Zhuge logged onto X and found that a string of famous professors and scholars were in her list of new followers. Many people said it was the best interview Nolan has done for The Odyssey, while the National Review called it a “CCP hostage video.” But everyone ultimately wanted to know the same thing: Who was this young Chinese woman with a bob haircut talking about the decline of civilizations? When I spoke to Zhuge this week, she framed her success as being born out of personal tragedy. She views the question instead as part of the long philosophical tradition of pondering the demise of value systems.