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Books podcasts were talking about in September 2020
In September 2020, podcast guests and hosts explored historical art, personal memoirs, and psychological habits across several prominent shows. On The Joe Rogan Experience, Graham Hancock cited J. David Lewis-Williams's The Mind in the Cave and Benny Shanon's Ayahuasca: The Antipodes of the Mind to support discussions on upper paleolithic cave art and psychedelic states. Later in the same month on Lex Fridman Podcast, Joe Rogan recommended Steven Pressfield's The War of Art, discussing the importance of respecting the muse and doing the creative work. On Behind the Bastards, Garrison Davis brought up Paul E. Hoffman's The Stations of the Cross while examining James Dobson's religious upbringing. Dave Rubin gave a plug for Jeanine Pirro's Don't Lie to Me on The Rubin Report at the conclusion of an episode. On Modern Wisdom, Erin Zammett Ruddy highlighted Rachel Hoffman's Unf*ck Your Habitat as a practical guide for tidying and adulting skills. Meanwhile, The Book Review featured Greg Cowles recommending Natasha Trethewey's memoir Memorial Drive and Joumana Khatib discussing Sayaka Murata's novel Convenience Store Woman. These discussions spanned diverse subjects including artistic creation, personal organization, memoir, and historical analyses, reflecting the broad literary interests highlighted by podcasters during the month.
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Soma: divine mushroom of immortality
Discussed“he writes a book about this in 1968 soma divine mushroom of immortality that that was his guess too for for soma”
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The Mind in the Cave
Recommended“there's a professor at the university of witwatersrand in south africa david lewis williams written a book called the mind in the cave who's documented this in in great detail”
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The Antipodes of the Mind
Recommended“but benny benny shannon's book is called ayahuasca the antipodes of the mind it's really important really important piece of work”
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Suicide of the West
Recommended“i mean jonah goldberg wrote this amazing book suicide of the west and he talks about all of this essentially how the enlightenment and we just stumbled on this miracle”
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Blindness
Recommended“have you ever read the book blindness no i couldn't read fiction for two years after i read that book and it's all about a pandemic of blindness hits people and they all get put in quarantine”
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The Chemical Age
Discussed“your book the chemical age uh touches on a lot of subjects that uh i find very fascinating particularly pesticides”
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Love and Sex with Robots
Discussed“there's a a guy called dr david levy a british guy who wrote a book in 2007 called love and sex with robots where he predicted”
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I Had the Right to Remain Silent...But I Didn't Have the Ability
Discussed“have you ever written a book that new york times best seller oh [ __ ] ron white the right to remain silent but i didn't have the ability was uh number one it tied for 15th place which makes you a number one bestseller”
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Summary of Richard Rudd's the Gene Keys
Discussed“and it was called um the gene key okay this book and the book was explaining about why that we are who we are”
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Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
Discussed“i was going on a trip when i was maybe 17 years old and i was walking through the airport and i saw a book that said change your brain change your life by dr daniel amen who's now been my therapist for 10 years and i couldn't get on this plane i was having a full anxiety attack with”
Behind the Bastards
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Dare to Discipline
Discussed“By 1970, Dobson was able to publish his first book um by Christian publisher uh Tinale House. The book was called Dare to Discipline.”
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What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women
Discussed“Um, five years later, he released another book and this book has the best title. This is this is the title to his to his second book released 5 years later. Oh my god. What? What wives wish their husbands knew about women.”
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James Dobson's War on America
Discussed“Um Dobson's uh you know co-founder of Folks in the Family who later you know came out kind of against Dobson because he was scared of what he was doing. Um Gil Alexander Mogarell wrote a whole book about Dobson called James Dobson's War on America.”
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The Stations of the Cross
Recommended“Um, it's a book called Stations of the Cross. Actually a pretty pretty good book, but this this is this is a quote.”
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The Boy Kings
Discussed“Katherine Los was an early Facebook employee and Mark Zuckerberg's speech writer for a time. In her memoir, The Boy Kings”
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Jackal
Discussed“In the biography Jackal, author John Foan writes, "The family hero was Elba's grandfather, a doctor who transformed a 60 strong band of followers into an army big enough to help overthrow the government of Caracus in 1899, only to lose power a few years later."”
