Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2026-03-20
Books mentioned on Naomi Klein on Trumpism and Our Age of ‘Unlikely Bedfellows’ | The Ezra Klein Show
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
No Logo
No Logo is a 1999 book by Naomi Klein that served as both an inspiration for and a chronicle of the burgeoning anti-globalization movement of the late twentieth century.
Discussed“You know, it was clear like we had the in No No Logo I wrote about the first um celebrities who were themselves lifestyle brands, like Michael Jordan and Oprah.”
Where to get it
-
The Beauty Myth
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf is a prominent 1990s cultural critique examining societal standards of femininity and their impact on women's lives.
Discussed“Her heyday was was um the 1990s with a breakthrough book called The Beauty Myth. It came out when I was uh an undergrad.”
Where to get it
-
Outrages
Discussed“Yeah, so the year year before the pandemic in 2019 she published a book called Outrages ; and she very famously made um a a a basic like a a foundational factual error in that book where she misinterpreted a phrase in the historical record.”
Where to get it
-
Empire of AI
Empire of AI by Karen Hao is a critically acclaimed investigative work that explores the hidden human and material inputs, dreams, and nightmares behind Sam Altman's OpenAI and the broader artificial intelligence boom.
Recommended“All right, so this is a little bit obvious, but but but Empire of AI um ; by Karen Hao. ; ; Just because it's it it's just such an incredible combination of just on the ground globe-trotting investigative reporting making the material inputs and human inputs of AI visible, but then it has this big idea thesis around empire”
Where to get it
-
Here Where We Live Is Our Country
Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple is a historical book exploring the story of the Jewish Bund and providing a look at alternative perspectives.
Recommended“Um I guess we've been talking around this, but um my my friend Molly Crabapple has an absolutely brilliant book coming out ; called Here Where We Live Is Our Country, the story of the Jewish ; un- Bund, and it's available for pre-order, comes out in April, and I think it gets at what an alternative story of hearness”
Where to get it
-
Fire Alarm
Fire Alarm by Michael Löwy is a close intellectual commentary and philosophical analysis of Walter Benjamin's famous text On the Concept of History, written while Benjamin was fleeing the Gestapo in 1940.
Recommended“And the third book is a book called Fire Alarm, Reading Walter Benjamin's On the Concept of History by Michael Löwy. ; Um and Walter Benjamin is the is this is the text that he wrote ; ; right before he took his own life fleeing the Gestapo in 1940. ; Um and it gets at this idea of the”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“And I've been wanting to return to that theme, which was actually the subject of my first book uh that I wrote in the late 1990s and came out in 2000, No Logo.”
“Um and yeah, she wrote a bunch of best-selling books. She wrote a book called Fire with Fire.”
“This is sort of what I wrote about in The Shock Doctrine. This is the the revolution against regulation”