Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation

This book by Jonathan Lear was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Tim Ferriss. The people who vouched for it on air: Sebastian Junger. It comes up in conversations about consciousness, longevity & aging. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

"Shortly before he died, Plenty Coups, the last great Chief of the Crow Nation, told his story - up to a certain point. "When the buffalo went away the hearts of my people fell to the ground," he said, "and they could not lift them up again. After this nothing happened." It is precisely this point - that of a people faced with the end of their way of life - that prompts the philosophical and ethical inquiry pursued in Radical Hope. In Jonathan Lear's view, Plenty Coups's story raises a profound ethical question that transcends his time and challenges us all: how should one face the possibility that one's culture might collapse?"--Jacket.

• “there's an amazing book called Radical Hope. It's not a self-help book... it's a short book and it's an incredible book.”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “an amazing book called Radical Hope... it's a short book and it's an incredible book... one of the most important books I've ever read”
  Sebastian Junger · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 202100:35:16

  Said during "Sebastian Junger, Seeking Freedom and Reordering Your Place in the World | The Tim Ferriss Show". The episode features Sebastian Junger: New York Times best-selling author of The Perfect Storm, War, Tribe, and Freedom, and co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo. A longtime war reporter and former war zone journalist, he is a Peabody and National Magazine Award winner based in New York City and Cape Cod. Sebastian Junger on surviving a near-fatal aneurysm, fatherhood, warriorhood, and how people throughout history fight to stay free.