Examines the sociopaths--individuals with an antisocial personality disorder who possess no conscience or sense of guilt--that we encounter in everyday life, describing how to recognize such individuals and how to protect oneself from them.

The author, an award winning journalist, suffered from depression since he was a child, and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, he began to investigate whether this was true, and learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong. Across the world, he found social scientists who were uncovering evidence...

"19th-century Europe--from Turin to Prague to Paris--abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. In Italy, republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. In France, during the Paris Commune, people eat mice, plan bombings and rebellions in the streets, and celebrate Black Masses. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating conspiracies and even massacres. There are false beards, false lawyers, false...

A full-length version of the viral "New York Times" op-ed column of the same name shares stories about the author's life with her autistic son, whose therapeutic use of Apple's electronic personal assistant became an unusual example of the power of technology. "It began when Judith Newman's thirteen-year-old autistic son noticed that there was someone who not only would find information on his various obsessions (trains, planes, escalators, and anything...