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Books podcasts were talking about in December 2019
During December 2019, literary discussions across multiple podcasts spanned topics from artificial intelligence and astronomy to crime fiction and personal essays. On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Melanie Mitchell recommended Douglas R. Hofstadter's "Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies" for its detailed exploration of Copycat. Concurrently, science programming featured Keith Cooper on Modern Wisdom discussing Seth Shostak's "Confessions of an Alien Hunter" while exploring the complexities surrounding the potential detection of an alien signal. The Book Review featured a roundtable conversation where Elisabeth Egan recommended Margaret Renkl's "Late Migrations," Concepción de León highlighted Angie Cruz's novel "Dominicana," and Pamela Paul recommended Søren Sveistrup's crime novel "The Chestnut Man." Modern Wisdom returned to book discussions during its Christmas special, where host Chris Williamson praised Shane Parrish's "The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts" and Bhante Gunaratana's "Mindfulness in Plain English." Additionally, on The Rubin Report, Dave Rubin promoted Yasmine Mohammed's book "Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam." Across these different episodes, the featured titles reflected a diverse array of investigative journalism, scientific inquiry, mental frameworks, and narrative fiction that engaged listeners and hosts as the year came to a close.
Modern Wisdom
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Confessions of an Alien Hunter
Recommended“Seth Shostak and the SETI Institute is the senior astronomer there any work he wrote a great book called confessions of an alien hunt and his stats it out in the first chapter”
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The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts
Recommended“the great mental models by Shane parish that was fantastic”
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Mindfulness in Plain English
Recommended“mindfulness in plain English that was your session that's a really good book”
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The choice factory
Discussed“I saw a example in behavioral economics today from Richard chaton who is the author of the choice Factory in a previous modern wisdom guest”
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Breakthrough Advertising
Discussed“but there's a book in the marketing world called breakthrough advertising that you can only get now for like 800 quid and everybody like gets really excited about the book because it's so expensive it'll just have the same stuff in its”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Marjorie Morningstar
Discussed“Tolstoy I like the same reason I like Herman Wouk as a novelist I that I think I like his book Marjorie Morningstar has a similar character in who who who developed his own personal philosophy and export”
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Artificial Intelligence
Discussed“the name of your new book is artificial intelligence subtitle a guide for thinking humans”
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Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies
Recommended“so there's a Douglas Hofstadter's book called fluid concepts and creative analogies talks in great detail about copycat”
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Probabilistic Robotics
Discussed“um prior to me working on self-driving cars I was a roboticist in a machine learning expert and I wrote books on robotics something called probabilistic robotics the survey methods driven kind of viewpoint of the world”
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Discussed“one of my favorite quotes is from Tess of the d'Urbervilles and it's along the lines of the the measure of your life depends on not your external displacement but your subjective experience if I am happy and those that I love are happy can that be enough”
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I'm Fine...And Other Lies
Discussed“she also has some fascinating ideas about human behavior psychology and neurology some of which she explores in her book called um fine and other lies”
The Book Review
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The Sacrament
Discussed“Olaf fulson will be here to talk about his latest book The Sacrament”
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Tightrope
Discussed“we'll be welcoming Cheryl wudan and my colleague Nick Kristoff to talk about their new book tight RPP Americans reaching for hope”
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The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison
Discussed“she's here now to talk about another book the selected letters of Ralph Ellison which is a new collection edited by John Callahan and Mark Connor with an introduction by John Callahan”
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Late Migrations
Recommended“it's a book called late migrations and the author is Margaret wrinkle who's a contributing opinion columnist here at the times”
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Dominicana
Recommended“I am reading for the first time Dominicana by Angie Cruz”
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The Chestnut Man
Recommended“it's called The chestnut man is by saurin SRP”
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Poems by the author of “Paul Ferroll” [i.e. Caroline Clive]. Including a new edition of IX Poems by V, with former and recent additions
Discussed“and so that was another one you know the Caroline forche book about her time in El Salvador you know quite stunning”
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Anniversaries
Discussed“parl two of your best books were more than a thousand pages... ducks Newberry Port by Lucy Elman and anniversaries by U Johnson”
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Solitary
Discussed“Unbroken by four decades in solitary confinement my story of transition and hope by Albert woodfox and Leslie George”
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Black Radical
Discussed“one you reviewed quite recently black radical The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter by Carrie greenage”
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Thelonious Monk
Discussed“I'm reading a biography of Thelonius Monk it's by Robin DG Kelly”
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The Factory
Discussed“I am reading the factory by hoko oam”
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Belladonna
Discussed“and I'm reading a book called Belladonna”
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The Hidden History of Burma
Recommended“this is exactly the kind of question that I I I'm I'm loathed to answer but I will say there was a book that I reviewed actually another one that I reviewed fairly recently by taunt minu called the hidden history of Burma”
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Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
Discussed“joining us now from London Yung Chang her new book is called Big Sister little sister red sister three women at the heart of 20th century China”
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Wild Swans
Discussed“when she left London after my mother left I wrote Wild Swans so that's how I came to write my first book the book that made me a writer after wild swangs was published in the early 19 90s”
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The Book of Eating
Discussed“I reviewed two books about eating which you know is one of my favorite things to read about and do one is by Adam Platt you know he's the food critic for New York Magazine he wrote the book of eating which is sort of a memoir”
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Serious eats
Discussed“and there's another one called serious eater by Ed LaVine who runs the website Serious Eats”
