I talked to Terry Gross!
A brief update about the publication of "Tripping on Utopia" before we return to regularly scheduled posting
Hello all, I have been taking a breather from writing this newsletter since December, but will be back with regular posts starting next week. The reason for the break was twofold:
My wife Roya, myself, and our toddler all got Covid in December — nothing too serious, but enough to sideline some writing I had in mind.
My second book, Tripping on Utopia, was published today! The lead up to publication involved quite a lot of work and several interviews (on which more below) so I just didn’t have bandwidth for other things over the past couple weeks.
Publicizing a book isn’t fun, exactly, but there are moments when it can be pretty fascinating, and others that are downright exciting. Having a chance to speak to the legendary Terry Gross for today’s episode of the NPR show Fresh Air was both.
It’s no surprise that Terry is an amazingly gifted interviewer, but still: it was fascinating seeing how she works “up close” (a figure of speech — it turns out almost all Fresh Air interviews are conducted remotely). And, of course, it was more than a bit surreal to be the one talking to someone I’ve been listening to for my adult life… especially about things like John C. Lilly’s ill-fated attempts to speak to dolphins, Margaret Mead’s long-forgotten “LSD memo” from 1954, Cary Grant’s enthusiasm for psychedelic therapy, and all the other things I cover in Tripping on Utopia.
You can listen to the complete interview on Fresh Air and read an edited transcript here.
I was also thrilled that the book received a generous New York Times review today, which you can read here. There’s also this interview with David Lipset in the Los Angeles Times.
Needless to say, I would be honored if you would consider buying the book — you can order a copy from the publisher, bookshop.org, Amazon, or from my local bookstore, Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Talk in Los Angeles, January 17th
A final note for anyone reading this in the Los Angeles area: I’ll be talking about the book in conversation of Danielle Carr of UCLA at Chevalier’s Bookstore tomorrow evening (Wednesday, January 17). Here’s the event page where you can RSVP. I’d love to see some of you there.
Onward!
And with that, I begin the transition out of book publicity mode and back to regular posting on this newsletter.
Thank you if you’ve read this far, and please let me know if you have any questions about Tripping on Utopia. At some point I’ll also be making a dedicated space on my website where I will publicly post corrections. Mistakes are inevitable, and I have been increasingly interested in ways that historians can improve the accuracy of our work and, just possibly, increase trust in historical research by being more transparent about correcting mistakes of interpretation and fact. Seems to me that listing errors (and discussing/analyzing gray areas) is a good start.
I preordered your book and just finished it at lunch today. It is absolutely fascinating and eye opening. You have given us a great corrective for the narrow view that focuses almost entirely on MKUltra and then Timothy Leary. The connections you make, and the ones that seem implicit in the story, are enough to preoccupy the serious reader for some time. Bateson has been an intellectual hero since my undergraduate days. This fleshes out so much I did not know. I know this is one I will reread. Thank you for this book.
Since you seem into weird things: do you ever talk to people about Utopia? I do now and then and have found that everyone I mention it to, including people like humanists and advocates for positive change in general, seem to have a strange, innate aversion to it. The specific reactions vary (laughter, mocking, changing of the subject, story telling in general), but one thing is common: they won't discuss it seriously, almost like there is some sort of a block installed in every person's mind.
Perhaps I am imagining this, but I'm curious what your experience has been, or if you'd be willing to try running some experiments on people you know to see what happens.