📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠wherever you listen⁠

When we talk about the forces that shape history, we usually hear about wars, revolutions, inventions, maybe the occasional love affair. But there’s one powerful force that’s rarely acknowledged because, well, it makes people uncomfortable. That force is drugs. In his new book Human History on Drugs, writer and historian Sam Kelly uncovers the surprising, often scandalous ways that everything from opium to cocaine has shaped leaders, inspired art, fueled some bad decisions — and some good ones. It’s a provocative and oddly humanizing look at the past, and it just might change the way you think about both history and substance use.

📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter