanna — it’s hard to describe. #MaryLeakey #WomenHistory #VideoStorytelling

### How Many People Have Been Shot in Your Neighborhood? (Slate)

[An interactive map of shootings in America](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/12/gun_deaths_map_how_many_people_have_died_or_been_injured_in_shootings_around.html). "Aurora, Newtown, San Bernardino seem far away? Gun violence hits closer to home than you might think. Slate teamed up with The Trace, a site dedicated to gun news, to show just how close. Enter a location and up pops a map showing shootings near you in the past year, with details and links to news stories, where available. The results might be surprising." #GunsInAmerica #Vermont

### Aha. It’s Official. (Pew Research Center)

[A majority of American households are no longer in the middle class](http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/). You’re likely to have suspected as much, but it’s a startling confirmation. Crunching government data, Pew researchers found that in early 2015, more adults were either in lower- or upper-income household than adults who were in middle-income households. Back in 1971, they note, the middle class made up 61 percent of the population. #IncomeInequality

###  “The Strange Life of Q-Tips, the Most Bizarre Thing People Buy” (Washington Post)

Marketers will want to explore the story of “one of the only, if not the only, [major consumer products](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/20/we-have-a-q-tips-problem/?sid=54e0ce7a8f41273e1e8b48d0&wpsrc=newsletter_slateplusweekly) whose main purpose is precisely the one the manufacturer explicitly warns against.” #Q-Tips #CPGmarketing

### “In Defense of Flat Earthers” by Lizzie Wade, (the Atlantic)

In this [beautifully written piece](http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/flat-earth-bob-outside-physicist/431583/?sid=54e0ce7a8f41273e1e8b48d0&wpsrc=newsletter_slateplusweekly) by science writer Lizzie Wade, she confesses to at first thinking with disgust about B.o.B’s recent #FlatEarth Twitter crusade: “Will Americans insist on rejecting everything that 100 percent of scientists agree on?” She then moves on to build a compelling case to support her conclusion that “B.o.B’s Twitter crusade illuminates the best qualities of outsider physics: its skepticism, its curiosity, and its fierce desire to make sense of a confusing world in a rigorous way. These same values lie at the heart of mainstream science, too.”

#FlatEarth #TweetStorm

## Top Posts From the Change Convos Blog

[5 Tips for Creating Perfect Nonprofit Promotion Packages](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/5-tips-for-creating-perfect-nonprofit-promotion-packages)

[Brand management for nonprofits: An oxymoron?](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/brand-management-for-nonprofits-an-oxymoron)

[How to Use Digital Storytelling for Change](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/digital-storytelling-for-change)

[Why Inbound Needs to be Part of Your Marketing](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/why-inbound-needs-to-be-part-of-your-marketing)

Did we miss anything? Share your favorite changemaker links from last month in the comments below. Tip us off to other great posts for future link roundups by shooting us an email at [partners@marketing-partners.com](mailto:partners@marketing-partners.com).

 

[View full post](https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/change-convos-monthly-top-picks-5-links-we-loved-in-january)

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