What counts

We analyze every episode of 40 podcasts with Google Gemini and record each book that comes up, with the exact words spoken, who said them, and when. Not every mention is equal, so here is how we count.

Mention types

Each mention gets one of seven types. Four count toward rankings and toward whether a page exists at all: Recommended (the speaker endorses reading it), Book club (chosen for the show's book club), Discussed (substantive discussion without a clear endorsement) and Critiqued (a substantive negative take). Three are shown but never counted: passing mentions in jokes or lists, ad reads such as audiobook sponsorships, and self-promotion of the speaker's own book. You can still see them on each page under "Other mentions".

Who said it

Each mention is credited to the host or to a guest. When we are not sure who said it, the mention is credited to the podcast rather than to a person. Person pages exist only for people with at least three counted recommendations.

Which book it is

Every mention is matched to a specific edition, so the same book mentioned on ten shows is one page, not ten. Titles we cannot identify with confidence are left out rather than guessed.

The clips

Where we could verify the moment in the episode's audio, the mention has a Play button that starts right there. Otherwise you get a "Listen at" link with the timestamp.

Corrections

If a page is wrong, email [email protected] with the URL and we will fix it.