The Guardian

Yuval Noah Harari: ‘The idea of free information is extremely dangerous’

As his new book is published, the bestselling author talks fake news, meditation and appearing with Natalie Portman• Read an extract from 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari: ‘Meditation can help people cope with stress but it’s definitely not the silver bullet that will save humankind from all its problems.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian who has written two bestsellers: Sapiens, which examined the course of early human history, and Homo Deus, which speculated on where we might be heading as a post-human species. His new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, is an exploration of the difficulties that confront us at the present.

Well I have much less time. I find myself travelling around the world and going to conferences and giving interviews, basically repeating what I think I already know, and having less and less time to research new stuff. Just a few years ago I was an anonymous professor of history specialising in medieval history and my audience was about five people around the world who read my articles. So it’s quite shocking

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