Monthly round-up · All months
Books podcasts were talking about in January 2026
During January 2026, multiple podcasts featured discussions and recommendations covering a diverse array of historical accounts, poetry, and personal development texts. On The Ezra Klein Show, Adam Tooze recommended Lu Xun's modern Chinese classic Diary of a Madman and Jonathan Chatwin's The Southern Tour detailing Deng Xiaoping's 1992 journey, alongside Ryan Ruby's Context Collapse. Henry Farrell also appeared on The Ezra Klein Show to recommend Mary Bridges's Dollars and Dominion and Elle Kennedy's The Score. Meanwhile, other shows explored distinct biographical and psychological themes. On Huberman Lab, Andrew Huberman referenced Richard Feynman's What Do YOU Care what Other People Think? to highlight the physicist's playful curiosity. Joe Rogan discussed the history of the Comanche on The Joe Rogan Experience using S. C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon. Finally, on Modern Wisdom, Donald Robertson highlighted Aaron T. Beck's Prisoners of Hate while examining the subject of anger and cognitive therapy.
The Daily Stoic
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The Crack-Up
Discussed“He wrote a book called The Cracker. He wrote a book called The Crackup about blowing up his life. It's the last thing he wrote. You're watching one of the most talented people in the world squander their talent.”
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Nonviolent Communication
Discussed“I'm reading Nonviolent Communication. I actually guess I could say I've read it. There's a little bit left. And he he tells a story that really changed changed I have other examples of it but it was a good one.”
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The Raw and the Cooked
Discussed“And I remember I I brought I don't know why they just didn't beat me up right then and there but I brought Cloud Levy Strauss. Yeah. Right. Uh and the raw and the cooked I think it was.”
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Insurgent Mexico
Discussed“He wrote a book called Insurgent Mexico and there's a there's a paragraph that the that describes the tropa ponchovia's troop.”
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Discussed“There's a obviously you know for whom the bell tolls by Hemingway and you know the sort of like central drama of it is this is a night before this military operation where Robert Jordan I think his name is the the narrator or the the main character.”
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Collective Illusions
Recommended“He wrote this book called Collective Illusions. He was a professor of education at the Harvard School of Education.”
The Ezra Klein Show
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Crashed
Discussed“What are some things you saw or some numbers and you know that that have passed through your chart book? What helps you convey the sort of portal your own thinking has gone through on China's centrality...”
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The Deluge
Discussed“I mean I felt it hanging over your book if I may. Like I thought you said I say it in the conclusion. Yeah, exactly.”
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Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Recommended“Oh, so my first is um is is a Chinese classic. Not not an ancient classic, but a modern classic. arguably the first maybe the first modern Chinese novela Lucian's um diary of a madman...”
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The Southern Tour
Recommended“My second suggestion is uh is um sorry is Jonathan Chhatwin's uh book the southern tour which is uh an extraordinary account of Deniaing's uh tour of southern China in 1992...”
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Context Collapse
Recommended“And this is by a friend, a Berlin friend Ryan Ruby. um it's called Context Collapse. And it is literally a poem containing a history of poetry.”
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Dollars and Dominion
Recommended“It's by a woman a historian called Mary Bridges called dollars and Dominion.”
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The Score
Recommended“And the final book is a book by Tinuan which has just come out called the score.”
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Solito
Recommended“I by Javier Zamora going in the complete different direction. If you want to learn more about immigration in this moment, but you don't want to read about policy, you don't want to read anything wonky. You just want to read an incredibly beautiful story that helps you understand what it's like to come to the United States to cross”
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Making the Presidency
Recommended“Second, I would recommend Lindseay Travinsk's book Making the Presidency, which is a work of history. Travinsky is a historian. It's a book about John Adams and the way in which he thought about the institution of the presidency in the wake of Washington. Really fascinating and also has a lot to offer us in understanding the contemporary moment.”
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Last Branch Standing
Recommended“Finally, on the courts, I would point you to a very new book which actually isn't out yet, but should be early this spring, I think, but I've had a chance to read it. It's called It's called The Last Branch Standing, published by the legal journalist Sarah Isker. Um I think it'll be out in April. And if you”
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Jesus and the Disinherited
Recommended“my religious book and it also has a Texas connection. Uh it is Jesus and the disinherited by Howard Thurman.”
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The Upswing
Recommended“the political book and it's the upswing by Robert Putnham and his co-author I think her name is Shaylen uh Romney Garrett”
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Tomorrow's Yesterday
Recommended“One is called Tomorrow's Yesterday. Mhm. Um which I think you've talked about on the podcast. The authors have been on the show if people would like to check that one out.”
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One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Recommended“The other is a book that after I read it got the national book award which is uh one day everyone will have always been against this.”
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The Bald Hills
Recommended“And then I just read a galley of an autofiction novel by a writer named Harry Clark. Uh and it's called The Hill. Uh and it's a book uh about uh a girl who is raised by a mother who is serving a life sentence in prison.”
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What You Have Heard Is True
Recommended“Um my second recommendation is a memoir by Carolyn Forche called What You Have Heard Is True. Um when she was 27, she was living in El Salvador at the start of what became the Salvadorian civil war. And it's sort of a reflection on what that period was like for her. It's incredibly haunting and beautiful.”
