Chaos, Chance & Choice

As a kid, did you ever play “What If”? Like, what if the Kennedys, Dr. King and Malcolm X weren’t gunned down in the 1960s? Like, what if the votes in Florida were counted and Al Gore won the 2000 election? What if the U.S. did not support the jihadis in Afghanistan? What if the U.S. did not invade Iraq? History, the world would have been very different. And on a personal level: what if your partner didn’t take that job baking bread you never would have met? What if you got stuck in traffic and missed your job interview? You get the point. Why do things happen? Random chance events can divert our lives and change everything. Social scientist Brian Klaas examines this phenomenon and the chaos it can sow.

Speaker: Brian Klaas

Brian Klaas is a professor of global politics at University College London and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is the author of Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us and Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters.

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