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Books podcasts were talking about in March 2020
March 2020 saw podcast discussions on the Lex Fridman Podcast and The Joe Rogan Experience focus heavily on foundational texts in physics, artificial intelligence, leadership philosophy, and true crime investigation. On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Roger Penrose discussed his 2010 book Cycles of Time, elaborating on his theoretical framework regarding the possibility of a prior universe existing before the Big Bang. Nick Bostrom talked about John Leslie's 1996 book concerning the Doomsday argument, expanding on theoretical physics and philosophical threats. Leadership and strategy emerged through Simon Sinek's appearance, where he reviewed his authored works Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, and his latest release, The Infinite Game, while also crediting James Carse's philosophical concepts regarding finite and infinite games. Anca Dragan shared her formative experiences reading Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig's Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach during her high school years, noting how the textbook inspired her career in robotics and AI, a sentiment echoed by the host. Additionally, on The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan discussed Michelle McNamara's true crime book I'll Be Gone in the Dark, noting the dedication of Patton Oswalt's late wife to investigating the Golden State Killer case. These works collectively underscored a deep engagement with complex systems, whether navigating artificial intelligence, theoretical cosmology, organizational leadership, or forensic investigation.
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Cycles of Time
Discussed“In your 2010 book cycles of time you suggest that another universe may have existed before the Big Bang can you describe this idea”
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The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A. M.
Discussed“first discovered by Brandon Carter was a theoretical physicist and then developed by philosopher John Wesley I think it might have been discovered initially in the 70s or 80s and Lester wrote this book I think in 96”
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Start with Why
Discussed“the following is a conversation with simon Sinek author of several books including start with why leaders eat last and his latest the infinite game”
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Leaders Eat Last
Discussed“the following is a conversation with simon Sinek author of several books including start with why leaders eat last and his latest the infinite game”
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The Infinite Game
Discussed“the following is a conversation with simon Sinek author of several books including start with why leaders eat last and his latest the infinite game”
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Darkest End of the Street
Discussed“so James Carr was the philosopher who originally articulated this concept of finite and infinite games and when I learned about it it really challenged my view of how the world works”
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Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Global Edition
Discussed“when I was in 12th grade I got my hands on a PDF copy in Romania of Russell Norvig a I modern approach”
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Digital Gold
Discussed“So prefer historical ones and there's like nathaniel poppers digital gold which is just about the history of bitcoin”
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Ethereum
Discussed“there's like one and then matthew lysing announced that there's one about the history of ethereum”
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The Trouble with Physics
Discussed“he's the author of several books including one that critiques the state of physics and string theory called the trouble with physics and his latest book Einsteins unfinished revolution the search for what lies beyond the quantum”
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Time Reborn
Discussed“so I was interested in developing that notion of how science works based on a community and ethics that I told you about and I wrote a draft of a book about that which had several chapters on methodology of science and it was rather academically oriented a book in those chapters were the first part of the book the”
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From Eternity to Here
Discussed“so in that spirit of talked several times with Sean Carroll who's also written an excellent book recently and he kind of he plays around is a big fan of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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I'll Be Gone in the Dark
Discussed“Well that was the one that Patton Oswald's wife was working she she was writing that book”
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John
Discussed“That's one King James book a John baby hit that on acid It's so wonderful It's so trippy Because it's like that's when I really like Christianity clicked for me regardless of its whether it's real or not but that's when I was like okay I get this because the book of John When you read it you're like well”
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The Unabomber's Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future
Discussed“What I'm trying to say is Ted Kaczynski was right Oh my god we all know that he was right Do you ever read his manifesto”
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The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
Discussed“There's a okay so this is a trip this this is very trippy So I got this book called the Tibetan yoga of dream and sleep Well I feel like it's [ __ ] cool”
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Dawn of the New Everything
Discussed“There's a book of his I like better than that called the dawn of the new everything But and that's just him sort of like talking about what it was like working in Silicon Valley back then and his sort of opinions on on this stuff”
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High Magick
Discussed“so well he wrote a great book called high magic which is I think that's what's called it's a fantastic book on magic is really the wrong word”
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The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48
Discussed“so throughout the Bible there's mentions of angels the Book of Ezekiel the famous one that ufo-ologists go to is there's all these contacts with angels a hyperdimensional beings that have some data set they want to bring to the world”
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Avventure in Oriente. A Cura Di Luigi Barzini, Jr., Etc. [With Plates, Including a Portrait.].
Discussed“oh my god this super super cool experience especially you have to read in that book”
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The Yugo
Discussed“so one of the best car books ever that John you know Johnny Lee Berman right yes dear friend Johnny had recommended it's called the worst car ever built and it's the story of the Hugo”
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Grasses of the Queen Elizabeth Islands
Discussed“until I read empire of the summer moon and then you know have you read that SG Queens book about the Comanches and about the Texas Rangers”
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Son of the Morning Star
Discussed“and then I read son of the morning star and then I read Black Elk”
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Black Elk Speaks
Discussed“and then I read son of the morning star and then I read Black Elk the black alcohol was particularly fascinating to me because it details life before like before they killed Custer to living on reservations to the desperation”
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Custer Died for Your Sins
Discussed“one of which is vine deloria who is passed on but he he was an attorney and a scholar and wrote a book in the late 60s early 70s called custard died for your sins and it was no it's known as the Indian manifesto right”
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Red Earth, White Lies
Discussed“He also wrote a book called red earth White Lies and he talks about Western science and and it's arrogance of of creating these theories like the Bering Strait land bridge”
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Deadliest Enemy
Discussed“Well Michael osterholm who wrote this book deadliest enemy and who was on on Tuesday on the podcast Tuesday he opened up a lot of people's eyes as to like what what the issue is and what what you can do to prevent it”
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The Map That Changed the World
Discussed“This is an amazing story told in a book called the map that changed the world by a Simon Winchester and basically his ideas and his research were kind of hijacked”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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Il futuro della vita
Discussed“40% of the bacteria in the oceans are killed every day by viruses This is a great stat that Jennifer Doudna uses in her book that on the discovery of CRISPR”
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
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A Confederacy of Dunces
Discussed“money of like kind of an Ignatius Reilly do you remember can you bring that character up but more handsome he's like confederacy of dunces do you remember that”
My First Million
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The Boron Letters
Discussed“when when you mentioned the boron letters and then I just went deep on that”
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Hackers & Painters
Discussed“by the way there's a you know there's probably like 10 blog posts that matter the most If you're gonna do a start-up One of them is the Paul Graham essay Do things that don't scale where he's talking about with Airbnb early on and if you're kind of in the startup world just fast forward 30 seconds But if”
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The Mom Test
Discussed“Just to wrap that up If you want to learn about this stuff I think the best book I've ever read on this is called the mom test yeah I love that a jack recommended me that book yep It's fantastic It's the best tiny book to like a long blog post 50 pages In terms of your business life”
