IN THAT STRANGELY COMPLACENT DREAMTIME between the financial crash and the rise of populism, Yuval Noah Harari became a global superstar. The young Israeli history professor is frequently described as the world’s most-read public intellectual, while his speaking agency has no qualms about describing him as a philosopher.
Harari’s lack of recognisable cultural baggage lends him a mysterious other-worldliness, as if he’s a man from another, wiser planet or from the future; a vegan who practices Vipassana meditation for two hours a day and shares the housework with his husband.
He rapidly won the endorsement of celebrities such as Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg and became a fixture at Davos, Aspen and other plush retreats where political and
