At this event, I shared ideas from my book Don't Talk About Politics—a book about why political conversations feel so impossible right now, and what we can do about it.

Chaired by my brilliant and irreverent friend Max Haiven (who asked the truly important questions, like “should we just start cults?”), the evening explored how our political beliefs are shaped not just by reasoned arguments, but by a range of factors friendship to community organizing and social infrastructure. Drawing on everything from ancient philosophy to contemporary neuroscience, I argued that if we want to build a better world, we need to stop obsessing over "winning" arguments—and start investing in the deep, often invisible work of communal life.

Max brought his sharp insights as an anti-capitalist organiser and scholar of radical imagination, and after the talk, we opened things up for questions, book signings, and longer conversations. And bagels. Definitely bagels.