WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 I want you to close your eyes for a second. Unless 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:03.759 you're driving. Right, yeah, if you're driving, 00:00:03.779 --> 00:00:05.900 please keep them on the road. But for everyone 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:09.099 else, I want you to picture this. You are sitting 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:11.960 in the single most boring place on the face of 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:14.720 the earth. You are on a plane. Specifically, 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.719 you are stuck on the tarmac. Oh, the absolute 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:21.359 purgatory of modern travel. Exactly. The air 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.100 is stale. Your knees are just jammed into the 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:26.980 seat in front of you. Your phone battery is hovering 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:29.820 at like 12%. And you're just waiting for the 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.439 misery of a long -haul flight to actually begin. 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.299 Yeah. You're doom -scrolling. You're desperate 00:00:34.299 --> 00:00:37.039 for a distraction. And then the atmosphere just 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:40.219 shifts. The social contract breaks. A woman stands 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:43.079 up two rows ahead of you, and she isn't heading 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.520 to the bathroom. She starts walking down the 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.439 aisle very slowly. Very deliberately. It's so 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:51.659 creepy. It really is. She stops at a row, points 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:53.700 a finger right at a passenger, and tells him 00:00:53.700 --> 00:00:56.479 exactly how they're going to die and when. And 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:58.799 not just a vague, you know, you will die someday 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.719 kind of thing. Specifics, cause of death, age. 00:01:03.219 --> 00:01:05.379 Then she moves to the next person, then the next. 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.200 And then she stops, turns, and points at you. 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:11.599 It is a terrifying visualization. And it's the 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.819 exact premise that kicks off the book we are 00:01:13.819 --> 00:01:16.079 diving into today. Today we're doing a deep dive 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:19.500 into Here One Moment by Leanne Moriarty. Now, 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:21.640 if you've been anywhere near a bookshelf in the 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:24.280 last decade, you know Moriarty. Little Lies, 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:27.159 Nine Perfect Strangers. She is the undisputed 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:29.280 heavyweight champion of the domestic thriller. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:31.760 She really is. She certainly knows how to ruin 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.260 a perfectly good dinner party, or in this case, 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:37.090 a domestic flight. But here's the thing. As I 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:38.709 was prepping for this, looking through the stack 00:01:38.709 --> 00:01:41.010 of research you pulled, I realized something. 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:43.849 Yeah. This book, which came out back in September 00:01:43.849 --> 00:01:47.409 2024, it initially sells itself as this spooky, 00:01:47.609 --> 00:01:49.989 almost supernatural mystery. You have a death 00:01:49.989 --> 00:01:52.790 lady on a flight. But as we dig into the sources, 00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:55.090 specifically the critical reception and the author's 00:01:55.090 --> 00:01:57.390 own research notes, we find that this isn't really 00:01:57.390 --> 00:01:59.930 a ghost story at all. No, it's not. It creates 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:02.170 that illusion perfectly, but underneath, it's 00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:04.379 something much sharper. It feels more like a 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:07.140 controlled experiment on human nature. That is 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:09.900 the perfect way to frame it. It's a study on 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:13.259 probability, on the way our brains process data, 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:17.860 and how we handle the knowledge of our own mortality. 