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Books podcasts were talking about in October 2023
During October 2023, several podcasts explored various non-fiction and historical works. On Pod Save America, the host referenced Charles Darwin's 'The Voyage of the Beagle' during a comedic segment while discussing illustrations in a book used by Mike Johnson. My First Million featured Shaan Puri discussing Phil Knight's memoir, 'Shoe Dog', to highlight the historical hostility toward joggers in earlier decades. SmartLess hosted John McEnroe, who discussed his unexpected narration role for 'Never Have I Ever'—a show rooted in a book series—while Will Arnett shared his passion for reading Antony Beevor's 'The Second World War'. The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast featured Matt Taibbi discussing Victor Davis Hanson's 'The Case for Trump' as a compelling read on the 2016 election cycle, and Dr. Peterson later examined George Orwell's '1984' in relation to tyranny. Modern Wisdom included Dr. Andrew Huberman referencing Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs, and Steel'. No Stupid Questions discussed Ian Leslie's self-help book 'Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together' as a resource for navigating disagreements.
Pod Save America
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The Voyage of the Beagle
Discussed“He drew little pictures in his little book of all the different animals he saw in the Galapagos. And ever since, I have this image in my mind.”
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Renegade
Discussed“Yeah, last thing, I know you have a book coming out; it's called "Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country," set to be released at the end of this month on October 31st. What do you write about, and where can folks pick this up?”
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Enough
Discussed“Her new book is called Enough; she testified before the January 6th committee. When we come back, Cassidy Hutchinson joins us.”
My First Million
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Shoe Dog
Discussed“Um, if you read Phil Knight's book, he talks about if you went jogging in like the 40s, 50s, or 60s, people were like throwing bottles at you from their car because they're just like mad.”
SmartLess
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The Second World War
Discussed“Is there a hobby that you just can't live without or a little pastime, even if it's just watching TV or maybe even reading? Will likes to read about World War II—a lot of people don't know that.”
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Never Have I Ever
Discussed“I didn't think I'd get the gig as a narrator of a show, 'Never Have I Ever,' where I'm like the psychologist for a high school Indian-American girl trying to figure out her way in school, right? I didn't see that one coming.”
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Prequel
Discussed“Yeah, now, um, so Rachel, your latest book, Prequel, is, um, is a bit of a cautionary tale, yes?”
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Bag Man
Discussed“Well, maybe what might be even more apt, um, uh, the another book that you wrote, Bagman, um, correct me if I'm wrong, is the Spiro Agnew, um, that there was a a deal offered him, uh, that may or may not potentially be a precedent for what could shape the possible conclusion of any sort of Trump sentencing!”
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
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The Case for Trump
Discussed“Victor Davis Hanson wrote a compelling book titled The Case for Trump, which is the best thing I've read about that election cycle.”
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1984
Discussed“George Orwell has this preface, I believe it was for 1984; I'm not sure of the exact details now—it was around the time of World War II—and it was kind of considered heretical because its argument was that we think about tyranny in these melodramatic terms”
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Behave
Discussed“The thing that really struck me in 'Behave' is the sections on Game Theory, and I wanted to start talking about it because, first of all, the terminology is strange.”
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Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
Discussed“One of the things that happens if you're face-to-face with people, as opposed to virtual, is that's the key importance of hospitality, which is very much stressed in the Old Testament and in traditional communities.”
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Abraham Lincoln
Discussed“For example, I was reading the book of Abraham, as I'm writing a book on biblical stories, and God promises Abraham that if he abides by the central covenant, his descendants will outnumber everyone else's descendants.”
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The Case Against Reality
Discussed“I've used it a lot; my book, Case Against Reality, talks about it in great detail.”
Modern Wisdom
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Discussed“This book was written by my colleagues at Stanford, Sandra Khan and Paul Ehrlich, and it has an introduction by Jared Diamond, who won a Pulitzer for 'Guns, Germs, and Steel,' and a foreword by the great Robert Sapolsky, also a colleague of mine at Stanford.”
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Adam and Eve after the Pill, Revisited
Discussed“The books are called 'Adam and Eve After the Pill' and 'Adam and Eve After the Pill Revisited,' because there is a lot of paradoxical fallout.”
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The Decline of Males
Discussed“I rely here on the work of a sociologist named Lionel Tiger, who wrote a book in 1999 called 'The Decline of Males.' Again, Tiger is not a religious thinker; he even noted his view that religion is toxic.”
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Policies to Address Poverty in America
Discussed“For example, Melissa Carney’s new book, 'The Two-Parent Advantage,' examines this from a policy wonk perspective, lacking substantial ideological biases.”
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Carniepunk
Discussed“I had Melissa Carnie, who wrote 'The Two Parent Advantage,' on recently, and I think her book comes out today, actually.”
No Stupid Questions
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Conflicted
Discussed“And that's where this self-help book called Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together is really helpful. Who wrote this?”
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The Effective Executive
Discussed“The line actually comes from the 1966 book 'The Effective Executive' by Peter Drucker, whose work was a significant influence on Covey.”
