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Books by Albert Camus mentioned on podcasts
Albert Camus and his philosophical and fictional works are frequent points of discussion across major interview podcasts. On The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, Dr. John Vervaeke mentioned teaching Camus's novel The Plague alongside other classic literary texts like Moby Dick and Notes from Underground. Robert Kennedy Jr. discussed Camus extensively during appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and the Lex Fridman Podcast, noting that his father had given him The Plague and explaining how reading Camus, particularly The Myth of Sisyphus, served as a powerful parable. Kennedy quoted Camus's famous assertion that the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your existence is an act of rebellion. Michael Malice praised Camus on The Joe Rogan Experience, identifying him as a personal hero and naming The Stranger among his essential works. Lex Fridman and his guests also explored Camus in multiple episodes; Boris Sofman connected the existential despair of a robot character from Rick and Morty to the philosophical dilemmas of The Myth of Sisyphus, while Sean Kelly discussed the nuances of teaching Camus's essay on absurdity and suicide. Additionally, Lex Fridman analyzed the varying contextual interpretations of Camus's novel The Plague during a conversation about freedom, meaning, power, and historical crisis.
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The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus exploring the concept of the absurd and the meaning of human existence through the mythological tale of a man condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity.
Recommended“If we read one Camus, we'll read The Myth of Sisyphus, right? Cuz that's the one thing to read.”
Where to get it
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THE PLAGUE
The Plague by Albert Camus is a classic existentialist novel that uses the allegorical setting of a city struck by a deadly epidemic to explore profound themes of human suffering, absurdism, collective responsibility, and resilience.
Discussed“Well I think both The Fall and The Plague are two striking books for this moment.”
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The Stranger, The Plague (Coles Notes)
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a foundational philosophical novel that explores themes of existentialism, absurdism, and alienation through the experiences of its protagonist, Meursault.
Discussed“Camuz the stranger opens up with a character who talks about feeling nothing that eventually leads to a murder on the beach.”
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The Fall
The Fall by Albert Camus is a striking and provocative philosophical novel that explores human guilt, judgment, and the complex search for meaning in a morally ambiguous world.
Discussed“Well I think both The Fall and The Plague are two striking books for this moment.”
Where to get it
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La Peste
La Peste by Albert Camus is a profound philosophical novel that depicts a devastating plague sweeping through the Algerian city of Oran, using the sudden catastrophe to explore human suffering, existential dread, collective responsibility, and the quiet heroism of ordinary people facing absurd and insurmountable circumstances.
Discussed“You know, I did a course on Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness, Notes from Underground, Death in Venice, and The Plague—all one course. Oh yeah, that's fun.”
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The Rebel
Albert Camus explores rebellion, historical revolt, and the limits of human action in his profound philosophical work The Rebel.
Discussed“and then anonym writes the rebel which is one of his one of his later um works which is again discussing you know what can an absurdist coherently value without simply falling back onto a kind of leap of faith or something”
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The First Man
Discussed“and I think it's interesting that after his death uh a book called the first man was published which I don't know if he had intended to publish I don't remember the specifics about it but it's about him as a child right”
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The Just
The Just by Albert Camus is a powerful philosophical play that examines the moral complexities, motivations, and ethical boundaries of political violence and revolution.
Recommended“They're two two plays in kind of conversation with each other. And yet they too have everything to do with the subtext that we've been talking about and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The price of loyalty of conviction and justice. Dirty Hands by Jean Paul Sart and Albert Kermuse The Just Assassins”
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The Outsider
The Outsider, widely known as The Stranger, is a classic philosophical novel by Albert Camus that explores themes of existentialism and absurdism through the experiences of its detached protagonist, Meursault.
Recommended“you know there's uh there's three great books by Kimu which I highly recommend one The Outsider or the stranger a lot of high school students read this book and the main character starts off his his mom's just dies and he doesn't care and then he goes to the beach and just shoots some random guy and he doesn't”
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