Timcast IRL
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One Billion Americans
Discussed“you know matthew iglesias for vox wrote this article i guess i think it was him called like the case for one billion americans”
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In Defense of Looting
Discussed“a book i don't know if you guys saw it the uh in defense of looting have you seen that one”
No Stupid Questions
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The Merchant of Venice
Discussed“what about Shakespeare wait what did Shakespeare do he wrote Merchant of Venice okay Harold Bloom maybe the most prominent literary critic of the past generation at least he called Merchant of Venice a profoundly anti-semitic work”
The Rubin Report
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Don't Lie to Me
Recommended“The book is "Don't Lie to Me".”
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Bigger & blacker
Discussed“And I always talk about the old standup routines and Bigger and Blacker is one that comes to mind, which is the one I watched most recently”
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Liberal Privilege
Discussed“Joining me today is the executive vice president of Development and Acquisitions at the Trump Organization and author of the new book, "Liberal Privilege", Donald Trump Jr, welcome back to "The Rubin Report".”
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Triggered
Discussed“Are you shocked that they allowed your last book "Triggered" not only to make the list, I mean, I made the list too, just saying but they let you be number one.”
Modern Wisdom
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The Little Book of Life Skills
Discussed“life doesn't come with an instruction manual and upon reading your little book of life skills i've realized how much of the stuff you realize kind of just emergently”
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Unf*ck Your Habitat
Recommended“and this is rachel hoffman again from unfuck your habitat and she says then leave the room and then come back in and look at it”
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The Blueprint
Recommended“Have you read robert plowman's blueprint”
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Grandstanding
Discussed“so you know he writes this this great book um the theory of the leisure class all about their their kind of lame practices just you know acquiring obscure languages and engaging in in all this pomp uh and circumstance is to show people they have the time and and the money”
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Composed
Discussed“and roseanne as she describes this in in her book composed she said i woke up from this dream shaken to the core”
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Inner Work
Recommended“there's a wonderful book about interpretation of dreams called inner work by robert johnson which i highly recommend to anybody”
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The Ickabog
Discussed“you know there's a bunch of very insane people who think that the ichabog is too difficult for them to cope with in this life”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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The Art and Reflections of Stephen Epstein
Recommended“i always felt like that with bits like when i come up with a bit that's why i'm i'm always telling people about the stephen pressfield book the war of art because he talks about uh respecting the muse and the idea that your ideas come”
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The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting numbers
Discussed“when i was a teenager there was this book called the the dictionary of curious and interesting numbers which for some reason i read through and damn near memorized the whole thing”
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Ender's Game
Discussed“the books on my list are the foundation series by isaac asimov dune snow crash by neil stephenson and ender's game like you mentioned”
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Lost in Math
Discussed“so there's uh uh Sabine Hassen Felder I don't know if you're familiar with her she uh she wrote this book uh that I need to read”
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Mathematical principles of natural philosophy
Discussed“you know you know title of Newton's book you know Pria Mathematica mathematical principles of natural philosophy”
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Introduction To Algorithms
Discussed“the first thing that popped into my crazy mind which is the introduction to algorithms book also called clrs for the first letters of the last name of its four authors”
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Einstein
Recommended“There's a great book that I recommend people read called proving einstein right by jim gates that talks about like the hard work that people try to do years after to try to experimentally validate the predictions that einstein made with uh with his theories”
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Proving Einstein Right
Recommended“there's a great book that i recommend people read called proving einstein right by jim gates that talks about like the hard work that people try to do years after to try to experimentally validate the predictions that einstein made with with his theories”
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The White Album
Discussed“and i was reading this you know the the book the year of magical thinking by joan didion about her losing and blue knights about her losing her husband her daughter and the way to cope for her was to write those books”
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Run River
Discussed“and i was reading this you know the the book the year of magical thinking by joan didion about her losing and blue knights about her losing her husband her daughter and the way to cope for her was to write those books”
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Be Your Own Shaman
Discussed“and then there were some other books like i don't know uh mostly just self-help books around how to be the best conversationalist or um how to make people like you or some other stuff like dale carnegie or whatever uh and then there was this one book the most human human by brian christensen that really was important for”
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The Most Human Human
Discussed“and then there was this one book the most human human by brian christensen that really was important for me to read back in the day because he was on the um human side”
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Year of Magical Thinking, The
Discussed“and i was reading this you know the the book the year of magical thinking by joan didion about her losing and blue knights about her losing her husband her daughter and the way to cope for her was to write those books and it was sort of like a tribute”
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The Worm at the Core
Recommended“uh his whole idea is that ernest becker i think i i find this idea really compelling is uh that everything human beings have created like our whole motivation in life is to uh create like escape death is to try to uh construct an illusion of um that we're somehow immortal It's like everything around us this room your”
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Surfaces and Essences
Recommended“my choice is um so the one book that really influenced me a lot when i was building starting out this company maybe 10 years ago uh was gb go to leicester block and um i like everything about it”
