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Books podcasts were talking about in July 2021
In July 2021, podcast discussions highlighted transhumanism, historical analysis, personal memoirs, and the balance of rational and emotional minds. On All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg, David Sacks recommended Ramez Naam's Nexus series for its accurate depiction of transhumanist ideas and biotechnology. Chris Williamson promoted Stephen McGinty's The Dive on Modern Wisdom at the end of an interview. Niall Ferguson appeared on Conversations with Tyler to recommend Michael Burleigh's A New History of the Third Reich as an antidote to A.J.P. Taylor's perspective. On On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Jay Shetty discussed Gisele Bündchen's Lessons, highlighting her insights on life and meditation. Pamela Paul recommended Catherine Steadman's thriller The Disappearing Act on The Book Review. On The Joe Rogan Experience, Abby Martin cited Peter Phillips's Giants to discuss transnational corporations and interlocking boards of directors. Finally, on Huberman Lab, Andrew Huberman and Lex Fridman discussed Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund regarding the logical and emotional mind, alongside Sam Sheridan's The Fighter's Mind.
The Book Review
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What Strange Paradise
Discussed“Omar El aad will be here to discuss his new novel what strange Paradise”
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An Ugly Truth
Discussed“Shir Frankle and Cecilia Kang join us to talk about their new book an Ugly Truth”
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No One Goes Alone
Discussed“it's coming out in September and it's called no one goes alone”
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I Couldn't Love You More
Discussed“the book is called I couldn't love you more and it's by Esther Freud this is her ninth novel and it's a book about three generations of women kind of circulating between Ireland and England”
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Hideous kinky
Discussed“I realized I had read her first two books hideous kinky and purist flat oh hideous kinky was turned into a movie with Kate Winslet”
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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Discussed“this was a copy of Omar kayam which was sold at SBE in March for £45 which is a little over $2,000 and was being brought to America on behalf of a collector”
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An Appalachian Trail
Discussed“as it turns out he publishes an Appalachian Trail a project in Regional planning and that sets out this vision of the trail that runs from Maine to Georgia along the ridgel line”
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The Disappearing Act
Recommended“another good one is Katherine stemmans the disappearing act and she also was on the podcast”
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Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream
Discussed“joining me today is Dean job the author of The Case of the murderous Dr cream the hunt for a Victorian era serial killer”
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Emily Dickinson’s Poems
Discussed“and then the last thing I am reading is uh a collection of Emily Dickinson's poems called Emily Dickinson's poems as she preserved them by Christine Miller”
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Don't erase me
Discussed“one of her stories from her first collection which was titled don't erase me that was the book from 1997 was in that collection and it stuck with me”
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Dear Miss Metropolitan
Discussed“it's a novel called Dear Miss Metropolitan and boy it's a hard thing to read”
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Democracy Rules
Discussed“so this week I read democracy Rules by a political theorist at Princeton named Yan Verner Müller”
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Winter's Bone
Recommended“I defy anyone to read Winter's Bone by Daniel woodrell and tell me that's not a great piece of literature”
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Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
Recommended“but I started reading recently a book that I'm very much enjoying by Rifka gin it's a novel called everyone knows your mother is a witch and it's actually a fictionalized version of the story of Johan Kepler's mother”
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Critiqued“it's called the boy with the striped pajamas”
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Number the Stars
Discussed“well and I think you and I share a favorite which is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry”
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My Year of Meats
Discussed“yes I read her what I believe is her first book called my year of meats”
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You're the Cheese in My Blintz
Recommended“a board book called You're the cheese in my blint”
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Brave girl
Recommended“among picture books I can cry over and over and over again when I read Brave girl which is by Michelle marle”
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Dancing at the Pity Party
Recommended“This year's Sydney Taylor gold medalist is a book called dancing at the pity party it's a graphic Memoir by Tyler feder”
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Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!
