Episode · Honestly with Bari Weiss · 2025-10-30
Books mentioned on Men Are Struggling. Reading Can Help.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The prince
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is a classic sixteenth-century political treatise that serves as a pragmatic, hard-headed manual for acquiring and wielding political power.
Discussed“I chose Machiavelli because he wrote the greatest book on leadership ever written, The Prince which advises you to lie, cheat, steal, and murder to get ahead.”
Where to get it
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Night
Night by Elie Wiesel is a harrowing autobiographical account of the author's survival alongside his father through the Nazi concentration camp system during the Holocaust.
Discussed“One was Karl Marx's The Jewish Question and I had coupled that with Elie Wiesel's Night. And we were going to read them together that week and it was the week it just happened to be that week.”
Where to get it
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Karl Marx on the Jewish Question
Discussed“And our reading for that week was two books. One was Karl Marx's The Jewish Question and I had coupled that with Elie Wiesel's Night.”
Where to get it
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The Republic
The Republic by Plato is a foundational classical text exploring justice, political theory, and the nature of an ideal society through a series of dialogues.
Recommended“Yeah, so I think you know, you can't not read Plato's Republic. Plato's Republic is probably the greatest book on justice ever written.”
Where to get it
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Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil
Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche is a seminal work of philosophy that offers a profound and uncompromising examination of traditional morality and Western culture.
Recommended“I've written a book on him, but he wrote a book called Beyond Good and Evil which in my view is the most scathing critique of the West from top to bottom ever written.”
Where to get it
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Emma
Emma by Jane Austen is a classic comedic novel following the misadventures of a clever and self-satisfied young woman as she navigates the complexities of matchmaking and social standing in Regency-era England.
Recommended“I think you need to meditate especially as a young person on love. Whether you do that through Jane Austen and a book like Emma or Pride and Prejudice, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Plato's Symposium books on love...”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Middlemarch by George Eliot is widely regarded as a supreme social novel examining provincial English life, human relationships, and moral growth.
Recommended“Whether you do that through Jane Austen and a book like Emma or Pride and Prejudice, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Plato's Symposium books on love...”
Where to get it
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Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a classic 19th-century novel exploring themes of love, class, reputation, and marriage through the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Recommended“Whether you do that through Jane Austen and a book like Emma or Pride and Prejudice, George Eliot's Middlemarch, Plato's Symposium books on love...”
Where to get it
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The Symposium
Delving into the multifaceted nature of human desire, affection, and philosophical inquiry, The Symposium by Plato remains one of history's most celebrated dialogues on the philosophy of love.
Recommended“George Eliot's Middlemarch, Plato's Symposium books on love that give you that make you begin to think more than just about kind of the super...”
Where to get it
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The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is a classic comedy that explores themes of courtship, gender dynamics, emotional transformation, and social order within Elizabethan England.
Discussed“Shakespeare's guilty of the same thing although he wrote a book called Taming of the Shrew which sobers one up about what love should be.”
Where to get it
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The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F.
Discussed“F. Scott Fitzgerald is among the most beautiful writers ever to emerge in the world and I think when students have a sentence that takes their breath away when there's a phrase we were reading The Great Gatsby yesterday and I pointed out to my producer that Fitzgerald uses this phrase to describe the night sky, the silver pepper of”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“This is the driving vision of the new podcast he just launched with the Free Press called Old School, where he talks to guests about the books that have shaped their lives.”
“Fareed Zakaria on The Great Gatsby, Nick Cave on The Adventures of Pinocchio, Richard Dawkins on P.G. Wodehouse.”
“Fareed Zakaria on The Great Gatsby, Nick Cave on The Adventures of Pinocchio, Richard Dawkins on P.G. Wodehouse.”
“Fareed Zakaria on The Great Gatsby, Nick Cave on The Adventures of Pinocchio, Richard Dawkins on P.G. Wodehouse.”