Episode · Dwarkesh Podcast · 2026-10-01
Books mentioned on Si Sheppard – How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers topple two empires?
New episode with military historian Si Sheppard. The conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires might be the most shocking events in human history.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Guns, Germs and Steel
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book that examines why Eurasian civilizations survived and conquered others, attributing these outcomes to environmental and geographical advantages rather than genetic superiority.
Discussed“The classic text which got me invested in this whole scenario in the first place is Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel.”
Where to get it
