This Isn’t Fine: The Cultural Shift We Need to Save Humanity from the Dumpster Fire We Started

by Taylor Ahlstrom, Nate Hagens (foreword)

Jam-packed with charts, graphs, and hilarious memes, This Isn’t Fine is a surprisingly funny and accessible ride through a world on the brink of collapse—and what we can do to survive it. Diving headfirst into finance and energy, culture and ecology, Taylor Ahlstrom transforms the complex systems and histories that underpin our society into relatable narratives, all while mythbusting popular delusions on everything from free-market capitalism to electric cars.This is not a book about the end of the world. This is a book about how we can save it. And it’s a must-read for any human on planet earth. ***Feel like the whole world is going to shit?Been haunted by a creeping sense of existential dread?Worried about the future of the planet—and ourselves?. . . it’s both better—and worse—than you think.Wars and pandemics and wildfires and murder hornets, Elon and Bezos and dick rockets and cost-of-living crises—this isn’t fine. In fact, it’s totally, utterly, almost inescapably f*cked. But however bad you think things seem . . . I promise you, all of these things are just a drop in the bucket, a matchbook in the dumpster fire we need to put out.It’s the biggest problem that nobody’s talking about . . . the biggest secret that’s hiding in plain sight. It’s the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. And no, I’m not talking about climate change. Well, there’s that too.And to make matters worse, as the dumpster fire keeps on raging, we’re starting to get used to the smell.This isn’t a depressing book about the end of the world. It’s a book about how we can save it. It’s a book about hope. Within these pages is the beginning to the answer to the problem at the heart of all the problems. It’s why you’ve probably tuned out, given up, or given in, and what you can do to come back to life. It’s everything that’s wrong with the world and the way we’re living in it and what we have to do to turn this ship around. But if we want to put out the fire, we gotta figure out what’s burning. And if we want to build something better, we have to know which pieces were better off getting burnt.

410 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 22, 2024

About the author

Taylor Ahlstrom is a freelance writer, editor, and book designer who has written and published two books. She is passionate about making the world a better place through honesty, authenticity, and self-reflection in combination with stronger, more resilient communities, better communication, and economies that prioritize wellbeing over profits.

Reviews

[Taylor Ahlstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I write this book? You bet I did! Why does Goodreads let you review your own books? I have no idea. But I'm not just giving it five stars because I think it's surprisingly funny and incredibly informative and insanely well-researched—but because it's a book every human on this planet NEEDS to read. No matter how well-informed you think you are (and I thought I was pretty well-informed before I started writing it) there are a million things we've gotten wrong. Things even the smartest minds in their fields are still getting wrong from economics to electric cars. And if we have any chance of saving the world, we all need to understand the way things really work. This book is a primer to all of those things wrapped up in the funniest package I could muster.

But the real reason everyone needs to read this book is because it has a very healthy helping of something a lot of us are missing in this messed up world of extreme tribalism and climate change and raging wildfires and deaths of despair...hope. The end of the world as we know it is NOT the end of the world. Our story is still being written.

[Courtnee Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

In This Isn't Fine by Taylor Ahlstrom, she takes subjects - like grocery stores, electricity, and water - and does a gentle regression, showing her readers how fast their modern-day luxuries have been developed and fine-tuned. Ahlstrom illustrates the consequences of luxury items and how we need to alter our lives to prevent future harm to our planet. The author details the effects of fossil fuels, outlines interesting views on technology and ways for it to help us, and discusses changes to patents and voting. She hopes to find a balance and suggests ways to help our planet try to recover from the damage we have done to it. At the end of the book, Ahlstrom includes a sample sheet of "End of the World as We Know It" BINGO and a link for readers to grab more cards from her game.

Taylor Ahlstrom opens your eyes to how much you consume each day and shows that some things we think will fix our mistakes have harmful consequences, too. Though dark at times, the author provides humor and doesn't shy away from hard topics. Reading her book will help you learn about the history, economics, and science of a topic, like fossil fuels, and helps her readers make connections to enlighten their future decisions. I challenge you to read this book with an open mind. Not only will it enlighten you, but you will close it with renewed motivation and a sense of hope for our struggling species. By simply glancing over her work, you can tell Ahlstrom is a well-traveled, intelligent individual, but when you look at her intellectual connections regarding our resources, her aptitude fully shines, making her book a credible compilation. The author provides clear examples and relatable material in a conversational style, humbling you as you realize This Isn't Fine.

[Hudson Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Isn't Fine is just what our society needs at this pivotal moment in our species' trajectory. Taylor artfully navigates through all the "politics" of media bias and breaks down the reality of our modern situation based on the facts. Balancing humor with shocking reality, complex issues are broken down into easy-to-understand concepts so that the reader is motivated to act instead of lulled into a state of existential dread. A must-read for anyone out there looking around and feeling that everything isn't alright!