Person
Every book Balaji Srinivasan recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Balaji Srinivasan has recommended or discussed 26 books on podcasts, as of August 1, 2025.
- Balaji Srinivasan has talked about books on 5 podcasts, as of August 1, 2025.
- Those books came up in 11 episodes, as of August 1, 2025.
- The 3 books Balaji Srinivasan has mentioned in the most episodes, not counting Balaji Srinivasan's own, as of August 1, 2025: The Truth Machine, The Jewish State and From Third World to First.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Balaji Srinivasan aired on August 1, 2025.
Updated
Across 5 podcasts. Every show Balaji Srinivasan appears on, in one place — not just one.
Balaji Srinivasan’s most recommended books
- The Truth Machine by Paul Vigna
- The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl
- From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew
- The journalist and the murderer by Janet Malcolm
- The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson
- 2034 by Elliot Ackerman
- Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck
- Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
- Exit, voice, and loyalty by Albert Otto Hirschman
- Force and freedom by Jacob Burckhardt
Balaji S. Srinivasan is an American-born Singaporean entrepreneur and investor. He is the author of The Network State: How to Start a New Country and the founder of the Network School, a retreat for entrepreneurs and technicians in Kazakhstan. On various podcast episodes, Srinivasan recommended and discussed several books. He recommended Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer to illustrate the immoral nature of traditional journalism, and mentioned Lee Kuan Yew's From Third World to First to show how Singapore transformed into a modern nation. He also brought up Paul Vigna and Michael Casey's The Truth Machine to explain how blockchain operates as a decentralized system for cryptographic truth, and praised James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg's The Sovereign Individual for its prescient analysis on startup ideas. Furthermore, he discussed Anthony DePalma's The Man Who Invented Fidel to address journalists acting as apologists for communist figures, Steven Wertheim's Tomorrow, the World regarding the start of the American Empire, and his own book The Network State while discussing historical migrations.
Books recommended by Balaji Srinivasan
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The Network State
The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan presents a blueprint for how online communities and social networks can leverage cryptocurrency to build independent economic structures and ultimately establish new sovereign entities that bypass traditional democratic states and medical regulations.
Discussed“I talked about this in the book actually that like if you go and look at the bontu expansion or the Mongols sweeping across the world there's there's essentially no ethnic group that has ever had some location since time immemorial”
Where to get it
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The Truth Machine
The Truth Machine by Paul Vigna and Michael J.
Discussed“this is like seven years ago and the thing is this just basically puts in book form a concept that existed for a long time so I've just got a citation for the concept right so essentially the point is that Bitcoin is decentralized cryptographic truth.”
Where to get it
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The Jewish State
The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl is a foundational political pamphlet that outlined the vision for a modern homeland for the Jewish people and catalyzed the modern Zionist movement.
Discussed“but a very important reference that I think is much more important to me than snow crash which is which is good a good book whatever but fictional is Der Juden by The Herzel which translates as the Jewish State and that led to the foundation of Israel”
Where to get it
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From Third World to First
From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew is a political memoir detailing the remarkable strategies and policies that transformed Singapore from a struggling developing nation into a prosperous global economic powerhouse.
Recommended“singapore actually you know in 1965 was a third world country you know if you go and read lee kuan yew's book from third world first”
Where to get it
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The journalist and the murderer
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm is a critical nonfiction examination of the complex, often exploitative relationship between reporters and their subjects, famously opening with a stark line about the moral compromises inherent in journalism.
Recommended“Janet Malcolm, you know, talks about this and and her opening line, this is this great book called The Journalist of the Murderer.”
Where to get it
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The Sovereign Individual
The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg is a visionary late-twentieth-century book that anticipates the decline of the nation-state and the rise of decentralized digital economies, remote work, and cryptocurrencies.
Recommended“there's this book the sovereign individual it came out in the late 90s it's the most prescient thing in the world most bestsellers you can take the 300 pages and compact them into like a one-page summary”
Where to get it
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2034
2034 is a speculative novel by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis that explores the potential escalation and devastating consequences of a future global conflict involving major world powers.
Discussed“anyway like I look I I'm certainly not um there's folks who know more about the military for sure than I do but everything I've dug into on this with like you know this book called uh the kill chain um it's not a book called 2034 we should talk about this and those are guys who have either seen”
Where to get it
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Against Elections
Discussed“like the ancient Greeks thought democracy uh there's a great book called uh against elections the case for democracy it's a hilarious title and it basically says that the ancient Greeks they use a mechanism called sortition rather than elections”
Where to get it
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Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty examines wealth concentration and economic inequality in capitalist economies.
