Humanity Is Trying: Experiments in Living with Grief, Finding Connection, and Resisting Easy Answers

Written by Jason Gots

Narrated by Jason Gots

“A truly beautiful, wise, raw, subtle book." —Robert MacFarlane, author of Underland

My sister and I are driving south toward Graceland in her beat-up red Saturn, both in need of refuge, both running from different things. Her bumper sticker reads “Humanity Is Trying.” It’s a triple entendre, she explains: Humanity is exhausting. Humanity is struggle. Humanity is doing the best it knows how.

Humanity Is Trying is several books in one. It’s a memoir about the love and the loss of a sister and a best friend. It’s the story of a series of escape attempts—cowardly, courageous, harmful, and hopeful—experiments in freedom from the stories that limit us. And it’s a record of spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth with the help of friends, psychedelics, art, and spiritual practice.

From Jason Gots, creator of the podcasts Think Again and Clever Creature, comes a philosophical love letter to the slow, messy work of building a life and living with your dreams in the face of reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harlequin Audio
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781488213212

Jason Gots

Jason Gots hosted and produced the podcast Think Again and created the new podcast Clever Creature. He is living proof of the Cheshire cat’s promise to Alice that if you keep going long enough in any direction, you’re bound to end up somewhere.