Episode · Stuff You Should Know · 2026-04-14
Books mentioned on Are Generations Even a Thing?
We all love to tour our generation's superiority, but who decides where the split occurs and what to name it? And is this even a thing or just an arbitrary division?
Chuck Bryant discussed The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. Josh Clark recommended Generation X by Douglas Coupland, and discussed Generations by William Strauss and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a classic Lost Generation novel chronicling the disillusionment, travels, and romantic entanglements of a group of American and British expatriates in Europe.
Discussed“specifically in this case, uh it was from the book The Sun Also Rises in the epigraph Ernest Hemingway quoted Stein Uh-huh. saying you are all a lost generation.”
Where to get it
-
The Greatest Generation
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw is a 1998 non-fiction work that documents the experiences of Americans who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, popularizing the term used to describe that demographic cohort.
Discussed“Tom Brokaw wrote the book The Greatest Generation, and that in that was 1998, and that really took off and kind of stuck.”
Where to get it
-
Generation X
Generation X by Douglas Coupland is a defining cultural novel that captured the disillusionment of young adults coming of age in the late twentieth century and famously popularized the generational label.
Recommended“we got our name Generation X did from the Douglas Coupland book uh Generation X colon Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which is a great read. I urge everyone to read it.”
Where to get it
-
Generations
Generations by William Strauss and Neil Howe is an influential historical analysis that explores recurring generational cycles in American history and famously coined the term for the millennial generation.
Discussed“our buddies Neil Howe and William Strauss again uh 1991 they published a book called Generations colon colon the history of America's future uh 1584 to 2069 and that's where they came up with the millennial generation for pretty obvious reasons.”
Where to get it
