Monthly round-up · All months
Books podcasts were talking about in October 2023
During October 2023, several notable books drew significant attention across multiple popular podcasts, with discussions spanning history, political strategy, psychology, and fiction. On Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, Ben Bowlin referenced Matthew Sweet's Operation Chaos to explore details regarding Vietnam deserters and the CIA. Meanwhile, Josh Clark brought up H. G. Wells's classic scary story The Red Room on Stuff You Should Know for a Halloween special. Current geopolitical conflicts and strategic analyses were heavily featured on The Ezra Klein Show, where Ezra Klein discussed Audrey Kurth Cronin's How Terrorism Ends to evaluate counter-terrorism methodologies, and Zack Beauchamp recommended several texts, including Stathis N. Kalyvas's The Logic of Violence in Civil War, Daniel Byman's A High Price, and The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966-2006, to illuminate civil war dynamics, Israeli counter-terrorism, and the Palestinian perspective. On The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, Matt Taibbi praised Victor Davis Hanson's The Case for Trump as a compelling read on the 2016 election cycle. Finally, on No Stupid Questions, Angela Duckworth highlighted Ian Leslie's self-help book Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together as a practical resource for handling interpersonal disagreements. These selections collectively reflected a strong thematic focus on navigating intense ideological conflicts, historical crises, and human behavioral struggles.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
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Operation Chaos
Recommended“We learned about this through a book called Operation Chaos, The Vietnam Deserters Who Fought the CIA Brainwashers and Themselves.”
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The Discovery of Witches
Discussed“You can read his book, by the way. He wrote a book in 1646. It's titled The Discovery of Witches in Answer to Several Queries Lately And he calls himself Matthew Hopkins, Witch Finder. Yes, Witch Finder, too.”
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In the Devil's Snare
Recommended“I would just recommend in the devil's snare the Salem witch craft crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton another amazing historian that like will kind of break down like say yes that is true in these like certain instances and then there's this other weird thing that was happening over here.”
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False Profits
Discussed“he has a book called false profits seeking Financial inspiritual Deliverance in multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes”
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Scouting for Boys
Discussed“he was a British army officer and author in 1908 inspired by a conversation with an American he wrote a book called Scouting For Boys a handbook for instruction in good citizenship”
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Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows
Discussed“for instance his first book that's already been released secret machines with a K with a k um lots of hidden meaning there”
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Sekret Machines Book 2: A Fire Within
Discussed“I think the second one is not out yet but coming out this year uh a Fire Within secret machines”
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The Encyclopedia of American Religions
Discussed“according to Jay Gordon Melton's Encyclopedia of American religions this uh gentleman Jimmy T Roberts was born Bor in Paduka Kentucky on June 5th 1939”
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The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans
Discussed“There are a couple of books, but one of the major books in here is by George Robert Gleig, g l e i g. He wrote a book uh called The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and and New Orleans in the years 1814 to 1815.”
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A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans, Under Generals Ross, Pakenham, and Lambert, in the Years 1814 And 1815
Discussed“There are a couple of books, but one of the major books in here is by George Robert Gleig, g l e i g. He wrote a book uh called The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and and New Orleans in the years 1814 to 1815.”
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Valis
Discussed“Yeah, I think I mentioned on the hearing voices episode the story about the science fiction author Philip K. Dick that's dramatized, it's also kind of autobiographical in the novel Valis.”
Behind the Bastards
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Of Saints and Sinners. Native Resistance to Ottoman Expansion in Southeastern Europe, 1443-1481: George Castriota Scanderberg and Vlad III Dracula
Discussed“The historian was released early because he wrote a book entitled The Life and Times of Vlad Dracul while he was in prison, his lawyer, Liviu Bran, said. The book, penned from September 2003 until October 2006, was counted as community service, Bran told reporters.”
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The Vampire Archives
Discussed“Who in 1819 writes an article called The Vampire, a tale by Lord Byron. And this is this is going to spread this is a very popular story.”
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Sweetness and Power
Discussed“And there's a very very famous a sort of classic study of sugar and slavery is uh Sydney W. amidst his sweetness and power which is a fundamental tax in a lot of sort of uh I don't know a lot of the sort of fields around the study of slavery”
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The Free People's Village
Recommended“Their latest novel, The Free People's Village, is available now. So go to your local bookstore and order it and support a voice that I believe we all need in our zeitgeist right now.”
