Between 1978 and 1995, Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail-bombing campaign against public figures who he believed to be advancing modern technology that was destroying the natural world and enslaving human beings to machines. In 1995, he sent a letter to The New York Times and promised to "desist from terrorism" if the Times or The Washington Post published his essay Industrial Society and its Future, otherwise known as the "Unabomber Manifesto." The FBI and Attorney General Janet Reno pushed for the publication of Industrial Society and Its Future, which appeared in The Washington Post in September 1995.

Kaczynski was arrested shortly after the publication of the manifesto and sentenced to life in prison, where he still resides.

Since its publication, Industrial Society and Its Future has been widely read among both left-wing and right-wing radicals and is frequently assigned in college courses.

Recorded July 6, 2022