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On Becoming a Person
Recommended“so that's one that um probably the most important book for replica was carl rogers on becoming a person um and that's really and so i think when i think about our company it's all about there's so many there's so many little magical things that happened over the course of working on it”
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Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Recommended“It was um the ludwig whitney constant quote the limits of my language the limits of my world what was the quote the limits of my language are the limits of my world um and i love the truck tattoos i think it's just it's just a beautiful it's a book by wickedthat”
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In Search of the Miraculous
Recommended“so yeah my life's been i've been incredibly lucky and things just miracles happen all the time with this company with people i know with everything around me And so i didn't mention that book but maybe in search of miraculous or in search for miraculous or whatever the english translation for that is good russian book too for everyone”
The Book Review
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Kremlin Rising
Discussed“well first of all I have to say the good news is we're still talking to each other so we did our first book Kremlin Rising uh after spending uh four years in Russia”
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Just Us
Discussed“and another book that I'm reading right now is Claudia Rankin's new book just us and it it's very much about kind of the racial imagination the the way that we conceive fantasize about race”
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Memorial Drive
Recommended“I'm reading Natasha tre's new Memoir called Memorial Drive”
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Convenience store woman
Recommended“but I picked up recently convenience store Woman by Saka marada which is her English language debut”
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Inside the NRA
Critiqued“it's a book called Inside the NRA and it's one of these tell all accounts”
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Homeland Elegies
Discussed“aad akar will join us to talk about his new book Homeland eleges”
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Cry Havoc
Discussed“cry havoc Charlottesville and democracy Under Siege by Michael sner”
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The Violence Inside Us
Discussed“and the violence inside us a brief history of an ongoing American Tragedy by Chris Murphy”
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The Bass Rock
Recommended“it's called the bass Rock by Eevee wild wld D”
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Hoax
Discussed“I'm just grateful that my wife was able to help with the kids when I was having to finish the the final chapters of this book”
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No Rules Rules: Netflix and the culture of reinvention
Discussed“and the book is me saying the theory and her saying the reality and that tension which sometimes is not pretty is kind of what makes the book interesting”
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Beyond Entrepreneurship
Recommended“because he shows how hard you know all the things are not directly about culture but I would say Jim Collins books Beyond entrepreneurship good to Great built to last those have been the most impactful books for me”
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A Legacy
Recommended“another book that I kind of bounced around in and that I'm going to talk about is a novel called a legacy by syil Bedford this is part of the nyb Classic series with a terrific introduction by friend of the book review Brenda wineapple Bedford”
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The Heart's Invisible Furies
Recommended“so I have been reading the hearts invisible Furies by John Bo um I have to admit there is no tree but that is AOK so I picked this up for a few reasons”
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The Book of Eels
Recommended“the books are the soul of an octopus a surprising exploration into the world of Consciousness by sa Montgomery and the Book of eels are enduring fascination with the most mysterious creature in the natural world by Patrick senson”
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Opening arguments
Discussed“I was one of the prosecutors in the Iran contration in the Lawrence Walsh investigation wrote my first book opening arguments about that”
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True Crimes and Misdemeanors
Discussed“and it was unlike true crimes and misdemeanors it was the most Pleasant and fun reporting and writing experience I've ever had”
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The Killer Angels
Discussed“so the book I read before that was the killer angels by Michael Shara”
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France the Dark Years, 1940-1944
Discussed“I read a book called France the dark years by a professor named Jackson”
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Transaction Man
Discussed“I read transaction Man by Nick lemon”
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The Second Life of Tiger Woods
Discussed“the second life of Tiger Woods by Michael bamberger”
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The Lying Life of Adults
Discussed“she is the co-editor of the literary magazine in n+1 and she wrote a cover review for us this week of Elena fante's latest novel The Lying life of adults”
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Odetta
Discussed“one is a biography by uh Ian Zach it's called Odetta”
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Odetta's One Grain of Sand
Discussed“and the other book is called one grain of sand it's a smaller book by Matthew fry Jacobson”
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One Grain of Sand
Discussed“the album that Matthew fry Jacobson talks about and his book called one grain of sand the album is also called one grain of sand”
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Reaganland
Recommended“well I'm reading now Rick perlin's Reagan land which is so much fun and so great”
Freakonomics Radio
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Kidnap
Discussed“shortland has written a book called kidnap inside the ransom business”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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The Trump Tapes
Discussed“you probably saw the book that came out with the tapes of trump saying that you know he was trying to play it down sax as a lifelong republican what were your thoughts when the republican presidential candidate the republican president said uh hey i'm trying to play this down”
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The House of Morgan
Discussed“but then um i started reading ron chernow's um biography of uh oh yes rockefeller yeah and so i don't know if anyone's made it through that 727 page two i got about 500 pages in It is detailed”
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Titan
Discussed“but then um i started reading ron chernow's um biography of uh oh yes rockefeller and so i don't know if anyone's made it through that 727 page two i got about 500 pages in”
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The Fish That Ate the Whale
Recommended“uh i'll just give my closing the fish that ate the whale a book about sam zumari who was the banana king”
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I Love Capitalism!
