Drawing from both personal experience and academic research, Dr. Henderson will discuss his upbringing in foster care, the challenges of childhood instability, and the role of social class in shaping identity, outlook, and opportunity. In addition, he introduces the concept of "luxury beliefs," which critiques how affluent individuals often advocate for ideals that unintentionally burden poor and marginalized individuals. Through his journey from foster care, to the U.S. Air Force, to later receiving degrees from Yale and the University of Cambridge, Dr. Henderson reflects on broader societal themes, offering insights into both personal resilience and the systemic challenges facing disadvantaged children.

Rob Henderson is the best-selling author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. He grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and in the rural town of Red Bluff, California. After enlisting in the U.S. Air Force at the age of seventeen, he subsequently attended Yale on the GI Bill and was then awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in psychology in 2022. Rob’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe, among other outlets, and his Substack newsletter is sent each week to more than sixty thousand subscribers. 

Greg Conti is an Associate Professor of Politics at Princeton University, a political theorist and intellectual historian. His research focuses on the history of modern political thought, especially on questions of liberalism, democracy, and representative government. His first book, Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain, was released from Cambridge University Press earlier in 2019.

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