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Books podcasts were talking about in August 2021
August 2021 podcasts featured discussions spanning memoirs, science fiction, and the history of scientific thought. On SmartLess, guest Sean Penn discussed Flim-Flam Man, the memoir by Jennifer Vogel that served as the basis for the film Flag Day. Penn also recalled reading the books of F. Lee Bailey during his high school years to study his legal cases when he originally aspired to become a criminal defense attorney. Meanwhile, the Lex Fridman Podcast hosted conversations touching upon multiple classic and academic texts. Lex Fridman quoted Arthur C. Clarke, identifying him as the author of the influential science fiction novel 2001, a Space Odyssey. In a separate episode, guest Jed Buchwald discussed historical scientific literature, mentioning Robert Hooke's foundational work Micrographia and his own book, The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light. Buchwald also referenced student notebooks and manuscripts by Isaac Newton, alongside a Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz manuscript known as the Tentamen Anagogicum, which represented Leibniz's attempt to formulate an alternative framework to Newton's mechanics.
SmartLess
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Flim-Flam Man
Discussed“Oh, that's great to hear, I, um, yeah, it was a script that came to me many years ago based on Jennifer Vogel's memoir Flim Flam Man.”
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The Defense Never Rests
Discussed“I was spending my time in high school reading the books of F. Lee Bailey about his cases and wanting to be a lawyer, a criminal defense attorney.”
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The Help
Discussed“You know you did all of this work before the thing that really catapulted you, which was The Help. You were amazing, just incredible.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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2001, a Space Odyssey
Discussed“and now let me leave you some words from arthur c clarke, who is the author of 2001 a space odyssey it may be that our role on this planet is not to worship god but to create him”
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The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light
Discussed“and i can give you all kinds of examples of that i once wrote a book on the origins of wave theory of light and that is one of the paradigmatic examples that tom used”
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Micrographia
Discussed“and he had written a book in fact called the micrographia which by the way he used a microscope to make the first depictions of things like a fly's eye the structure of you know it had a big influence”
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Newton: Philosophical Writings
Discussed“there's two of them one's called the philosophical questions and the other is called the waste book”
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The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and Guide
Discussed“there's two of them one's called the philosophical questions and the other is called the waste book”
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Discussed“a scholar uh who's a professor at indiana now uh named domenico melli got his hands on a leibnitz manuscript called the ten tammon which was leibniz's attempt to produce an alternative to newton's mechanics”
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Opticks
Discussed“in fact the second volume of newton's of the notes really on the great book that he published the optics which he published in 1704”
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Man's Search For Ultimate Meaning
Discussed“but i think what i get from him is basic um it's like uh victor franco has a man search for meaning”
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The Dead
Discussed“and i kept reading like i think so his short stories the dead I think it's called was very good”
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Ulysses
Discussed“but then ulysses was I I I got through ulysses with the help of some cliff notes and so on”
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Supernatural
Discussed“and graham hancock wrote a beautiful book about this called supernatural which in many ways like sent me down this rabbit hole back in 2007.”
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The Cosmic Serpent
Discussed“it started with jeremy narby the cosmic serpent dna in the origins of knowledge it was a total impulse buy at the barnes noble on 6th avenue in new york and wound up introducing me to supernatural by graham hancock”
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In the Dark Places of Wisdom
Discussed“uh one is in the dark places of wisdom and the other is reality”
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Reality
Discussed“uh one is in the dark places of wisdom and the other is reality”
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The Universal Christ
Discussed“richard rohr the franciscan friar i mentioned in the universal christ he writes a lot about how the divine for you is is often encountered in in the other”
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Why Do Moths Drink Elephants' Tears?
Discussed“the following is a conversation with matt walker sleep scientist professor of neuroscience and psychology at berkeley author of why we sleep and the host of a new podcast called the matt walker podcast”
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Mathematics is the Poetry of Science
Discussed“i also read a book by cedric villani uh these cedric velani is this mathematician the fields medalist and in his book he tries to explain how he got from like a phd student to the fields metal”
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Galileo's for the Social and Cognitive Legitimation of Science
Discussed“um there's a a really interesting book on this topic called gaming the metrics It's a book by a researcher called mario biagioli it goes a lot into like how these the impact factor and metrics affect science negatively”
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On Intelligence
Discussed“he previously wrote the seminal book on the subject titled on intelligence and recently a new book called a thousand brains which presents a new theory of intelligence that richard dawkins for example has been raving about calling the book quote brilliant and exhilarating”
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A Thousand Brains
Discussed“he previously wrote the seminal book on the subject titled on intelligence and recently a new book called a thousand brains which presents a new theory of intelligence that richard dawkins for example has been raving about calling the book quote brilliant and exhilarating”
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A Study of the Effects of Ego Dejection and Elation in an Academic Life Situation by the Psychogalvanic Technique
Discussed“he has lived one hell of a life of hardship and triumph as he writes about in his book called the ego and the dragon”
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The Eagle and the Dragon
Discussed“he has lived one hell of a life of hardship and triumph as he writes about in his book called the ego and the dragon”
The Daily Stoic
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The Inner Game of Tennis
Discussed“Have you read The Inner Game of Tennis? No, I haven't. Okay, so one, you have to read it if you like tennis, but I believe it's Tom Brady's favorite book.”
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Debrief to Win
Discussed“what have been some of the books that have hit you the most? Ah, there's one I really love right now, and I don't know if you've read it; it's called Debrief to Win. No, I'm writing this down.”
