The book that wasn't.

The substack blog that will be.

“In the dark times, will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing - about the dark times.” - Bertold Brecht

I wanted to write a book. It was going to be integrative, timely, emancipatory, amazing. It was going to be good, honestly. For those who read it, it was going to change their world view, even their sense of self, and it would change those who interacted with them thereafter. I wrote proposals, I contacted (lovely, lovely, too patient) literary agents. And then I failed.

Invitation to a Dada soirée, by Theo van Doesburg / Kurt Schwitters - Donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74857256. Not so relevant, but very pretty.

A bunch of excuses

In my defence, a couple of things happened along the way.

1. With my extraordinary colleagues Giorgos Kallis and Jason Hickel, I acquired the world’s largest ever research project on post-growth, the REAL project. You can read all about it here. We’re doing truly great stuff, but running (or running after, rather) so much research and so many researchers does take time.

2. I had an article (or rather three) to finish. As first author. I owed it to my colleagues. Two got published, the third got submitted last week. That third one is by far the most important, and as soon as it is online, I’ll share it. But clearly, I am unable to work on several things at once - at least not if I want to get them done. Which bring us to …

3. … the neurodiversity carousel. I was diagnosed, after 2 years of trying to get appointments, with ADHD, in June 2025. Oh yes, and some autism is in the mix apparently. Yay. The diagnosis, and especially treatment, have been life-changing, and I am sure I will write more about this because it’s important, but neurodiversity is what it is. Apparently it is harder for me to sit down and write a book than for others. And no one ever said it was easy.

4. The world is changing too damn fast, things are too damn urgent, and books are slow. You can’t share much as you go along. It takes a year between when it’s finished and publication. Between the accelerating race to the apocalypse and my own ADHD brain and its jumpy impatience, the timescale aspect is not looking good right now.

5. Oh yes, the genocide in Gaza. I have been in a pit of horror and despair since October 2023, not just at the deliberate genocidal violence of the Israeli state, which itself was easily predictable, and moreover openly declared, but at the giant, concerted complicity of all (ok, almost all) of our “western” governments and institutions, including media and culture. All my upbringing, as a child of a Holocaust survivor, all that belief in “never again,” had to be shredded, mourned and flushed down the giant toilet of human history. Any ability to function, exist, think, speak with any solidity is still recovering. I have had to rebuild myself and my thought system. I am no longer the same person I was, how can anyone be? I am a new Frankenstein monster, part blood-soaked ashes, part school backpacks and toys of dead children, part endless bitterness at the self-satisfied betrayal of so many politicians, academics and commentators. I am not sure what I am yet, I can just recognise some pieces of the wreckage, and some new glue holding my person together. A lot of that glue is rage, to be fair, but some is also determination, as well as the love and respect of new- (and some old-)found comrades.

A bunch of promises

So. There was no book. And quite likely there will be no book. But I promise you, and myself, and the ghosts of those children, and the memory of my father: I will write as best I can here. I will write what I wanted to put in that book. I will invite friends with large wise brains and even larger hearts to help out. I will write short book reviews, so you don’t have to slog through 100s of pages to get the wisdom and gist of really vital research.

And I promise I will write in a way that is emancipatory:

• honest, not hiding nuance or counterarguments (to the extent of my ability);

• brave, not shying away from difficult topics or conundrums, not sticking with old ways of thinking for their own sake;

• human. I promise not to use AI slop, only my own actual thinking and writing. I will also not knowingly quote, link or refer to any AI-generated computer farts;

• entertaining, quick and fun, well, at least trying to be not boring, again to the extent of my ability;

• not unkind or polemic for its own sake. I wanted to write “kind” instead of “not unkind,” but this is a time of monsters, and I am not going to be kind to them, ever. But I know that social media algorithms, and audience-seeking, rewards very nasty behaviour for its own sake, because everyone likes a good smack-down, amirite? I promise, to the extent of my own not-super-pleasant personality (which is what it is, I use to be a physicist after all) to avoid clout-seeking polemics and interpersonal nastiness. There.

• generous, giving credit where credit is due, and sending you on adventures to visit many other extraordinary people and thinkers;

• action and ability inducing. That’s the most important part. The most important goal of this effort is to provide you with thinking tools that enable you to understand, analyse and most importantly act in our dangerous times. Emancipatory ideas and worldviews are in short supply, and providing some of these is the most vital work I can do.

Welcome, some links and a poll

Welcome to the “Daring In Dangerous Times” substack blog (DaDa for short). Subscribe (if you want), tell your friends (if you have any, or again, if you want), stick around.

Now, that was a bunch of excuses, and some promises yet to be realised. So you don’t leave completely empty-handed, here are a couple of pointers to people who are creating amazing content.

1. Go read, subscribe and listen to my friend Elia Ayoub over at Hauntologies and the Fire These Times. He is the best.

2. Go read what my friend and colleague Jason Hickel is saying. He is also the best.

3. Listen to Amy Westervelt’s latest Drilled podcast season, on climate obstruction. Timely and mind blowing. She is the best.

4. I have been watching and learning a lot from Daniel over at What is Politics. Grains of salt and all that, we disagree (on some things), but he has contributed so massively to my thinking that I owe it to you to recommend him. Enjoy!

Also, I am going to be doing book summaries of some of the mindblowingly amazing books I have read in the past couple of years, so you get to choose! Which one do you want first?