Book · 2012 · Erotic stories
Fifty Shades of Grey
#108 of 16,793 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 26
- people
- 19
- podcasts
- 12
- episodes
- 23
- critical mentions
- 0
Actually Fifty Shades of Gray which was not a great book at all but it taught people a lot about oh I can fantasize I can read this book and I can pretend I'm Anastasia with Mr Gray and it that perfected so well because it allowed people to fantasize.
What they say about it
- Originated as Twilight fan fiction“twilight series fan fiction”7
The best things said about it
So 50 shades of gray nailed it completely nailed it and that has turned this thing into a global phenomenon.
Tim Ferriss The Tim Ferriss Show · Oct 2026 And they love Fifty Shades of Grey where it's literally about what what Fifty Shades of Grey was like a college student who couldn't afford to pay her bills and she signed a slave contract with a with a rich guy.
You remember the Fifty Shades of Grey stuff? Come on, man. That was like all of a sudden ladies wanted to get spit on and choked.
Joe Rogan The Joe Rogan Experience · Nov 2025 Fifty Shades of Grey when they were running out of rope in the hardware stores.
Bryan Callen Timcast IRL · Nov 2025 You know you have Fifty Shades of Grey comes out it kind of breaks open this entire new literary genre.
Chris Williamson Modern Wisdom · Aug 2023 The most popular book for women in recent years the Fifty Shades stories where women have rape fantasies.
Douglas Murray Modern Wisdom · Oct 2019 Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
1
2
2
1
1
5
2
8
4
How it comes up
19 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James is an erotic romance novel that achieved massive global success after originating as online fan fiction. Tim Ferriss discussed the book on The Random Show, noting its origins as Twilight series fan fiction and citing it as a prime example of a simple premise driving a global phenomenon. Deric Poston similarly mentioned on The Joe Rogan Experience that the book derived from Twilight fan fiction, prompting a conversation with Joe Rogan about shifting relationship dynamics. Gilbert Cruz introduced the novel on The Book Review to discuss its monumental publishing success and its ties to broader romance trends and digital reading communities. Tim Pool and his co-hosts on Timcast IRL discussed the plot mechanics of the novel, focusing on tropes involving a college student entering a contract with a wealthy partner, while also reiterating its fan fiction origins. Joe Rogan brought up the cultural wave generated by the book on a separate episode featuring Adam Ray, observing how it briefly altered mainstream romantic interests. Finally, Bryan Callen referenced Fifty Shades of Grey on Timcast IRL while debating romance novel themes that resonate strongly with female audiences, noting its prominent place in popular publishing history.
Every mention
Chris Williamson What was interesting was the timing of Fifty Shades coming out and the sort of archetypes that you saw with… 2
Discussed
“What was interesting was the timing of Fifty Shades coming out and the sort of archetypes that you saw within the dark romance genre.”
Discussed
“you know you have Fifty Shades of Gray comes out it kind of breaks open this entire new literary genre”
Gilbert Cruz 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James, came out in 2011. This was a a book that started as Twilight fan fiction. 2
Discussed
“50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James, came out in 2011. This was a a book that started as Twilight fan fiction.”
Discussed
“so for people who listeners who don't know yel James she is the 50 Shades of Gray author”
Joe Rogan You remember the Fifty Shades of Gray stuff? Come on, man. That was like all of a sudden ladies wanted to g… 2
Discussed
“You remember the Fifty Shades of Gray stuff? Come on, man. That was like all of a sudden ladies wanted to get spit on and choked.”
Discussed
“like people the most popular book is like 50 Shades of Gray like you know science”
Tim Ferriss so 50 shades of gray nailed it completely nailed it and that has turned this thing into a global phenomenon 2
Discussed
“no it was fan fiction it was twilight series fan fiction”
Discussed
“so 50 shades of gray nailed it completely nailed it and that has turned this thing into a global phenomenon”
Tim Pool And they love Fifty Shades of Gray where it's literally about what what Fishy Shades of Gray was like a col… 2
Discussed
“And they love Fifty Shades of Gray where it's literally about what what Fishy Shades of Gray was like a college student who couldn't afford to pay her bills and she signed a slave contract with a with a rich guy.”
