How It Works
Welcome to the Behavioral Scientist’s Summer Book Club. Here’s a rundown of everything you’ll need to know about how the book club will work this summer.
Theme: Ghosts from the Future
Nineteen Eighty-Four needs no introduction. You’ve heard of Big Brother and the Thought Police, Newspeak and doublethink. You’ve seen people claim that this or that is “Orwellian” or “straight out of 1984.” And perhaps you’ve come across The Party’s chilling and memorable slogan: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
The book—with its dueling themes of freedom versus control, privacy versus surveillance, self-expression versus conformity, truth versus propaganda—has remained in the cultural zeitgeist since it was published more than 75 years ago.
Today, as these themes rear their heads in our headlines with increasing urgency, it seems like the time to investigate the book for ourselves. Read more about why 1984?
How to join
Join Behavioral Scientist's Summer Book Club by becoming a paid Supporter or purchasing a ticket. For more information on how to join, click here.
The book club is also open to the plus-one guests of Supporters and members of partner organizations.
(If you're already a paid Supporter, please check your email for a sign up link. If you didn't receive one, please get in touch at editor@behavioralscientist.org.)
Schedule
Ghosts from the Future will begin in late-July and run through mid-September. For a complete look at the schedule, please click here.
What to expect: Bonus content, group discussions, and expert conversations
Bonus content: Throughout the course of the book club, we’ll bring you bonus content—articles, essays, media, and resources—that will help illuminate 1984, Orwell, and the Ghosts from the Future theme. In the early weeks, we’ll focus on content that will help deepen your understanding of the book and theme, but won’t give away any spoilers. So you’ll be able to read the bonus content, while you’re reading the book.
Live discussions: One of the coolest parts of this summer’s book club is that it’s truly an international crowd, now with members from all around the globe. We’re planning to schedule several opportunities for discussions with other members based on time zones of the group. We’ll announce dates and times in August.
Expert conversations: There are so many great themes to explore from the book. Soon we’ll be announcing the lineup of behavioral scientists, historians, authors and others who we’ll bring in to help illuminate questions and ideas inspired by 1984. To help it fit within members’ schedules, we’ll feature both conversations you can attend live and recorded conversations you can listen to asynchronously.
Website and communications
This website will be the hub for the Summer Book Club. It will be how you receive email updates and access book club posts and bonus content. You’ll also be able to comment on posts and discuss them with other club members.
To access the articles and updates, you will need to log into the website with the email you registered with. In lieu of creating a password, you’ll receive a link in your email that will log you in. If you have any trouble logging into the website, please reach out to us at editor@behavioralscientist.org.
Community
The book club will have members from all over the world. It will be an incredible opportunity to hear different perspectives on 1984, George Orwell, and the Ghost from the Future theme. On the website, you’ll have the chance to discuss with others by commenting on posts and replying to others’ comments. Don’t be shy! Ask questions and share your expertise. If there’s a discussion you’d like to get going, please let us know.
Get your network involved: Share the How to Join page with your personal and professional networks and on social media and get them reading too! If you’d like to get your organization involved in the Summer Book Club, please email us at editor@behavioralscientist.org.
Bonus - access past book events
When you join the 2025 Summer Book Club, you also get access to our past book events. That means you can access all of the bonus content and event recordings for last year's Summer Book Club, Techno-Visions, when we read Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut.
Player Piano is about a future society full of powerful machines, the special class of engineers who manages them, and the people at the mercy of both. The 1952 novel poses questions that we’re still seeking answers to, even more urgently in the age of AI, about what technological progress means for us individually and collectively.
We hosted three events to explore the themes from Player Piano:
- Nobel Prize winning economist Simon Johnson
- Psychologist Barry Schwartz
- Futurist Jane McGonigal
View all posts and events from Techno-Visions
You'll also have access to our February/March book event, Living the Imperfect Life with author Oliver Burkeman. His most recent book, Meditations for Mortals, comprises 28 brief chapters meant to be read at a pace of about one per day; a four-week “retreat for the mind.” In February 2025, we had the ideal 28-day month to take the retreat. We then hosted Oliver Burkeman for a conversation in March.
Contact
Questions? Get in touch with us at editor@behavioralscientist.org.