Instead of an interview for the first Saturday in 2026, the Collapse Life team thought a short personalized monologue might be more appropriate. Host, Zahra Sethna, spends a few moments reflecting on the strange moment we find ourselves in and how it might unfold in the year ahead.
2025 didn’t deliver the reckoning many expected. It delivered something quieter and harder to name: prolonged suspension. Systems that should have broken didn’t; the lies that were supposed to be fully exposed were redacted; in the end, virtually nothing reset. Different suits; different bluster; different talking points, same cancer slowly metastasizing. All this has consequences — not just politically or economically, but personally.
Here are some of our thoughts about how to survive the waiting intact — keeping your integrity, your awareness, and your humanity while the world insists on carrying on as if nothing is wrong.
We’ll be back next week with new interviews, new articles, and the same incisive exploration of the political, social, and technological shifts shaping this era.
As always, Collapse Life is open to comments, critiques, and ideas. We read each and every comment and email we receive, and do our best to respond rapidly but thoughtfully. Please leave us your thoughtful feedback in the comments or email us 24/7 at info@collapselife.com.
A quick note before you go
Collapse Life is now just shy of 5,000 subscribers — and around 70 of you currently support this work as paid members. That’s about 1.4% of the readership carrying the weight for everyone else. And that’s fine — we are not about a hard sell.
However, if this project has helped you think more clearly, stay grounded, or feel less alone while navigating a distorted world, this is your invitation to step into that inner circle.
Paid subscriptions and donations directly fund the time, research, interviews, and writing that make Collapse Life possible — and they unlock special content we’re building for 2026, including deeper essays, subscriber-only conversations, and early access to new projects.
If you’re able, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription and becoming part of the group that keeps this work alive. Or if one particular piece of work resonates, think about a one-time contribution via the ‘donate’ button on our homepage.
That idea — the donate button — was requested by a new-to-us reader. In fact, he not only took out a founding membership to Collapse Life, but made a substantial donation via that very button he suggested this past December. We won’t name this incredible supporter (you know who you are!), but please know how humbled we are when we receive notification of a “new paid subscriber” from Substack.
More than anything, from all of us here at Collapse Life, we thank you for reading. And we doff our cap to those of you helping us to carry this necessary work forward.