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The story of a goat
Recommended“this is how I feel about this book it's the story of a goat by perumal murugan a tamilan Indian writer”
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Life isn't everything
Discussed“they wrote together an oral history of Mike Nichol it's called life isn't everything Mike Nichols as remembered by 150 of his closest friends”
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The American way of death
Discussed“it was the time of Jessica mitford the the American way of death and you know I mean these were weighty subjects”
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Still Here
Discussed“and that was of course elene strich who died in 2014 and is the subject of a new biography by Alexander Jacobs the book is called still here the madcap nervy singular life of Alene stretch”
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The Happiest Kids in the World
Discussed“and Dan picks up this book called the happiest children in the world and of course it's about Dutch children”
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The mountain lion
Recommended“and so I finally read which I've been meaning to for a long time the mountain lion which is a novel of hers from the late 1940s issued by the New York Review books Classics line it's a great book”
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How to Be a Family
Recommended“I'm reading how to be a family the year I dragged my kids around the world to find a new way to be together by Dan koise”
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Kudos
Recommended“I'm finally reading Kudos the third book in the trilogy and kicking myself a little that it took me so long”
Pod Save America
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We Are Indivisible
Discussed“and I went to this book event in San Francisco that for the book that Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg the founders of indivisible yeah and go to it's this bookstore and we get there and it is packed right this is a handbook for political activism”
Behind the Bastards
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Midnight Rising
Discussed“According to the book Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz, quote, he also displayed an unusual tolerance towards the native inhabitants of Ohio. Some persons seemed disposed to quarrel with the Indians, but I never was, he wrote.”
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God's Right Hand
Discussed“I'm going to quote from God's right hand again. In 1994, in a mailing sent out to supporters of the Liberty Alliance, Fwell wrote that the Clinton administration is set to award thousands and thousands of immigration visas”
The Rubin Report
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Dogma
Discussed“this is the same person, of course, that did a movie criticizing Christianity, "Dogma," criticizing dogma in general.”
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Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam
Recommended“All right, you guys can get "Unveiled" at Yasmine's website, which is yasminemohammed.com.”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Blood and Thunder ; The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
Recommended“it's a blood and thunder yeah blood and thunder an epic tale of the American West it's about Kit Carson and the mountain”
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The Power of One
Discussed“you ever done the power of one oh yeah I've read that was a couple of years ago yeah my favorites yeah it's great audio book - who's read it who's the author of that again I don't recall I think he's kind of a one-hit wonder with that book I can't remember his name but love absolutely love the”
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The World of Lore, Volume 1: Monstrous Creatures
Discussed“either way I listen to Erin man keys podcast lore and he talks about this stuff all the time”
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An Ethnography of Living and Working in a Group Home for People with Down Syndrome and Dementia
Discussed“Just look right here I had this author in the other day his name Sam Sam Quinn he wrote this book empire of the summer moon it's [ __ ] amazing man it's about the Comanches and it's about the the war they had with like through Texas and Oklahoma and went on forever like a ganancias were the last”
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Trump
Discussed“and he brings that Donald Trump jr. book everywhere he goes, I love it, he's got an orange suit, just as gross as the blue one”
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The Strongest Shall Survive
Recommended“the strongest shall survive his book on strength training for football remains one of the best strength training books”
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A Plausible Autobiography of Earl Callen
Recommended“I am a fan of books by old-time strongman Not all of them of course but some of them are just remarkable Earl Lederman he was an American strongman an educator He wrote a book back in 1925 called the seekers of strength and it's an awesome book”
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Kettlebell -
Recommended“so I also bought the same time came out with an updated edition of my kettlebells simple and sinister and that I believe firmly believe is the book for most people to most people whether it's grandma Betty or Ranger Joe that to train on to get started on”
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Discussed“I think people are often used to the burry my heart at Wounded Knee narrative of the of Native Americans which is as victims yeah and there's no question that they were victims of a westward rolling Empire and 378 broken treaties”
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Crazy Horse
Discussed“Larry McMurtry wrote a pretty good book about Crazy Horse a small volume”
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American Serengeti
Recommended“He's got another one what is this other book about the the various large land animals that went extinct here in North America”
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The Heart of Everything That Is
Recommended“yeah let's see the center of everything that is the heart of everything that is which is which is a version Well not a version but it was a it was a kind of doing for the Sioux what what this book did”
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The Plot to Seize the White House
Discussed“the book that it's called um like the time the conspiracy to overthrow the government and then it's all it's all about him it's a really long book that just came out about like overthrowing FDR”
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The Paleo Cure
Discussed“so can we just go into your study sorry your e-book on b12 you basically said I don't know where you got that study from your b12 eBook opened with the exact same study”
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Peak
Recommended“and if folks are really interested in doing a deep dive in it there's a guy named dr. mark Bub's he wrote a book called peak and he kind of dives into kind of like some of the nutrition science”
StarTalk Radio
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The Science of Good and Evil
Discussed“you wrote a book uh called the science of good and evil”
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The Internationalists
Discussed“there's a new database i've just been reading about in this book called the internationalist 500 war um statements by nations”
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Building a Bridge
Discussed“this book trying to put an olive branch out between the catholic church and lgbt community”
The Tim Ferriss Show
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The Pursuit of Wow!
