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Books podcasts were talking about in January 2020
In January 2020, various podcasts and cultural shows highlighted an eclectic mix of biographies, thrillers, and memoirs that drew the attention of hosts and guests alike. On The Book Review, Sarah Lyall discussed the work of Barbara Vine, praising the psychological thrillers "A Dark-Adapted Eye" and "The House of Stairs" as among the creepiest and best books she had ever read, while Pamela Paul recommended Kristin Kimball's memoir "Good Husbandry." History and biography enthusiasts also found notable recommendations when Robert Evans appeared on Behind the Bastards to champion Lucy Hughes-Hallett's biography "The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War," describing it as a compulsively readable and fantastic work. Meanwhile, the guests on The Joe Rogan Experience brought forward psychological and geopolitical subjects. Kevin Ross talked about Mark Wolynn's book "It Didn't Start with You" regarding generational trauma, and Bari Weiss recommended Micah Goodman's "Catch-67" as a useful text for approaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Joe Rogan also highlighted Hampton Sides's "Blood and Thunder" in connection with Kit Carson. Finally, on StarTalk Radio, Tim Ferriss recommended Ted Chiang's short story collection "Stories of Your Life and Others," rounding out a month where discussions frequently touched upon human history, personal backgrounds, and complex interpersonal or political conflicts across several distinct literary genres.
The Book Review
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The Turn of the Key
Critiqued“so I read recently a thriller Ruth wear's turn of the key which I really didn't love”
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The bomb
Discussed“Fred Kaplan joins us to talk about his book The Bomb”
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Deep state
Discussed“you reviewed four books for a little wintry Thriller Roundup and it's called Deep state by Chris howdy and it's about the assassination of a president well it's about the attempted assassination”
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The Empty Bed
Discussed“you also reviewed the empty bed by Nina Sadowski Mr Nobody by Katherine Stedman and High Five by Joe eeday yes I did all right let's talk about the empty bed by Nina Sadowski next”
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Views of Learning in the Lives of Middle Age Female Graduates of a Non-traditional Degree Program
Discussed“I read I read her first one the water this was better than something in the water I mean something in the water to me wasn't that exciting of a setup”
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Hi Five
Discussed“let's talk about the last one which is part of a series Joe E's high five this is an IQ novel and I want to start with that same question”
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A Very Stable Genius
Discussed“this one's called a very stable genius and it's by two reporters for the Washington Post Philip Rucker and Carol leonik”
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My War Criminal
Discussed“the book that I reviewed is called my war criminal and it's by Jessica Stern and she's a scholar of terrorism and Trauma”
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A Woman Like Her
Discussed“you reviewed a book called a woman like her tell us briefly what that's about I reviewed a really impressive first book by the journalist son Mahar”
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A dark-adapted eye
Recommended“and then Barbara Vine who is the the alter ego of Ruth renle the British author who's done this incredible psychological thrillers uh a dark adapted eye House of stairs they're among the creepiest things I've ever read those are my probably absolute favorites”
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The House of Stairs
Recommended“and then Barbara Vine who is the the alter ego of Ruth renle the British author who's done this incredible psychological thrillers uh a dark adapted eye House of stairs they're among the creepiest things I've ever read those are my probably absolute favorites”
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American Oligarchs
Discussed“Andrea Bernstein will be here to talk about her new book American oligarchs”
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Wilmington's Lie
Discussed“David zucchino will be here to discuss his new book Wilmington's lie”
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Good Husbandry
Recommended“I read Kristen Kimble's Memoir good husbandry growing food love and family on Essex farm”
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World Without Work
Discussed“Daniel susin will be here to talk about his book world without work”
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Future of the Professions
Discussed“I want to talk about your first book for a minute which was called the future of the professions”
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Serious Noticing
Discussed“sure I reviewed James Wood's new collection called serious noticing which gathers about 30 years of his criticism and essays”
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Cleanness
Discussed“well the book is G Greenwell's new book cleanness and Greenwell is sort of the the flavor of the moment”
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Medieval Bodies
Discussed“Jack Hartnell will join us to discuss his new book medieval bodies”
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All Fires the Fire
Discussed“I just finished a cover for a reissue of a collection of Julio cazar short stories called all fires the fire”
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King of the Mississippi
Discussed“and there was another one that I think that came out earlier this year called King of the Mississippi which has a configuration of two dudes in suits who are engaged in a handshake”
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Don't Believe a Word
Recommended“I reviewed a book called don't believe a word by the guardian editor and writer davet sharat madari and if I'm mangling your name please at me”
The Shawn Ryan Show
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The Story of Ray Davis