Discussed“maybe we can talk about thomas piketty's which 696 page doorstop is the number one bestseller on amazon against all expectation and he's been doing all the tours”
Where to get it
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Exit, voice, and loyalty
Exit, voice, and loyalty is a prominent political science book written by Albert Otto Hirschman that examines the various ways individuals respond to declining organizations, states, or institutions.
Discussed“so uh there's this you know book which I i reference a lot I like it um called exit voice and loyalty by Albert hman”
Where to get it
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Force and freedom
Discussed“and it was actually gratifying I have this passage in there in one of the footnotes by a guy named Jacob Burkhart from force and freedom did you see that passage”
Where to get it
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How Civil Wars Start
How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F.
Discussed“it's like Yugoslavia where that primary identity was a national but now it's a sub-national identity it's kind of actually there's this book um by I think it's by Barbara Walter okay it's called like how Civil Wars start she talks about how in Iraq”
Where to get it
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Merchants of Truth
Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson is a journalistic exploration of the transformation of major news organizations in the digital age.
Discussed“and and you know Jill Abramson acknowledges this in her book merchants of truths former editor then your time she talks about how business imperatives helped shape editorial judgment”
Where to get it
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Reputation and Power
Discussed“so if you read reputation and power okay I'm going to just quote this because it's amazing amazing book right it's written by a guy you know Daniel Carpenter smart guy but he's an FDA sympathizer he fundamentally thinks it's like a good thing or what have you nevertheless I respect Carpenter's intellectual honesty because he quotes the CEOs in”
Where to get it
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Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like a State by James C.
Discussed“in fact there's a book called seeing like a state which actually talks about the origins of surnames and whatnot”
Where to get it
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So You've Been Publicly Shamed
So You've Been Publicly Shamed is a non-fiction book by Jon Ronson that investigates the devastating phenomenon of internet cancel culture and social media outrage.
Discussed“actually you know who's admitted this is I think Jon Ronson in so you've been publicly shamed you know he mentions that there was there's some some person who'd had a conflict with”
Where to get it
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The Benedict Option
The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher is a conservative Christian book that argues for the intentional withdrawal of believers from mainstream secular culture to build resilient, traditional communities.
Discussed“I mean the obvious stuff is like language communities you know like religious communities you know you're going to have uh for example like Rod draher has this book called The Benedict option right if you want to be a religious Christian guess what”
Where to get it
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The Dictator's Handbook
The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith is a political science text that explains how authoritarian leaders maintain power by satisfying a small coalition of essential supporters rather than the general public.
Discussed“there's a funny kind of thing on this which uh i think it's called like the dictator's handbook or something”
Where to get it
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The Kill Chain
The Kill Chain by Christian Brose is a critical examination of modern military strategy, technological vulnerabilities, and the urgent need for Western defense systems to adapt to twenty-first-century warfare.
Discussed“anyway like I look I I'm certainly not um there's folks who know more about the military for sure than I do but everything I've dug into on this with like you know this book called uh the kill chain um it's not a book called 2034 we should talk about this and those are guys who have either seen”
Where to get it
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The Man Who Invented Fidel
Discussed“the man who invented Fidel, Castro, Cuba, and Herbert El Matthews of the New York Times.”
Where to get it
The other 6 books Balaji Srinivasan recommended or discussed, ranked
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde
- The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren
- The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose
- The Twilight of Sovereignty by Walter B. Wriston
- Timescape by Gregory Benford
- Tomorrow, the World by Stephen Wertheim
Books Balaji Srinivasan wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (10: passing, ad reads, own books)
“this is basically from my book the network state I think it's a useful frame which is”
“And I actually did shed a single manly tear. Okay. When writing the network state book. Yeah. Because I had some of the same emotions on that you're talking about.”
“it's like in this nether Zone this is a book called invisible countries what I'm getting at is once you distinguish the nation the state”
“and that is considered the pros and cons but what it does is it basically says again no plane crashes no plans I mean there's another there's a book called The CRC Handbook of chemistry and physics here”
“and that is considered the pros and cons but what it does is it basically says again no plane crashes no plans I mean there's another there's a book called The CRC Handbook of chemistry and physics here”
“in fact there's this really here's a here's something this is going in V2 of the book this is a new content okay ready for new content take a look at this pretty cool uh video”
“I mentioned this actually in in the network State book”
“so I've got you know this book the network State um which which covers some of these topics”
“so part of takes from Singapore is the concept of a CEO founder of a country right where it takes from America is you know almost too many to enumerate but the concept of like our Constitution and of like an immigrant like people you know like a like a nation of immigrants but a nation of immigrants”
“and I won't be able to recapitulate the whole thing but go to the networkstate.com and if you're interested in what the alternative is to American Anarchy and Chinese control it might be startup societies and network States”