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Book of the Dead
Discussed“there was an epic poem about the Hawks Nest tunnel disaster the Book of the Dead written by Muriel Riser”
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On Palestine
Recommended“if you read one book on Palestine if you read on Palestine by Num Chsky and and Elan Pape like you know more than Israelis know about their own situation.”
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Out of control
Discussed“and in 1979 he writes a fiction book called out of control it is a spy Thriller”
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Will
Discussed“so this is kind of the endpoint of his his autobiography will”
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The Colonizer and the Colonized
Discussed“French Tunisian writer Albert Mei wrote uh what I consider to be a very essential work on the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Uh that work that book is called the colonized and the colonized.”
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Devil's Guard
Discussed“and it's from a fiction book called The Devil's guard now I actually have not seen this written anywhere else I think I may be like the first person to note this publicly but it's extremely obvious if you are familiar with the book The Devil's guard and I'll go into why I am in a little bit but the”
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"!No Pasarán!"
Discussed“We are talking with with four people um who have put together a new book by AK Press called No Paran.”
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We Go where They Go
Recommended“I was also involved with although I did not edit or anything but I contribute a lot of material to we go where they go which is from PM press it's the history of ARRA and it's chock full of incredible material about you know spec specificity one of the things we didn't talk about is involved in was copatch”
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Good Bread Is Back
Discussed“stepen Kaplan is a US historian specializing in the French food history and the author of the 2008 book cursed bread which follows this incident”
Stuff You Should Know
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The Red Room
Recommended“he also wrote a scary story and that's what we're going to read now it's called the Red Room”
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The Book of Hallowe'en
Discussed“because in 1919 there was a book uh by Ruth Edna called Ruth and Kelly called The Book of Halloween uh and it didn't mention any kind of trick-or treating in there no and it's like an exhaustive comprehensive Homemakers overview”
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The Andy Warhol Diaries
Discussed“he would dictate his diary by phone every morning and um those became published later on as Andy warhol's Diaries”
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SCUM Manifesto
Recommended“author of the scum Manifesto which is definitely worth reading I think I've mentioned before on the show”
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.”
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Black edge
Discussed“so I'm reading this book about Steve Cohen do you know who Steve Cohen is”
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Pressure is a Privilege
Recommended“Well, because it's it really puts the pressure, you know, Billie Jean King had a book, Pressure's a Privilege. And it is.”
The Ezra Klein Show
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How Terrorism Ends
Recommended“and you talked to Audrey Kur Cronin who's a military strategy expert and the author of the book how terrorism ends which is probably the best study of how terrorism ends”
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The logic of violence in civil war
Recommended“there's a great book on this um by stus civas who's a Greek political scientist it's called the logic of violence in Civil Wars”
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A high price
Recommended“so I want to start with a high price which is uh Dan Ban's history of Israeli counterterrorism policy it's a little bit dated now and it's published about 10 years ago or so but to my mind it's uh one of the best serious interrogations of what Israel does or what its Playbook is for dealing with terrorist groups”
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The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966 - 2006
Recommended“a second book I'd recommend is the selected works of Edward SED the famous Palestinian American intellectual there's a lot in there that's not related to the conflict but s is uh one of the most articulate exponents ever to live of the pales cause and if you want to understand where Palestinians are coming from and how they feel”
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The Last Politician
Recommended“so first um I'm going to recommend the last politician by Franklin fer my colleague at the Atlantic just came out last month about the first two years of Biden presidency”
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Hell of a Book
Recommended“um the plot by Jean H coretz hell of a book by Jason mot and less by Andrew Shan Greer”
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The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
Recommended“Ezra first I would recommend reading the 100 Years War on Palestine by the historian that is a Palestinian a very accessible Palestinian history as prey to the conflict beginning in the you know beginning of the 20th century to the early 21st”
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Israel's Secret Wars
Recommended“and then finally I would recommend Benny moris and my former Guardian colleague Ian Black's book Israel's Secret Wars which is a history of the rise of the Israeli intelligence services and their role in statecraft in Israel also has some simply incredible stories that are amazing to believe or true”
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The Question of Palestine
Recommended“the first is Edward s's kind of classic book the question of Palestine in 1979 which really lays out the Palestinian experience”
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Strangers in the House
Recommended“the second is rajer Shah's Memoir strangers in the house Spencer mentioned the nakba”
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Reign of Terror
Recommended“I've been thinking lately about something that Spencer acman author of the book reign of terror which is I think the best book by far on how 911 deranged America something that he said which is that the essence of the politics of 911 was”
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The Dialectic of Sex
Discussed“and you know I often assign to my students shouth firestone's chapter down with childhood from the dialectic of sex”
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Who’s Afraid of Gender?
