Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2026-10-07
Books mentioned on ‘This Is Nuts.’ An OpenAI Insider Explains Why He Quit.
Last week, David Robinson resigned from OpenAI. He’d been in charge of writing the safety reports for new models and came to believe that OpenAI and the broader artificial intelligence industry lack the safety culture necessary to protect the world from what they’re building.
David Robinson recommended The Challenger launch decision by Diane Vaughan, Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl, and The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Challenger launch decision
The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughan is a sociological masterpiece that investigates the normalization of deviance within organizations, using the tragic 1986 space shuttle disaster as a primary case study.
Recommended“Number one, the Challenger launch decision. So this is a book about why the Challenger exploded and it's by Diane Fon, who's a social scientist.”
Where to get it
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Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest
Recommended“The second book I will name, I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old, Little Witch Hazel. It's a picture book by Phoebe Wall. It's just absolutely beautiful.”
Where to get it
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The Sabbath
The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel is a spiritual exploration of Jewish theology that examines the profound significance of rest and how sacred time transcends the physical world.
Recommended“And then a third and most importantly, I guess, if you were gonna pick one, it would be The Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.”
Where to get it