Discussed“I want to get Rey Davis the new book well this isn't really a new book well ray Davis we just got it yeah so I haven't read it yet because I don't I'm a slow reader and I already read the real reports but um Ray Davis ray Davis yeah CIA contractor killed a couple of guys in Pakistan”
ChooseFI
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The 5 Love Languages for Men
Discussed“and over the last several months I have heard Brad mention no less than four times the impact of one book The Five Love Languages”
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The Memo
Recommended“I'm gonna say my favorite is a book called The Memo the five rules for your economic Liberation it's written by John hope Bryant”
Behind the Bastards
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Black against Empire
Discussed“And I'm going to quote again from the book Black Against Empire here. The federal agents sought to create factionalism among the party leaders and between the Panthers and other black political organizations.”
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Notturno
Discussed“These formed the basis for his memoir Nturno, which appeared in 1921 and has recently been published in supple English translation by Steven Sarterelli. It was Denunio's entry into the stream of consciousness sweepstakes”
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The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War
Recommended“I really recommend like it's it's one of the best biographies I've ever read. Um like very compulsively readable. Um, Hughes Howlet is a is a fantastic writer”
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Thomas Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History
Discussed“And he introduces him to a book by a guy named Thomas Carlilele. Uh the book is on heroes and it's basically the thesis statement of the great man theory of history”
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All the Shah's Men
Discussed“I remember my father gave me the book All the Shaw's Men and I was like, oh my god, this is not how I expected it to be. Like, wait a second.”
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American Hangman
Discussed“the author of a book called American Hangman, which is again the only biography on John Woods, says, "The army doesn't check to find out. I'm sure there was the thought, how complicated could a hanging be?"”
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The Nazi Hunters
Discussed“one of the major sources for this episode was a book called The Nazi Hunters by Andrew Norski. Uh, and it cites a guy named Fritz Sockell, uh, a Nazi who oversaw the slave labor program.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Zen and Horseback Riding
Discussed“actually my colleague here at NYU Tom Nagel wrote a book called mind and cosmos a few years ago where we are for this teleological view of evolution toward consciousness saying this let the problems for Darwinism”
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Cosmos 2
Discussed“actually my colleague here at NYU Tom Nagel wrote a book called mind and cosmos a few years ago where we are for this teleological view of evolution toward consciousness saying this let the problems for Darwinism”
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The Feeling of Life Itself
Discussed“actually I just got this new book by Christophe cook just came in the feeling of life itself my consciousness is widespread but can't be computed”
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Recursive function theory : [proceedings of the Fifth Symposium in Pure Mathematics of the American Mathematical Society ; held at the Hotel New Yorker, New York, New York, April 6 - 7, 1961]
Discussed“like the people who who write classical recursion theory by pure OD Freddie he was fine with the yellow title and the and nothing more whereas I think other people who who wrote a more popular type book understand that they need to have a compelling cover and a compelling title”
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Under Siege 2--dark Territory--trailer
Discussed“because I myself have spent time clicking through channels on television late at night and ended up watching under siege 2 for some reason I don't know and if you were to ask me the next day are you glad that you watched that show on TV last night I'd say yeah I wish I would have gone to bed”
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A Mathematician's Lament
Discussed“so in in a mathematicians limit Paul Lockhart writes: the first thing to understand is that mathematics is an art the difference between math and the other arts such as music and painting is that our culture does not recognize it as such”
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The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
Recommended“if anyone wants to start to understand it if they have like a math background of some like they studied some in college or something like that like the princeton companion to math has a really good article on analytic number theory”
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Stalin
Discussed“he has written many books on Stalin in the Soviet Union including the first to of a three-volume work on Stalin and he's currently working on volume three”
This Week in Startups
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Wheat Belly
Discussed“and this book Wheat Belly yes and why we're fat I read those two books and it really I dramatically reduced my carbs”
Monday Morning Podcast
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Bill Russell
Discussed“I read that book I mentioned earlier this year I read that book about Bill Russell and Bob Cousy and it's as much as it's about them and all the racial horrific stuff that Bill Russell had to go through it's also subtly a history of the NBA from the beginning”
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Bob Cousy
Discussed“I read that book I mentioned earlier this year I read that book about Bill Russell and Bob Cousy and it's as much as it's about them and all the racial horrific stuff that Bill Russell had to go through it's also subtly a history of the NBA from the beginning”
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It Hurts When I Poop!