Recommended“oh and get a grip Vivie Cohen which is one about an autistic 11y old old girl who loves baseball”
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Welcoming Elijah
Recommended“so the winners this year were welcoming Elijah a Passover tale with a tale by the wonderful leslia Newman”
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A Tale for the Time Being
Recommended“so I just started Ruth ozeki's novel a tale for the time being because I realized I needed some levity”
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The Lost Child Of Philomena Lee A Mother Her Son And A Fiftyyear Search
Recommended“and it's an older book it came out in 2009 called The Lost Child of filamina Lee”
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King Richard
Discussed“his latest book is King Richard Nixon and Watergate an American Tragedy”
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The journalist and the murderer
Discussed“the journalist and murderer is perhaps one of the most famous on that begins with a line about journalists”
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Forty-One False Starts
Recommended“I really love the collection 41 false starts which is the one that includes a number of profiles especially of artists”
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Two Lives
Recommended“um I love you're so right that she's so good on relationships and I love her book it's two lives about grard Stein Alice”
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The Silent Woman
Recommended“I think I'd start with the silent woman if you want a full book”
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Psychoanalysis, the impossible profession
Recommended“I think that her early book psychoanalysis The Impossible profession is also way into her approach which is completely fascinating”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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Nexus
Recommended“there's a lot of great science fiction written about this whole sort of transhumanist idea a book series i really like is uh nexus by ramez nam who actually was a developer at microsoft and you know then became a writer and he writes with i'd say a high degree of sort of accurate accuracy and specificity about these technologies”
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Thank You for Smoking
Discussed“You know, it's like smoking in a way, where when I made the movie thing for smoking, Christopher Buckley told me, you know, he's the author of the book and he said, 'Look, there's something uniquely American about defending people's right to do something that's manifestly harmful.' The main character in Thank You for Smoking is a spokesman for big”
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Project Hail Mary
Recommended“Has anybody read Andy Weir's Hail Mary yet? The guy who did The Martian?”
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Every Life Is on Fire
Recommended“it's called Every life is on fire by this guy named Jeremy England and he highlights how all of evolution is effectively predicted by statistical physics”
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The Grid
Recommended“and by the way if you guys ever want to read an interesting book about how the grid operates um there's a book called the grid and it talks about how the electrical uh power grid system was built in the united states and how inefficient it is and all the problems”
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Our Energy Future
Recommended“and by the way if you guys ever want to read an interesting book about how the grid operates um there's a book called the grid and it talks about how the electrical uh power grid system was built in the united states and how inefficient it is and all the problems”
Behind the Bastards
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Duck in a Raincoat
Discussed“I'm going to quote from Duck in a Rain Coat again. Those used to defeat the person being punished were mostly large, well-built boys fighting both male and female residents.”
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Haiti
Discussed“And I'm going to quote now from a book titled Haiti, the Devalier and Their Legacy by Elizabeth Abbott. Tusant's faith in the Haitian people's determination was justified when Napoleon sent his brother-in-law, General L. Clerk, to fight a war of extermination, his words, against the Haitians.”
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1 Samuel
Discussed“Remember what it says in the book of Samuel, boys, the older man drawled. Now go and strike and devote to destruction all that you have.”
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Hitler's Hangman
Recommended“The book Hitler's Hangman is I think it's a very good biography, very readable biography, goes into a lot of detail about this.”
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Nazi Wives
Discussed“She eventually su accepts and to try and understand why she accepts, I'm going to cite a passage from the book Nazi Wives. Quote, Lena found him intriguing. I felt sympathy for this purposeful yet reserved young man and agreed to a rendevous the next day.”
Modern Wisdom
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The Dive
Recommended“i think you've done an awesome job with the book that'll be linked to the dive will be linked on amazon below any other bits if people want to learn more about this yeah well yeah well yeah yeah just buy it but buy the dive and that that's the best way to do it”
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Education of a Felon
Recommended“if you ever want to read a great criminal novel read education of a felon eddie bunk”
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Trejo
Recommended“trejo ladies and gentlemen trejo my life of crime redemption and hollywood will be linked in the show notes below”
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Trejo's Cantina: Cocktails, Snacks & Amazing Non-Alcoholic Drinks from the Heart of Hollywood (Spiral-Bound)
Recommended“trejo ladies and gentlemen trejo my life of crime redemption and hollywood will be linked in the show notes below”
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Our Final Hour
Discussed“martin reese's book our final hour and that's what's called the united states and it's got the much more intelligent title in the uk of our final century”
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Wanting
Discussed“he goes i have no shame he goes i learned from the best”
Conversations with Tyler
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The 39 steps
Discussed“These books are of the direct lineal descendants, as you probably know Tyler, of the great Richard Hannay books that John Buchan wrote beginning with The 39 Steps.”
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A World Restored
Discussed“He's fantastically scathing in his review of of of Kissinger's first book um a review that I only found by by chance. This is A World Restored, a book that that um that has many merits...”
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Paper and Iron
Discussed“Paper and Iron. That's your first book?”
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L'ancien régime
Discussed“I as an undergraduate we were required to read Tocqueville's L'Ancien Régime in French in our first term.”
