The Optimist

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice of the author, Mike Baker, created with ElevenLabs AI voice technology. Nick Palmer is supposed to change the world. His wife would settle for him being on time. Nick coaches hockey, plays piano in a bar band, and refuses to read his future. In a world that consults predictions before making a decision, he prefers to muddle through. Then a private assessment leaks, claiming Nick could cause the century’s largest shift in human behavior within thirty days. The number everyone remembers is 94.7 percent. Suddenly strangers want answers, companies want his attention, and a careless story told on television costs him a teenager’s trust. At home, Beth is tired of sharing her husband with everyone who needs him. She has ambitions of her own, and being married to a symbol of hope is wearing thin. With the world counting down, Nick is becoming famous for believing in people, and losing the trust of those closest to him. Before he can live up to a future nobody understands, he has to face what his good intentions are costing them. Funny, intimate, and unsettling, The Optimist explores marriage, public attention, and the damage people can do while trying to help. At its heart is a question no forecast can settle: what do we owe one another when believing in someone is no longer enough?