Critiqued“and I swear to god there's a book called it hurts when I poop and i'm telling you like they draw the poop in the toilet”
EconTalk
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Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
Discussed“it's called Henry hikes to Fitchburg Henry is henry david thoreau henry as a friend in in the in the book”
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My Grandfather's Blessings
Discussed“and I've used this example before it's from Naomi Romans book my grandfather's blessing was this doctor who he's dying and some friend decides to bring together a group of people who've benefited from the device this doctor has had invented”
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Secondhand
Discussed“so I think about my own life which your book may meet of course kind of played and I want to let listeners know we're we're gonna talk a little bit about this”
Modern Wisdom
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Models
Discussed“I'm currently rereading mark Manson's models and he talks he talks a lot about that”
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Finite and Infinite Games
Discussed“I think that's from a book called finit in infinite games I forget the author simon Sinek design mistake on that... Simon's book about infinite games he got... There's a book called infinite and infinite games which is like where he got that a lot of that idea”
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Prisoners of Geography
Discussed“I haven't read it but I think something you know like prisoners of geography probably shines a bit of a sort of view on that Afghan is of us”
StarTalk Radio
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Steal this Book
Discussed“if you can't afford it and you want to learn, it's like Abby Hoffman wrote a book called Steal This Book, right? Steal that book that he wrote”
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Stories of Your Life and Others
Recommended“you have people like Ted Chang who has an amazing collection of short stories I think it's called stories of your life and other stories”
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The Mote in God's Eye
Discussed“Jerry Pournelle hittin forget the other author's name the wrote a book in 1970s the mode in God's eye and they imagine the mote in God's eye”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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It Didn't Start with You
Recommended“What's even crazier about that as I read a book called it didn't start with you and it talks about how these things are passed on generationally from like trauma”
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How to Fight Anti-Semitism
Discussed“how to fight anti-semitism what what were you thinking”
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Catch-67
Recommended“there's a book I think it's called on catch 67 by Mika Goodman that I would recommend to people that's about how to shrink the conflict and that for now being the best-case scenario”
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Blood and Thunder
Recommended“there's another great book well there's quite a few from a blood and thunder it's yes hit Carson read that yeah yeah that dude get him on the show”
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Hardcore History
Discussed“ton listen to Dan Carlin's hardcore history piece on Genghis Khan”
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Seeking the Magic Mushroom
Discussed“Life magazine article from the 1950s that was one of the first really mainstream ... Gordon Wasson”
The Rubin Report
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The Virtue of Nationalism
Recommended“It's not purely, like when people say that, you wanna spread democracy, there's somehow it means this sort of financial thing or capitalist thing, but it actually is, I mean I don't know if you read "Virtue in Nationalism" by Yoram Hazony, it's like, strong nations actually, strong democratic nations, that's what actually brings peace.”
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The Ascent of Money
Discussed“Niall Ferguson talks about how the greatest parallel from the internet age is probably the printing press, and it resulted in a lot of chaos initially, but in the end, of course, it was responsible for the spreading of wisdom and of learning and of ability to, if you like, share, that transform the way that we live.”