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Burn-out
Discussed“The other thing that I thought of as you were talking about your book though and your work, there was this psychologist in New York in the early 1970s named Herbert Freudenberger, and he worked all of these shifts 10 hours a day at a private practice, then he would go down to a free clinic where he would work,”
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Generations
Discussed“And by the way, these are categories that she writes about in her recent book. The title of that book is Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents and What They Mean for America's Future.”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Hendo
Discussed“and and you know the book that I got coming out it made me made me remember a lot of things you know not that I forgot but it just brings a lot more things fresher in your mind yeah and kind of re I don't it's not like I sit around and reflect about what I've done in my”
Behind the Bastards
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Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
Discussed“These are science fiction novels; the first is called 'Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits,' and the second is 'Zoe Punches the Future.' The first two are available on Kindle Unlimited, which means they can be read for free, but otherwise, you can find them at used bookstores for cheap.”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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Ultra-Processed People
Discussed“Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, you wrote a book titled 'Ultra-Processed People.' I know from firsthand experience that writing books is a painful journey that takes a long time.”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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La Poetica
Discussed“Now, I've adjusted the book to have sections titled 'hopefully helpful,' but the reality is that the solutions will be multifaceted and complex.”
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Scarcity Brain
Discussed“My book is called 'Scarcity Brain', which explores why individuals struggle with moderation despite knowing everything is fine in moderation.”
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Casino Royale [James Bond (Original Series) #1]
Discussed“I think that could have been the case where they saw the intelligence, and they're like, 'Nah, too much. It sounds like a James Bond novel.'”
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Meditations
Discussed“Yeah, it's a little sad because you read about—and the only reason I even know about these folks like Emperor Nero or whatever is because of Ryan Holiday writing books about stoicism, you know and in that having a resurgence.”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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The Mill on the Floss
Discussed“Yeah, well today we're talking about your incredible new memoir.”
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Parable of the Talents
Discussed“Oh, I've been reading Octavia Butler, and I’m embarrassed to say I hadn't read her before.”
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Our Wives under the Sea
Discussed“I've been reading more novels lately; both of Octavia Butler's books are novels, but also, Our Wide Under the Sea was tremendous, and Brandon Taylor's new novel—I’m trying to remember if it's called The Last Americans—I might be getting the name wrong.”
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Creative visualization
Discussed“I remember specifically there was one time my godfather, Quincy, gave me a book, and it was called 'Creative Visualization.' Now granted, I was older at this time; I wasn't a child, but everything my mom had said, I found it on paper, and someone was saying 'no.'”
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THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI
Discussed“I'll give an example of something that happened to me recently: I remember a quote from Robin Sharma, which I read when I was very young. He wrote a book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari; the quote read, 'ordinary people have big TVs; extraordinary people have big libraries.'”
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The hidden temple
Discussed“So I paid whatever she asked me to pay for them, and then there was one book, and she said, 'I've been looking for this book for years; I couldn't find it because it was like all these crease pages and hidden away,' and she said, 'Do you mind if I don't sell this to you? I said, 'Of course;”
Freakonomics Radio
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The Peter Principle
Discussed“This reminds me of the Peter Principle, where people get promoted to positions higher than they're capable of based on their past experience, which may not have been relevant to their new role.”
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Hershey
Discussed“One of the books I read, and I'm actually not a fan of their chocolate, is a book on Milton Hershey, and this really gets to your point on failure.”
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Right Kind of Wrong
Discussed“That, again, is the organizational psychologist Amy Edmondson. She recently published a book called 'Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing.' Well, she understands this is a hard sell.”
Huberman Lab
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How Emotions Are Made
Discussed“The first one is entitled 'How Emotions Are Made,' and the second book, which includes information about emotions but extends beyond that, is entitled 'Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.'”
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Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain
Discussed“The first one is entitled 'How Emotions Are Made,' and the second book, which includes information about emotions but extends beyond that, is entitled 'Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.'”
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The Body Keeps the Score
Discussed“There’s a catchy book title, but with all due respect to, I think, the important work of Vander, that oversimplification led folks to believe their back pain was trauma and not all trauma is somaticized.”
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Emotion in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Discussed“The one that I’m particularly excited about, the one that I’ve spent now an immense amount of time with, is entitled 'The Tenacious Brain: How the Anterior Midcingulate Cortex Contributes to Achieving Goals.' So if you have a background in biology, even if you don’t, I think you'll find that review to be very interesting, and it further substantiates a”
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Never Split the Difference
Discussed“Chris is also the author of a phenomenal best-selling book entitled 'Never Split the Difference.' In addition, he has taught courses in negotiation at Harvard, at Georgetown, and at the University of Southern California.”
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Discussed“And the answer is secondary because the how or what question causes what we would refer to as deep thinking, slow thinking. Daniel Kahneman, behavioral economics, 'Thinking Fast and Slow.' Slow thinking is in-depth thinking.”
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Man Without a Gun
Discussed“Gianni Domenico got all the Western hostages out of Beirut in the mid '80s, wrote a book called 'Man Without a Gun,' negotiated in person, face-to-face with Hezbollah. The only guy that ever did that, got everybody out.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Thirteen days in September
Discussed“This conversation quickly turned ridiculous, but to reference another book, you mentioned 'Thirteen Days in September' by Lawrence Wright, in discussing all the work you've done in Israel and the Middle East.”
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Discussed“One of my favorite quotes is from 'Alice in Wonderland,' where the Cheshire Cat says, 'If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which path you take.'”
StarTalk Radio
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In the Shadow of the Moon
Discussed“Ooh, that's the title of his book! No, I guess that is a book title—in the Shadow of the Moon!”
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
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The Virgin Suicides
Discussed“I am almost done with The Virgin Suicides, which I've never... never seen the movie!”
ChooseFI
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Essentialism
Discussed“I love Essentialism by Greg McKeown. It's like a yearly read for me, right?”
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Four Thousand Weeks
Discussed“I read 4,000 Weeks recently; it's also a great book about that, kind of a similar concept. But, you know, those books help me center and realize, 'Wait a minute, just because I can try and do everything, it doesn't mean that's the right move.'”