Lauren Markham: "Who is benefiting from this?"

Being honest here: I was nervous about hosting the online Q&A with Lauren Markham, the author of my pick of the month for May, A Map of Future Ruins. I don't get jitters very often, but I found myself going over everything again and again and again as we got ready to kick off. It wasn't because I thought it might be a difficult conversation (Lauren is smart and well-informed, and I knew she had plenty to say) or because I didn't have enough to say (the book touched on so many things that I had a million questions.)

I think it was because I wanted to do a good job for everyone else. After all, this was the very first on-camera interview for Curious Reading Club; not only did the content of the conversation need to be good, but the technical side had to work too, and it needed to be fun for those attending and useful for those watching afterwards.

In the end, I think it went pretty bloody well.

You can drop into the conversation by watching the video on YouTube, which is now available exclusively to members like you.

I can't speak for the experience of those who came along to join the conversation live (and there were a few) but I can say that I enjoyed it a lot. In our hour together we discussed what it really means to tell the story of migration, and why it is so important to so many people. Lauren told us she was drawn to this story because human migration is "a vital prism to understand contemporary events."

"You know, as we all know, humans have always migrated on this planet," she said. “What is new is not migration, but the way terrain has been carved up into territory; the way we've created borders and increasingly fortified borders, and—with the advent of the nation state—the creation of this imaginary marauding outside invaders."

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Immigration is, no surprises, a pretty depressing topic, but it is a huge one. It dominates the headlines and the polls: Joe Kahn, the executive editor of the New York Times, told Semafor recently that yeah, democracy is an issue that people are sort of interested in, "but it’s not the top one — immigration happens to be the top."

Nor is it a straightforward party political issue: across the board, and in almost every country on Earth, the question of "us" vs "them" is an integral part of modern culture and conversation.

I think that’s what I liked about Future Ruins; how vividly it describes the grinding, Kafka-esque nature of refugee bureaucracy and the barely-hidden violence of pushbacks. How Lauren’s experiences on the ground in Greece, Norway, and the USA give real texture and dimension to the problems of the system, and to the people in it.

And she talked about all these things, including who wins in this migration game—and who loses. Why does the United States spend billions on mandating that ICE keeps tens of thousands of people in detention instead of finding ways for migrants to contribute to society?

"That's so irrational, why are we doing that?" said Lauren. "It's irrational if you look at it from a financial perspective and from a moral perspective. But then why is it created? It's created because some somebody is benefiting from this. And who is it? Well, it's the companies who are getting these government contracts to run these prisons: 70% of them are private."

During our time together we covered a range of other things, including what it's like in the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos; an update on the case that forms the spine of the story; a discussion of what it means to "belong" in Western culture and history; and thoughts about how you report on painful facts while avoiding exploitation.

Lauren also took the trouble to recommend a few books that are important to her—go check them out.

• The Future of Nostalgia by Svetlana Boym (“So fascinating and fluid and brilliant, and I love it.”)

• The Undying by Anne Boyer (it is “wildly different than mine, but I think informed it stylistically.”)

• The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (“A beautiful, beautiful memoir.”)

Links to these videos will also start living in a special members-only section on our newsletter.readcurious.xyz website. It's a new feature I'm trying out, so let me know if you have any issues accessing material.

Next? Well, I'm here getting ready to announce and send out June's pick, a book I'm really excited to share with you—and I hope very much that you'll be able join us for the next live conversation.

Onwards

Bobbie