Fictional Worlds, Chronic Loneliness, Cannabis Poisoning
Links and recommendations
Prediction: Halloween will bring increases in cannabis poisoning among kids.
And as people become aware of the growing problem of cannabis poisoning, it will be increasingly confined to kids in poor/working class families while the luxury belief class who pushed legalization will take measures to insulate themselves and their families from its effects.
You can now catch my conversation with my friend David Cotter on the Educated podcast.
Attend My New Lecture Series at Peterson Academy:
You are invited to be a student at my new lecture series at Peterson Academy. Phoenix, Arizona. November 5-7. The plan is for me to deliver 2 lectures per day over the course of 3 days.
If you want to attend my course and be a part of the live in-studio audience, you can apply here.
From the archives:
The Hero’s Journey and the Orphan Archetype
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:
The upcoming Troubled film adaptation, based on my first book, now has a website. You can visit the website and support the project here
“In almost all fictional worlds, God exists” by Robin Hanson
A Long-Overdue Shakeup in Higher Education by Michael Torres
Should You Have Kids? by Josh Zlatkus
Could Infidelity Be Contagious? By Madeleine A. Fugère
Professors Need to Diversify What They Teach by Jon A. Shields, Yuval Avnur, and Stephanie Muravchik
REVIEW: Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by Jane Psmith
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. The assumption that birth rates are falling across society in general is not really true. People who identify as conservative are having almost as many children as they were decades ago. The decline is overwhelmingly among those on the progressive left. (source).
2. In the U.S., 40% of 18–29-year-olds think violence against the rich can be justified, compared with only 29% of 30–44-year-olds, 14% of 45–54-year-olds, 12% of 55–64-year-olds, and 7% of those 65 and older. (source).
3. Loneliness is associated with being more sensitive to pain, suppression of the immune system, diminished brain function. For older people loneliness is twice as unhealthy as obesity, and chronic loneliness increases a person’s odds of death in any given year by 26 percent. (source: The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz).
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)
Rob- you and Louise need to discuss the new Lily Allen album West End Girl. It’s 45 minutes of a woman who got burned by “luxury beliefs” regarding polyamory and non-monogamy. Such a touchstone for the reactionary feminist movement. Maybe also consider it next to Taylor Swift’s song Wi$h Li$t, in both albums TRADlife is trending….
The main way to get wider ideological education is for non-partisan colleges to hire Republican professors. Like 30% R & 30% D, so students get steelman arguments about Israel & Palestine from professors who believe their arguments are more true, rational, and generally correct-optimal according to their criteria.
Quotas to prove non-partisanship is the fastest way to make big changes, with those colleges unwilling to hire Republicans losing tax exempt status.