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Books podcasts were talking about in August 2025
August 2025 featured diverse literary discussions across multiple podcast episodes, focusing heavily on geopolitics, historical narratives, and personal memoirs. On the Lex Fridman Podcast, Scott Horton recommended Trita Parsi's Treacherous Alliance to examine the complex diplomatic relations among Israel, Iran, and the United States. Host Lex Fridman also brought up Horton's own book, Enough Already, to question how the American public was led into the war on terror, and later recommended firsthand accounts through Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States and Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives during his closing remarks. On Interesting Times, Osita Nwanevu recommended Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution to provide listeners with historical context concerning economic unrest during the American founding. Meanwhile, All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg featured Gavin Baker recommending Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East during a summer reading segment, while Jason Calacanis recommended Robert Evans's The Kid Stays in the Picture and Larry Charles's Comedy Samurai. Across these shows, guests and hosts used literature to unpack complex historical conflicts, economic origins, and personal entertainment preferences.
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Enough Already
Discussed“So it was extremely costly for Americans and it was extremely costly for Afghans as you do in your book enough already.”
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Imperial Hubris
Discussed“Um there's this great book uh by Michael Shyer, who was the former chief of the CIA bin Laden unit. It's called Imperial Hubris.”
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Treacherous alliance
Recommended“In fact tree parsy shows in his absolutely excellent book treacherous alliance which if you haven't read that you'll absolutely love it.”
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Genghis Khan and the Quest for God
Discussed“And he has written many other books, including "Emperor of the Seas, Kublai Khan and The Making of China", "Genghis Khan and the Quest for God", "The Secret History of the Mongol Queens", and other excellent books.”
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The Secret History of the Mongol Queens
Discussed“And he has written many other books, including "Emperor of the Seas, Kublai Khan and The Making of China", "Genghis Khan and the Quest for God", "The Secret History of the Mongol Queens", and other excellent books.”
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Slave Narratives a Folk History of Slavery in the United States
Recommended“By the way in this topic, firsthand accounts of slavery could be read in "Slave Narratives, A Folk History of Slavery in the United States", from interviews with former slaves.”
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Voices from slavery : 100 authentic slave narratives
Recommended“I can recommend the book that I've been reading, which is "Voices from Slavery, 100 Authentic Slave Narratives."”
Interesting Times
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Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Recommended“There’s a lot of colorful rhetoric that Woody Holton goes through in unruly Americans. If people want another read on this.”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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Empire of the East
Recommended“No, I am uh enjoying I like post-apocalyptic fantasy. um Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen, but a but a new a relatively new series is called Moonfall um by James Rollins and I'm enjoying it.”
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The Kid Stays in the Picture
Recommended“If you ever see the documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, or that book is in both of them are incredible.”
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Comedy Samurai
Recommended“Comedy Samurai by Larry Charles. I just finished a couple weeks ago.”