00:02:18.060 --> 00:02:20.180 Right. It asks a question that's honestly more 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:22.979 mathematical than magical. Right. Which is, if 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.439 you strip away the illusion of control, do people 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.780 break? And that's our mission for today's deep 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:30.919 dive. We are going to look past the spooky hook 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:33.340 and see what this book is really saying about 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:36.180 fate and data. Because the premise terrified 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.939 me, but the analysis you've got lined up makes 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:41.020 me think there is a lot more math involved than 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:43.259 I expected. There is always more math than you 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:45.659 expect. Yeah. But trust me, in this context, 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.120 the math is actually the scary part. Well, let's 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:49.740 not get ahead of ourselves. Let's set the scene 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:52.039 properly. Let's unpack that flight. Sure. The 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:54.219 book opens on a route from Hobart, Tasmania to 00:02:54.219 --> 00:02:57.340 Sydney, a standard, totally boring domestic route. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:02:59.479 And that mundane... setting is crucial right 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:01.780 horror always hits harder when it disrupts something 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:04.560 totally boring enter the woman her name is cherry 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:07.259 and readers actually learn that pretty early 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:09.960 on around page 92 according to the notes so we 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.060 aren't dealing with some nameless monster here 00:03:12.060 --> 00:03:14.960 she's a person right and the source material 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:16.800 notes something crucial about her background 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.560 immediately her mother was a psychic medium so 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:24.280 right out of the gate moriarty is planting a 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:30.000 seed of doubt is this ability Is it real magic? 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:33.699 Or is this just a learned behavior from growing 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.259 up in that specific environment? And she walks 00:03:36.259 --> 00:03:38.539 down the aisle pointing at people without permission. 00:03:38.699 --> 00:03:40.979 Can we just talk about the violation? Oh, it's 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:43.099 massive. You're stuck in a metal tube. You can't 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:44.840 leave. And someone is screaming your expiration 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:47.699 date at you. It is an extreme violation of social 00:03:47.699 --> 00:03:49.219 norms. And she gives them the cause of death 00:03:49.219 --> 00:03:51.740 and their age. And then she drops this line that 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:53.560 the sources highlight over and over. She says, 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:56.139 fate won't be fought. Fate won't be fought. I 00:03:56.139 --> 00:03:58.219 mean, that is a conversation stopper. It creates 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.599 immediate psychological chaos. Now, obviously, 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.979 the plane eventually lands. And in a normal world, 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:06.819 the passengers would get off, collect their bags, 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:09.120 and tell their friends about the crazy lady in 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:12.060 C -12B. They'd laugh it off. That's exactly what 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:13.800 I would do. I'd be tweeting about it before I 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:15.860 even left the airport. But then the other shoe 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:18.920 drops. The catalyst. The sources tell us that 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.540 in the aftermath, three of the passengers actually 00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:24.500 die. And they don't just die of random, unrelated 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:29.240 causes. No. They die in strangely odd ways that 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:31.660 perfectly match the predictions Cherry made on 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:33.800 the plane. Okay, that is where the panic sets 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:35.740 in. If nothing happened, it's a funny anecdote. 00:04:36.269 --> 00:04:38.470 But once you have three data points that match 00:04:38.470 --> 00:04:40.990 the prediction, it stops being a story and starts 00:04:40.990 --> 00:04:43.310 looking like a pattern. Exactly. And this is 00:04:43.310 --> 00:04:45.290 where the sociological experiment really begins. 00:04:45.490 --> 00:04:48.829 The remaining passengers are thrust into absolute 00:04:48.829 --> 00:04:51.310 panic. They form a Facebook group because, of 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:53.110 course, they do to obsess over the deaf lady. 00:04:53.269 --> 00:04:55.389 Naturally. And we start to see these different 00:04:55.389 --> 00:04:58.370 archetypes of human behavior emerging. