For his most recent book, Notes from an Apocalypse, Mark O’Connell traveled around the world, visiting people and visiting places. He documents an attempt to come to grips with how a fear about the end of the world has affected the lives of different people and shaped different landscapes. It is a surprisingly complex topic that touches on not only the environment, but also race, gender, class, wealth, and modern society. For this episode, we’re going to talk about this expansive project and about how he has welded a variety of notes into a single book about our 21stcenturies fears for the future.