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Books podcasts were talking about in April 2020
In April 2020, podcast discussions turned toward practical skills, investing, contemporary fiction, memoirs, and political non-fiction as listeners navigated remote work and quarantine conditions. On This Week in Startups, Jason Calacanis recommended Cracking the Coding Interview by Chinmoy Mukherjee as a valuable resource for mastering foundational data structures and algorithms during remote job interviews. The Tim Ferriss Show featured Kevin Rose recommending the Bogleheads' Guide to Investing for index fund strategy, while Tim Ferriss and Rose discussed Joel Greenblatt's How to Be a Stock Market Genius, praising its contents despite its provocative title. On The Book Review, Alexandra Alter discussed Samanta Schweblin's novel Little Eyes, which explores surveillance toys, and Stephanie Danler's autobiographical memoir Stray. The Rubin Report featured Dana Perino, who discussed cooking vegan recipes from Angela Liddon's cookbook Oh She Glows and described using Marlin Fitzwater's memoir Call the Briefing in a small book club with her press room staff. Finally, Timcast IRL included a listener recommendation for Robert D. Kaplan's The Coming Anarchy. Together, these selections highlighted a widespread desire for practical professional guidance, engaging storytelling, and reflections on leadership and society.
This Week in Startups
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Cracking the Coding Interview
Recommended“I'm sure you've heard of the cracking the coding interview book it's a very good resource”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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The Power of Myth
Discussed“so he did a series of interviews with Bill Moyers on PBS called the power of myth and he wrote a book called hero with a thousand faces so back in 1988 so I'm I don't know 11 years old or whatever 12 I get introduced to him and I read that book and I watched all those interviews and”
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Discussed“and there's a book called the bridge at San Liu array and there's like I forget how many people will say five or six people that are on this bridge and it collapses and the story is how each one of them got to be on that bridge”
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What we had
Discussed“Belzer had a decent one I think it was what we had a couple of them”
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This Is Your Brain on Music
Discussed“look there's a book on audible so I I listen to this book you ready you're a doctor called music in the brain”
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Buffalo Bill
Discussed“I started off with this book that my friend Steve Rinella wrote on American Buffalo and I read that and a lot of it had to do with like Native Americans hunting the Buffalo”
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The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate"
Discussed“the guy that found that ended up testifying to Congress and working with Seymour Hersh to expose it was named John marks he wrote the first book about MKULTRA that came out in the mid to late 70s called the search for The Manchurian Candidate”
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I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era
Discussed“do you read that book dying up here no that's what the series was based off of”
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Evil
Discussed“I mean my my friend and colleague Roy Baumeister wrote that great book on evil in which he actually went and interviewed serial killers and rapists in prison and said you know why'd you do it”
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Culture Of Honor
Discussed“Now you mentioned the south there's interesting research Richard Nisbett and his colleagues on the culture of Honor that's more common in the south than in the north”
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Ringside
Recommended“by the way if you want to read a great book on professional wrestling I would highly recommend the book ringside which talks about the evolution”
The Tim Ferriss Show
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Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
Recommended“Bogle heads guide to investing I think is another great one and I know it's it's a it's tough to talk about investing in times like this”
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You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
Recommended“exactly somebody I Siegel how to be a stock market genius terrible title on some level kind of like the 4-hour workweek excellent excellent excellent book”
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Affective Computing
Discussed“And it's related to a book. This is Affective Computing. And correct me if I'm getting any of the pronunciation wrong, by Rosalind Picard, p i c a r d.”
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The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
Recommended“The first is called Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, which is by Ken Liu. This is kind of sci-fi, but honestly, I've recommended this to a ton of people, including getting a copy for 10 before, and um they've loved it.”
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Becoming Wise
Recommended“So, the first and foremost I'll put here, which is actually someone I recommended and that Tim had on the podcast, is Krista Tippett. It was a great podcast called On Being and, um, has a book called Becoming Wise.”
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The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma
Recommended“One's a little bit of a older book, I think from 1980, and it's only available in print, which uh I think everything else I've recommended you can get on the Kindle or something. It's called The World is Sound or Nada Brahma.”
The Rubin Report
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When bad things happen to good people
Discussed“other than like Rabbi Kushner's famous book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." His conclusion was God simply can't do anything about it.”
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Giving the Devil his Due
Discussed“He's a passionate advocate of free speech, for this and many other reasons, to the point of entitling his new book, "Giving the Devil His Due,"”
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Decision Points
Discussed“So, I did the PR for George W. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points", when it came out in 2010.”
