Rob Henderson

Rob Henderson is the bestselling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class,” named one of the best books of 2024 by The Economist and recently optioned for a major motion picture. He is best known for coining the phrase “luxury beliefs” to describe ideas that confer status on the affluent while inflicting costs on those lower on the socioeconomic ladder.

Henderson grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and rural Northern California. At seventeen, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. After completing his service, he attended Yale on the GI Bill and earned a B.S. in psychology. He later received a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and completed a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Cambridge.

He is now a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal. He is a regular contributor to The Free Press and The Times of London, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and other publications. His weekly Substack newsletter reaches more than 80,000 subscribers.