Book · 2013 · History
Guns, Germs and Steel
The MILLION-COPY bestselling history of everybody
#174 of 16,760 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 28
- people
- 15
- podcasts
- 12
- episodes
- 24
- recommendations
- 2
Guns, Germs, and Steel may have been one of the great books of all time.
Eric Weinstein · Modern Wisdom · Sep 2024 Listen at 2:44:19 What they say about it
- Recommends reading it“everybody should read Jared Diamond”2
- Rereads the book“I reread Guns, Germs, and Steel”2
The best things said about it
I still think everybody should read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel.
The classic text which got me invested in this whole scenario in the first place is Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel.
I really enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Joe Rogan The Joe Rogan Experience · Sep 2026 Jared Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize for his amazing book called Guns, Germs, and Steel.
That was a fascinating book.
Joel Salatin The Joe Rogan Experience · May 2020 Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
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How it comes up
15 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is an expansive historical non-fiction work that explores why Eurasian civilizations survived and conquered other societies, attributing these outcomes to geographical and environmental advantages rather than biological differences. The book received widespread acclaim and recommendations across multiple podcasts. On The Ezra Klein Show, the host and guest Joseph Henrich both strongly advised that everyone should read Diamond's work as essential reading for understanding Europe and human history. Si Sheppard mentioned the text on the Dwarkesh Podcast, noting that it was the classic text that initially sparked his interest in the technological advantages enjoyed by Spanish soldiers when conquering empires. Similarly, Joe Rogan expressed on The Joe Rogan Experience that he truly enjoyed reading the book. During an appearance on Huberman Lab, Jared Diamond himself discussed the text, contrasting its macro-level focus on broad historical patterns and geographic factors—such as the concentration of productive wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent—with his later, individual-focused projects. Tyler Cowen also brought up the book on Conversations with Tyler to discuss Diamond's long-term societal analyses, prompting Diamond to explain how the book originally expanded from a single chapter in his earlier 1991 publication, The Third Chimpanzee.
Every mention
Joseph Henrich if you wanted to to learn more about Europe I still think everybody should read Jared Diamonds Guns Germs a… 1
Recommended
“if you wanted to to learn more about Europe I still think everybody should read Jared Diamonds Guns Germs and Steel”
Joe Rogan I think I was reading in Jared Diamond's book um that Germs and Steel Guns 5
Discussed
“I really enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
Discussed
“Jared Diamond who wrote Guns Germs and Steel did the study with the [__] uh people up in the guine highlands the minute the minute they they started running out of resources they would they would start coming up with stories”
Discussed
“Guns Germs and Steel yeah yeah yeah great”
Discussed
“I think I was reading in Jared Diamond's book um that Germs and Steel Guns”
Discussed
“That's why that's why that's why in guns, germs, and steel, Jared Diamond says that agricultural side is breathe way nastier germs because animals mutate on from the cowpox smallpox and said”
Jared Diamond But I would say, just as background, people often ask me, Jared, your book about leaders now seems to be th… 4
Discussed
“But I would say, just as background, people often ask me, Jared, your book about leaders now seems to be the opposite of guns, germs, and steel. Jared, your book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, was about big patterns.”
Discussed
“Because the Fertile Crescent was where the most productive wild plants, peas, wheat, barley, the most productive wild animal, cow, sheep, goat, pig, horse, lived. And so in Guns, Germs, and Steel, there's nothing at all about individuals.”
Discussed
“Your other books, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and so on, are about whole societies for 10,000 years.”
Discussed
“One chapter of my book, The Third Chimpanzee, my book from 1991, got expanded into Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
Ben Bowlin do you guys remember that book uh Guns Germs and Steel mhm no but those are like I think I get what the ide… 2
Discussed
“Instead, it seems to be what Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, would later describe as ecoside, which is a phrase I wasn't familiar with, but yeah, not nor I that's a much better term than I had said resource extraction, which isn't exactly right.”
Discussed
“do you guys remember that book uh Guns Germs and Steel mhm no but those are like I think I get what the idea is yeah uh by Jared Diamond”
Patton Oswalt well that okay that's another thing time with the disease it just I reread Guns Germs and Steel about the S… 2
Discussed
“well that okay that's another thing time with the disease it just I reread Guns Germs and Steel about the Spanish flu and the way that disease is you know rewire and reboot your body to benefit themselves up”
Discussed
“it just I reread Guns Germs and Steel about the Spanish flu and the way that disease is you know rewire and reboot your body to benefit themselves up it's just it seems like we're just making the same mistakes at the beginning of the Spanish flu epidemic and that there's going to be an insane spike which is where”
Steve Levitt so I've also heard that your reaction to reading Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond Back in the day when… 2
Discussed
“so I've also heard that your reaction to reading Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond Back in the day when you were a PhD student was something like I could write a book like that”
Discussed
“So I've also heard that your reaction to reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond back in the day when you were a PhD student was something like, I could write a book like that.”