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Oh She Glows
Recommended“She recommended this cookbook called, "Oh She Glows." It's a vegan cookbook and I'm not a vegan.”
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Call the briefing!
Recommended“I made them all read his book, one of the best books ever written in Washington D.C., as a memoir, it's called, "Call the Briefing." By Marlin Fitzwater.”
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American Psycho
Discussed“that "American Psycho," it's almost, to me, which, it was your third novel, right?”
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Antisocial
Discussed“- I'm reading this book called "Antisocial" by Andrew Marantz, who's a writer for "The New Yorker." And it really is about his hellish descent into, it started with the DeploraBall in Washington”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Discussed“and his in this book 21 boilin lessons for the 21st century”
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Fermat's last theorem
Discussed“So if you look at the story of Andrew Wiles for example with from last Last Theorem he as far as I understand he pretty much isolated himself from the world of academics in terms of the big with the bulk of the work he did and it from my perspective is dramatic and fun to read about”
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Outgrowing God
Discussed“so that's a really clean idea and you've articulate that in your new book and and I'll grow God and in God Delusion is the early indoctrination”
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Counterfeit World
Discussed“it's certainly an interesting thought experiment I first met it in a science fiction novel by Daniel galloy called um counterfeit world in which um it's all about I mean our heroes are running a gigantic computer which which simulates the world and um and something goes wrong”
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The Time Sculptor
Recommended“but another of his novels called Dark Universe which is not terribly well known but it's a very very nice science fiction story”
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Dark Universe
Recommended“well actually um I I have I suppose I could say that I've learned some some science from science fiction um I I me I mentioned Daniel galloy and that's one example but another of his novels called Dark Universe which is not terribly well known but it's a very very nice science fiction story”
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Reinforcement Learning
Recommended“I recommend a cent of money as a great book on this history”
The Book Review
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This Is Chance!
Discussed“John muam joins us now he's a writer at large for the New York Times magazine and his new book is called this is Chance the shaking of an All-American City a voice that held it together”
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Griffin & Sabine
Discussed“there was Griffin and Sabine as you point out in your column those kind of books that could sit around in the living room and anyone could pick up and get something out of it and they've kind of Fallen by the wayside”
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Discussed“I'm very curious to see how people react to is a prequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I'm always interested to see what happens when Blockbuster authors try to continue their franchises kind of beyond the lifespan of the story that initially took off particularly when there is a huge movie adaptation and things like that”
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Fifty-Two Stories
Discussed“and in my situation I got to review this new translation of check off stories so perhaps I can just jump into that it's translated by um the premier Russian translators Richard pavir and Lissa volansky and it's it's 52 stories that they say is a lively take on his range but in reality it's it's the stories that they”
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Notes from an Apocalypse
Discussed“yes so a book I reviewed actually this was recently was a book called notes from an apocalypse a personal Journey to the end of the world and back by a Critic named Mark a Connell and this is a case where the subtitle really gives you a sense of what it was that he wanted to do with this”
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Little Eyes
Recommended“little eyes by Samantha schweblin she is an Argentinian author who writes these sort of Fantastical stories and novels but they're kind of real they're more realistic than not they're sort of uncannily between the two and so this novel is about a world in which people have become obsessed with these little toys that are operated by people in”
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Stray
Recommended“two other titles that people are really looking forward to are Stephanie danler stray her first novel Sweet Bitter was a huge hit... and her new book is fully autobiographical it's a memoir and it's titled stray and it looks at her relationship with the people in her life who have shaped her”
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Wow, No Thank You.
Discussed“her new collection is called wow no thank you Samantha thanks for being here”
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Emergency Contact
Discussed“and I just reread Mary HK Choy books emergency contact and permanent record and they're both ya”
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Permanent Record
Discussed“and I just reread Mary HK Choy books emergency contact and permanent record and they're both ya”
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The coming of the New Deal
Discussed“and then with the FDR example obviously as you described that in Arthur Slinger Jr's book the second part of his age of Roosevelt trilogy The Coming of the New Deal we're talking about the depression”
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Two girls down
Recommended“the first one is called two girls down and her second book in the series is called The Janes and I just reread both of those and they are so so good”
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The Janes
Recommended“the first one is called two girls down and her second book in the series is called The Janes and I just reread both of those and they are so so good”
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One minute to midnight
Recommended“Michael dos who wrote marvelous book about it at the Washington Post called one minute to midnight I mean that's how close we were”
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Hidden Valley Road
Discussed“Robert kker will be here to talk about his new book Hidden Valley Road”
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I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Discussed“I Never Promised You a Rose Garden the the general idea there is that there's a little girl who's trapped”
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Writers & Lovers
Discussed“Elizabeth Egan joins us now to talk about her latest selection for group text which is Lily King's new book writers and lovers”
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Mitch, Please!
