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Books podcasts were talking about in November 2020
In November 2020, podcasts such as The Realignment and the Lex Fridman Podcast featured discussions touching on journalism, human behavior, science, and literature. On The Realignment, host Marshall discussed Scott Galloway's book Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity, reflecting on the profound societal and economic shifts brought about by the pandemic. In another episode of the same show, Andrew Sullivan compared the setting of Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop to his own early days in journalism. Meanwhile, on the Lex Fridman Podcast, guest Lisa Feldman Barrett recommended several foundational works exploring science and the human experience. Barrett discussed Richard Lewontin's Biology As Ideology and Kurt Danziger's Naming the Mind to illustrate critical perspectives on psychological and scientific assumptions. She also highlighted Jonathan Weiner's Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Beak of the Finch and Richard O. Prum's The Evolution of Beauty as exemplary science writing concerning evolution. Transitioning into human relationships and narrative fiction, Barrett shared her admiration for love stories that challenge social prejudices, specifically highlighting Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. The overarching theme connecting these selections was an exploration of systems, whether examining scientific practices, political and economic structures, journalism, or the complex mechanics of human relationships and evolutionary biology.
The Realignment
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Scoop Evelyn Waugh
Discussed“Which is the building that Evelyn Waugh describes in 'Scoop' with Lord Copper.”
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Post Corona
Discussed“Before we get into your book, Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity, which I really enjoyed, by the way, I want to mention that this was one of the books I read before the show—something that doesn't happen always, but it's a real testament to your work.”
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The Culture of Narcissism
Discussed“The political denomination or orientation is liberal, the psychological type as Lash talks about, it is narcissist.”
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The Decadent Society
Discussed“Yeah, Ross, the last time we had you on, it was to discuss your book. It was, I mean, obviously the Deccan Society, it's an incredible book.”
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Aeneis
Discussed“Yeah, I think that's one that I absolutely is important, and this kind of brings us to our final section here, which is that one of the most important books I think for Marshall and I was Michael Lind's 'New Class War,' which we've talked a lot about here on the podcast, and he makes a point you know, in”
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Zero to One
Discussed“I've been inspired by Peter Thiel's vision that we have too much innovation in the world of bits but not enough in the world of atoms, in 'rust out' that refers to this age of decadence. It seems that one of the reasons many boomers and others struggle to think critically about today’s politics is that we haven't lived in”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Biology As Ideology
Discussed“it's called biology as ideology and it is all about I wouldn't call it one of the best books of all time but I I love the book because it really does point out you know that SC science as it's currently practiced”
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Naming the Mind
Discussed“There's a book by um if you're interested in Psychology or the mind at all there's a wonderful book A little it's a it's a fairly fairly small book called naming the Mind by Kurt danziger who's a historian of psychology Everybody in my lab reads both of these books”
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The Beak of the Finch
Discussed“but I would say the if I were to pick one book that I think is a really good example of good science writing it would be the beak of the finch which is one of it won a a pullit Sur prise a number of years ago and I'm not I'm the I'm not remembering the author's name I'm”
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The Evolution of Beauty
Discussed“actually there's also the evolution of beauty which is yeah which is also a great book”
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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Discussed“and so my some of my favorite uh love stories are major pedigree Last Stand by Helen Simonson it's a it's a love story about people who you wouldn't expect to fall in love and all the people around them who have to overcome their prejudices”
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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Discussed“Another book like that is um the um the storyed life of AJ FY um which is also a love story but in this case it's a love story between um a little girl and her adopted dad and the dad”
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Boris Pasternak
Discussed“but the but you know like Dr shivago like or The English Patient oh my goodness like why”
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The English Patient
Discussed“but the but you know like Dr shivago like or The English Patient oh my goodness like why”
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Churchill's Hour
Discussed“so there's a a book um I think it's called Winston Churchills nap and it's about naps”
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Free Market Revolution
Discussed“yaron is the current chairman of the board at the IR Rand Institute host of the Yan Brook show and the co-author of free market Revolution equal is unfair and several other books where he analyzes systems of government human behavior and The Human Condition from the perspective of objectivism”
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Equal Is Unfair
Discussed“yaron is the current chairman of the board at the IR Rand Institute host of the Yan Brook show and the co-author of free market Revolution equal is unfair and several other books where he analyzes systems of government human behavior and The Human Condition from the perspective of objectivism”
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Anthem
Discussed“she writes a small novelet called Anthem”
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Ominous Parallels
