THE GADFATHER OF REASON: Gad Saad and the Lifelong Battle for Science, Free Thought, and the Courage to Speak the Truth

He built a career studying why humans believe irrational things. Then he became one of the internet's most polarizing voices for saying so out loud. Gad Saad escaped civil war in Lebanon as a teenager and went on to help found evolutionary consumer psychology, a field that applies Darwinian theory to why we buy, believe, and behave the way we do. For two decades, that was a respected but relatively quiet academic career. Then came The Parasitic Mind, a bestselling book on ideological conformity, a wildly popular podcast, and a reputation, embraced by supporters and rejected by critics in roughly equal measure, as one of the most outspoken commentators on free speech, academic culture, and intellectual honesty in modern public life. The Gadfather of Reason traces that full arc: the refugee child who rebuilt his life from nothing, the scientist who helped legitimize an entire academic discipline, and the public figure whose willingness to say the unpopular thing has made him equally beloved and reviled. Drawing on his academic record, public statements, and the ongoing debates that surround him, this is an unflinching look at a man who has never been interested in being liked, only in being heard. For readers who want to understand one of the most talked-about, and argued-about, minds in public discourse today.