You can now catch my discussion with Peter Copeland on the Inside Policy Talks podcast.
Links for Apple Podcast and Spotify.
From the archives:
You Can’t Treat Me This Way: The Evolutionary Logic of Anger
Rob Henderson 2026 Reader Survey:
I’ve been meaning to run a reader survey for a while to get a sense of my readership, and now here it is.
I’d like to learn a little more about you: your background, what you read, how your life has turned out, and a few things you might not ordinarily be asked.
There are 26 short questions which shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes to complete.
So if you have a few minutes, please take the reader survey here.
I’ll post the results with some analysis in an upcoming post.
Upcoming talks and speaking invitations:
Over the past couple of years, I’ve spoken at Princeton, Cambridge, the University of Missouri, Columbia Business School, Harvard, the University of Austin, Claremont McKenna College, and the American Enterprise Institute, among other institutions. I’ve also spoken at the All-In Summit. These talks have covered luxury beliefs, the psychology of status, social class, the young male crisis, and what my journey from foster care through the military to Yale and Cambridge taught me about opportunity. In 2027, I’m currently scheduled to speak at Stanford on February 2 and at Yale on April 20.
I’m available for additional speaking engagements in 2027, including keynote talks, moderated conversations, and Q&As for companies, universities, conferences, and other organizations.
Main topics include:
Luxury beliefs. How ideas become status symbols and why their consequences differ across social classes.
The psychology of status. How the desire for respect and admiration shapes our beliefs, choices, and behavior.
Family, stability, and opportunity. Lessons from Troubled about growing up in foster care and finding a different path.
Personality and human behavior. Why people respond differently to the same situations, and how personality shapes relationships, work, and decision-making.
If you would like to invite me to speak, please complete this form.
Links and recommendations:
The Replication Crisis in Medicine by Richard T. Bosshardt
In Defense of Human Nature by Francis Fukuyama
Sizing Up Freud’s Theory of Self-Deception by Roy Baumeister
Female-Breadwinner Couples Are Still More Likely to Split Up by Rosemary L. Hopcroft
How Washington Funded the Politicization of Science by John Sailer
Perfection’s Prison by Theodore Dalrymple
Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories
You can follow me on TikTok here
Three interesting findings:
1. People ages 20-29 are nearly three times more likely than people over 65 to meet criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. (source).
2. Powerful men in history, who often could arrange to have any sort of sex life they wanted, typically had both one high-quality mate and a series of other sex partners on the side (e.g., the king would have a queen; but he would also have various concubines and mistresses). (source: Concise Introduction to Social Psychology by Roy Baumeister).
3. People who paid someone else to do tasks they didn’t enjoy (like cooking or cleaning) reported higher life satisfaction than those who didn’t. People were happier, on average, when they bought time rather than things. (source).
Back when I was 22, my instructor at Airman Leadership School (mandatory training to become a non-commissioned officer) was a Filipino American guy who had served time in prison. He later reformed himself, got really into mindset/self-help stuff, and managed to get a waiver to enlist. Years later he became an instructor. One day after class, he told me to get a cleaner for my apartment. I asked whether it was a good use of money. He replied by asking “Henderson, how much is your time worth?” I hired a cleaner.
The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.
If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library.
Order your copy now:
Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)
