David Barsamian, his longtime interlocutor, Noam Chomsky identifies the "dry kindling" of discontent around the world. Chomsky asks us to consider "the world we are leaving to our grandchildren" one imperiled by climate change and the growing potential for nuclear war. If the current system is incapable of dealing with these threats, he argues, it's up to us to radically change it.

The twelve interviews in Global Discontents examine the reach of state surveillance, growing anger over economic inequality, conflicts in the Middle East, and the presidency of Donald Trump. In personal reflections on his Philadelphia childhood, Chomsky also describes his own intellectual journey and the development of his uncompromising stance as the premier dissident intellectual in the United States.