To assume the best about another is the trait that has created modern society. Those occasions when our trusting nature gets violated are tragic. But the alternative—to abandon trust as a defense against predation and deception—is worse.

A book about how our trusting and generous nature has been systematically undermined by aggressive policies and its tragic consequences for Sandra Bland and our society as a whole.

I recommend starting with chapter three (available for free here!) and four and then skipping ahead to the last two chapters because the middle chapters are awful and the first couple simply aren’t important. These four chapters (3, 4, 11, and 12) give you all the meat of the book while sparing you some horrific and unnecessary diversions into e.g. pedophilia.

While the monograph exists in written form, I recommend listening to the audiobook. With archival recordings of the original interviews used wherever the book quotes a primary source (or actors where such recordings don’t exist), original music, and narration by, of course, the author himself, the book sounds more like a slick podcast than a scripted robot. Hopefully the future of audiobooks!