Book Forum 

# *The Mattering Instinct:*

### *How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us* 

Published By Liveright • 2026 

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Date and Time 

March 25, 2026 12 - 2 PM EDT 

Location 

Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 

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##### Featuring 

![Rebecca Newberger Goldstein-cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-02/Rebecca%20Newberger%20Goldstein-cropped.jpg?itok=L_rdHUCY) 

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein 

Author, MacArthur Fellow, and National Humanities Medalist

[ 

](https://x.com/platobooktour) 

[![adam-o-cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-05/adam-o-cropped.jpg?itok=BXOv-92_)](/people/adam-omary) 

[Adam Omary](/people/adam-omary)

Research Fellow, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/AdamOmaryPhD) 

The universal human drive to matter—to feel our lives hold genuine significance—fuels both our greatest achievements and our deepest divisions. It inspires innovation, care, and cooperation while giving rise to ideological extremism, tribalism, and zero-sum conflicts that can challenge individual liberty and peaceful coexistence.

MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein joins us to discuss her latest book, *The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us*. Through real-life stories of individuals pursuing meaning—from artists and thinkers to everyday heroes and reformed extremists—Goldstein illustrates how the uniquely human need for meaning inspires “mattering projects” that drive both progress and polarization.

Cato research fellow and psychologist Adam Omary will moderate the discussion and offer commentary on the book’s implications for addressing the contemporary crisis of meaning, defending civil liberties, and advancing human progress.

### Schedule

12:00-12:40 

Moderated discussion

12:40-1:00 

Audience Q&A

1:00-2:00 

Lunch and book signing

![The Mattering Instinct - promo block book cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2026-02/Book%20cover%2C%20Omary%2C%2003.25-small.jpg?itok=jyjKfpuv) 

### *[The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us](https://www.amazon.com/Mattering-Instinct-Deepest-Longing-Divides/dp/1324096853?tag=catoinstitute-20)*

MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex and The Mind-Body Problem, returns with a revelatory book about the primal drive that in our species alone has been transformed into one of our most persistent and universal motivations: the longing to matter. 

Drawing on biology, psychology, and philosophy, Goldstein argues that this need to matter―and the various “mattering projects” it inspires―is the source of our greatest progress and our deepest conflicts: the very crux of the human experience.

[Purchase Book](https://www.amazon.com/Mattering-Instinct-Deepest-Longing-Divides/dp/1324096853?tag=catoinstitute-20) 

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