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The Third Reich
Recommended“I think the antidote to a book like like Taylor's is Michael Burleigh's uh uh excellent book of gosh, more than a decade ago, A New History of the Third Reich, which emphasizes Hitler's messianic political religious side.”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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Lessons
Recommended“and these key insights are shared in her new york times best-selling book lessons my path to a meaningful lifeuh which is an incredible reader”
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Black ; Back
Discussed“and it basically it all started when we met each other there was a book which was called black which was about gangs in brussels”
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Magnificent Obsession
Discussed“But then I got a hold of Lloyd C. Douglas's book, The Magnificent Obsession. And I I I thought, how could it be negative if it's magnificent, you know?”
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You Were Born Rich
Discussed“What gave you the confidence when you wrote your book you were born rich? Mhm. Tell me about that title.”
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The Creative Process In The Individual
Recommended“It's a page that was written probably around 1920. It's by Thomas Troward. I don't know if you're familiar with him. Um he was a great author. It's the creative process in the individual.”
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The State of Affairs
Recommended“You write about this. As I said this is one of my favorite books that you've written. I highly recommend it to anyone.”
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Radical Beauty
Discussed“And I was interviewing you for two of your books at the time, Radical Beauty and You Are the Universe.”
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Of Human Bondage
Discussed“So, the- these are amazing books of human bondage, The Razor's Edge, which talks about existential issues. And so, I was so inspired by these books that I told my dad, I want to be a doctor.”
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Metahuman
Recommended“His book Metahuman is coming out in October. We will do another interview for that book because I believe there's so much to dive into. And today we've been able to uncover Deepak's incredible life. I didn't know all of that. I'm sure all of you didn't as well. So, please go ahead, grab the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”
Timcast IRL
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Against All Hope
Discussed“my father had me read against all hope by armando valadares in middle school”
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The Machinery of Freedom
Discussed“the seminal one is the machinery of freedom which was one of the books that along with robert heinlein's the moon is a harsh mistress really sort of created my worldview”
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Legal Systems Very Different from Ours
Discussed“law's order and uh one i read a few months ago was legal systems very different from our own”
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The Last President
Discussed“there's a book from the 1800s called about baron trump and there's a the final book in the series is called the last president”
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Darkness at Noon
Recommended“Arthur Kessler was one. He wrote darkness at noon, which is one of the best dystopian books all about the Soviet show trials,”
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DEN OF DRAGONS (Grailquest, No 2)
Discussed“did you ever guys ever read grail quest the old books they were kind of like you play as this guy”
The Tim Ferriss Show
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Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide
Discussed“you're probably familiar with the book psilocybin magic mushroom growers guide which i published under pseudoman one of your great contributions to humankind maybe the most significant contribution”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Discussed“you've talked about that you first began to reconsider the negative health myths around psychedelics when you learned that the book one flew over the cuckoo's nest was written by ken gizzy when he was in part under the influence of lsd”
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The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
Discussed“that's brilliant I didn't come up with this this was this is a little book by the guy who started the institute for advanced studies”
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My Disillusionment in Russia
Discussed“she left the soviet union as did berkman she wrote a book that they titled my disillusionment with russia”
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Five Chimneys
Discussed“There's a book i read called uh uh five chimneys i think this woman who was an auschwitz survivor”
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War and Peace
Discussed“and let's also point out that tolstoy wrote warned peace and he wrote anna karenina”
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Social Statics
Discussed“from his book social statics it was deleted from later editions”
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Smuggler
Discussed“he recently got out of prison where for many years he worked on his memoir called smuggler”
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Kings of Cocaine
Discussed“and pablo escobar and some of the other ones on general there in nicaragua you can see them toting it from one plane to the other side in the book called the big nose kings of cocaine”
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The Shawshank Redemption
Discussed“red morgan freeman's character in the shawshank redemption says the following”
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The Big White Lie
Recommended“If you would like to read the book the the big white lie the cia and the crack cocaine epidemic the cia put according to this uh the book in michael levine i i didn't remember his name last time i talked uh wrote that book”
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About face
Recommended“yeah the main one is about face which is sitting right here there you go this is written by colonel david hackworth”
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Fooled by Randomness
Discussed“so that's the thing uh i was reading this book food by randomness right yeah i was like they're up here like oh my god you're so courageous”
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In Order to Live
Discussed“can you tell your story from north korea to today as you describe in your 2015 book and with the extra perspective on life love and freedom you've gained since then”
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Dear Reader
Recommended“what do you think of michael what do you think of his book on north korea called dear reader that people should definitely check out”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Giants
Recommended“this is according to Peter Phillips the author of giants who really rules the world and it's really transnational corporations that have interlocking Boards of directorates”
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Rational Mysticism
Discussed“he wrote a book on um sort of rational mysticism like how to how to understand mystical experiences in scientific light”
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Eating Animals
Discussed“honestly when i was like 26 i read the eating animals by jonathan safran 4 because an ex had recommended it she was vegetarian”
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Stories to Tell
Recommended“richard marks has a great new book i just picked yeah reading on the airplane yesterday”
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Entangled Life
Recommended“merlin wrote a beautiful book called entangled life about uh fungi”
Huberman Lab
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Narcissus and Goldmund
Recommended“In the Hermann Hesse's book, I don't know if you, 'Narcissus and Goldmund,' right? It's about these elements of the logical rational mind and the emotional mind and how those are woven together.”