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:58.990 --> 00:05:01.250 The summary mentions that the central conflict 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:03.589 becomes how these people change their lives. 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:06.360 You've got some who just accept it, right? The 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:08.300 fatalists. Yeah, the ones who say, well, the 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.740 spreadsheet says I die at 45, so I might as well 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:12.759 stop worrying. And then you have the ones who 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:15.759 try to cheat death, which, good luck with that. 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:18.480 That is the classic self -fulfilling prophecy 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:22.000 setup. The sources discuss this tension deeply. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.540 Are these people dying because she predicted 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:27.240 it? Or did she predict it because she could see 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.100 the trajectory they were already on? Right. Like 00:05:30.100 --> 00:05:31.800 if you tell someone they are going to die in 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:34.180 a car crash, maybe they get so anxious behind 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:36.100 the wheel that they actually cause the crash. 00:05:36.339 --> 00:05:38.800 It completely messes with your head. So where 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.240 does an idea like this even come from? Did Leanne 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:44.100 Moriarty have a brush with the occult? Actually, 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:46.699 no. She had a brush with something much more 00:05:46.699 --> 00:05:50.519 common. Extreme boredom. Really? Boredom? Yeah. 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:52.720 The ordnance story here is incredibly relatable. 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:55.500 Moriarty was waiting for a flight out of Hobart. 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:58.180 just like the characters in the book. And this 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:00.180 is a nightmare for a writer. She realized she 00:06:00.180 --> 00:06:03.139 didn't have a book to read. No book. That is 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:06.040 tragic. I panic if I don't have three podcasts 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:08.899 downloaded just for a grocery run. Exactly. So 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:10.800 she was stuck at the gate with nothing to do. 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:13.660 So she did what anyone would do. She started 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:15.740 people watching. She looked around the gate area 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:18.500 at all these strangers and she had this sudden 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:22.019 epiphany. She realized that eventually every 00:06:22.019 --> 00:06:24.699 single person in that room would die. I mean, 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:27.040 true, but a little dark for a Tuesday afternoon 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:29.319 at the airport. It is dark, but it's also just 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:33.300 factual. She realized that one day, the data 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:36.379 on everyone's death, the specific age, the specific 00:06:36.379 --> 00:06:39.839 cause, would be a matter of public record. It 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.459 would literally be a fact on a death certificate 00:06:42.459 --> 00:06:44.259 somewhere. Okay, when you put it that way, it's 00:06:44.259 --> 00:06:45.879 less about magic and more about bureaucracy. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.069 Precisely. The what if that sparked the novel 00:06:49.069 --> 00:06:51.050 wasn't imagine if I could see the future. It 00:06:51.050 --> 00:06:53.389 was simply imagine if that information, which 00:06:53.389 --> 00:06:55.689 will exist one day, was available right now. 00:06:55.910 --> 00:06:58.050 That is a really interesting way to frame it. 00:06:58.089 --> 00:07:00.250 It's not predicting the unknown. It's accessing 00:07:00.250 --> 00:07:03.009 the inevitable. Yes. And we have to connect this 00:07:03.009 --> 00:07:05.170 to the bigger picture of Moriarty's life at the 00:07:05.170 --> 00:07:07.170 time, because the sources highlight that this 00:07:07.170 --> 00:07:08.930 wasn't just a random thriller idea she pulled 00:07:08.930 --> 00:07:11.189 out of a hat. She had been thinking about mortality 00:07:11.189 --> 00:07:14.569 quite a bit. Oh, what was going on? Well, she 00:07:14.569 --> 00:07:16.230 and her sister had both been dealing with breast 00:07:16.230 --> 00:07:18.959 cancer. Oh, wow. Yeah. And her father had passed 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:21.800 away a few years prior. So she was really already 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:24.180 in that headspace. She was. She mentioned in 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:25.959 interviews that she and her friends were talking 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.220 about illness and deaths constantly. It was just 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:32.439 the backdrop of her life at that point. So here 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:35.459 one moment comes from a place of genuine reflection 00:07:35.459 --> 00:07:38.600 on how fragile we are, not just an attempt to 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:41.240 write a scary plot to sell books. That grounds 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:43.800 the spookiness in something very real. It's that 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:46.790 middle of the night fear we all have. But speaking 00:07:46.790 --> 00:07:49.269 of real versus spooky, let's pivot to the thing 00:07:49.269 --> 00:07:52.949 you teased earlier, the math. Yes, the skepticism. 00:07:53.149 --> 00:07:55.649 Because you mentioned a review from the Skeptical 00:07:55.649 --> 00:07:57.769 Inquirer that really changed how you looked at 00:07:57.769 --> 00:07:59.889 the book. This is where it gets fascinating for 00:07:59.889 --> 00:08:02.430 me. The review was written by Adrienne Hill. 00:08:02.569 --> 00:08:04.750 Now, Hill is a high school math teacher and a 00:08:04.750 --> 00:08:07.490 skeptic. So she went into this book very wary. 00:08:07.750 --> 00:08:09.670 She actually said she almost didn't finish it 00:08:09.670 --> 00:08:11.350 because she thought it was endorsing psychic 00:08:11.350 --> 00:08:14.129 phenomena. I can totally see that. If you're 00:08:14.129 --> 00:08:16.910 a science -minded person. Reading a book that 00:08:16.910 --> 00:08:20.189 seems to say, yes, magic is real, might be incredibly 00:08:20.189 --> 00:08:25.089 annoying. Exactly. But the twist, at least thematically, 00:08:25.269 --> 00:08:28.629 is that the book shifts. Hill noted that in the 00:08:28.629 --> 00:08:30.850 second half, the narrative moves heavily into 00:08:30.850 --> 00:08:33.289 discussions of statistics and common fallacies. 00:08:33.529 --> 00:08:36.230 So the Death Lady might not be magic. She might 00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:38.909 just be very observant. The book explores the 00:08:38.909 --> 00:08:42.009 concept of cold reading. Moriarty actually used 00:08:42.009 --> 00:08:44.629 a book called Psychic Blues. by Mark Edward for 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:47.450 her research. It looks at how psychics use observation, 00:08:47.870 --> 00:08:50.990 probability, and broad statements to convince 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:53.309 people they know things. Let's unpack cold reading 00:08:53.309 --> 00:08:55.110 for a second. This is like when someone says, 00:08:55.269 --> 00:08:56.950 I sense you've had a difficult time with a loved 00:08:56.950 --> 00:08:59.730 one recently. And you go, oh my God, yes. Right. 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:02.289 But statistically, almost everyone has had a 00:09:02.289 --> 00:09:04.529 difficult time with a loved one recently. It's 00:09:04.529 --> 00:09:06.769 called a Barnum statement. Something that feels 00:09:06.769 --> 00:09:09.029 personal but actually applies to everyone? So 00:09:09.029 --> 00:09:11.350 Sherry, the character on the plane, might just 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:13.809 be really good at guessing based on actuarial 00:09:13.809 --> 00:09:16.590 data. Like looking at someone and thinking, okay, 00:09:16.730 --> 00:09:19.210 middle -aged man, high stress, clutching his 00:09:19.210 --> 00:09:23.009 chest, likely a heart attack. That is the implication 00:09:23.009 --> 00:09:25.710 the Skeptical Review highlights. It turns out 00:09:25.710 --> 00:09:27.970 the Death Lady might be using observation and 00:09:27.970 --> 00:09:31.450 math rather than magic. It raises the question, 00:09:31.590 --> 00:09:34.029 if you predict enough things based on statistical 00:09:34.029 --> 00:09:37.980 likelihood, Eventually, you will be right. And 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.120 the human brain is wired to remember the hits 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:43.100 and forget the misses. Confirmation bias. Exactly. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.080 If she points at 50 people and gets three right, 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:48.740 those three become legends. The 47 she got wrong, 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:51.139 people just forget them. That is almost scarier 00:09:51.139 --> 00:09:53.720 because it implies that we are walking billboards 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:56.080 for our own health issues. It suggests we are 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:58.850 essentially walking data points. But there's 00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:00.789 another layer the skeptical inquirer praised, 00:10:01.110 --> 00:10:03.669 and that is the mental health aspect. The review 00:10:03.669 --> 00:10:05.830 points out that Moriarty does a very accurate 00:10:05.830 --> 00:10:08.230 job depicting specific conditions. Yeah, I saw 00:10:08.230 --> 00:10:10.509 mentions of smiling depression. That's a term 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:12.549 we're hearing a lot more often lately. It is. 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.169 It's that high -functioning depression where 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:17.309 someone appears perfectly happy, productive, 00:10:17.450 --> 00:10:19.950 and put together on the outside while suffering 00:10:19.950 --> 00:10:23.289 intensely internally. The source notes that this 00:10:23.639 --> 00:10:25.879 along with obsessive compulsive disorder, or 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:29.480 OCD, is portrayed with a lot of care. How does 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:32.200 OCD tie into the psychic prediction stuff? I 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:34.299 mean, I have an idea, but... Well, think about 00:10:34.299 --> 00:10:36.980 what OCD often involves. It could be a desperate 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:39.799 need for certainty or control. Intrusive thoughts 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:41.940 about bad things happening. Right. Now imagine 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:43.799 you have that condition and someone tells you 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:46.580 you will die on this exact date. Yeah. That is 00:10:46.580 --> 00:10:49.220 going to spiral you completely. The book details 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:51.879 treatments for OCD and explores how incredibly 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:54.340 harmful it can be to believe in a deterministic 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:57.120 fate. So the villain isn't just the spooky prediction. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:10:59.720 The real villain is the belief that you have 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.720 no choice. Precisely. It connects the thriller 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:06.289 aspect to an educational one. It shows the psychological 00:11:06.289 --> 00:11:09.149 harm of believing that fate is locked in. It's 00:11:09.149 --> 00:11:11.830 not just a plot device. It's a look at how dangerous 00:11:11.830 --> 00:11:14.129 that loss of agency can be for the human mind. 00:11:14.269 --> 00:11:16.610 That makes the book sound pretty heavy. And I 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:18.769 know Moriarty is known for balancing heavy things 00:11:18.769 --> 00:11:21.649 with wit. I mean, Big Little Lies was funny despite 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:24.820 being about murder and domestic abuse. But did 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:26.779 the critics think she pulled it off this time? 00:11:26.899 --> 00:11:29.139 I know her track record is usually spotless, 00:11:29.179 --> 00:11:32.240 but was this one universally loved? It was definitely 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:34.460 more of a mixed bag this time around. The consensus 00:11:34.460 --> 00:11:37.340 wasn't nearly as unified as it was for her earlier 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:39.539 hits. Who didn't like it? Let's hear the bad 00:11:39.539 --> 00:11:42.779 news first. Well, The Guardian was quite harsh. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:47.139 The reviewer, Adele Dumont, called the plot far 00:11:47.139 --> 00:11:49.759 -fetched. I mean, to be fair, a psychic pointing 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:52.240 at people on a plane is far -fetched. True, but 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:54.440 her criticism went deeper than just the premise. 00:11:54.860 --> 00:11:57.320 She called the book disappointingly orderly. 00:11:57.580 --> 00:11:59.659 Orderly. That's an odd critique for a thriller. 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:02.059 Right. She felt that despite all these heavy 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:04.419 themes we just discussed, domestic violence, 00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:08.399 self -harm, sex, the reader is never really unsettled. 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:10.899 She actually described the ending as beige and 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:13.710 paint by numbers. Ouch. Beige is a rough insult 00:12:13.710 --> 00:12:16.570 for a thriller. You want neon red or pitch black. 00:12:16.789 --> 00:12:19.009 You do not want beige. The New York Times had 00:12:19.009 --> 00:12:22.629 a pretty similar take. Leah Greenblatt felt it 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:24.669 missed the tug and wallop of a taut thriller. 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:27.809 She described it as feeling like a work in progress 00:12:27.809 --> 00:12:30.350 that was still searching for its final form. 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:33.029 So some critics felt it was a bit half -baked. 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:35.509 Or maybe that it was just trying to do too many 00:12:35.509 --> 00:12:37.669 things at once, like be a thriller, be a math 00:12:37.669 --> 00:12:40.190 lesson, be a character study. That seems to be 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:42.179 the friction point. for the negative reviews. 