Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2026-01-02
Books mentioned on The Most Powerful Question I’ve Heard | The Ezra Klein Show
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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What is this?
Discussed“So I want to say that that what is this the book that tracks a retreat you and your wife Martin did is one of my very favorite books on meditation and I reread it every couple of years.”
Where to get it
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Buddha, Socrates, and Us
Discussed“So I want to turn a bit more directly into politics here because if the fourth task is to live out your values is politics is one of the places where people try to do that and it's not I will say for me it's not exactly a zone of blissful non-reactivity so you talk in your new book Buddha”
Where to get it
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The second body
The second body by Daisy Hildyard is an essay exploring human corporeality and environmental interconnectedness.
Recommended“and finally a book called The Second Body by an English uh woman novelist called Daisy Hildyard. It's not a piece of fiction. It's an essay on what she calls the second body which is a highly imaginative way of understanding that our physical body which is sitting on this chair right here is actually only a relatively small part”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing What is this?
“Steven Bachelor is the author of many books on Buddhism and meditation including this book he wrote with his wife Martine Bachelor called what is this? which is from a meditation retreat, a son meditation retreat that that they held some time ago.”
Passing Buddha, Socrates, and Us
“Bachelor's latest book is Buddha Socrates and us ethical living in uncertain times. there he draws on a different tradition of doubt, Socratic questioning, [music] and explores kind of the wisdom that that Buddhist and hellenistic philosophy might offer us today.”