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Books podcasts were talking about in February 2025
During February 2025, several prominent podcasts explored significant historical, political, and literary titles. On The Ezra Klein Show, guests and the host recommended several impactful books. Paul Ormerod's Why Most Fail was highlighted for its extensive economic data spanning 150 years of British and American history. Another episode featured David Blight's Race and Reunion, a historical examination of how Americans processed the aftermath of the Civil War. Daniel Mason's novel North Woods also received praise for its unique narrative tracking the history of a house and its inhabitants over time. Meanwhile, the How I Write podcast welcomed Ward Farnsworth, whose book Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric was recommended by David Perell as essential reading for serious writers. During the discussion, Farnsworth analyzed the tremendous simplicity of the language found within the King James Bible and noted that a phrase utilized by Abraham Lincoln originated from The Book of Job, while also comparing potential scriptural sources to the Book of Jeremiah. Furthermore, Farnsworth introduced a quote from Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones to illustrate a classic example of a chiasmus. Across these diverse programs, discussions consistently gravitated toward works that deeply examine historical memory, structural failures, rhetorical traditions, and the complex mechanics of human storytelling through the centuries.
The Ezra Klein Show
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Why Most Things Fail
Discussed“second one I would say um a British Economist Paul orad has got a book called why most fail and you should read it first of all because it's a great title uh number two because as an economist he's gone through the data um mostly British and American data that goes back 150 years economic data and try to”
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Race and Reunion
Discussed“The last book that I would recommend is by the historian David blight and it's called race and reunion and it's a history of how immediately after the Civil War and in the sort of subsequent years Americans worked through their memories of the war individually and kind of collectively as a polity”
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North Woods
Discussed“um I love the book Northwoods by Daniel Mason um which came out last year uh which is about a house the history of a house and the people who lived in it”
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The Piano Tuner
Discussed“I'm reading the piano tuner right now I'm reading all his stuff”
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Confederates in the Attic
Discussed“Tony Horwitz who is a friend of mine geraldine's a friend of mine um he he wrote Confederates in the attic and it's a beautiful rumination on mortality and history”
How I Write
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King James Bible OLD TESTAMENT-PCE
Discussed“and the King James Bible is very famous for that For the tremendous Simplicity of the language”
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Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric
Discussed“and everyone who's serious about writing should have definitely rhetoric and style Just like lying over their house”
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The Book of Job
Discussed“that is a lifting from The Book of Job uh I think there's also a usage of that phrase in in Jeremiah”
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Book of Jeremiah
Discussed“uh I think there's also a usage of that phrase in in Jeremiah but I think he he probably took it from job”
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Tom Jones
Discussed“from this beautiful novel called Tom Jones by Henry Fielding I just bring this out”
