Person
Alison Gopnik's book recommendations
Key facts
- Alison Gopnik has recommended or discussed 5 books on podcasts, as of December 17, 2025.
- Alison Gopnik has talked about books on 2 podcasts, as of December 17, 2025.
- Those books came up in 2 episodes, as of December 17, 2025.
- The 3 books Alison Gopnik has mentioned in the most episodes, as of December 17, 2025: Mary Poppins, Metazoa and The children of Green Knowe.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Alison Gopnik aired on December 17, 2025.
Updated
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Alison Gopnik appears on, in one place — not just one.
Alison Gopnik is an American professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the Berkeley AI research group. She is known for her work in the areas of cognitive and language development, including the effect of language on thought, the development of a theory of mind, and causal learning. On an episode of The Ezra Klein Show, Gopnik shared several book recommendations for readers and children. She recommended Peter Godfrey-Smith's Metazoa, discussing how it explores the puzzling intelligence and brain structure of octopuses despite their short childhoods. For children's literature, she recommended Pamela L. Travers's Mary Poppins, noting how much better and darker the book is than the film adaptation, as well as Lucy M. Boston's The Children of Green Knowe, praising its story about a grandmother's house and ghosts in the Cambridge countryside. She also recommended Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are for capturing the true essence of childhood adventure and safety. Additionally, in a conversation with Tyler Cowen on Conversations with Tyler, Gopnik discussed her brother Blake Gopnik's biography Warhol while evaluating the legacy of Andy Warhol.
Books recommended by Alison Gopnik
-
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins by Pamela L.
Recommended“and then for older children that same day my nine-year-old who is very into the Marvel Universe and superheroes said could we read a chapter for Mary Poppins which is again something that Grandmom reads and we had a marvelous time reading Mary Poppins and he said you know the book is so much better than the movie and he”
Where to get it
-
Metazoa
Metazoa is a popular science book by philosopher and diver Peter Godfrey-Smith that explores the evolutionary origins of animal consciousness, focusing heavily on cephalopods like octopuses.
Recommended“and Peter Godfrey Smith's wonderful book I've just been reading metazoa talks about the octopus and the octopus is very puzzling because the octaves don't have a long childhood and yet they seem to be really smart”
Where to get it
-
The children of Green Knowe
The Children of Green Knowe is a classic children's fantasy novel by Lucy M.
Recommended“there's a book called The Children of green no k-n-o-w-e I like this because it's a book about a grandmother and her her grandson and he comes to visit her in this strange old house in the Cambridge Countryside and and gradually it gets to be clear that there are ghosts of the history of this of this house”
Where to get it
-
Where the wild things are
Maurice Sendak's Where the wild things are is a beloved children's picture book that follows a young boy named Max on an imaginative journey to a land of fantastical creatures before returning safely to his bedroom.
Recommended“the fact that on the one hand you're in this safe place so with the wild things you know he's in his room where Mom is where supper is going to be and all the time sitting in that room he also Adventures out in this boat to these strange places where wild things are including he himself as a”
Where to get it
-
Warhol
Discussed“As you probably know, Tyler, I have a brother who wrote the definitive biography of Andy Warhol. I don't know if you did know.”
Where to get it
Books by Alison Gopnik
-
The gardener and the carpenter
-
The Philosophical Baby
-
The Scientist in the Crib
-
Words, thoughts, and theories
-
Causal learning
-
How Babies Think
Appearances
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“The example I give in my book, The Gardener and the Carpenter, is if you have a garden that is protected and has a lot of possibilities, you're going to get a much wider variety of plants than if you have a much more restricted circumstance in which only a few plants will thrive.”