Episode · EconTalk · 2025-04-14
Books mentioned on Rational and Religious (with Ross Douthat)
How can we explain the world's underlying order? How does consciousness emerge?
Russ Roberts discussed Believe by Ross Douthat and Bittersweet by Susan Cain.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Believe
Believe by Ross Douthat is an exploration of why religious faith remains logical and vital in the modern era.
Discussed“Your book is an attempt to justify belief or the exploration of belief from an intelligent perspective. Uh give us the thumbnail for the skeptics out there.”
Where to get it
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Bittersweet
Bittersweet by Susan Cain is a nonfiction exploration of melancholy, sorrow, and longing, examining how these emotions can serve as sources of creativity, connection, and healing.
Discussed“I mean did that did I did an episode um with uh Susan Kaine on her book Bittersweet and for me the Odyssey especially the Jewish perspective on it which um uh there are there are a zillion pages of Jewish grappling with this with this fact...”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Believe
“He is an opinion columnist for the New York Times and our topic for today is his latest book, Believe, Why Everyone Should Be Religious.”
Plugged Believe
“the general religious picture and this is a book that you know I think for various reasons tries to start by laying out a very general case for why someone would be religious before you get to whether you should be Jewish or Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or whatever else.”
Plugged Believe
“I think there's sort of a general strangeness that uh that is one reason I wrote this book now is that I think we're in a a stranger moment than we were 10 or 15 years ago in terms of sort of the spiritual and the material.”