Communal Narcissism, Extreme Opinions, C-SPAN
My appearance on C-SPAN + links and recommendations
You can now watch my interview on C-SPAN, which took place yesterday.
Los Angeles Event:
You are invited to attend my live event with author Abigail Shrier in Los Angeles. October 16 at 6pm.
Details and registration here.
From the archives:
The Happiness Lottery. Reflections on returning
The Only Reading App I Use:
I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:
These screenshots come from my Readwise app.
Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.
Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.
Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.
Exclusive Offer for My Readers
Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).
I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.
Links and recommendations:
There Are Only Two Gametes by Carole Hooven
Leonardo DiCaprio: The Last Great Movie Star by Katey Rich
“Destroy the Idea of America” by Stu Smith
How the West was wrought by Razib Khan
11 Public Speaking Techniques from the World’s Greatest Speakers by Polina Pompliano
Communal Narcissism by W. Keith Campbell
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. Women have stronger partisan identities than do men. Women are also more polarized than men in their partisan affect, liking their own party and disliking the other more strongly. This gender gap is wholly caused by white female Democrats. (source).
2. The majority of college faculty under age 35 say they are in favor of shutting down speakers with whom they disagree. What terrifies the censors and cancellers is not necessarily that a dangerous idea might be thought, or even expressed, but that it might become common knowledge. (source: When Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows.. by Steven Pinker).
3. On Twitter/X, 97 percent of political posts come from the most-active 10 percent of users. These users often grow their audience by expressing the most extreme opinions and by ‘nut-picking the most outrageous opinions of the other side. (source).
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)
