Heather Havrilesky, the acclaimed advice writer behind the popular “Ask Polly” column, rebukes our modern obsession with self-improvement and urges us to reject the pursuit of a shiny, shallow future that will never come. With insight from her new book What If This Were Enough? Havrilesky takes on those cultural forces that shape us, encouraging us to embrace the imperfections of the everyday.

Havrilesky meets with Brangien Davis, the Arts and Culture Editor at Crosscut, for a conversation about the allure of materialism and our misunderstandings of romance and success. Havrilesky asserts that we’ve convinced ourselves that salvation can only be delivered in the form of new products, new technologies, new lifestyles. She invites us to deconstruct some of the most poisonous and misleading messages we ingest today, suggesting new ways to navigate our increasingly bewildering world. She offers timely, provocative, and hilarious suggestions for embracing the flawed—a connection with what already is, who we already are, what we already have. Join Havrilesky and Davis to learn about the salvation that can be found right here, right now, in this imperfect moment.

Heather Havrilesky‘s writing has been called “whip-smart and profanely funny” (Entertainment Weekly). Her work has appeared in New York, The Baffler, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic, and is the writer of the advice column “Ask Polly”  for The Cut.

Brangien Davis is the Arts and Culture Editor at Crosscut. Prior to Crosscut, she was the Arts and Culture Editor at Seattle magazine, and has contributed cultural profiles, previews and essays to the Seattle Times, Lit Hub, City Arts, and others.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.