Discussed“it's called Mitch please the subtitle is how Mitch McConnell sold out Kentucky in America too”
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Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Recommended“so a book that I reviewed recently that I wanted to draw attention to is called unworthy Republic and the subtitle is the dispossession of Native Americans in the road to Indian Territory and it's by a historian at the University of Georgia named Claudio SA”
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Strong Poison
Discussed“I picked up a book called strong poison that calls Dorothy sers the Mistress of the Golden Age mystery and it's a Lord Peter Whimsy mystery”
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A Jest of God
Recommended“it's a novel called a g of God by a Canadian writer named Margaret Lawrence and Lawrence is spelled l Au rinse not law”
Behind the Bastards
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The Battle of Blair Mountain
Discussed“Uh, in his book The Battle of Blair Mountain, historian Robert Shogan writes this about the UMW.”
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How I Found Livingstone
Discussed“He wrote a book to go with his articles, How I Found Livingston. And in doing this, he sort of invented an entire genre.”
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Through the Dark Continent
Discussed“So, Stanley gets back from his journey in August of 1877 and publishes his book on it in 1878, Through the Dark Continent.”
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Stanley
Discussed“And this has been mostly universal even among his biographers until Tim Gal came around and published Stanley Africa's greatest explorer and saved him saved him from the evils of history”
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The Imperial History Wars
Discussed“And I I think I need to close us out by quoting from a very important book called The Imperial History Wars: Debating the British Empire.”
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Exam Warriors
Discussed“Moody even wrote a book specifically aimed at school-aged children called Exam Warriors.”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918
Discussed“I mean I have John Berry's book sitting right next to me I went back to read the 1918 vexy of influenza story because there's so much in there to learn from that has applicability today”
Modern Wisdom
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The Red Queen
Discussed“so this is I first learned about this I think in Matt Ridley's book the Red Queen this the sexy Sun hypothesis is basically this idea that women are attracted to men who are attractive to other women”
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Gumption Island
Discussed“I just finished reading this book which is called gumption island which is a forgotten book it came out 1956 by Felix Morley”
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Forbidden Healing
Recommended“there's a really great book that delves into all the science of vitamin C and baking soda called forbidden healing and i was i was so convinced to have to reading that book about some of the effects on everything”
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Friendship
Discussed“did an episode with Lydia Dan Worth who's just written a book friendship talking about this loneliness epidemic which is apparently sweeping America”
EconTalk
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The First Cell
Discussed“And when I was talking to Azra Raza about her book, The First Cell, one of the things in that book that just is heartbreaking and and powerful is the willingness of people with devastating diseases to endure terrible treatment because it might work, even when it's a long shot.”
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Bobos in Paradise
Discussed“Um, yeah, I I can came up with the term in the sort of the Bobo versus anti-Bobo axis. And that Bobo refers to a 20-year-old book by David Brooks called Bobos in Paradise. And Bobo stands for Bohemian Bourgeois.”
Timcast IRL
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The Coming Anarchy
Recommended“please read the coming anarchy by Robert D Kaplan and the great leveller by Walter shuttle both books describe the post”
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The Great Leveler
Recommended“please read the coming anarchy by Robert D Kaplan and the great leveller by Walter shuttle both books describe the post”
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The Man from Earth
Discussed“actually ever see that that movie it's called the the The Man From Earth you ever see that”
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At the Mountains of Madness
Discussed“reminds me of at the mountains of madness by Lovecraft”
Pod Save America
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The Education of an Idealist
Recommended“also by Sam's book if you haven't already the education of an idealist it is fantastic”
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The Buried Giant
Discussed“and then I read a novel over Christmas called the berry giant by ishiguro who is one of my favorite authors”
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The Remains of the Day
Discussed“he wrote remains of the day he wrote never let me go and those are two of my absolute favorite books in the world”
My First Million
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Founders at Work
Discussed“do you remember this book called the founders at work by Jessica yeah look like changed my frickin life”
ChooseFI
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Women with Money
Discussed“we were when we we interviewed Gene several months ago we were talking about a lot of what she discussed in her new book women with money in that book tour credit she pointed out that Financial Independence doesn't just affect you”
Conversations with Tyler
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The Glass Hotel
Recommended“her new book out is the glass hotel which i think is her very best deepest most subtle novel”
