Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 28 minutes ago
What does it mean to pursue the American Dream in a nation where wealth and opportunity are increasingly concentrated at the top? At a moment when economic inequality shapes who thrives, who struggles, and who is left behind, Evan Osnos, National Book Award–winning author and longtime New Yorker staff writer, presents an incisive and often darkly comic account of contemporary elites, tracing how wealth defines influence, molds institutions, and even shapes the very idea of the American Dream in the twenty-first century. In lifting the curtain on the secretive lives of billionaires and oligarchs, Osnos illuminates the dazzling allure and isolating power of extreme wealth.
In his latest book, 'The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich', a series of essays in the New Yorker, Osnos lifts the curtain on the secretive lives of billionaires and oligarchs, illuminating the dazzling allure and isolating power of extreme wealth. Through his work, Osnos invites readers to see inequality not merely as a set of numbers or abstract forces, but as lived stories: of families, communities, and societies molded by power, ambition, and social pressures. Blending reporting, narrative insight, and a touch of dark humor, he captures the anxieties, ambitions, and contradictions of those at the top, while revealing the ripple effects on those navigating life outside the gilded gates of privilege.
In conversation with moderator Tracy Metz and co-speaker Tahrim Ramdjan, Evan Osnos explored how power and wealth shape workplaces, public institutions, and the opportunities available to ordinary people—and why these dynamics matter for communities across the world.
This event was recorded at Pakhuis de Zwijger on April 13, 2026.
What does it mean to pursue the American Dream in a nation where wealth and opportunity are increasingly concentrated at the top? At a moment when economic inequality shapes who thrives, who struggles, and who is left behind, Evan Osnos, National Book Award–winning author and longtime New Yorker staff writer, presents an incisive and often darkly comic account of contemporary elites, tracing how wealth defines influence, molds institutions, and even shapes the very idea of the American Dream in the twenty-first century. In lifting the curtain on the secretive lives of billionaires and oligarchs, Osnos illuminates the dazzling allure and isolating power of extreme wealth.
In his latest book, 'The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich', a series of essays in the New Yorker, Osnos lifts the curtain on the secretive lives of billionaires and oligarchs, illuminating the dazzling allure and isolating power of extreme wealth. Through his work, Osnos invites readers to see inequality not merely as a set of numbers or abstract forces, but as lived stories: of families, communities, and societies molded by power, ambition, and social pressures. Blending reporting, narrative insight, and a touch of dark humor, he captures the anxieties, ambitions, and contradictions of those at the top, while revealing the ripple effects on those navigating life outside the gilded gates of privilege.
In conversation with moderator Tracy Metz and co-speaker Tahrim Ramdjan, Evan Osnos explored how power and wealth shape workplaces, public institutions, and the opportunities available to ordinary people—and why these dynamics matter for communities across the world.
This event was recorded at Pakhuis de Zwijger on April 13, 2026.
