Book · 2020 · Political Science
The Parasitic Mind
How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
- mentions
- 18
- people
- 7
- podcasts
- 6
- episodes
- 10
- critical mentions
- 0
The parasitic mind book I think is the most important of them all.
What they say about it
- Discusses toxic thoughts“invaded by toxic thoughts”2
The best things said about it
Gad wrote The Parasitic Mind. And that's definitely a book worth picking up if you haven't done that already.
Jordan Peterson The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast · Jul 2023 He talks about how the human mind can be invaded by toxic thoughts that are that cut you off completely from reality.
The last one was called The Parasitic Mind where he outlines his theory of the woke mind virus.
Jordan Peterson The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast · Jun 2025 Gat has recently written The Parasitic Mind, how infectious ideas are killing common sense.
Jordan Peterson The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast · Feb 2021 Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
3
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6
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How it comes up
7 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad is a provocative critique of modern ideological conformity and intellectual trends that the author argues undermine reason, objective truth, and academic freedom. Steven Bartlett discussed the book on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, praising it as an exceptionally important read. Jordan Peterson recommended the work during the closing remarks of an episode on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, and Dave Rubin similarly endorsed and linked to the book at the end of an interview on The Rubin Report. Chris Williamson also directed his audience to the text in the show notes on Modern Wisdom. Eckhart Tolle brought up The Parasitic Mind on The Rubin Report to illustrate how human minds can be invaded by toxic beliefs that completely disconnect individuals from reality. Jordan Peterson later discussed the book again on his podcast to examine Saad's theoretical framework regarding the woke mind virus. Candace Owens featured the book on Candace, playing a clip of Saad discussing how intellectual elites and professors often generate and propagate damaging ideas.
Every mention
Jordan Peterson And um also, you know, as we discussed, Gad wrote The Parasitic Mind. And that's definitely a book worth pi… 5
Discussed
“The last one was called the parasitic mind where he outlines his theory of the woke mind virus.”
Discussed
“Let's start with your last book, The Parasitic Mind. When was that published, Gad?”
Recommended
“And um also, you know, as we discussed, Gad wrote The Parasitic Mind. And that's definitely a book worth picking up if you haven't done that already.”
Discussed
“gat has recently written the parasitic mind how infectious ideas are killing common sense”
Discussed
“we've been discussing the parasitic mind by gad sod and when was it published uh october 6 of this past year”
Chris Williamson look link to the parasitic mind will be linked in the show notes below 1
Recommended
“look link to the parasitic mind will be linked in the show notes below”
Dave Rubin - All right Gad, we're gonna link to the book The Parasitic Mind right below and you know, we could talk fo… 1
Recommended
“- All right Gad, we're gonna link to the book The Parasitic Mind right below and you know, we could talk forever so next time in person my friend.”
Steven Bartlett I love the book about happiness, happiness, eight secrets for leading the good life. And I I referenced you… 1
Recommended
“I love the book about happiness, happiness, eight secrets for leading the good life. And I I referenced your earlier book as well, but the parasitic mind book I think is the most important of them all”
Gad Saad and so i had tackled that book at my in my first book in 2007 as a bunch of uh gibberish that was part of s… 4
Discussed
“and so i had tackled that book at my in my first book in 2007 as a bunch of uh gibberish that was part of sort of the victimhood narrative”
Discussed
“this past year was the parasitic mind the book royalties came in and so you know i don't make 100 million spotify money so the royalties of that book are enough that oh now i can buy a home and retire if i wanted in austin or florida”
Discussed
“it's something that i discussed in the parasitic mind did i ever tell you the story with my interaction with a woman with whom i had a battle about pregnant men getting pregnant”
Discussed
“but in the very in the parasitic mind i tell the story in chapter one of the haughtiness of academia”
Joe Rogan that's the difference between a peer-reviewed paper and what you write which by the way i want to give you… 3
Discussed
“that's the difference between a peer-reviewed paper and what you write which by the way i want to give you a copy of the parasitic mind with a autograph”
Discussed
“are the parasitic minds available now did you do the audiobook”
Discussed
“yeah my friend god saad who is a uh he's a professor out of montreal he wrote a book he's an evolutionary biologist and he wrote a book on uh called the parasitic mind”
Eckhart Tolle You you probably read in with reference to contemporary culture, Gats wrote the book uh the parasitic mind,… 2
Discussed
“You you probably read in with reference to contemporary culture, Gats wrote the book uh the parasitic mind, very good book. So he he talks about how the human mind can be invaded by toxic thoughts that are that cut you off completely from reality.”
Discussed
“So toxic thoughts you you probably read in with reference to contemporary culture. Gats wrote the book uh the parasitic mind very good book. So he he talks about how the human mind can be invaded by toxic thoughts that are that cut you off completely from reality.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker1
Discussed
“As a matter of fact, as I have explained repeatedly and certainly the parasitic mind, all of the parasitic ideas that I discuss in the parasitic mind stem from professors and in in in channeling the spirit of Orwell, it takes intellectuals to come up with some of the dumbest ideas and really it that's Thomas soul who has done”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (40: passing, ad reads, own books)
Plugged
“Yeah, so you may or may not know this, but I actually mentioned suicidal empathy in The Parasitic Mind. Uh so, it's been many many years.”
