Chris Schroder

Despite my lifetime interest in politics, I avoid conflict. Relationships are more important than winning arguments, but with America’s drift towards tribalism it’s becoming increasingly challenging – particularly with Facebook.

One time I truly felt universally connected followed my daughter Sally’s birth in Greenville, S.C.

When I see highway signs displaying logos of restaurants at upcoming exits, I’m amazed how much those logos instantly spark my own internal taste buds and experiential memories.

My older brother Mike came home unexpectedly early from college in 1970. His classmates had just shut Princeton down – a show of solidarity with student protests spreading across America.

Traveling each week around the U.S. and other countries helping to extend The Atlanta 100 concept – we just launched our 17th, The Arizona 100, last week – I’ve discovered a sweet way to increase the chances I get a response: chocolate and caramel.

A couple years ago, I asked a journalist friend who had just taken a job with then Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed about news stories of the mayor’s blaring of blue lights and sirens to avoid traffic.

Growing up a block from Peachtree, I loved turning over rocks in our front yard creek to find snakes, salamanders and crawdads, as we called them. Then our city allowed builders and developers to have their way, polluting creeks and destroying our wildlife habitat.

My mom always complained our family was full of lawyers and doctors, but not one businessperson.

My favorite part of attending the Midtown Alliance annual meeting was its slide show, contrasting today’s trendy, business-fueled Atlanta neighborhood with that dark time in the 1970s when Peachtree & 14th streets were … The Strip.

First time it happened was at summer camp. We were bused to a backwoods North Carolina church. Mike Egan and I sat in a conspicuous pew. Instead of reciting the liturgy, the priest sang it in an awful voice. We couldn’t stop laughing, despite his scowls. We figured we were going to hell.

My first consideration following my PR firm’s acquisition was which firm should sponsor The Atlanta 100 next.

With The 100 Companies, I fly to other cities, meet PR firm owners and discuss membership in our 16-market publishing network. Lately, most begin with a question for me: “How did you sell your PR firm … how can I sell mine?”

My Westminster classmates marvel at my detailed recall of high school memories. Though I never tested well and can’t recall much about a movie I saw last month, I remember life’s episodes in near-HD video.

To celebrate The Charlotte Observer’s 100th anniversary, I was charged with assembling and hosting a series of Carolina-born speakers. Rev. Billy Graham was a natural honoree.

Although it’s easy to be concerned by how polarized America appears to be today, perhaps now is the perfect time for counterbalancing compromises in Congress.

When a trainer at The Charlotte Observer posted the words “Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing,” asking where my team was in its development, it changed our perspective entirely. I’ve since posted these four words many times with teams I’ve led – again this week with The 100 Companies.

Immediately after the Great Recession, commercial real estate investors focused on New York and a few other major markets. Things were quiet in Atlanta for years. Not anymore.

With a daily subscription to The Washington Post, I was an outlier in my first-year college dorm. I found its content more interesting than textbooks on which I perhaps should have focused. Then, I didn’t appreciate the courage of owner Katharine Graham, perfectly profiled by Meryl Streep in “The Post.”

I was the closest human to The Temple on Peachtree Street when it was bombed in October 1958 – but I had nothing to do with it. My family had just moved into a first-floor apartment immediately south of Atlanta’s oldest synagogue when the explosion occurred in the middle of the night. I was an infant, asleep on the back porch.

My Great Uncle Hughes Spalding, managing partner at King & Spalding, had just hired a bright attorney, Furman Smith, but he needed to find legal work for him.

As a youngster, I enjoyed starting each day with coffee and catching up on the latest opinions of AJC’s local columnists.

My children and I submitted DNA to 23andme. Results were not surprising: I’m a mix of many races and cultures: northern European, Native American, Ashkenazi Jewish – even West African.

This year, you indulged me. Thousands of readers clicked through to two much longer stories I wrote – one on being an entrepreneur in a family that didn’t always honor that pursuit (on what would have been my dad’s 100th birthday) and a coming-of-age story about summer camp, the Allman Brothers and one unforgettable counselor.

When it came to naming buildings, parks and highways, my dad would quote his grandfather. He gave away most of what he earned, saying, “Fool’s names, like fool’s faces, are often seen in public places.”

Growing up, Thanksgiving meant food, family and attending the Tech-Georgia freshman football game. Now Thanksgiving occurs daily.

Preparing for the zombie apocalypse? Or just simply want to live a more sustainable lifestyle? The HomeBiogas has you covered for both.

Hi, my name is Chris. It’s been a year since I watched.

Today is my daughter Sally‘s birthday.

Our country veers deeper each day into a chasm of divisiveness. We don’t need to assess blame here (Gingrich, Clinton, Trump, media, etc.), because we are evenly divided on the origins of our disorder.

We hear much about meanness in our world – here’s a chance to engender kindness, particularly among children and young adults.