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The Known World
Recommended“Uh my first would be uh a novel called The Known World by Edward P. Jones uh about Auntie Billum Virginia. One of the most astonishing novels I've ever read. Uh one of my favorite American novels. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
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The Spy and the Traitor
Recommended“Uh and my last recommendation would be The Spy and the Trader by Ben McIntyre from several years back uh about a Soviet uh double agent uh who was uh you know working for the KGB but became a double agent for uh British intelligence during the Cold War. Absolutely astonishing true story that reads like fiction.”
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What is this?
Discussed“So I want to say that that what is this the book that tracks a retreat you and your wife Martin did is one of my very favorite books on meditation and I reread it every couple of years.”
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Buddha, Socrates, and Us
Discussed“So I want to turn a bit more directly into politics here because if the fourth task is to live out your values is politics is one of the places where people try to do that and it's not I will say for me it's not exactly a zone of blissful non-reactivity so you talk in your new book Buddha”
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The second body
Recommended“and finally a book called The Second Body by an English uh woman novelist called Daisy Hildyard. It's not a piece of fiction. It's an essay on what she calls the second body which is a highly imaginative way of understanding that our physical body which is sitting on this chair right here is actually only a relatively small part”
Huberman Lab
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What Do YOU Care what Other People Think?
Recommended“If you read any of the books about Fineman or by Fineman, surely you're joking, Mr. Fineman or what do you care what other people think?”
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Addiction by Design
Recommended“There's a tremendous book Addiction by Design and I'm afraid I'm going to mispronounce the the name of the person who wrote I think it's Schull but I'm not sure but I know the title Addiction by Design about gambling and she profiles people who play video poker”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
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Smart Women Finish Rich
Discussed“You were the senior vice president at Morgan Stanley when you stepped down, and you soon after wrote this book called Smart Women Finish Rich.”
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The Automatic Millionaire, 20th Anniversary Edition
Discussed“And you know, the book is called The Automatic Millionaire. This is a book that sold over 2 million copies um on its own. Why did you use the word automatic?”
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Smart Couples Finish Rich
Discussed“The other book that you wrote, which sold incredibly incredibly well, is this book about Smart Couples Finish Rich. That's the title. Smart Couples Finish Rich, Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner.”
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The Diary of a CEO
Discussed“For those of you who can't see me, I'm holding Steven's book, A Diary of a CEO, which has also sold millions of copies.”
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A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
Discussed“Look, a friend of mine, very good friend of mine gave me uh the the history of the English-sp speakaking peoples by Winston Churchill and it talks about the history of this country of England in particular”
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How I Lost Money in Real Estate Before It Was Fashionable
Recommended“And there is a third book, a slightly smaller, called How I Lost Money in Real Estate Before It Was Fashionable, a cautionary tale. Um I'm going to link all of them below.”
The Joe Rogan Experience
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Empire of the summer moon
Recommended“Well, there's an amazing book about Texas called Empire of the Summer Moon. It's all about the Comanche.”
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Persepolis 1-4
Discussed“I read I read when I was a kid I read this book called Procepilus. It's in my like greatest books of all time but it's uh I read Pepilolis and I was like maybe in high school early late middle school and I just realized like oh man cuz you get bombarded especially at that time where in fighting”
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The Rum Diary
Discussed“Rum Diary was spectacular, you know?”
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Deception
Discussed“Uh so here's your book, Deception, the Great Coverup.”
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Blind Spots
Discussed“He wrote a book. He wrote a book called Blind Spots. And in it, he writes about the peanut allergy, right?”
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The Chimp Paradox
Recommended“Like, I'm reading this book, The Chimp Paradox, recommended by Ronnie O Sullivan. Have you ever heard of that book, The Chimp Paradox? That's what it is, right?”
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Guns up!
Recommended“and then my this other guy came his father came and talked about this book Guns Up which is an incredible book about machine gunner in Vietnam.”
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Pink Friday ... Roman Reloaded
Discussed“angry, outspoken, often homosexual British character who delivers raw, aggressive verses featured heavily in Pink Friday Roman Reloaded.”
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The Demon in the Ekur
Recommended“What did they a demon in the in the I core or ecore it's called. That's the book you should get about it.”
How I Write
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Train dreams
Discussed“Given that we were adapting this work, you know, anytime we were in the car out in that world, we were listening to the audio book of Train Dreams narrated by Will Patton, who now narrates the film”
Modern Wisdom
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Prisoners Of Hate
Recommended“Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy, he wrote a book called Prisoners of Hate. It's a really good book about anger.”
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The One Thing You Need to Know
Recommended“There's a book called The One Thing and he talks about this pretty well.”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
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Maya Angelou
Discussed“And I think that, you know, for all the founders and whether you're pre-exit, postexit, or on your way to an exit, my advice would be that to quote Maya Angelou, when a state shows you who they are, believe them the first time. This is the direction of travel in California.”
Lex Fridman Podcast
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Echoes from Eden
Discussed“You've continuously spoken really highly of him, and he gave me this book that he has recently written, Echoes from Eden. Signed it.”
