“We live in a cynical time. We are surrounded by forces designed to make us feel like we lack control—whether it’s an algorithm that shapes what we see, an oligarchy that controls wealth and power, a world untethered from old notions of order, a climate that is changing, or artificial intelligence, which mimics human functions and thought. Corruption abounds. The existence of truth itself is distorted and contested. Yet history shows us that the words we speak can matter.”
-Ben Rhodes, ALL WE SAY
ABOUT BEN
Ben Rhodes is a writer, foreign affairs expert, and native New Yorker. He’s a dad, a Knicks and Mets fan, and student of history – delving into the stories we tell to help make sense of the world, and each other.
Ben is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, co-host of Pod Save the World, a contributor to MSNBC, and the author of two New York Times bestsellers—After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We Made and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. His latest book, All We Say: The Battle for American Identity, is a sweeping history of the United States told through fifteen speeches that reflect the battle over American identity and the questions, “What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide?”
From 2009 to 2017, he served as Deputy National Security Advisor and speechwriter to President Barack Obama, participating in all of the President's key foreign policy decisions. His work has also been published in The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs.
