Robert Jensen is an emeritus professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin and a founding board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center.

His new book, This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life without Meaning, was published in September 2026 by Blue Ear Books. For details about Jensen’s previous book, It’s Debatable: Talking Authentically about Tricky Topics, and to read the chapter the publisher removed, click here.

This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life without Meaning confronts the common fear that life has no intrinsic meaning and then describes one path to fulfillment without it. Mixing memoir and philosophy, Robert Jensen invites readers to ponder the possibility of life without transcendence. Rejecting common sources of meaning—belief in God, spirituality, Nature mysticism, and free will—need not leave us stuck with nihilism.

Drawing on his work as a journalist and professor, Jensen suggests that a life of thinking and work—joyful inquiry into a wonderfully complex world, coupled with a practice of ordinary labor—is enough to create a fulfilling life.