I would have to read the book, but from what I've seen from that cringeworthy interview and this quote by Susan, I suspect it's shallow, superficial intellectualism that doesn't address the real elephants in the room (an economic system geared towards exponentially increasing and concentrating wealth).
Maddow is simply cashing in with John Le Carré-style thriller paranoia. Better spend your money reading Klein, Chomsky, Hedges and many, many others, whose minds haven't been perverted by ratings and obscene amounts of money.
Either way, FF's post was in the wrong category because it really didn't have anything to do with Arctic sea ice, and you could open a thread elsewhere, but I continue to maintain that this 'interview' is about the worst starting point one could imagine for a discussion.
Maddow was good in the past, but in recent years she has done a great disservice to the American people, and continues to do so. Not a disservice to people who are well-off and love to identify with 'smart' people, but to the majority of Americans. But she's not the only one. The entire American mainstream millionaire media has shown itself to be a fraud.
Denying this goes against the decorum of this particular forum.