Irrationality was published in 2019, but the real subject of the book, it turns out, is the year 2020. The book now seems to me to be describing a world that had been gestating for some years, but that only came out kicking and screaming, loud enough for all to hear and for none to deny, in the pandemic era, which coincides, significantly, with the final year of Donald Trump’s ignominious presidency. 

The approach of the winter holidays invites us to wrestle once again with the complexities of giving. On surface it seems simple enough: Buy something nice, wrap it in colorful paper, present it to your giftee.

Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. In the era of Donald Trump’s presidency, this new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government.

Can a person act freely in a system that is completely rigged, in which every action is determined from the outset? Maybe you are haunted by this question as you slog off to Town Hall to vote. Maybe it is so bothersome that you just stay home. Maybe you’ve already sent in your ballot, but you feel somehow unsatisfied.

How should we face our mortality? Whether death is—as we all hope—a far off eventuality or, through age or illness, imminent, what is the proper attitude to take? Should we fear death?

Two years ago, we put the final revisions on our book about conspiratorial thinking in American politics: A Lot of People are Saying: the New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy.