Health and Safety: A Breakdown by Emily Witt (9/17/24)

“Haunting . . . [Witt] writes with such cool precision.”—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times"The first great book about what it was like to live through the Trump presidency"—Emily Gould, The CutFrom the New Yorker staff writer and acclaimed author of Future Sex, a memoir about drugs, techno, and New York CityIn the summer of 2016, a divisive presidential election was underway, and a new breed of right-wing rage was on the rise. Emily Witt, who would soon publish her first book on sex in the digital age, had recently quit antidepressants for a more expansive world of psychedelic experimentation. From her apartment in Brooklyn, she began to catch glimpses of the clandestine nightlife scene thrumming around her.In Health and Safety, Witt charts her immersion into New York City’s dance music underground. Emily would come to lead a double life. By day she worked as a journalist, covering gun violence, climate catastrophes, and the rallies of right-wing militias. And by night she pushed the lim