Margaret Atwood on 'The Handmaid's Tale,' Totalitarianism and U.F.O.s
About this episode
Klein interviews legendary novelist Margaret Atwood, recorded just before Russia invaded Ukraine, about stories — why humans think in them, how they deceive, and how they govern. Atwood discusses the sticky power of Bible stories, the national myths that hold countries together, her observations of life behind the Iron Curtain that shaped The Handmaid's Tale, and why she built Gilead as a Puritan theocracy. They explore how dominant energy sources shape cultures, why consumerism breeds insatiability, how climate change could drive societies toward authoritarianism, why she writes dystopias instead of utopias, and what it would take for the left to offer a genuinely inspiring vision of the future.