Lawrence Wright: America’s Misadventures in Wars, Cults, and Panics

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author discusses the enduring roots of Middle Eastern conflict, the rise and fall of cultural panics, and why Texas may be the blueprint—and battleground—for America's future.

0:00— Introduction
1:20— Texas: the future of American politics
3:17— ‘The Human Scale’
5:38— Why the Israel-Palestine conflict endures
12:12— ‘Thirteen Days In September’ and the Camp David Accords
23:37— America as both egocentric bully and colony for the rest of the world
26:17— ‘Remembering Satan’ and the ‘recovered memories’ panic
33:29— How abortion anxiety may have fueled a moral panic
37:07— Insurance companies ended the panic by denying quack psychiatric treatments
39:15— The will to believe often overrides logic and evidence
40:55— Wright’s teenage religious fervor led to interest in Scientology
42:19— How Scientology seduced Hollywood
47:26— ‘Going clear’ and Scientology backlash
50:03— Getting Paul Haggis on the record about Scientology
52:55— Texas in American mythology

https://reason.com/podcast/2025/05/28/lawrence-wright-americas-misadventures-in-wars-cults-and-panics/
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Today's guest is the legendary journalist and New Yorker staffer Lawrence Wright. He is the author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief; The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11; and The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid.

Wright talks with Reason's Nick Gillespie about The Human Scale, his new novel set in the war-torn Middle East, and why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict keeps burning even as most of the 20th century's conflicts have cooled. They also go deep on Wright's exposés on the war on terror, satanic panics, and how our craving for belief can lead us to madness. Then they turn to Texas, Wright's home state and the place he says is the future of America. What exactly does it mean that we're all becoming more like Lone Star State?

This discussion took place at a live event in New York City.

Video editor: Ian Keyser