Recommended“and Judith Butler is coming out with a book called who's afraid of gender turns out a lot of people are afraid of gender”
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Radicals for Capitalism
Recommended“I would recommend the book radicals for capitalism by my reason magazine colleague Brian Doherty”
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The ethics of authenticity
Recommended“Charles Taylor's the ethics of authenticity is a short work of political theory that I really love because it is the model of the kind of thinking through of ideas”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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Change Your Brain Every Day
Discussed“and he actually wrote a book called change Your Brain before 25 and he opens the book with the story of his scan”
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Algorithms to Live By
Recommended“so there's a great book called algorithms to live by and that's how I came across this”
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Ultra-Processed People
Discussed“I’m sitting here, ready to live my life with my two kids; I don’t go to the gym for an hour a day, so I spend my calories, but they're spent on inflammation and anxiety and relatively high hormone levels. Is this what we call the fixed energy model? I read that term in your book.”
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Touching: the Human Significance of the Skin
Discussed“And the great British-American ù anthropologist Ashley Montagu wrote a book called Skin: The Human Significance of Touch.”
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No Bad Parts
Recommended“Read Dick Schwartz's book on internal family systems called No Bad Parts.”
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Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
Recommended“Read Peter Levine's book Waking the Tiger on trauma.”
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The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog
Recommended“Read Bruce Perry's book called ù The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog.”
ChooseFI
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The Inheritance Games
Discussed“our good friend over at the military dollar who she's been on the show a number of times and she told me about this I don't know how you'd call it like a young adult fantasy style series called The Inheritance games and it is fantastic the the fourth book actually just came out and I devoured them”
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The Blade Itself
Discussed“he mentioned this I think on the podcast and certainly in his five bullet Friday email where he was talking about this series by an author named Joe abomi called the first law Trilogy the the first book is called the blade itself and I have literally never had good luck listening to an audiobook before”
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A Healthy State of Panic
Recommended“it's a healthy state of panic it came out this past week on October the 3 so people can find it anywhere books are sold”
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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.'”
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
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Margaritas
Discussed“so did you read the master in margarita in the original Russian I did I did”
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Insane Clown President
Discussed“let's start with Insane Clown president”
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The Case for Trump
Recommended“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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How Would a Patriot Act?
Discussed“okay so yeah in 2006 you wrote how would a patriot act defending American values from a president run a mock and that was GW Bush one of the many presidents who have run a mock but certainly um that was what you were writing about.”
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A Tragic Legacy
Discussed“And you wrote a book in 2007, A Tragic Legacy: How Good Versus Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency.”
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Great American Hypocrites
Discussed“In 2008, you published a book called Great American Hypocrates: Tppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.”
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With liberty and justice for some
Discussed“With liberty and justice for some, is this a book you're more pleased with? This was 2011. How the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful.”
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No Place to Hide
Discussed“So, let's segue from that into your 2014 book, That's No Place to Hide, Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State.”
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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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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 Pendragon Cycle
Discussed“I know that in the pin dragon cycle in turn both tal Essen and Merlin and Arthur fail to achieve the goal”
The Rubin Report
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Eichmann in Jerusalem
Discussed“Yeah, and I specifically mention Hannah Arendt and her idea about Eichmann from the book 'Eichmann in Jerusalem.' That Eichmann was, yeah, he was a Nazi, but that wasn't what motivated him; he was sort of like I want to be part of a really efficient system.”
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Report
Critiqued“and we should in in the very least H give the right impression that we this time around we are not going to stop because of some Goldstone report that turns out to be fake and full of full of blood lials in the language of Human”
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The 48 Laws of Power
Discussed“And that's, the first one is from like Robert Green's books, 'The 48 Laws of Power', which is never outshine the master, right? Trump is a more veteran statesman than him by virtue of being A, the president and being older, right?”
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Pushing up People
Discussed“He wrote a couple books. One is called "Pushing Up People." Another one is called, "All You Can Do Is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do Is Enough!"”
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All You Can Do is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do is Enough!
Discussed“He wrote a couple books. One is called "Pushing Up People." Another one is called, "All You Can Do Is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do Is Enough!"”
