A highly personal, richly informed and culturally wide-ranging meditation on the loss of meaning in our times and on pathways to rediscovering it. -Gabor Mate, Md, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts- Close Encounters With AddictionA neuroanthropologist maps out a revolutionary new practice-Hedonic Engineering-that combines the best of neuroscience and optimal psychology. It's an intensive program of breathing, movement, and sexuality that mends trauma, heightens inspiration and tightens connections-helping us wake up, grow up, and show up for a world that needs us all. This is a book about a big idea. And the idea is this- Slowly over the past few decades, and now suddenly, all at once, we're suffering from a collapse in Meaning. Fundamentalism and nihilism are filling that vacuum, with consequences that affect us all. In a world that needs us at our best, diseases of despair, tribalism, and disaster fatigue are leaving us at our worst. It's vital that we regain control of the stories we're telling because they are shaping the future we're creating. To do that, we have to remember our deepest inspiration, heal our pain and apathy, and connect to each other like never before. If we can do that, we've got a shot at solving the big problems we face. And if we can't? Well, the dustbin of history has swallowed civilizations older.