Discussed
“And then the funny thing is Fifty Shades of Gray was fanfiction. Yeah. It was Twilight fanfiction.”
Alex Wilhelm just like having I guess a YouTube channel um most famously 50 Shades of Gray was originally TW Twilight fa… 1
Discussed
“just like having I guess a YouTube channel um most famously 50 Shades of Gray was originally TW Twilight fanfic I I knew that it was Twilight fanfic”
Alexandra Alter it's eel James's new romance which is called the mister and this is her first work of original fiction sinc… 1
Discussed
“it's eel James's new romance which is called the mister and this is her first work of original fiction since 50 Shades of Gray which had an incredible impact on the public in Industry”
Bryan Callen What are the romance novels that do the best with women? Fifty Shades of Gray when they were running out of… 1
Discussed
“What are the romance novels that do the best with women? Fifty Shades of Gray when they were running out of rope in the hardware stores.”
Cindy Eckert I saw the portrait of a woman who turned on herself like oh if only I bought sexy lingerie if only I read F… 1
Discussed
“I saw the portrait of a woman who turned on herself like oh if only I bought sexy lingerie if only I read Fifty Shades of Grey”
Cody Johnston and it's basically surprise surprise 50 Shades of Gray and so the Google Engineers identified five categori… 1
Discussed
“and it's basically surprise surprise 50 Shades of Gray and so the Google Engineers identified five categories of men that were often the feature”
Deric Poston Fifty Shades of Gray came from too is Twilight fanfiction. Yeah, that is 50 Shades of Gray. Yeah. Yeah. But… 1
Discussed
“Fifty Shades of Gray came from too is Twilight fanfiction. Yeah, that is 50 Shades of Gray. Yeah. Yeah. But at least that's like age appropriate.”
Douglas Murray the most popular book for women in recent years the Fifty Shades stories where women have rape fantasies 1
Discussed
“the most popular book for women in recent years the Fifty Shades stories where women have rape fantasies”
Dr John Delony I think I think the first one I mean Fifty Shades of Gray started all of it. I think that was the first one. 1
Discussed
“I think I think the first one I mean Fifty Shades of Gray started all of it. I think that was the first one.”
Hannah Claire Brimlow Musk leans into runchy Grock companions teasing Fifty Shades inspired bot. 1
Discussed
“Musk leans into runchy Grock companions teasing Fifty Shades inspired bot.”
Jason Calacanis yeah actually 50 Shades of Gray my understanding was I met the woman who wrote that at a party years ago an… 1
Discussed
“yeah actually 50 Shades of Gray my understanding was I met the woman who wrote that at a party years ago and somebody told me that the 50 Shades of Gray was originally Twilight fanfiction”
Jordan Peterson But the guy but the what's so interesting about it and it's the same pattern in Fifty Shades of Grey. 1
Discussed
“But the guy but the what's so interesting about it and it's the same pattern in Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Marisa Peer actually Fifty Shades of Gray which was not a great book at all but it taught people a lot about oh I can f… 1
Discussed
“actually Fifty Shades of Gray which was not a great book at all but it taught people a lot about oh I can fantasize I can read this book and I can pretend I'm Anastasia with Mr Gray and it that perfected so well because it allowed people to fantasize”
Shaan Puri you know one of the most best-selling books of all time Fifty Shades of Grey romance fiction 1
Discussed
“you know one of the most best-selling books of all time Fifty Shades of Grey romance fiction”
Tucker Carlson Fifty Shades of Gray. Did you read it? 1
Discussed
“Fifty Shades of Gray. Did you read it?”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“is it like 50 Shades of Gray um oh my gosh I have no idea women love that book”
Discussed
“Yeah uh now if you try to sell the fanfiction it turns out 50 Shades of Gray which became a huge movie franchise worth a lot of money. It started, my understanding is as Twilight fanfiction.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (26: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“after Fifty Shades of Gray came out and the dark romance genre really started to pick up steam, which obviously I contributed to, and there was a world where this was politically inconvenient, especially for the sort of feminist side of the the aisle because all of the guys that were being chosen to be the protagonists were highly dominant,”
Passing
“Maybe there's some sort of like creating creative writing project that he you be engaged in instead. Yeah, I think not. like 50 Shades of Grey.”
