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Lawrence Wright: America’s Misadventures in Wars, Cults, and Panics
Posted
May 28, 2025
Views
2,130
Likes
60
Comments
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Engagement
3.33%
May 28, 2025
2,130
60
11
3.33%
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1:03:46Now PlayingThe Pulitzer Prize–winning author discusses the enduring roots of Middle Eastern conflict, the rise and fall of cultural panics, and why Texas may be the blueprint—and battleground—for America's future.
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Today's guest is the legendary journalist and New Yorker staffer Lawrence Wright. He is the author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief; The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11; and The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid.
Wright talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about The Human Scale, his new novel set in the war-torn Middle East, and why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict keeps burning even as most of the 20th century's conflicts have cooled. They also go deep on Wright's exposés on the war on terror, satanic panics, and how our craving for belief can lead us to madness. Then they turn to Texas, Wright's home state and the place he says is the future of America. What exactly does it mean that we're all becoming more like Lone Star State?
This discussion took place at a live event in New York City.
Video editor: Ian Keyser
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