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Books by David Foster Wallace mentioned on podcasts
David Foster Wallace and his works frequently appear across multiple podcast episodes. On Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, hosts referenced his famous commencement speech and its accompanying book version, This Is Water, noting his well-known anecdote about fish swimming in water to illustrate how people ignore common sounds or fail to notice their surroundings. On How I Write, Michael Dean analyzed David Foster Wallace's 2003 essay collection Consider the Lobster, discussing it alongside George Orwell's work. Dean dissected specific essays from the book, exploring how Wallace successfully mastered fundamental design constraints, shaped a microcosm to represent a bigger idea, satisfied the experience pillar, and structured his writing around a distinct hierarchy of underlying questions. Additionally, on The Ezra Klein Show, Secretary Mayorcas mentioned keeping David Foster Wallace's String Theory on his nightstand as a reading companion to the dictionary due to the author's extensive vocabulary, noting that his interest was motivated by the US Open tennis tournament.
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Infinite jest
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is a sprawling, postmodern novel set in a near-future America where years are sponsored by corporate brands and a mysterious entertainment cartridge induces catatonic addiction in viewers.
Discussed“So, 'Infinite Jest,' it's introduced in the first 50 pages is about a tape that once you watch it once, you only ever wanna watch that tape.”
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Consider the Lobster
Discussed“So you have uh consider the lobster, David Foster Wallace, 2003, and then uh shooting an elephant by George Orwell.”
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This Is Water
Discussed“It reminds me a little bit of the old David Foster Wallace quote where a fish goes up to the other fish and is like, uh, it's crazy. We're swimming around in water and the fish says, "What's water?"”
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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Discussed“No, Will was in my directorial debut, which was an adaptation of a David Foster Wallace book called Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Will was probably starring, one of the idiots probably headlining, name above title.”
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String Theory
Discussed“I have David Foster Wallace's string theory and the book that I have as its companion is the dictionary because his vocabulary was far far greater than mine will ever be”
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