Dashboard Confessional: Sherrill Knezel
Take a ride through Sherrill Knezel's graphic recording process.
The Route 24 Roadmap
If you’re new here, welcome! If you’ve been here since day one, thanks for showing up week after week! My name is Sam Reetz and I’m on a mission to help restore public trust. I have an interdisciplinary academic background that gives me the unique ability to explain technical solutions in a way that’s story-driven and easy-to-understand. This is a space where I look closer at moments of national and global significance to show you how cycles of misinformation and disinformation disorient communities.
Probable Cause is an XR civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat to explore issues of public safety from community-centered perspectives. Route 24 is its companion newsletter that invites you to explore our creative process on the project as we build, deconstructing the real-world impact of policies and practices in transportation infrastructure, immigration reform, environmental justice, racial equity, and more to jumpstart public awareness and, in turn, mobilize narrative change.
Every week, two columns park in your inbox:
Driver’s Ed is a space to shift your gears on key policy debates and test drive people-powered solutions.
Scenic Route is a space to merge the lanes of immersive technologies, experiential storytelling, and community civics and help you find a better view.
Your follows, shares, and subscriptions help to keep this work going and reach the people the mainstream media often misses. For riders in a position to financially contribute, your dollars support the project team with the critical resources needed to iterate, travel, and scale.
Thank you for joining me on this road! Start your engines…
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In this Issue: (Saturday, July 25th, 2026 — № 92)
I’d never experienced the art of graphic recording until attending the Brady Summit, which I first wrote about here. It’s where I connected with Sherrill Knezel and understood the importance of working across multiple visual mediums to deconstruct complex ideas for an intergenerational audience and design more interactive community experiences.
Sherrill’s work invites you to reflect on real-life challenges, understand the systems that perpetuate them, visualize key data trends, and decide which choices you’d like to make in your life that may drive improved outcomes.
As part of our “Arcade Alley” section that gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the gaming features and design approaches that have informed our creative process on Probable Cause, in this week’s Scenic Route, Sherrill discusses her graphic recording process, how it enhances community participation, and what called her to the project.
We’re excited to have her talents on the team!
In case you missed last week’s Scenic Route, get up-to-speed here:
Thank you, as always, for riding with us!
Stay the course,
Sam
Sam Reetz, is a filmmaker, performer, and founder at Millennial Ethics, creating narrative solutions to complex issues.
Follow her work on Bluesky, Substack and Instagram.
Dashboard Confessional: Sherrill Knezel
I draw for a living.
Not superrealist portraits or landscapes or still-lifes.
I draw conversations happening live in a room between humans coming together to collaborate, learn, or problem-solve. I’m a graphic recorder and illustrator and I create visual summaries to uplift generative and transformative work being done in community because when we can SEE what we are sharing, there is more clarity, connection, and collaboration.
When I met Sam Reetz, while drawing at a Brady United Against Gun Violence conference in Los Angeles, I knew I wanted to support Route 24 and her work at Millennial Ethics. She is doing such innovative, generative work bringing together diverse perspectives and generations to have conversations around public safety, public policy and civics.
I recently had the chance to participate in a playtest of Probable Cause, an XR civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat to explore issues of public safety from community-centered perspectives.
I am excited about the possibilities it presents for fostering conversation around different experiences through the lens of public safety and traffic stops. The scenarios were personal and well-researched and allowed me to explore decision-making as well as gain understanding of others’ lived experience. I can’t wait to see Probable Cause continue to grow, inspire, and connect us in conversation.
Margaret J. Wheatley wrote, “All social change begins with a conversation.” Come along with us on Route 24 to join in conversation and create change together.
Sherrill Knezel is a graphic recorder, illustrator, veteran art educator, author, and TEDx speaker who turns complex conversations into visual stories.
With 32+ years of teaching experience and as the founder of Meaningful Marks LLC, she listens deeply to create illustrations that foster clarity, connection, and accessibility.
Her work supports meaningful change across sectors.
Next Stop: A return to decision science and a closer look at intersections between patrimonialism, public education in the manosphere, and trends in affordability messaging.
Route 24 is a Substack community powered by Millennial Ethics Productions inviting you to explore our creative process as we build Probable Cause, an XR civic education gaming experience, in real-time.
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