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New book grapples with death and a universe that is forever falling apart

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published June 26, 2026 at 10:58 AM CDT

When his father died, Stanford University historian Thomas Mullaney scrambled to preserve the things he’d left behind, in the exact order he’d found them: the papers, photos and other detritus accumulated over decades of living.

It led him to wonder: Why do we bother?

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks to Mullaney about his new book, “How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information.”

Thomas Mullaney’s mother (bottom left) and her siblings (early 1950s). (Courtesy of Thomas S. Mullaney)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Here & Now Newsroom