Johann Hari is a journalist whose other books include God Save The Queen?, a book that criticizes the British monarchy, and Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, a history of the War on Drugs in the United States. Hari’s mother was Scottish and his father was from Switzerland. In Lost Connections, he describes himself as a “strong proponent of skepticism and rationality” (267) and identifies as an “atheist” (272). He is recognized as being politically left-wing, and in 2009 he was identified as one of the top 100 influential leftists in Britain by the British newspaper The Telegraph (Dale, Iain and Brivati, Brian. “Top 100 most influential Left-wingers.” Telegraph.co.uk, 27 Sep. 2009).

Hari was diagnosed with clinical depression when he was 18. At some point in his childhood, he was traumatized when an adult physically assaulted him. During his career, Hari has written for high-profile publications in both Britain and the United States, including The Independent, the New Statesman, The Huffington Post, and the New York Times. In 2011, he was the subject of a plagiarism scandal, which forced him to return the Orwell Prize, an award for political writing.