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"A frank reflection on contemporary America... on the tenuous nature of democracy."-Kirkus Reviews
IS HE DEAD YET?
You know who he's talking about.
They call it Trump Derangement Syndrome, and Dan Riley had a stage 4 case of it. Like many Americans on election night 2024, he was convinced the country would reject Donald Trump and turn a new page. When it didn't, he made a radical decision for a lifelong news junkie: he would step away-not just from the daily news, but from social media, political commentary, and the endless cycle of outrage that had come to dominate American life. So he imposed a News Prevention System on himself, and this onetime news junkie began building his life around what actually mattered instead: art, science, literature, philosophy, nature, family. Written as a series of dated dispatches from Election Day 2024 through November 1, 2025, Is He Dead Yet? chronicles what happened when Riley stopped consuming American outrage and started contemplating the country, and himself, from a reflective distance-reconsidering:
• Citizenship and democracy in an age of authoritarian drift
• Aging, nature, and pop culture as sources of clarity
• History and philosophy, from Thoreau to the Stoics
• A return to his roots as a seminarian, reimagining Genesis for a New American Eden
Part memoir, part meditation, part act of resistance, Is He Dead Yet? argues that keeping up with the news reaches a point of diminishing returns-where it stops being a virtue and becomes an obstacle to becoming the best version of ourselves. Is He Dead Yet? is not another screed against authoritarianism. It's a road map for anyone struggling to live through one of the most troubling eras in American history.
IS HE DEAD YET?
You know who he's talking about.
They call it Trump Derangement Syndrome, and Dan Riley had a stage 4 case of it. Like many Americans on election night 2024, he was convinced the country would reject Donald Trump and turn a new page. When it didn't, he made a radical decision for a lifelong news junkie: he would step away-not just from the daily news, but from social media, political commentary, and the endless cycle of outrage that had come to dominate American life. So he imposed a News Prevention System on himself, and this onetime news junkie began building his life around what actually mattered instead: art, science, literature, philosophy, nature, family. Written as a series of dated dispatches from Election Day 2024 through November 1, 2025, Is He Dead Yet? chronicles what happened when Riley stopped consuming American outrage and started contemplating the country, and himself, from a reflective distance-reconsidering:
• Citizenship and democracy in an age of authoritarian drift
• Aging, nature, and pop culture as sources of clarity
• History and philosophy, from Thoreau to the Stoics
• A return to his roots as a seminarian, reimagining Genesis for a New American Eden
Part memoir, part meditation, part act of resistance, Is He Dead Yet? argues that keeping up with the news reaches a point of diminishing returns-where it stops being a virtue and becomes an obstacle to becoming the best version of ourselves. Is He Dead Yet? is not another screed against authoritarianism. It's a road map for anyone struggling to live through one of the most troubling eras in American history.