Episode · Lenny's Podcast · 2026-08-30
Lenny Rachitsky & Tara Seshan: books mentioned on Lenny's Podcast
AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work)
Tara Seshan leads product for Codex and ChatGPT Work at OpenAI (alongside previous podcast guest Andrew Ambrosino, who’s her engineering manager). Before OpenAI, Tara spent over six years at Stripe, where she joined as one of the first five product managers.
Tara Seshan recommended Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Lenny Rachitsky discussed The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
Recommended“One book I really recommend to people is Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. I don't know if you've read it. It's about a life of a man who is a New Yorker reporter, but how he fell in love with surfing as his passion.”
Where to get it
-
Anna Karenina
Recommended“Um, another book that I might recommend as a as like a book that people should read. Um, I really love uh Anacarina. I've been rereading the classics lately and I love Anacredina because it's like a book of layers”
Where to get it
-
The Power Broker
Discussed“Uh and I also felt like it was very long and but now I'm reading the Power Broker which is like set the set the new president for a long been reading it for half my life at this point. I love the I love the Power Broker.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing War and Peace
“Another thing I highly recommend to people is if if anyone follows the substack um like Simon Hazel's Substack where he does a slow read of important books. So he did one of War and Peace and he's doing one of Wolf Hall I think or he did one of Wolf Hall”
Passing Wolf Hall
“So he did one of War and Peace and he's doing one of Wolf Hall I think or he did one of Wolf Hall which is a Hillary Mantel book like take it chapter by chapter.”