Steve Wasserman is as charming as his eloquent writing, he's a raconteur, a cultural essayist & he talks to us about Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s A Lie. He takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through the world of books, featuring personal reflections on Susan Sontag, Huey Newton, Barbra Streisand, W. G. Sebald, Christopher Hitchens and more. In thirty splendid essays, originally published in such diverse publications as the New Republic and the Nation, the American Conservative and the Progressive, the Village Voice and the Economist, Wasserman delivers a riveting account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind. Taken together, they reveal the depth and breadth of his enthusiasms and range over politics, literature, and the tumults of a world in upheaval. They include the remarkable tale of a bookstore owner who wouldn’t let him buy the books he wanted, to his brave against-the-grain take on the Black Panthers, to his shrewd assessment of the fast-changing world of publishing. Here is, as Joyce Carol Oates notes, “arguably the very best concise history of Cuba and the legendary Fidel Castro; beautifully composed eulogies for two close friends, Susan Sontag and Christopher Hitchens; sharply perceptive commentary on Daniel Ellsberg; a thrillingly candid interview with W. G. Sebald.

As you read this, the topic of social media is headline news once again with droves of people fleeing from Twitter/X to head over to Blue Sky and Threads. In 2019 we invited Andrew Marantz, to talk about his book, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. Marantz had been embedded in two worlds. The first is the world of social-media entrepreneurs, who, acting out of naïvete and reckless ambition, upended all traditional means of receiving and transmitting information. The second is the world of the people he calls "the gate crashers"--the conspiracists, white supremacists, and nihilist trolls who have become experts at using social media to advance their corrosive agenda. Antisocial ranges broadly--from the first mass-printed books to the trending hashtags of the present; from secret gatherings of neo-Fascists to the White House press briefing room--and traces how the unthinkable becomes thinkable, and then how it becomes reality.Antisocial reveals how the boundaries between technology, media, and politics have been erased, resulting in a deeply broken informational landscape--the landscape in which we all now live. Marantz shows how alienated young people are led down the rabbit hole of online radicalization, and how fringe ideas spread--from anonymous corners of social media to cable TV to the President's Twitter feed.

Moments after Steve Kornacki paused slightly then continued reeling off percentages in whatever county in whichever swing state had just committed to Trump my iPhone and media feeds started going berserk. “We are doomed!” screamed one message and another declared “This is the end!” The votes across the nation were still being tabulated yet the numbers were indicating positively that Harris could not win. Any little lingering hope was quickly vanishing as Kornacki’s map was turning a nasty shade of red. The cries of unexpected defeat were stampeding across the internet machine. Friends were texting and calling with mostly garbled outrage. “What the fuck?” being the most literate comment. Later, around 3am the frenzied reaction to the election results had tempered to disbelief, numbness perhaps coupled with the overwhelming question, “Will our world as we know it come to an end now Trump has been reelected?”

Around the same time, 16 hours ahead in Melbourne, Australia, Life Elsewhere regular contributor Dr. Binoy Kampmark was already composing his response to the US election outcome with a stirring essay for CounterPunch, the title, The Price Of Eggs: Why Harris Lost To Trump. Kampmarks’s commentaries on Global, Urban and Social Studies have always received debatable reactions, not least of all his perspective on Trump. Back in 2015, when Trump was posturing for a run at the presidency, Binoy agreed that the ostentatious sham real estate mogul and reality TV personality was obviously unfit for any governmental office. Yet he did suggest that someone as absurd as Trump could be an effective way to shake up a jaded political system. Kampmark was of course, correct. The mechanics of US politics were given a serious off-road test. Now in 2024 heading into 2025 with Trump about to start a second term the landscape does appear desolate if you are not big on Cybertrucks or the likelihood of armored military vehicles roaming our streets.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark welcomed the opportunity to respond to our headline question. We urge you to listen carefully to everything he says. Your feedback is always important, now more than ever. Share your thoughts on Kampmark’sopinions, write to info@lifeelsewhere.co

Dr Binoy Kampmark is a Senior Lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He teaches in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, within the Bachelor of Social Science (Legal and Dispute Studies) program.

Here in these parts we just experienced two, yes, two major hurricanes in less than two weeks. First Helene, then Milton came a-blowing. For a little insight on the trauma of suffering through a hurricane, go to the artwork for this volume, enlarge it enough to read clearly, so you can read my account.

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Calahan Skogman - Blue Graffiti

He is proud to be from a small town in middle-of-nowhere Midwestern America. And he wants you to know why. With his debut novel, Blue Graffiti, Calahan Skogman relishes in portraying a place he is all too familiar with, albeit Johnston is a figment of his imagination. Pouring his soul out in words about the environment he grew up in was not enough for Mr. Skogman, he goes further and creates a believable world of situations and relationships with realistic characters. On a cross-country drive, it’s small town you could stumble upon, pop into the local bar, where you’d spot ruggedly-handsome construction-worker Cash eying the beautiful green-eyed, Rose. It’s the straight-forwardness of Calahan’swriting that captures the reader, he paints a realistic picture of Johnston and it's inhabitants without meandering into long-winded prose, yet he has found a way to draw the reader in to a romantic tale of self-discovery without depending on cliches. Calahan Skogman's enthusiasm for life and telling his story is compelling, his large beaming smile radiates through the airwaves. As the conversation weaves into questions about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, Calahan articulates with the care and thoughtfulness of a seasoned raconteur. It may come as no surprise then to learn that Skogman is a critically acclaimed actor. He tells of dressing-up as a kid and a fascination for the arts while eagerly pursuing a career in professional sports. Perhaps these juxtapositions are why Calahan is such an engaging guest and how he has crafted an exceptional book in Blue Graffiti.

Jennifer Ackerman⁠ - ⁠The Bird Way: A New Look At How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent and Think ⁠

“There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries –– What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan to the rolling hills of Lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary.

Augustine Sedgewick - Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug

What do you know about coffee? A wonderful new book will change how you look at - or taste coffee again. Augustine Sedgewick takes us on an extraordinary adventure of discovery, revealing details and history, even the most ardent coffee lover will be surprised by. In Coffeeland - One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug the learned Augustine Sedgewick has brilliantly chronicled the most consequential revolution by telling the global history of one family. His book is both innovative and factual as he effortlessly untangles the routes that carried coffee from the slopes of El Salvador to the shelves of US supermarkets. Augustine exposes a realm of ruthless entrepreneurs, hardworking laborers, laboratory chemists, and guerrilla fighters. Plus, he is a wonderful and enthusiastic guest.

All spring, Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn watched as her family fruit farm of many years became increasingly diminished, suffering from a lack of bees. The plentiful wildlife, so abundant just weeks before, was gone. Everything was still, silent. As an environmental scientist trained to investigate disease outbreaks, she rose to the challenge. Step by step, day by day, despite facing headwinds from skeptical neighbors, environmental experts, and agricultural consultants, she’d assembled information. Her observations provided a framework, a timeline to explain the evidence she’d collected.The chemicals found in her water samples showed beyond any doubt that not only her farm, but her greater farming community, was at risk from toxic chemicals that travelled with rain water over the land, into water, and deep within the soil. Hilborn was given a front row seat to the insect apocalypse. Even as a scientist, she’d been unaware of the risks to life from some common agricultural chemicals. Her goal was to protect her farm and the animals who lived there. But first she had to convince her rural neighbors of the risk to their way of life, too. Elizabeth Hiborn is a delightful and informative guest, we’re sure like us, you will be moved by her story.

Elizabeth Hilborn - Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farming Community