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Barbarians to Bureaucrats: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies
Recommended“This book is called "Barbarians to Bureaucrats," written by Lawrence Miller. I've probably- over the last 13 years- have probably sold 30,000 copies of this guy's book. Every chance I get, I recommend this book, right?”
No Stupid Questions
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Conflicted
Recommended“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: the high cost of achievement
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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Maslach burnout inventory
Discussed“so maybe for winter and also for you Mike it would be useful to go through the mlac burnout inventory the MBI as it's sometimes called and this is the most widely used measure of burnout in academic research”
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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.”
People I (Mostly) Admire
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The Signal and the Noise
Recommended“So I want to go back to the book you wrote; it's called "The Signal and the Noise."”
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Grey's Anatomy
Discussed“Harrison's textbook of medicine on one of the ward counters the nursing station. And I saw that book and I had this cathartic sense that God all the stuff I studied all those long nights of memorizing Grey's Anatomy and Harrison's textbook of medicine.”
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Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine
Discussed“Harrison's textbook of medicine on one of the ward counters the nursing station. And I saw that book and I had this cathartic sense that God all the stuff I studied all those long nights of memorizing Grey's Anatomy and Harrison's textbook of medicine.”
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Gray's anatomy
Discussed“left their textbook Harrison's textbook of medicine on one of the ward counters the nurse in station and I saw that book and I had this cathartic sense that God all the stuff I studied all those long nights of memorizing graay anatomy and Harrison's textbook of medicine”
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The Citadel
Discussed“the National Health Service people say was born out of this one book The Citadel about a Welsh mining town in the medical conditions”
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My Own Country
Recommended“my own personal favorite is his first book A Memoir in titled my own country a doctor story”
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Railroads and American Economic Growth
Discussed“When Bob Fogle wrote his book on the railroads and how that set history on fire. Because he took the writings of historians who said the railroads were essential to American economic growth.”
Timcast IRL
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A Clean Break
Discussed“these are American neoconservatives it's called a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm and they wrote it for Netanyahu”
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Coping with Crumbling States
Discussed“the followup is called coping with crumbling States”
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The Island of Free Ice Cream
Discussed“Jack bobic wrote that book about the island of ice cream and it I I have that book but it's it's got all these undertones about why meritocracy is good why communism is bad and and but it doesn't read that way to a child”
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The Palestinian Delusion
Recommended“please read and learn about the whole history from the book the Palestinian delusion”
The Book Review
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The Terror
Discussed“it reminds me of a book that came out I don't know maybe 15 years ago called The Terror this was a book by Dan Simmons they made it into an AMC limited series and it also takes a historical disaster as a jumping off point for even more horrific events this is about the Franklin expedition to try in”
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Haunting on the Hill
Discussed“speaking of Shirley Jackson have you read the sequel to The Haunting of Hill House I did read it that is that's a book that was recently on the cover of the print New York Times book review just came out this month it's called haunting on the hill and it is by Elizabeth hand it's the first authorized sequel”
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Ghost Hunters
Recommended“there was a certain group of people and there's a great book about this by Deborah Bloom called The Ghost Hunters which I recommend to everyone in which William James and a bunch of other scientists and philosophers really looked into this seriously and wanted to find out if there was anything to ESP beyond the charlatans”
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Don't Look Now
Recommended“yeah they put out don't look now and Other Stories on another great movie based on her books and that also includes another one I love called Monte verita which I once read about and read like the wind and it's not so well known but I highly recommend it”
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The Birds
Recommended“yeah they put out don't look now and Other Stories on another great movie based on her books and that also includes another one I love called Monte verita which I once read about and read like the wind and it's not so well known but I highly recommend it”
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The Ghost stories of Edith Wharton
Recommended“well if I were telling people to read one I think I would have to go with a classic which is Edith Wharton's ghost stories and they are uh have been collected a bunch of times but New York Review Classics put out a very good collection I guess last year maybe two years ago which is Wharton's own selection”
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Eight Ghosts
Recommended“and you have a mixture of classic collections like sherid and lau Walter Dyan and then new writers and I picked up a book called Eight ghosts which is put out in connection with English heritage and each of the stories by a contemporary horror writer is set at some real life Heritage house or space in the UK which”
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The Hunger
Recommended“so let me give you a much more recent one okay let me give you one called the hunger by Alma katsu which is a horror retelling of the story of the Donner party it's already horrifying without it's already horrifying right so just a recap for those who don't remember e8th grade history the Donner Party a group of”
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The Little Stranger
