Ryan Holiday

That was a difficult moment in time.

Obviously, now we know how the story ends.

But we didn't necessarily in those early days of the pandemic.

Mm-hmm.

And I think I felt all that very acutely.

And it's interesting to me to hear that the book was somewhat inspired by a sleeping child.

There is something about that, too, that is, you know, you're just always going as a parent.

But when you slow down and you see them sleeping there at peace, it's impossible not to be moved by it.

I mean, I think it's just the very realness of the idea that the world is falling apart, that you have essentially no ability to protect or shield them from this thing that is happening.

And...

One of the moving scenes in The Road is a flashback where his son is being born and his wife is pregnant and there's like thunderclouds and he just senses that I think the power goes out and it's the first sign that things are about to go wrong, right?

This sort of impending doom.

That is kind of the feeling that I remember from some of those early days of the pandemic, the presidential address, the news,

the everyday more reports, the case count, there was a possibility of it going the way that it went in this book.

And so I think that's the feeling that I had there.

The thin line, to me, part of the road is about that thin line between civilization and chaos, the veneer between we're all in this together and every man and family for themselves.

I absolutely agree.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And great literature, you know, is a mirror.