One of the most endearing things that Bernie Sanders does is read letters from people and respond to them on his YouTube channel. Judging from the letters’ content, many of his correspondents seem to be under the age of thirty, which only enhances the air of rumpled avuncularity that is so central to Bernie’s appeal. He’s America’s zeyde, gruff and cranky. But watching him, you never lose the sense that he spends nearly every waking moment doing what he can to ensure a better future for you and everyone else.

A few months ago, his team posted a video in which Bernie reads a letter confessing that it’s “hard to avoid doomerism.” Another letter writer asks, “Is it ever going to get any better? Should I maintain any will to live?” In his response, Bernie very compassionately recognizes the reasons why someone, particularly a younger person, would feel an overwhelming sense of despair at the state of the world. But drawing on the perspective afforded by eighty-one years of life, he reminds us that “people have faced enormous opposition and things change. Things get better . . . all we can continue to do is keep fighting.”

His latest video is a monologue on “the greatest threat facing our country and all of humanity,” the threat of climate change. Of all the problems and challenges facing our world, this one generates the deepest, most pervasive feelings of powerlessness and doom. July 3 was the hottest day ever recorded; we’ve gone from monitoring COVID-19 infection and death rates to monitoring the air quality index from seemingly endless wildfires.