Recommended“it's called the pursuit of Wow from 1994 I met Tom in 84 right after in search of excellence came out it was just a random connection but ever since then I have been inspired and amazed by his energy and by his passion and this book captures so much of it”
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Long Tail
Recommended“and this is one of them the long tale by Chris Anderson you may have heard about it but you probably haven't read the book as closely as you might if you care about how ideas spread in our culture and you want to understand issues around scarcity and abundance”
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B
Recommended“it's a poem called B and it's by Sarah Kay the one and only Sarah K spoken word maestro”
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The Blue Sweater
Recommended“the book is the blue sweater her next book is coming out early 2020 I hope you'll look for it the blue sweater is the true story of how one woman has decided to change philanthropy capitalism development”
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Liquid Life
Recommended“and zygmunt bauman spoke liquid life is another one like that his description of nomadism gave me a whole new path of thinking”
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Family Healing
Recommended“you can read family healing”
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The Craft of Family Therapy
Recommended“you can read structural family therapy which is the real theoretical basis of it it will change your whole way of understanding relationships”
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Switch
Recommended“if you know if somebody wrote me a 9 page that would just forward it right to triage if it were a two paragraph email I might respond and say you know here are my two favorite books on the topic are switched by the heath brothers and the culture code by Dan Coyle”
ChooseFI
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Playing with FIRE
Recommended“so I'm going to borrow this from the Playing with Fire book where you make your list of the top 10 things you do every week that make you feel happy”
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How to raise an adult
Recommended“so my favorite book is called how to raise an adult and it was written by the dean of undergraduates at Stanford”
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
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NATIONAL PLUMBING CODE
Discussed“when I was in Alabama they ran off the national plumbing code which is a book about three quarters of an inch thick or so got a lot of pages in it”
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Uniform Plumbing Code
Discussed“I moved to Washington and they as as California does now - but back then they did a uniform plumbing code which is the gold standard and that book is like this thick”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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Ultramarathon Man
Discussed“he so he actually got me an old karani he's a book ultramarathon man I read it when I was in Iraq”
This Week in Startups
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Peak
Discussed“and I think if you from a been a longtime listener and one of my favorite guests that you had on the show was chip Conley yes chip colonies book peak has this concept”
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The Outward Mindset
Recommended“one of my favorite books the outward mindset by the our Binger Institute it's real word mindset without word Minds exactly that it's around for in the workplace in particular”
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The Advantage
Recommended“and that and probably the largest one was Patrick Lencioni x' book the advantage the advantage which his previous books the five dysfunctions of a team”
Monday Morning Podcast
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The Westies
Discussed“I mean that's like I'm sure bill and I had finished about playing Westies you know you know that looks like it's that that's one of the few books I read more than once oh yeah other than kid books to my daughter here I still have that book”
EconTalk
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The Politics of Institutional Reform
Recommended“his book is the politics of institutional reform it's short and sweet Terry thanks for being part of econ talk”
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Gut Feelings
Discussed“our topic for today is his work on decision-making rationality and rules of thumb including his 2008 book gut feelings the intelligence of the unconscious”
Freakonomics Radio
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Mass Flourishing
Discussed“Among Phelps' many books is a recent one called Mass Flourishing, how grassroots innovation created jobs, challenge, and change.”
The Rich Roll Podcast
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The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
Discussed“he was about to beautiful books one called the beautiful world our hearts know as possible”
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Climate -- A New Story (16pt Large Print Edition)
Discussed“and then one called climate a new story but a really beautiful philosopher thinker like a modern day you know brilliant mind of our time”