Plugged
“So, for example, I tell the story in chapter one of The Parasitic Mind where we're at the the synagogue in Beirut and you know, there's a prayer where you get up, you get you sit down, you go there.”
Plugged
“So, I I thought maybe I'd give you because I I know that you know The Parasitic Mind really well. And so, I wanted to kind of contextualize this book in relation to that book.”
Plugged
“Well, The Parasitic Mind was the story of what I need to do to hijack your cognitive system, your your your ability to think rationally. And hence, there were all these parasitic ideas that destroyed your capacity to think.”
Plugged
“So, in the Parasitic Mind, I talk about social constructivism. Everything is a social construction.”
Plugged
“Cultural relativism is a parasitic idea that I discuss in The Parasitic Mind. It basically says, "Who are you to judge the beliefs and the practices of another culture? Shut up, racist."”
Plugged
“So in in chapter seven of the parasitic mind where I talk about how to seek truth I open up the chapter with a long quote by Leon Festinger the pioneer of theory of cognitive dissonance and it exactly speaks to your point.”
Plugged
“And that's why I talk about ostrich parasitic syndrome in in the previous book because while the ostrich doesn't literally bury its head in the sand, the metaphor is very apt”
Plugged
“The one prior to that was called The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense.”
Plugged
“uh and so he has an amazing quote which I use in one of my earlier books uh in the parasitic mind where he basically says the types of mental machinations that the average human being will engage in”
Plugged
“and hence that's why in in the parasitic mind if you might remember in chapter 6 I have a whole chapter on ostrich parasitic syndrome”
Plugged
“but as I explained the paric mind you can can't in the pursuit of some Noble goal murder and rape truth”
Plugged
“I discussed this in chapter one of my previous book The parasitic mind”
Plugged
“so that's covered partly in parasitic mind my earlier book and in my next book which I call suicidal empathy”
Plugged
“I mean the one of the reasons I think that that book did so well is because it really explained how all of these parasitic ideas came to a head together and they were all spawned on University campuses over the past 40 to 80 years”
Plugged
“and it's also in my my best-selling parasitic mind so I think they've already stolen it”
Passing
“The parasitic Mind was one of his books.”
Plugged
“although as I of course explain in much of my work and certainly in the parasitic mind you also don't want to fall trap uh to the echo chamber reality”
Plugged
“you may or may not remember that in the parasitic mind I talked about male feminists as an instantiation of the sneaky strategy”
Plugged
“Because "Parasitic Mind," the previous book, was about negative mindsets, parasitic ideas that infect your brain.”
Plugged
“But it turns out, and I discussed this in The Parasitic Mind, that, for example, your likelihood of supporting military interventionism is correlated to your upper body strength.”
Plugged
“And so, in the in The Parasitic Mind, I argue that male social justice warriors are instantiating a form of sneaky [ __ ] strategy, right?”
Plugged
“so in in my last book in the parastic mind I talk about two ethical systems deontological ethics and consequentialist ethics”
Plugged
“I mean that's I mean and that's why I wrote the parasitic mind the last book right because I am I was really literally arguing that human Minds can be parasitized by ideological worms in the way that you can be parasitized by actual brain worms”
Plugged
“he's also the author of The parasitic mind how infectious ideas are killing common sense”
Passing
“Let's give Regnery a little shout out here because they're the ones that picked up the book and they've picked up a couple other controversial books, "The Parasitic Mind" by my friend, Gad Saad, another one really going after the woke and they picked him up as well.”
Passing
“the parasitic mind mask”
Plugged
“i mean it's been it's been tough over here because i'm on sabbatical this semester and it's at the time when my book came out so i was planning on doing all kinds of you know world book tours and also you know all sorts of stuff and everything has been shut down”
Plugged
“and as as you know most of the folks with that are within the intelligentsia are typically exactly the people that i discuss in the parasitic mind the people who are parasitized by all these idea pathogens”
Plugged
“uh it's actually a story that i discuss in the book”
Plugged
“so your book that you put out the parasitic mind yeah we've barely talked about it um this the book is it out right now it came out on october 6th”
Plugged
“so in a sense this book i've been writing it for 25 years because i have seen you know i tell in in chapter one of the book i basically say that i faced two great wars in my life the first war was the lebanese civil war when i was a child and the second war has been the”
Plugged
“And joining us today is an evolutionary behavioral scientist, a Professor of Marketing at Concordia University and author of the new book, "The Parasitic Mind: "How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense".”
Plugged
“- So I called them of course in the book, idea pathogens and drawing a corollary to how animals could be parasitized by actual brain worms. I argue that human beings can be parasitized by another class of pathogens, idea pathogens. So and hence this is why it's called The Parasitic Mind.”
Plugged
“- Well because their, their tribalism supersedes their desire to be truthful. So there's a tension that I discuss in The Parasitic Mind between two types of ethical systems.”
Plugged
“so we're going to talk about your new book parasitic mind”
Plugged
“now this originally comes from my work in evolutionary psychology actually which i now apply to this context”
Plugged
“so the example that i give in the book the sort of the final example in chapter seven is is islam a peaceful religion or not”
Plugged
“why and this by the way goes to chapter one of my of the parasitic mind because i want to explain exactly why i'm indignant”
Plugged
“this is why in chapter 2 of the parasitic mind i have a section the chapter is about feeling versus thinking”