Kaitlin Albasi: AI Research & Policy

Rewiring Democracy

Maps how AI amplifies power across democratic institutions and argues for publicly built, publicly overseen AI rather than corporate infrastructure.

Human Compatible

Stuart Russell argues the standard AI paradigm of fixed-objective optimization is dangerous, proposing uncertain preference models as a technical safety solution.

Empire of AI

An investigative account of OpenAI and the colonial supply chain of AI labor, from data scraping to underpaid content moderators in the Global South.

AI Needs You

A policy insider’s argument that AI’s future is a political choice requiring democratic public deliberation, not technical inevitability.

Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America

A clear-eyed exposé of how private equity firms extract wealth from American companies, workers, and communities, and a roadmap for reforming the system.

A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging

A searching blend of reportage, memoir, and cultural history, exploring the 2020 Moria refugee camp fire in Greece, the mechanics of borders and belonging, and the mythologies that shape migration and identity.

Give People Money

Universal basic income and cash transfers in an age of rapid technological change

Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy

A revealing investigation into the grassroots strategies and local organizing that have transformed the Republican Party and fueled the MAGA movement’s campaign to reshape American democracy from the ground up.

Alexander Hamilton

A masterful biography of America’s most misunderstood founding father

The Museum of Innocence

A disturbing tale of obsession masquerading as love

Nomad Century

Climate migration solutions and the political challenges of implementing them

Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis

Essays on art’s role in responding to environmental and social crisis

Asians in Colorado

The story of Chinese pioneers in the West

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

Intimate histories of social upheaval and Black women’s resistance

Poverty, by America

A searing analysis of why poverty persists in the United States, arguing that it is actively created and maintained by policies and choices that benefit the affluent, and calling for systemic change to end poverty.

Open City

A Nigerian doctor’s wanderings through New York City and reflections on art, culture, and identity

Project Hail Mary

Science fiction adventure with a distinctly nerdy tech narrative voice

Into the Zone

Essays on opposites and borders, music and philosophy

Data and Goliath: the Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World

A comprehensive critique of mass surveillance, exploring how governments and corporations collect, use, and abuse personal data, and offering practical and policy solutions to protect privacy in the digital age.

Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C++

Computer science textbook with thoughtful examples but implementation errors

Left Legalism / Left Critique

A groundbreaking collection examining how left political projects paradoxically mirror the power structures they seek to oppose through legal strategies

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

A tech-focused roadmap for addressing climate change through innovation and markets

The Tragedy of Liberation

A harrowing account of the violence, famine, and repression that marked the early years of Communist rule in China, based on newly opened archives and survivor testimony.

Empire of Cotton

A global history of capitalism through the lens of cotton production and labor exploitation

Homeland Elegies

A deeply personal work of fiction exploring Muslim-American identity and contemporary America

The End of Poverty

Sachs argues that extreme global poverty can be ended through targeted aid, investment, and coordinated international action, but his ‘Big Push’ approach has sparked debate over its feasibility and effectiveness.

The Berry Pickers

A heartbreaking debut about a Mi’kmaq family devastated by the disappearance of their youngest daughter and the decades of trauma that follow

Leftover in China

The Women Shaping the World’s Next Superpower

Detroit I Do Mind Dying

History of revolutionary Black workers organizing in Detroit’s auto industry

And Still I Rise

A powerful collection of poems celebrating resilience and the triumph of the human spirit over oppression

Staying with the Trouble

A poetic, radical reimagining of multispecies futures and interdependence in the face of ecological crisis.

Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul

A passionate chronicle of New York City’s transformation under gentrification, documenting the loss of small businesses, cultural landmarks, and the city’s unique character.

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest

A genre-bending, deeply personal tribute to A Tribe Called Quest, blending music history, memoir, and cultural criticism to explore the group’s legacy and the meaning of fandom, Black art, and survival.

Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State

A critical analysis of how real estate interests shape urban planning, gentrification, and political power in New York City and beyond

In Other Words

A memoir about learning to write in Italian and the relationship between language and identity

China in Ten Words

Tragicomic reflections on China’s transformation through personal and cultural memory

The Art of Raising a Puppy

A comprehensive guide to puppy training and canine behavior from America’s most trusted dog training authorities

Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers

Satirical essays on liberal politics and social dynamics in 1960s New York

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

A landmark study of the decline of social capital and community engagement in late 20th-century America, and its consequences for democracy and civic life.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix

A graphic introduction to the realities of mass incarceration in the U.S., using comics to break down the economic, social, and racial costs of the prison system.

The Dispossessed

A science fiction masterpiece exploring anarchism, capitalism, and utopian ideals through the story of a physicist traveling between two contrasting worlds

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

A kaleidoscopic novel blending memory, politics, and desire, exploring the fragile boundaries between laughter and forgetting in postwar Czechoslovakia.

Library