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Books podcasts were talking about in December 2021
In December 2021, various podcasts explored historical darkness, dietary history, bestselling science, and science fiction themes. The Lex Fridman Podcast featured conversations where Elon Musk mentioned Simon Sebag-Montefiore's Stalin, specifically noting that The Court of the Red Tsar was too dark and heavy to finish. Later on the same podcast, Peter Wang and Lex Fridman discussed Robert Pirsig's Lila as a sequel, alongside science fiction concepts involving hive minds from Vernor Vinge's collected stories and Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga. The Huberman Lab podcast hosted Andrew Huberman in conversation about human biology and aging, highlighting David A. Sinclair and Matthew D. LaPlante's bestseller Lifespan: Why We Age And Why We Don't Have To. Huberman also discussed Ori Hofmekler's book The Warrior Diet, noting its initial lack of attention and its descriptions of intermittent fasting based on Israeli special forces experiences. On The Daily Stoic, the host discussed Viktor E. Frankl's newly released book Yes to Life, noting that it compiles previously undiscovered lectures. Finally, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von featured Tony Hawk reminiscing about Marvel Comics publishing a KISS comic book where band members mixed their blood into the ink vat during the nineteen-seventies.
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
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Through the Looking-Glass
Discussed“And I grew up a fan of KISS in the 70s. And KISS did that in comic books, in Marvel Comics. They made a KISS comic book and all the members of the band put their blood into the ink vat.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Stalin
Discussed“There aren't many books I had to stop reading due to their darkness, but 'The Court of the Red Tsar' about Stalin was too heavy and dark for me.”
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Lila
Discussed“and in his um follow-on book uh has a sequel to it called lila he goes into this in a little more detail”
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The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
Discussed“Have you ever read like some sci-fi where um there's like hive minds uh like the vern revenge i think has one of these and then um some of the stuff from um yes on the commonwealth saga the idea that uh you're an individual but you're connected with like a few other individuals telepathically as well and together you”
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The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle
Discussed“Have you ever read like some sci-fi where um there's like hive minds uh like the vern revenge i think has one of these and then um some of the stuff from um yes on the commonwealth saga the idea that uh you're an individual but you're connected with like a few other individuals telepathically as well and together you”
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Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
Discussed“but um i think that the beauty of scripting like there's a there's a python book that's uh called automate the boring stuff which is exactly the right mentality”
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The Idiot
Discussed“I think this life this world this our human civilization is beautiful and as dostoyevsky said beauty will save the world”
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Viral
Discussed“so there's this excellent book that people should read uh called viral the search for the origin of covid-19 Matt Ridley and Alina Chan”
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The Long Game
Discussed“there's a great book called The Long game by Rush Doshi who's actually now working in the in the White House about this goal and and are pretty clearly articulated goal to subvert this the post-war International order”
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Invisible Cities
Discussed“and it's there's a wonderful full book called Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and he even talks about a city as something like this where everybody you have your life but then you have all these alternate lives and every time you make any decision you're kind of and so but in this Invisible Cities there's a little string that”
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The Year of Living Biblically
Discussed“um my friend AJ Jacobs he had a wonderful book that I I use the spirit of it in the ceremonies and not the exactly but he was in a a restaurant in New York coffee shop and his child said hey where does the coffee come from”
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A Grandparent's Gift of Love
Discussed“and there's a book for instance by um edward frankel about love and math and oh yeah that book is great”
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Amour et maths
Discussed“and there's a book for instance by um edward frankel about love and math and oh yeah that book is great”
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Not Even Wrong
Discussed“and yes the the book title is not even wrong your blog your excellent blog title is not even wrong”
Huberman Lab
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Lifespan
Discussed“Additionally, he has written a popular book that became a New York Times bestseller, titled 'Lifespan: Why We Age And Why We Don't Have To.' He is also very active in public efforts to educate people about the biology of aging and strategies for slowing the aging process.”
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The Warrior Diet
Discussed“He wrote a book called 'The Warrior Diet', which received very little attention at the time. In that book, he described that during his time in Israeli special forces, they rarely ate more than once a day and sometimes went one to two days without eating.”
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The Development of the Unconscious Mind (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)
Discussed“You may check his work online; he has educational YouTube videos and authored an accessible book titled "Right Brain Psychotherapy," full of excellent references and insights.”
Speaker Science of Social Bonding in Family, Friendship & Romantic Love 2021-12-20 Listen at 1:10:27
The Daily Stoic
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Yes to Life
Discussed“And Daniel Goleman wrote the intro, but it just came out this year, it's called Yes to Life. It's like so good, so good.”
SmartLess
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Led Zeppelin
Discussed“[Applause] Look at that Led Zeppelin book!”
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The Storyteller
Discussed“He's great, super funny, and he's got a brand new book out, I should have asked him, it's called The Storyteller.”
