About Larissa
Larissa MacFarquhar is a celebrated staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, where she has been publishing deeply researched profiles since 1998. She has written about a wide range of subjects, from politicians and artists to thinkers and activists. Her book, Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help, is a powerful exploration of extreme altruism. In it, she tells the stories of people who have made enormous sacrifices to help others, such as a person who donated a kidney to a stranger or a couple who adopted more than 20 children. Larissa’s work is not just about telling these stories; it’s about exploring why we often feel uneasy or uncomfortable with such extreme forms of kindness. With her unique blend of empathy and rigorous reporting, she challenges us to consider our own beliefs about what it means to be a good person and why we admire some forms of goodness more than others.
