Cover of The Checklist Manifesto

Book

The Checklist Manifesto

by Atul Gawande · Brought up by 6 people on 5 podcasts

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande has been mentioned in 19 episodes across 5 podcasts (14 episodes recommend it and 5 episodes discuss it), through . Most frequently brought up by Jason Calacanis (14 episodes), Stephen Dubner (2 episodes) and Tim Ferriss (1 episode) on This Week in Startups (14 episodes), The Tim Ferriss Show (2 episodes) and Freakonomics Radio (1 episode).

episodes
19
podcasts
5
people
6
episodes recommend it
14

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That's why I talk about The Checklist Manifesto all the time. And you wanted to see who's hungry to get things done and who's a detail person in startups.
Jason Calacanis · This Week in Startups · Apr 2026

Questions about The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Who recommends The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande on podcasts?

Jason Calacanis (12 episodes), Stephen Dubner (1 episode) and Tim Ferriss (1 episode) have recommended The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande on podcasts. In all, 6 people brought it up across 5 podcasts (3 people recommended it).

Which podcasts mention The Checklist Manifesto the most?

This Week in Startups (14 episodes), The Tim Ferriss Show (2 episodes), Freakonomics Radio (1 episode), Invest Like the Best (1 episode) and No Stupid Questions (1 episode).

Is The Checklist Manifesto recommended, or only discussed?

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande was recommended in 14 episodes and discussed without a recommendation in 5 episodes, as of 2026-07-01.

What do people say about The Checklist Manifesto?

Jason Calacanis on This Week in Startups (2026-04-07): "That's why I talk about The Checklist Manifesto all the time. And you wanted to see who's hungry to get things done and who's a detail person in startups."

When was The Checklist Manifesto last mentioned on a podcast?

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande was last discussed on This Week in Startups by Mike Maples on 2026-07-01.

What they say about it

Grouped from 19 episodes
  • Calls it a great book
    4
  • Learned about it from Jack Dorsey“jack dorsey from square and twitter”
    3
  • Makes employees read it“make them read the checklist manifesto”
    2
  • Discusses avoiding plane and surgery disasters“why people survive surgery and plane problems”
    2
  • Had a profound impact“had a profound impact on me”
    2

The best things said about it

6 of 23 · every mention
Discussed
And what the book Checklist Manifesto does is it says listen, it's not about ego. It's not about you and your performance. It's about a process that leads to the best outcome.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · May 2025
Recommended
It is super important to have a playbook and a checklist. This is why I always every single person who comes to work for me, I make them read The Checklist Manifesto.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Dec 2025
Recommended
Read the book the checklist manifest though and you'll learn about this is why people survive surgery and plane uh problems you know aviation challenges and disasters get avoided.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Apr 2022
Recommended
There's a great book called the checklist manifesto that jack dorsey from square and twitter fame turned me on to uh on as a way to create operational excellence and i think he's achieved that at square a long time ago and i think he figured it out at twitter um which you can see in their product velocity what.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Nov 2021
Discussed
The reason we came up with this was because we read a book called the checklist manifesto had a profound impact on me and my team.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Nov 2021
Discussed
Your book, The Checklist Manifesto, was aimed at and proved really effective at eliminating all different sorts of medical errors.
Stephen Dubner Freakonomics Radio · Apr 2018

Where and when it comes up

Mentions by year

02017120181201912020520213202212023020244202532026so far

Podcast episodes that discussed The Checklist Manifesto, by year. One episode counts once, however often the book came up.

How it comes up

Recommended means the speaker tells listeners to read it.

Episodes, each counted once, by the strongest way it came up.

Most episodes, by podcast

5 shows

6 people who brought it up

Most recommendations first

Why people recommend it

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande is a non-fiction book that examines how simple checklists can prevent catastrophic failures in complex fields like medicine and aviation. The book has received numerous enthusiastic endorsements from tech entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis on This Week in Startups. Calacanis frequently brought up the title to emphasize the value of attention to detail, discipline, and meticulous execution in startups. He shared that he requires every new employee joining his team to read the book, a practice inspired by Jack Dorsey, to help establish playbooks and reduce mistakes during repetitive tasks. Calacanis also noted that founders can utilize the book's core principles to build reliable review systems and operational frameworks. Furthermore, Tim Ferriss mentioned the title on The Tim Ferriss Show as an ideal process-oriented recommendation for executive assistants seeking to optimize their organizational routines.