Recommended“another uh interesting book you might like i love capitalism by ken langone who um you know built uh he built uh home depot and it's a pretty great story about both stories of capitalism”
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Americana
Recommended“i would give a shout out to a book called americana which is about uh it's a history of american capitalism told in chapters for every call it like you know five to seven or ten year decade period it's really interesting for people into business it's written by a guy named boo srinivasan”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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Crushing It!
Discussed“and i don't think many people knew this when i first came in and interviewed for crushing it which was so much fun”
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Legacy and the Queen
Discussed“how have you seen that with obviously with legacy and the queen you you chose tennis”
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Strengths-Based Nursing Care
Recommended“laurie gottlieb is a psychotherapist and new york times best-selling author of maybe you should talk to someone which is being adapted as a television series with eva longoria”
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Everything Is Figureoutable
Recommended“and the reason why i wanted to reach out to marie to do this is her new book is out on september 10th it's called everything is figure outable”
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Phantoms in the Brain
Recommended“if you've read yes ramachandran ... just that if people haven't read him he is extraordinary”
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Legacy and the Double
Recommended“and anyone who's out there right now i've got the copy of the book right here legacy and the queen you can go grab it”
This Week in Startups
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The Making of Prince of Persia
Recommended“you also have prince of persia on there which is a really good book out right now about the story of the creator of prince of persia”
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The Defense Production Act of 1950
Discussed“based on my understanding of the authorities granted by the defense production act of 1950 the foreign investment risk review modernization act of 2018 and the international emergency economic powers act i do believe that the president has the authority to take both types of actions”
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Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018
Discussed“based on my understanding of the authorities granted by the defense production act of 1950 the foreign investment risk review modernization act of 2018 and the international emergency economic powers act i do believe that the president has the authority to take both types of actions”
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The International Emergency Economic Powers Act
Discussed“based on my understanding of the authorities granted by the defense production act of 1950 the foreign investment risk review modernization act of 2018 and the international emergency economic powers act i do believe that the president has the authority to take both types of actions”
The Tim Ferriss Show
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The Courage to Heal
Discussed“i know that um i was talking to roxanne about a book that we've both been really helped by and it's called a courage to heal by ellen bass”
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The Drama of the Gifted Child
Recommended“the drama of the gifted child which is really the drama of the sensitive child and i discussed that with gabor mate in my podcast with him at one point”
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The Complete Enneagram
Recommended“there's a book called the complete enneagram by beatrice chestnut”
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Radical Acceptance
Recommended“her book radical acceptance uh which has a very generic title but very impactful content for me at least”
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The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity
Discussed“the second book i'll bring it up is one with a longer title and that is the tao of health sex and longevity by daniel reed reid could you speak to this book and same idea how it came into your life and what you take from it”
Monday Morning Podcast
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The Argumentative Indian
Recommended“lastly there are some books you and your readers can go through to understand more about this problem number one the argumentative indian”
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Annihilation of caste
Recommended“number one the argumentative indian number two annihilation of caste”
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India after Gandhi
Recommended“number two annihilation of caste number three india after gandhi”
Pod Save America
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Rage
Discussed“so these comments came as part of uh 18 separate interviews that trump gave woodward for his new book rage we'll go through some of the other very normal things trump said to woodward in a bit”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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Biased
Discussed“your book starts with kind of a sad story about your own son thinking that this man might rob the plane can you take us through that”
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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Recommended“your new book right here which everyone should grab and we'll link to it in the show notes super minute”
EconTalk
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Uncharted
Discussed“her latest book and the subject of today's conversation is uncharted how to navigate the future”