Person
Every book Adam Higginbotham recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Adam Higginbotham has recommended or discussed 4 books on podcasts, as of May 17, 2024.
- Adam Higginbotham has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of May 17, 2024.
- Those books came up in 3 episodes, as of May 17, 2024.
- The 2 books Adam Higginbotham has mentioned in the most episodes, as of May 17, 2024: A night to remember and Voices from Chernobyl.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Adam Higginbotham aired on May 17, 2024.
Updated
Adam Higginbotham appeared on The Book Review podcast to discuss his research and the literary works that influenced his non-fiction writing. Discussing the inspirations behind his investigative style, Higginbotham mentioned Walter Lord's concise historical account A Night to Remember about the sinking of the Titanic, noting how it influenced his approach to reconstructing major historical events through interviews. He also referenced Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl, contrasting previous literature with his own by highlighting how Alexievich captured a hallucinatory sense of individual suffering through unnamed voices during the disaster. While promoting his own work, Higginbotham reflected on how he began developing his projects, comparing his research process for Midnight in Chernobyl to his subsequent book Challenger. Within the context of the Challenger space disaster, he mentioned Diane Vaughan's academic work addressing the normalization of deviance in complex decision-making processes, illustrating how carefully governed practices gradually shift into risky behaviors in both the Chernobyl and Challenger accidents.
Books recommended by Adam Higginbotham
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A night to remember
Walter Lord's A Night to Remember is a classic narrative non-fiction account that meticulously reconstructs the tragic sinking of the Titanic.
Discussed“and I was kind of inspired by the fact that I'd recently read Walter Lords in to remember about the Titanic about the sinky of the Titanic which is this you know incredible and concise book which reconstructs just the night of the sinking of the Titanic through interviews that Lord conducted in the years after the sinking with people”
Where to get it
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Voices from Chernobyl
Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich is a powerful oral history composed of devastating testimonies from individuals who survived or responded to the 1986 nuclear disaster.
Discussed“and there's Sana alexovich whose vo is from Chernobyl which is this sort of isn't a narrative book but is a kind of you know hallucinatory sense of what it was like for these individuals but many of whom are unnamed to have suffered through the accident”
Where to get it
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Midnight in Chernobyl
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham is a gripping historical account documenting the untold story of the world's greatest nuclear disaster.
Discussed“initially to be honest which was that when I was promoting the Chernobyl book I was often asked if I remembered where I was when I heard the news that the accident had taken place”
Where to get it
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Challenger
Challenger by Adam Higginbotham is a true story of heroism and disaster on the edge of space, detailing the tragic events surrounding the 1986 space shuttle accident.
Discussed“the normalization of deviants which is this idea that in complex decision-making processes like those leading to the Chernobyl accident and the challeng of disaster you know those concerns bured with making the decisions start off with a series of extremely carefully governed and defined practices for what constitutes acceptable risk and normal behavior”
Where to get it
Books Adam Higginbotham wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing About NASA's Most Shocking Moment | The Book Review | 2024-05-17 | 3 |
| Mark Harris on His Biography of Mike Nichols | The Book Review | 2022-11-11 | 2 |
| The Chernobyl Disaster in Full | The Book Review | 2019-04-05 | 2 |