Bonfire of the Vanities

Journalist Anand Giridharadas On The Lost Art Of Empathy, Compassion, & Understanding Each Other

The Rich Roll Podcast, 5 October 2026. The book comes up at 3 min 27 sec in.

Rich Roll compares Man in the Mirror to Bonfire of the Vanities. Anand Giridharadas confirms he read it at the start of his project, on his editor friend Sam's suggestion. He admired the book but wanted the opposite spirit: where Tom Wolfe tore every character down with mockery, Giridharadas aimed to render all his characters—cop, homeless person, Marine—in their full humanity rather than as objects of satire.

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