Every mention

23 quotes from 19 episodes · 7 passing or ad reads below
Jason Calacanis and i i'm really getting into this writing things down culture and writing down the best practices and i pr… 14
Recommended
“And uh you know, that's why I talk about the Checklist Manifesto all the time. And you wanted to see who's hungry to get things done and who's a detail person in startups.”
Recommended
“And this is where checklists I don't know if you've ever read their book, The Checklist Manifesto. I love that book. Isn't that a great book?”
Recommended
“It is super important um to have a playbook and a checklist. This is why I always every single person who comes to work for me, I make them read the checklist manifesto because Jack Dorsey had read in I don't know some interview with him or heard him on a podcast and he talked about this book and how”
Recommended
“Well, read a book called Checklist Manifesto. It gets people into the mindset of creating checklists.”
Discussed
“And what the book Checklist Manifesto does is it says listen, it's not about ego. It's not about you and your performance. It's about a process that leads to the best outcome.”
Recommended
“Read the book Checklist Manifesto. Shout out Checklist Manifesto. You do a checklist of what humans check. So, we check the spelling. We check the image. We check for offensive material. We check for crisp communication.”
Discussed
“But the bigger piece is there's this book, The Checklist Manifesto, you and I are obsessed with, probably part of our kinship.”
Recommended
“and i i'm really getting into this writing things down culture and writing down the best practices and i prefer the google okrs kpis combined with the amazon right first culture six pagers and the checklist manifesto”
Recommended
“read the book the checklist manifest though and you'll learn about this is why people survive surgery and plane uh problems you know aviation challenges and disasters get avoided”
Recommended
“rush more of management books there's a debate over which ones i like checklist manifesto i like working backwards”
Recommended
“there's a great book called the checklist manifesto that jack dorsey from square and twitter fame turned me on to uh on as a way to create operational excellence and i think he's achieved that at square a long time ago and i think he figured it out at twitter um which you can see in their product velocity what”
Recommended
“i was inspired to do this by a book called the checklist manifesto which i found out about from jack dorsey at square and twitter and i make everybody who comes to work for me read the startup checklist because it turns out when you make a checklist you know less planes fall out of the sky”
Discussed
“The reason we came up with this was because we read a book called the checklist manifesto had a profound impact on me and my team”
Discussed
“It turns out the pilots who winged it would sometimes forget to check the oil or they'd check that they had put the landing gear up or down or the flaps and then they died”
Recommended
“Remember I always talk about that book, The Checklist Manifesto, which had a great impact on me. Uh great book, as an aside, you should read it.”
Recommended
“have you read this book to check this manifesto yeah didn't right there it's right I don't know if you've ever read I have read it's great”
Stephen Dubner I read Atul gawande's checklist Manifesto great book right 2
Recommended
“I read Atul gawande's checklist Manifesto great book right”
Discussed
“That little surgical checklist was the topic of one Gawande book, The Checklist Manifesto.”
Discussed
“So, Atul, your book, The Checklist Manifesto, was aimed at and proved really effective at eliminating all different sorts of medical errors.”
Tim Ferriss Like The Checklist Manifesto. 1
Alex Wilhelm like they thought it would never work and then when they got the checklist going and there you have it Jaso… 1
Discussed
“like they thought it would never work and then when they got the checklist going and there you have it Jason bringing forward the checklist manifesto which is a common occurrence here at the launch and twist offices”
Martín Escobari So Danny Kaliman, thinking fast, think slow checklist manifesto built on work he did for the Israeli Defens… 1
Discussed
“So Danny Kaliman, thinking fast, think slow checklist manifesto built on work he did for the Israeli Defense Forces to create the checklist for the elite agents.”
Mike Maples how do you turn a deep work discovery into a checklist manifesto deliverable? 1
Discussed
“how do you turn a deep work discovery into a checklist manifesto deliverable?”

Often mentioned with

Other mentions (7: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“How can we give them a process by which we could safely land these which is literally the checklist manifesto.”
Ad read
“Just like Amazon does this great thing where they write first, they call it a write first culture. Well, Notion allows you to have a write first culture, where on my phone, when I want to start a document, I write a best practice.”
Passing
“is it Atul Gawande checklist manifesto type stuff what are the tools in that toolkit that are actually effective at improving this category of error”
Passing
“as we always obsess over these checklists checklist manifesto great book there's a checklist for founders where they could just go through this list when they start a company in their first year and make sure they don't miss something important”
Passing
“related to an episode of your podcast, Armchair Expert, in which you interviewed Atul Gawande, uh who I've respect for a very long time, author of many books including The Checklist Manifesto.”
Passing
“The Michael Lewis story reminds me of, you know, Atul Gawande and the checklist manifesto and, and my belief that, you know, as an investor, the only interesting strategies are ones which are repeatable”
Passing
“And with very few exceptions, stuck very rigorously to those rules. You know, like an Atul Gawande checklist manifesto take on this very early on before anyone was doing that.”

Portraits from Wikimedia Commons: Jason Calacanis, Christopher Michel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0); Stephen Dubner, Audrey S. Bernstein / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); Tim Ferriss, Mukhatir at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).