What Now? with Trevor Noah

If Sapiens was a conversation that helped us understand how humans dominated or got to the position of power that we got to as a species, it feels like Nexus is a conversation about the networks and the information that has gotten us there and the way that it could end us all.

Your book, Sapiens, is the perfect example of that.

That was the book that completely changed people's ideas of how we organize society and why humans have the power we do.

I think the final nudge came from Yuval Noah Harari. You had him on the show as well, right? So he wrote this book called Sapiens about the big picture, right? The history of humanity of the last hundreds of thousands of years. And in that book, he doesn't make any moral judgment whatsoever. So he talks about the Nazis and he's like, I don't know, describing it as, you know, just another culture, right? ... And then at the end of the book, he talks about the way we treat animals. And he has this offhand remark where he says, well, this is probably the biggest crime in all of human history.

the author of Sapiens and the Nexus, he said something that really stuck with me.

we had the author of Sapiens and Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari on.

Mating in Captivity ... it's a book. Yeah, it's a book. And for those who don't know, it has its 20th anniversary next time. Congratulations.

I just had not focused on sexuality and the cultural story that supports our expectations around sexuality, desire, eroticism in long term relationships. I wrote Mating in Captivity and it actually questioned a whole set of suppositions that were parading as truths when they were actually not.

That was the subject of this first book - how love and desire relate, how they sometimes conflict, and how we negotiate security and adventure in relationships.

And I, you know, Mating in Captivity, my first book was all about that tension.

Jonathan Haidt is a leading social psychologist, a professor at NYU, and the author of The Anxious Generation, a book that's sparking urgent conversations around the world today.

When you wrote Anxious Generation, did you think you were tapping into... the last I checked, it's still on the New York Times bestsellers list. It just stays there as robust as ever.

You know, there's probably some people listening now who haven't read the book. And I've read the book. So has Trevor.

We're talking about... Jonathan Haidt... his book, The Anxious Generation.

And then you get Lord of the Rings.

people knew that this was going to be one of the biggest films ever made because it was based on one of the biggest books ever.

And I'm like, no, it's more like, have you seen The Ring? You know, like the, you know, the bitch that comes out of the TV.

Well his new book, Nexus, is just as contentious. It focuses on a possible answer to what makes society work and what could break it completely.

And the key question that starts Nexus is if humans are so smart, why are we so stupid?

The rise of AI, the war in the Middle East, the breakdown in communication between politicians and the people. In this episode we discuss it all.

I learned it from Yuval Noah Harari, who we had on the podcast, and in his book, Nexus, he's talking about how humans have connected all of these ideas and made societies out of agreed fictions.

Even if we talk about The Wizard of Oz, right? I don't need Dorothy to be real. I don't need the Tin Man to be real. I don't need the Lion to be. But these are the concepts that stick with me.

The Wicked Witch of the West.

There was like a shooting near the grounds, which just became part of the news. Then there was a tornado warning that was issued. And so the players had to stay indoors. And it was like a violent storm in Kansas. You know, people were like, this is basically the beginning of The Wizard of Oz.

I agree ... like when you talk about 1984, don't believe your lying eyes.

and it's that book I'm sure many people have said it but in that book The War of Art I think one of the it's really amazing I think you'd enjoy it but it talks about the complicated nature of artistry and the journey of making and what it means to create right to take something from nothing bring it out into the world make it something and other people consume it and one of the main things it speaks about is how the true mastery of

He said, you don't have to do anything because you're already being done.

there's a beautiful book that I read we should have the author on if he'll join us it was a book called 4,000 weeks and it's a book that the average human has about 4,000 weeks on this planet how do you want to spend those weeks and when you understand the limited nature of those weeks you also understand that you're always going to be missing something because you're doing something else instead of having FOMO rather enjoy this thing that you're actually experiencing

the Bible is a big book of suffering. Yes, but life is a big book of suffering. You see, so it's all about someone did something and then found redemption.

the Bible is a big book of suffering. Yes, but life is a big book of suffering. ... It's a big book of suffering and also a big book of redemption.

I wish I had this in the book, in my book, The Righteous Mind, I cover the work of Michael Tomasello on joint attention.

Who am I? You're The Great Gatsby of... The Great Gatsby of football.

my book was called Burn Book, a love story, a tech love story. I love tech. I'm just pissed at what they did to it.

And with Americana, I was setting myself free from being the good daughter of literature.

Malcolm, if you want to revisit another book, I'll put Blink aside because Blink is one of my favorites.

I have to say though, you know, the Walter Isaacson book that came out. Right. What was it like two years ago? There's a lot in there about his mental wellbeing and admissions from his himself.

How to Change Your Mind, my book about it was in 2018. And at that point, there were lots of people who were using psychedelics but would never talk about it publicly.

The book was called Our Kids. The book was focused on a whole series of charts and graphs that showed the gap between rich kids and poor kids growing.