Recommended“one more recommendation I'm going to go with the little Stranger by Sarah Waters which is going to Veer straight back to the gothic all the ingredients of the gothic are here this takes place in a moldering Georgian manner on the English Moors where a doctor a local doctor has been called to see a member of the family”
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Affinity
Recommended“I would add to that Affinity another of her spookier ones which yes is about spiritualism also a perfect book which you have to read”
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The paying guests
Recommended“I also think you have to read her last book which was called the paying guests oh that's it's so good which just has some scenes of such Menace including one where someone where a man is getting a shave with a straight Riser that is just just excruciating”
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The Virago Book of Ghost Stories
Recommended“I've been debating and I wanted to say if you're reading one collection the verago book of ghost stories is so good it's all women writers from the 18th century uh through the Modern Age It's just so well cated there's barely a lemon in the bunch”
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MCU
Discussed“on this week's episode I speak with Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzalez two of the authors along with Gavin Edwards of the new book MCU the reign of Marvel Studios”
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The hours
Discussed“he's best known for the hours”
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Septology
Discussed“he is well known in Europe... but those who do know him here in America probably do so for his work septology”
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Charming Billy
Discussed“you might know her for her novel Charming Billy”
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My Name Is Barbra
Discussed“it's called my name is Barbara and it's by Babs it's by Barbara strand”
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Worthy
Discussed“next one is worthy by Jada pinkit Smith”
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The Vulnerables
Recommended“the first one is the vulnerable by SEC Nunes... it's called the vulnerables and it follows an unnamed narrator”
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Day
Recommended“one of the other books that I was hoping we could talk about was Day by Michael Cunningham... it's been a while since Michael Cunningham has had a Bookout”
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A Shining
Recommended“this is a book by the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in literature Yun F... he has written a book called a shining”
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Absolution
Recommended“this one is called Absolution it's by Alice McDermot”
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The Woman in Me
Recommended“there is the woman in Me by Britney Spears which is a book that she titled after the Bob Dylan song”
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Class
Recommended“now jimana the first book on our list here is called PL It Is by Stephanie land”
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Some People Need Killing
Recommended“this one is called some people need killing it's by Patricia Evangelista”
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Ghosts
Recommended“one thing I'm reading now I actually finished it this weekend is ghosts by Edith Wharton and it's collection published by New York Review of Books press of ghost stories”
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Madonna
Recommended“Page biography of Madonna here on my desk and this week I speak to Mary Gabriel author of the book Madonna a rebel life”
The Megyn Kelly Show
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Jews Don't Count
Discussed“and I will quote the British comedian David bedil who himself is Jewish and has a book which says it all the title The that says it all Jews don't count”
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Living with Guns
Recommended“there was a a liberal journalist who used to work for the New York Times who WR a really interesting book that I I recommend your listeners pick up called living with guns”
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Prey
Discussed“her book prey p r y does a great job of documenting in particular what's happening in France”
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War Against the Jews
Discussed“now he's written the upcoming book war against the Jews how to end Hamas barbarism which is set to be released in December”
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The War on Men
Recommended“once again I want to make sure that that the the audience knows it's called the war on men why Society hates them and why we need them”
The Shawn Ryan Show
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On Becoming Babywise
Recommended“for brand new dads uh invest in Baby Wise otherwise your kids even at a as a babies they're just going to run your wife ragging into the ground they should eat on a schedule but look up the book Babywise holy cow that'll save your sanity”
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The Warrior Poet Way
Discussed“the guy that wrote that book the the the warrior poet way the warrior Poet Society guy”
Modern Wisdom
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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.”
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Cinema Speculation
Discussed“I got listening to this and I was reading Quinton Tarantino's Cinema speculation”
The Ben & Marc Show
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The ultimate resource
Discussed“so this was also the argument to connect this back to the idea of human population so this this was the argument for this guy Julian Simon who I admire a lot yeah um who who wrote this book called The Ultimate resource”
EconTalk
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The Philosophical Dilemma and the Conception of Truth
Discussed“we get to a world that William James in a very provocative article called The Dilemma of determinism which we'll I would say we'll put a link up to it but I don't think we have a uh an uncopy”
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The Soul of Civility
Discussed“her substack is Civic Renaissance and she is the author of the soul of Civility Timeless principles to Hill society and ourselves which is our topic today”
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Pensées
Discussed“on one hand the vision of the human condition that I put forth in the book I draw from my favorite philosopher um and and thinker blae Pascal the 17th century French polymath and inventure and scientist in his Pon he says The Human Condition is defined by the greatness and wretchedness of man”
SmartLess
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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!”