Discussed“and basically suggesting how it might rise another that's the ominous parallel so the parallel he draws is to the United States and he says those same intellectual forces AR rising in the United States and this is this was published I think in published in 81 ' 82 was published in ' 82 so it's published a long time”
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Ayn Rand Novel Collection
Discussed“Start with fad”
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Capitalism
Discussed“uh she articulated them not so I would say not in conventional philosophical form so she didn't write philosophical essays using the Philosopher's language it's why partially why I think philos phers have never taken us seriously they're actually accessible to us we can actually read them and she integrates the philosophy in what I think amazing ways with psychology”
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Philosophy
Discussed“uh she articulated them not so I would say not in conventional philosophical form so she didn't write philosophical essays using the Philosopher's language it's why partially why I think philos phers have never taken us seriously they're actually accessible to us we can actually read them and she integrates the philosophy in what I think amazing ways with psychology”
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Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Discussed“and she has a whole book she has a book called uh introduction to objectivist epistemology which I encourage any scientist mathematician anybody interested in science to read because it is a tur of force on on on in a sense this the the the what it means to hold Concepts and what it means to discover new discoveries and”
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From Here to Eternity
Discussed“james jones who wrote uh uh books like from here to eternity fictional accounts of the second world war but he based them on his own service”
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The Secret History of the Mongols
Discussed“unless we don't have the mongol point of view per se i mean there's something called the secret history of the mongols and there's things written down by mongolian overlords through people like persian and chinese scribes later we don't have their point of view”
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The Next 100 Years
Discussed“i read a book a while back i want to say george friedman the stratfor guy wrote it was something called the next hundred years i think it was called and i remember thinking um i didn't agree with any of it”
Timcast IRL
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Billion Dollar Whale
Discussed“Confused about all the china malaysia uae and one mdb talk You should read the book billion dollar whale about joe”
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The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
Discussed“There's a great book called uh the tragedy of great power politics It'll explain you how the world works”
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Art of the Deal
Discussed“I said look you know about 2 000 years ago there was this chinese general who wrote a book called the article and one of the things some somebody wrote a business book late years later called the art of the deal which is yeah and and but in in the art of war sun tzu says when you're an”
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The Harbinger
Discussed“Tim i hope you still use your nj post office address sent you three books and you really need to read through okay harbinger oracle and harbinger two sweet Even lauren would be interested in those books Hope they got to you”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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Touching the Jaguar
Discussed“We'll link to your other book touching the jaguar Which is not about uh killing people in plane crashes if they don't go into debt”
Modern Wisdom
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A Practical Way to Get Rich . . . and Die Trying
Discussed“and um the way i found to do that was to write a book about it and so the book that you previously referenced it's called a practical way to get rich and die trying is my memoir and it's everything i just shared in excruciating detail”
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The Practice
Discussed“And so i wrote a book about this process of shipping creative work and it counters so many of the myths that people have about what does it mean to even be creative”
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Linchpin
Discussed“you know i discovered the war of art 10 years ago when i was writing linchpin i can't believe no one told me about it beforehand”
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What Technology Wants
Discussed“and you know kevin kelly's book what technology wants is a must read it will change the way you see so many of these issues”
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Destroying the World to Save It
Discussed“this long-standing problem is robert j lifton a psycho historian who i'm fond of in a book called destroying the world to save it he's like wow we may be the first form of life to be responsible for our own extinction because of our inability to get along with folks who are different than ourselves”
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Becoming Human
Discussed“uh there's a book by a famous guy he's a primatologist michael tomasello at the max planck institute in germany it's called becoming human and i think that a human being raised under those conditions would be pretty much like a great ape”
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The Power Elite
Discussed“and a guy named c wright mills in a book called the power elite written in the 1950s he made the same point and that's that most of us”
StarTalk Radio
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x + y
Discussed“Okay you're also the author of X Plus y a mathematician's Manifesto for rethinking gender oh you're getting all into all kinds of stuff”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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A Gentleman in Moscow
Discussed“i ended up buying a gentleman in moscow”
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That Book in the Attic
Discussed“and then when i became a monk i studied and taught that book for three years full time”
The Rubin Report
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Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know
Discussed“Joining me today is the Editor of HUMANPROGRESS.ORG and the co-author of the new book, "10 Global Trends, Every Smart Person Should Know" and many others that you will find interesting.”