Passing
“why they want 50 Shades of Grey. Guys want to just be told I don't think all women want that.”
Passing
“So, Fifty Shades of Gray, of course, is about a 21-year-old.”
Passing
“Like when you pull up and you're blasting the audio book of Fifty Shades of Gray at a gas station or you're you're just going up to these dudes who really care about cars and you're just quoting Fast and Furious as if they're real car observations.”
Passing
“That's a the whole women will claim uh to be fighting the Handmaid's Tale, but then go home and read Fifty Shades of Gray. Yeah, that's the point. Like that's exactly how he said something more vulgar. That's exactly I mean there's everybody that's”
Passing
“and of course for Valentine's Day there will be a 50 Shades of Gray adaptation and that book has already sold more than 100 million”
Passing
“It's like the, uh, what was it? 50 Shades of Grey, how it was originally a Twilight fanfic?”
Passing
“then the women are going to be playing 50 Shades of Gray”
Passing
“in the early 2010s after the success of 50 Shades of Gray there was a proliferation of dark romance novels”
Passing
“women will do a different kind of messed up thing they will have their version of Twisted demented porn like 50 Shades of Gray”
Passing
“this would be a romance novel maybe somewhere between 50 Shades of Gray and you know some har Quinn I don't know they called Harley Quinn romance novels like it's a romance novel but it's interactive”
Passing
“maybe they could get lost in a romantic novel or whatever or even 50 Shades of Gray and explicitly erotic novel that was like one of the best-selling books of all time that series like there's nothing we no no none of us would look at people getting lost in Fifty Shades of Gray”
Passing
“she's very critical of the whole BDSM thing when it comes to women and what it actually does as opposed to what books like 50 Shades will tell you it does”
Passing
“I believe now I mean it turns out Fifty Shades of Gray I met the uh the author of that at a party in LA and my friend introduced me to her and I asked her what her what the inspiration was”
Passing
“No, but [laughter] but people hear famous examples of like, oh, this guy's Twitter account got turned into a TV series or whatever. like you hear I mean I often describe you to people as the first 50 Shades of Gray.”
Passing
“what is it 50 Shades of Gray you know what it's called I do I just forgot it in the moment come on you've been watching tattoo to my ass what it was like letters it wasn't letters the other but pen house letters pen house letters there was definitely some of that where dudes just jerked off to I'm”
Passing
“i put down my copy of 50 shades and said no a woman named tony not my america”
Passing
“the BDSM culture was very much underground and unsafe until shades of grey came out”
Passing
“This is the worst case scenario of Fifty Shades of Gray. Yeah.”
Passing
“This is like a Fifty Shades of Gray fantasy. Like he's a little bit hard and creepy in some ways, but like he's also this super rich famous guy and I don't know.”
Passing
“and do you remember that it came out at the same time as 50 Shades of Gray and it got a huge sales boost because people would like go to Amazon or whatever and just be like oh you also like yeah it's the reversal”
Passing
“author of Between Shades of Gray when 50 Shades of Gray was thing”
Passing
“spanked spanks 50 sh little hair a little hair”
Passing
“it's a kind of a a followup to her 50 Shades of Gray Trilogy telling the same story as 50 Shades of Gray but from the man's perspective”
Passing
“Mis robbles 50 Shades of Gray it's all the same thing you know”