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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Amateur
Discussed“Thomas Page McBee's book Amateur and Man Alive. Um I'm blanking.”
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Man Alive
Discussed“Thomas Page McBee's book Amateur and Man Alive. Um I'm blanking.”
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The Mill on the Floss
Recommended“Yeah, well today we're talking about your incredible new memoir.”
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Parable of the Talents
Recommended“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
Recommended“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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None of the Above
Recommended“Travis Alabanza's book that came out in the UK. It comes out here, I think, next month called None of the Above is just astounding. I don't know if you're familiar with them.”
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A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar
Recommended“Also a British uh called um Trans A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas. Really um stunning book.”
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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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Think You'll Be Happy
Discussed“You start this book by and I'm reading from the book. You receive this news. Love, you've got to get up, get dressed, and get to Cedars. Your mom's been shot.”
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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.'”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak
Discussed“his his most antia quote unquote book is thimerosol let the science speak He he's trying to take the thimerosol out of vaccines”
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In Defense of Global Capitalism
Discussed“I read this book recently called in defense of capitalism by uh I I think he's like a northern European uh guy and he mentioned this this episode where UNESCO banned child labor in uh either in Pakistan or Bangladesh”
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The Battle for Your Brain
Discussed“so so I had this lady Nita farahani on my podcast probably a year ago and then I met her at Ted recently and she she wrote this book called The Battle for your brain”
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In Defense of Capitalism
Discussed“I read this book recently called in defense of capitalism by uh I I think he's like a northern European uh guy”
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The Mist
Discussed“That's a good Stephen King book. That book is creepy. mhm They did a good job with the movie. The latest I think there's been more than one The Mists”
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Hell's Angels
Discussed“you know what I started rereading recently is Hell's Angels the Hunter S Thompson book”
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Born Standing Up
Recommended“I mean I think there's breadcrumbs there like Steve Martin's book born standing up”
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His Native Land. [An Account of Travels in the Holy Land.]
Recommended“It's I mean if you read Jonathan haes book The Cod of the American mind have you read it”
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Immortality Key
Discussed“it's the root the root of the ucini Mysteries that's Brian M rescue's book The immortality key where these people would travel to elus and and partake in this ritual where they drank wine”
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The New Puritans
Recommended“This is New Media we actually checked the fact and shout out to our friend Andrew Doyle in his new book the new Puritans”
The Tim Ferriss Show
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Magic by Misdirection
Discussed“And so I picked up one of the books, and it's called Magic by Misdirection on the psychology of magic.”
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The Trick Brain
Discussed“And he says, 'Well, he wrote two other books, The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians.'”
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Showmanship for Magicians
Discussed“And he says, 'Well, he wrote two other books, The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians.'”
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The Illusion Of Life
Discussed“Animation, there was a great book called The Illusion of Life by Disney's — what do you call them?”
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Deception in the Digital Age
Discussed“A friend of mine wrote a book called Deception in the Digital Age, and he was with the FBI. His name is Cameron Malin.”
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Whiz Mob
Discussed“Does Whiz Mob hold any special place in your heart or mind?”
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Modern Coin Magic
Discussed“So, Bobo's Coin Magic, right?”
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The American Confidence Man
Discussed“He wrote two books. He wrote The American Confidence Man, which later became Big Con.”
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Lucky Me
Discussed“So the name of your memoir is Lucky Me.”
The Rich Roll Podcast
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Being Aware of Being Aware
Recommended“and I would also recommend rert SP if you if you read being aware of being aware which is a very short book and every chapter says the same thing”
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Claudius the God
Discussed“I Claudius the great BBC series about uh based on the the two famous novels like Claudius and Claudius the god”
Freakonomics Radio
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Right Kind of Wrong
Discussed“She is an organizational psychologist at the Harvard Business School and recently published a book called Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing.”
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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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Unfinished business
Discussed“The noted public policy scholar Anne-Marie Slaughter, in a book called Unfinished Business, singled out what she calls the care penalty as a main driver of gender inequity.”
The Jordan Harbinger Show
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Scarcity Brain
Discussed“Information consumption has skyrocketed as well; an astounding statistic I found while researching my book reveals that the average person today encounters more information in a day than someone 700 years ago would have in their lifetime.”
