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Books podcasts were talking about in May 2020
In May 2020, podcasters and their guests highlighted a diverse collection of literature ranging from speculative fiction and memoirs to guides on personal virtues and self-actualization. On Timcast IRL, the host engaged with audience recommendations submitted via super chats, presenting titles such as James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg's The Sovereign Individual, Jim Butcher's Dead Beat from The Dresden Files series, and Robert McCammon's Swan Song. The host also recommended Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. On Modern Wisdom, Jim Mullane joined Chris Williamson to discuss influential reads, highlighting David Brooks's The Road to Character for its emphasis on fundamental virtues and Tara Westover's memoir Educated as a phenomenal page-turner. Additionally, Chris Williamson spoke with Scott Barry Kaufman on Modern Wisdom about Kaufman's book Transcend, utilizing the text to examine concepts of self-actualization and human potential. Across these various programs, the featured titles shared a common thematic thread centered on personal transformation, resilience against challenging environments, and the exploration of complex fantasy and speculative worlds, offering listeners deep dives into both fictional epics and introspective nonfiction.
The Rubin Report
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2112
Discussed“So I was, my gateway drug to Liberty was actually an album by a band called Rush, it's called 2112.”
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Why People Believe Weird Things
Discussed“He was called, "Why People Believe Weird Things", and it was such a simple look, I was fascinated at the time with clubs and groups and organizations and cults and passwords, right, all of that stuff, you know?”
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About my mother
Discussed“Okay, she goes away and she writes this book "About My Mother". I'm not in any of these stories. There are 30 stories about my Nanna, my grandmother. Now, they're hysterical but nobody's gonna publish them. So I printed 10,000 copies, put them out on Facebook, sold out in two days. Then the publishers called and said, "Oh my God,”
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About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known
Discussed“and she just finishes her second book, "About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known", pee your pants funny. That's the book that's on the list right now.”
Timcast IRL
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The Sovereign Individual
Recommended“do you really think the laws of our reality can be enforced on companies that could just easily pack up and operate anywhere check out the sovereign individual by James Dale Davidson”
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Dead Beat (The Dresden Files, Book 7)
Recommended“King Canuck says lesser note Adam read The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher low fantasy noir adventure that gradually ramps up high fantasy”
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Swan Song
Recommended“Max Reid says skipping crowder livestream to watch my favorite trio if you like Stephen King's The Stand you might like swan song by Robert McCammon”
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The Stormlight Archive
Discussed“it's the Stormlight Chronicles that's the book series by Brandon Sanderson that I couldn't think of”
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Mistborn
Recommended“probably miss Bourne the Mistborn series is really good”
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The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time Book 2)
Recommended“and yeah if you haven't read The Wheel of Time that I would read that because that's incredible”
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New Right
Recommended“Michael malice newest book is basically about the new right and red pilling he has an awesome explanation of it it's a great book a must read”
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Back to the future
Discussed“so a good example is Back to the Future right he goes to the Future it's 20 was it 2015”
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Interview With the Vampire
Discussed“that was a great book by the way the book in the movie not the book list oh the style I've seen interview with a vampire”
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Futu.re
Recommended“check out the book future by Dmitry Glukhovsky clock offski earth is so overpopulated because people don't age”
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Cry Havoc
Recommended“kris krohn says check out cry havock by simon mann and it will explain the situation in venezuela”
Modern Wisdom
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The 5 a.m. Club
Discussed“I'm sure you guys are all film familiar with the five a.m. Club this this little okay dandy right here the five M Club”
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Thunder at Twilight
Discussed“the second book was called Thunder at Twilight I forget the name of the author but it was a historical work based off of Vienna pre World War one”
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The Road to Character
Recommended“he wrote a couple books the road to character which is easily in my top ten books it's it's more that self-help book but it's more emphasizing true virtues”
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Educated
Recommended“and one of the books that I just encountered a memoir style was educated by Tara West over it was a phenomenal story”
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26 Feet to the Charlottes
Discussed“I have been experimenting with morning pages Has anybody ever done that before by June Cameron like the method of morning pee you know he was on this boy who's on the podcast on Friday is it is it the lady Hugh Julian Cameron five million books sold translated into 140 languages Martin Scorsese is the testimonial on the inside”
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Transcend
Recommended“Scott Barry Kaufman his new book transcend is is precisely about that He talked”
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Explaining Postmodernism
Discussed“I've got a yes I've got quote from so your your book explaining post-modernism you said that the failure of socialism made post-modernism necessary”
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The consolations of philosophy
Discussed“is the consolation of philosophy by beau Asia's not to be confused with the consolations of philosophy plural by the bottom right”
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Fix This Next
Discussed“when I read fix this next your book and that that point that can only be one highest priority they can only be one most important thing”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Space, Time and Gravitation
Discussed“my father was an engineer and love science and enough he loved real sort of things like Sir Arthur and his space-time and gravitation which was the the other the first understandable version of general relativity and he so although all the fairy stories I was told as I was growing up were all about these characters”
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Interview with Steven Schwartzman
Discussed“and now let me leave you with some words from steven schwartzman's book what it takes”
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What It Takes
Recommended“i recommend his recent book called what it takes that tells stories and lessons from his personal journey”
Dwarkesh Podcast
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Open Borders
Discussed“so step one we have a brilliant economist write a comprehensive book called open borders step three we have Vatican radical immigration liberalization”
StarTalk Radio
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Lonely hearts of the cosmos
Discussed“i think he wrote a book the lonely hearts of the cosmos which was about um two astronomers trying to find the scale of the universe”
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Kids Travel Journal
Discussed“But then you also had some insights—I didn't know that you can get books from the remainder table! That's a thing that you introduced me to, right?”
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Letters from an Astrophysicist
Discussed“In my very latest book, 'Letters from an Astrophysicist,' it’s dedicated to you! I don't know if you knew that!”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Jack Carr James Reece Series 3 books Collection Set
Discussed“like what if they whacked him and they whacked this guy to cover up their tracks they didn't want him to find a cure because they're working on their own cure yeah like very significant findings according to the University that guy does not look like the guy that would get murdered for anything gunshot wounds the head you don't”
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On food and cooking
Recommended“and we did a tasting with one of my culinary heros Harold McGee who wrote the incredible book on food and cooking which is a scientific manual to all chefs around”