Tyler Cowen maybe starting with Jared diamond constrips and steel yeah where you have at least 30 or 40 books 2
Discussed
“maybe starting with Jared diamond constrips and steel yeah where you have at least 30 or 40 books”
Discussed
“And maybe it's partly my age or our ages, but a book where you pick it up even at the level of, you know, Jared Diamond's well-known book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, those aren't happening right now.”
Eric Weinstein example I like to give is Guns Germs and Steel may have been one of the great books of all time 1
Discussed
“example I like to give is Guns Germs and Steel may have been one of the great books of all time”
Joel Salatin I mean this was part of the part of the kind of unspoken part of the book Guns Germs and Steel yeah you kno… 1
Discussed
“I mean this was part of the part of the kind of unspoken part of the book Guns Germs and Steel yeah you know that was a fascinating book”
Jonathan Anomaly So, a very famous and widely read book is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. 1
Critiqued
“So, a very famous and widely read book is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.”
Mark Suster jared diamond and jared diamond won the pulitzer prize for his amazing book called guns germs and stale so… 1
Discussed
“jared diamond and jared diamond won the pulitzer prize for his amazing book called guns germs and stale so collapse studies societies around the world that collapse and why do they collapse and like guns turns in steel”
Michael Shermer He talks at the in the opening chapter of Guns, Germs, and Steel how smart these people are that live out t… 1
Discussed
“He talks at the in the opening chapter of Guns, Germs, and Steel how smart these people are that live out there in nature and what it takes to survive.”
Mike Judge jared diamond writes a lot about uh he wrote guns germs and steel yeah like he writes a lot about australia… 1
Discussed
“jared diamond writes a lot about uh he wrote guns germs and steel yeah like he writes a lot about australia is like a really interesting example of a lot of just yeah humans wrecking everything”
Omer Moav Jared diamond in his book Guns Germs and still exactly talks about uh crops that are available for domestic… 1
Discussed
“Jared diamond in his book Guns Germs and still exactly talks about uh crops that are available for domestication”
Si Sheppard The classic text which got me invested in this whole scenario in the first place is Jared Diamond’s book, G… 1
Discussed
“The classic text which got me invested in this whole scenario in the first place is Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“and the answer is pretty simple and actually kind of this is one point where Jared diamond is is pretty spot on he points out that he wrote Guns Germs and Steel right”
Recommended
“I still think everybody should read Jared Diamonds Guns Germs and Steel”
Speaker The Ezra Klein Show If You’re Reading This, You’re Probably ‘WEIRD’ 2023-05-26 Listen at 1:10:41
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (15: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“He's also a renowned author of books such as Guns, Germs, and Steel, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.”
Passing
“I'm such a fan of your books, Guns, Germs, and Steel, was the first one I read.”
Plugged
“Jared Gunstorms and Steel neglects individual people it's about things that happen over the last 10,000 years”
Plugged
“there were convincing priests and devoted priests but behind these convincing devoted priests were European guns germs and steel”
Plugged
“so my books get translated into lots of languages the guns German the steel have been translated into into 45 languages”
Passing
“Well, listen, Jared, I just want to thank you for all your work over the years, collapse, um, you know, guns, germs, and steals.”
Passing
“Um, do you guys remember that book, 'Guns, Germs, and Steel'?”
Passing
“and it has an introduction by Jared Diamond who won a Pitzer for gun stms and steel and a forward by the great Robert spolski also a colleague of mine at Stanford”
Passing
“This book was written by my colleagues at Stanford, Sandra Khan and Paul Ehrlich, and it has an introduction by Jared Diamond, who won a Pulitzer for 'Guns, Germs, and Steel,' and a foreword by the great Robert Sapolsky, also a colleague of mine at Stanford.”
Passing
“my guest today Jared Diamond has written some of the best-selling popular science books of all time including Guns Germs and Steel and collapse”
Passing
“so many listeners know your books like Guns Germs and Steel and collapse massive bestsellers”
Passing
“and then once people figured out revolvers they're like i've got more than one shot here we can [ __ ] these guys up and that really changed the west guns germs and steel yeah but that really did”
Passing
“forward by Robert Sapolsky, the great Robert Sapolsky, and it also has a heavy endorsement upfront by Jared Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel," the Pulitzer winner, so a lot of heavy hitters on this book, "Jaws."”
Passing
“dropping them off there in this germs and steel oh yeah that's really how everything gets spread”
Passing
“I said I think I'm getting Jared diamond on who who want to pull surprise for Guns Germs and Steel”