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Candy Crush Saga: Unlimited Lives Strategy – Play Without Waiting (2026 Edition)
Discussed“same with Candy Crush Candy Crush will just walk you through levels with these unpredictable”
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Eat that Frog
Discussed“so what's that book eat that frog where you do the hardest project of your day first build momentum”
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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.”
How I Write
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Vasari's Lives of the Artists
Discussed“It's currently studying Vasari's lives as an artist, like an account of like 16th century Italian artists. And one of the ones she's studying is Masaccio”
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Codex sinaiticus
Discussed“And the oldest New Testament, there's lots of fragments of the New Testament, but the oldest claiming New Testament, like entire copy, um, Codex, the Codex Sinaiticus, which was discovered in the late 19th century by a biblical researcher called Constantine Tischendorf”
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the two culture and the scientific revolution
Discussed“I want to say 1945, but that year strikes me that might be off because that was right after the war. But there's a guy named C. P. Snow who wrote a book called The Two Cultures.”
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The immortalist
Recommended“There's a great book actually called Alan by Alan Harrington called The Immortalists. You just talks about what society would look like if you'd, if you'd like, got rid of mortality”
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The Aeneid
Recommended“And if you read Euripides, Or like poetry, if you read the Odyssey, right, which I'm sure you have, or the Aeneid. In that, which is in my, on my mind, like the next, like the next level of foundational books after like the Bible”
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Radical Son
Recommended“Oh, his autobiography is called Radical Son, which is a fantastic book, which talks about this whole journey that he went on. That's a, it's a great book.”
Huberman Lab
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How Emotions Are Made
Recommended“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
Recommended“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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Not By Genes Alone
Recommended“in fact there's a really wonderful book called not by genes alone basically there's cultural inheritance”
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Emotion in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Recommended“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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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.”
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Never Split the Difference
Recommended“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.”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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An Inconvenient Minority
Discussed“so for example there's a book written recently about asian-americans in the United States called the inconvenient minority”
Dwarkesh Podcast
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Failure to Disrupt
Recommended“There's a really good book that's actually kind of relevant to some of your early questions called Failure to Disrupt that goes over the history of educational technology.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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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.'”
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The great degeneration
Discussed“So you also mentioned the book, "The Great Degeneration" by Niall Ferguson, an awesome historian, he's been on this podcast, it helped you understand the inefficiencies of government regulation.”
Big Technology Podcast
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The Lords of Easy Money
Recommended“He's the author of The Lords of Easy Money, How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. It's a terrific book. I just finished reading it, and it goes into detail about how the Fed influences our economy.”
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Extremely Online
Discussed“Let's start with the title of your book, Extremely Online. Is it good or bad to be extremely online?”
Pod Save America
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Renegade
Recommended“Renegade defending democracy and Liberty in our divided country will be out at the end of the month so check it out and pick one up”
The Ramsey Show
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Counting the Cost
Discussed“Jill Dugger now Dillard counting the cost is the book right”
Build with Leila Hormozi
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Ask Albert Ellis
Discussed“and then I think that there's also self therapy which is that you can therapize yourself now who I've studied the most for this has probably been Albert Ellis I've read like all of his books”
Conversations with Tyler
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Henry IV, Part II
Discussed“Remember those very telling lines in Henry IV Part II where young Henry V is advised by his father, "Busy minds with foreign wars achieve peace at home by sending our ambitious noblemen to other places to fight wars."”
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Jacques the Fatalist
Discussed“Why is Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist an interesting work? That Lots of reasons. So, Jacques the Fatalist is among other things an exercise in getting you to realize that there is less in the author-reader contract than you think.”
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Rameau's nephew,
Discussed“Diderot has other work that's about sexuality. He has a lot of discussions sexuality in Rameau's Nephew.”
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The Poetic Edda
Discussed“And this is one of the big problems with paywalls because all of this is in journals that are behind paywalls or the ridiculous Oxford Annotated Poetic Edda, three volumes, $300 a volume. No wonder nobody has this book.”
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
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The Virgin Suicides (Bloomsbury Classic)
Discussed“I am almost done with The Virgin Suicides, which I've never... never seen the movie!”
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The Velvet Rage
Discussed“I literally brought I brought the Velvet rage up in therapy the other day cuz I haven't read it and she like and my therapist was like I mean yeah and I was like why do you say that she goes it's very it's really for white Gaye”