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The Fighter's Mind
Recommended“He also has the book, what? 'A Fighter's Mind.' - Yeah, that was the third one. He's actually an excellent writer.”
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Narziss und Goldmund
Recommended“In the Hermann Hesse's book, I don't know if you, "Narcissus and Goldmund," right? It's about these elements of the logical rational mind and the emotional mind and how those are woven together.”
No Stupid Questions
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Complaining, Teasing, and Other Annoying Behaviors
Discussed“so anyway Robin Kowalski no relation wrote a book 2003 called complaining teasing and other annoying behaviors”
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The Interpretation of Dreams
Discussed“Of course, in his classic work, The Interpretation of Dreams, which he wrote just at the dawn of the 20th century. For Freud, dreams were a matter of wish fulfillment. This is a way that we play out our unconscious impulses.”
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Turbulent Souls:
Discussed“the first book that I wrote I think we've talked about this a little bit in the past on this show is about my parents both of whom were first generation Brooklyn Jews who each before they met each other converted to Catholicism”
The Dr. John Delony Show
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Burnout
Recommended“read um there's a couple of books here there's one called trauma stewardship by laura vandernutt lipsky trauma stewardship there's another one called burnout by the negative sisters we'll link to them here in the show notes read those two books”
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The Meaning of Marriage
Recommended“you know there's a great book by tim keller i love it's the meaning of marriage and our job as spouses is to make each other holy”
Freakonomics Radio
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The Weirdest People in the World?
Discussed“Henrik recently followed that book with another one called the weirdest people in the world how the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous”
The Realignment
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History Has Begun
Discussed“last time we had you on your book history has begun and just come out so that episode was more focused on the philosophical and historical”
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
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The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far
Discussed“well in your book the greatest story ever told so far you document a very a large number of cases where theoretical physicists were driven to posit something they regarded as completely absurd because it seemed to fit the data assuming that something was wrong and were later shown to be right”
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The Campaigns of Napoleon
Discussed“david chandler's the campaigns of napoleon a book of 1300 pages of tremendous work of scholarship and very well written in the in the forward credits eg mcdonald and and people who write about napoleon often do it's a tremendously readable book and and and and and it it gave me a a huge interest napoleon that that i've kept”
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The Pursuit of Love
Discussed“some years later two or three years later he he gave me a copy of uh nancy mitford's pursuit of love now it's a novel but about real people but the names changed”
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The War Memoirs
Discussed“i remember reading i remember reading the first volume of general the goals war memoirs when they were first published in english they're the ones that begin all my life i've thought of france in a certain way and uh it's beautifully written by that i mean de gaulle was a wonderful writer”
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Napoleon and his Marshals
Recommended“he in particular he gave me when i was 13. he handed me a book and he said obviously it's not for me to tell you what to read but i do recommend this and if you just read a few pages in it i think you will want to continue and it was a.g mcdonald's book napoleon and his”
EconTalk
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Simone Weil's The Iliad, Or, The Poem of Force
Discussed“simone uh very pointedly stated at the during uh world war ii that uh she had an essay entitled the iliad or the poem of force uh in which she talked about the propensity and the iliad to turn the uh the man human being into a mere thing”
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Achilles in Vietnam
Recommended“jonathan shea has this book achilles in vietnam in which he points out that the cycles the emotional cycles that we see unleashed in achilles”
The Rubin Report
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The Little Bitcoin Book
Discussed“Whereas the internet, in a way, was a way to let any two people exchange ideas and information, and Bitcoin is going to be a way that any two people can exchange value and that's a big part of this book.”
