An intriguing and cheerful look at ways that innovation may reshape society.
Entrepreneur Bhargava and consultant Coutinho-Mason predict new patterns for work and society in this debut nonfiction work.
The future is already here—it just hasn’t gone mainstream yet. That’s the philosophy undergirding the work of the two authors of this book, who make it their business to know where, in the present, the seeds of the future are already beginning to sprout: “What is happening on the edges of most industries or in society—the technological marvels, the ambitious innovations, the bold social agendas—hold the potential to become mainstream in the future, to change how we’ll live and work and what we’ll value,” they write in their introduction. Some of these ideas have already filtered into the popular consciousness, even if they haven’t become routine for everyone, such as remote work, the medical use of psychedelics, and plant-based meat. Others will likely strike readers as completely novel; in the future, the authors assert, children may get a substantial portion of their education passively by playing video games embedded with stealth learning technology. If one lives alone, they say, one may rely on Siri-like virtual assistants, trained to offer people emotional support and companionship. Large companies, in order to better integrate themselves into the community, may invite nonprofits, local businesses, and artists to share their office space, the authors note, and one’s city may be redesigned so that all the places one needs to go daily—work, home, school, parks—are within a 15-minute commute. The new urban center may feature vertical forests—skyscrapers filled with trees and plants to relegate their temperature and muffle noise—and vertical farms, and biotechnology may replace plastic, making products waste-free. This might sound like the stuff of SF, but with each chapter, the authors introduce readers to concepts that make the future seem less dystopian—and right around the corner.
This present-is-future philosophy is why Bhargava and Coutinho-Mason jokingly refer to themselves as “now-ists” rather than futurists. Their prose reflects the optimism and enthusiasm they feel for each new idea, as when they discuss the pre-owned clothes marketplace Depop: “Digital secondhand marketplaces also allow people to flaunt their entrepreneurialism as a key source of status too. If eBay is the Goodwill of the digital secondhand fashion world (huge, functional, but unsexy and hard to navigate) then fashion marketplaces like Depop are its younger, more creative, cooler cousin.” Chapters generally introduce an emerging trend or technology and then highlight an organization or company that’s currently putting it into practice. If there’s a knock on Bhargava and Coutinho-Mason’s method, it’s that they sometimes come across as a bit too rosy in their assessments. For example, the authors choose to focus on how much time artificial intelligence technologies can save artists—highlighting a movie trailer that was made in hours instead of weeks—without addressing how that saved time will likely mean a smaller paycheck. In general, however, these now-ists succeed in making the future a little less scary and a lot more exciting.
Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781646870653
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ideapress Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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