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.779 But surely there were fans. Oh, certainly. The 00:12:45.779 --> 00:12:47.919 Washington Post had a much more positive take. 00:12:49.019 --> 00:12:51.379 Stephanie Mary wrote that if you stop expecting 00:12:51.379 --> 00:12:54.019 a pure puzzle, you find a lot of value in it. 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:57.440 She argued that the is she psychic or not question 00:12:57.440 --> 00:12:59.320 becomes way less interesting than the actual 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.559 character study. So she liked watching the people 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:04.899 squirm. In a way, yes. She valued the book for 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:07.240 showing how people react to their ephemerality. 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:10.120 She said the book induces a sense of sanguinity. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:12.779 Sanguinity. Okay, hold on. That is a $5 word. 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:14.559 Let's unpack that for a second. It's a great 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:17.120 word. It basically means a cheerful optimism 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.779 or peace, specifically in the face of difficult 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:22.200 situations. So the book about death made her 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:25.679 feel peaceful. Yes, because it forces you to 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:29.139 accept that we are temporary. And Hannah White 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:31.879 from the Colgate Maroon News backed this up completely. 00:13:32.259 --> 00:13:34.879 She called the book bold. and recommended it 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:37.240 for anyone looking to look inward, even if she 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.200 admitted the structure could feel a bit overwhelming 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:41.360 at times. It sounds like if you went in expecting 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.480 a pure adrenaline thriller, you might be disappointed. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:45.840 But if you wanted a character study on death, 00:13:46.059 --> 00:13:48.179 you'd be happy. That seems to be the main divide 00:13:48.179 --> 00:13:51.019 among readers. And just to place it in context, 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:54.320 Good Housekeeping ranked the Moriarty books in 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:58.320 March 2025. They put, here, one moment at number 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.059 three. Bronze medal. That's respectable. What 00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:03.159 beat it? The Husband's Secret was number one. 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:05.799 And Big Little Lies was number two. It was sitting 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:08.519 right behind the absolute classics. That is very 00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:11.200 good company to be in. Now, before we wrap up, 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:13.320 I have to ask about Leanne Moriarty herself. 00:14:13.779 --> 00:14:16.299 We've talked about the book's stance on psychics, 00:14:16.340 --> 00:14:19.159 that it leans heavily toward the math and skeptic 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:21.759 side. But what about the author? Does she believe 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:23.759 in this stuff? Because she wrote a whole book 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:25.879 about a woman who might be the real deal. She 00:14:25.879 --> 00:14:28.480 actually identifies as a skeptic. But she has 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:31.100 a fantastic anecdote about visiting a psychic 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:34.279 for research that I think, perfectly encapsulates 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:36.440 the whole theme of the book. Oh, do tell. Did 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:39.279 she go undercover? She did. She went to a fortune 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:42.600 teller while researching. Here, one moment. She 00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:45.440 wanted to see the technique up close, the cold 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:48.580 reading, the observation. So the psychic asked 00:14:48.580 --> 00:14:50.740 her a bunch of questions, including what she 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:53.100 did for a living. And she said, I'm an international 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:55.899 bestseller who has sold 20 million books and 00:14:55.899 --> 00:14:58.720 Nicole Kidman stars in my adaptations. She was 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:00.600 a bit more modest than that. She just said, I 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.259 write books. Okay. Vague. I like it. Give them 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.080 nothing. And the psychic, in a stroke of absolute 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.299 genius safety, looked at her and said, I think 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:11.220 you should do pretty well with that. Pretty well. 00:15:11.299 --> 00:15:13.600 That is the understatement of the century. Exactly. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:16.000 But think about it from the perspective of cold 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.580 reading. It was a prediction clearly based on 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:22.340 safe guesses. If someone tells you they write 00:15:22.340 --> 00:15:24.759 books, telling them they'll do pretty well is 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.159 a flattering, safe bet. Right. If they fail, 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.409 they just think, oh. I haven't done well yet. 00:15:30.809 --> 00:15:33.610 If they succeed, the psychic looks like a genius. 00:15:33.929 --> 00:15:36.409 It's a win -win for the psychic. It really is. 00:15:36.570 --> 00:15:39.129 And it only reinforced Moriarty's skepticism. 00:15:39.429 --> 00:15:41.649 She said she would love to believe she really 00:15:41.649 --> 00:15:44.929 wants that magic to be real, but her experiences 00:15:44.929 --> 00:15:47.370 just haven't amazed her. It's all just vague 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.080 validation. It's funny because that real life 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:52.919 experience mirrors the book so perfectly. It's 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:55.440 all about the interpretation. If she had been 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.220 a struggling writer, she would have clung to 00:15:57.220 --> 00:15:59.240 that prediction as a lifeline. She wouldn't walked 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:01.179 out of there thinking it's going to happen. The 00:16:01.179 --> 00:16:04.500 spirit said so. But because she's already wildly 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:08.259 successful, she sees it as exactly what it is, 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:10.840 a safe guess. That is the core of the novel, 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:12.620 isn't it? It is not about the prediction. It's 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:15.230 about the reception. The death lady is just a 00:16:15.230 --> 00:16:17.750 mirror reflecting the passenger's own fears and 00:16:17.750 --> 00:16:20.769 insecurities back at them. The date she gives 00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:23.009 them forced them to look at their lives right 00:16:23.009 --> 00:16:26.129 now. It forces the question, am I living the 00:16:26.129 --> 00:16:28.370 way I want to be living? So let's wrap this up. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.220 We have a book that starts with a terrifying 00:16:32.220 --> 00:16:35.299 supernatural premise on a plane. It takes us 00:16:35.299 --> 00:16:37.779 through the absolute chaos of these passengers 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:40.620 trying to outrun their expiration dates. But 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:43.080 ultimately, it lands as a critique of how we 00:16:43.080 --> 00:16:45.799 obsess over the future and a deconstruction of 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:48.220 the psychic industry itself. And a pretty detailed 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:50.259 look at mental health along the way. Is it a 00:16:50.259 --> 00:16:52.679 thriller? Yes. But it's one that asks you to 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:54.500 bring your calculator and your therapist along 00:16:54.500 --> 00:16:57.039 for the ride. I love that. OK, here's the question 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.409 I want to leave you with today. We talked about 00:16:59.409 --> 00:17:01.669 the data of death, the fact that the date and 00:17:01.669 --> 00:17:04.089 cause of your death will eventually be a matter 00:17:04.089 --> 00:17:07.529 of public record. It is a file that, theoretically, 00:17:07.869 --> 00:17:10.089 exists in the future. It is entirely inevitable. 00:17:10.490 --> 00:17:12.950 So, if that file existed right now, and it was 00:17:12.950 --> 00:17:15.009 sitting on a table right in front of you, would 00:17:15.009 --> 00:17:17.690 you open it? That is the ultimate question. Ignorance 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:20.809 is bliss, or is knowledge power. If you knew 00:17:20.809 --> 00:17:22.789 the date, would you live differently? Would you 00:17:22.789 --> 00:17:25.309 quit your job tomorrow? Or would knowing the 00:17:25.309 --> 00:17:28.069 end just ruin the middle? I think I might be 00:17:28.069 --> 00:17:31.589 too curious to resist. I would open it, and then 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:33.650 I would probably spend the rest of my time trying 00:17:33.650 --> 00:17:37.130 to prove the data wrong. Which ironically, as 00:17:37.130 --> 00:17:39.230 we learned today, might be exactly what causes 00:17:39.230 --> 00:17:42.089 it. See, I think I'm with the skeptics on this 00:17:42.089 --> 00:17:45.450 one. I'd rather just enjoy the flight, have my 00:17:45.450 --> 00:17:47.809 little bag of pretzels, and not know when we're 00:17:47.809 --> 00:17:49.769 landing. Probably the safer choice for your blood 00:17:49.769 --> 00:17:51.789 pressure. And that is why we make a good team. 00:17:51.869 --> 00:17:55.740 You analyze the risk, and I just ignore it. Thanks 00:17:55.740 --> 00:17:57.400 for listening to this deep dive into Here One 00:17:57.400 --> 00:17:58.859 Moment. See you next time. Bye.