Person
Charles Duhigg's book recommendations
Key facts
- Charles Duhigg has recommended or discussed 9 books on podcasts, as of April 16, 2026.
- Charles Duhigg has talked about books on 6 podcasts, as of April 16, 2026.
- Those books came up in 6 episodes, as of April 16, 2026.
- The 3 books Charles Duhigg has mentioned in the most episodes, not counting Charles Duhigg's own, as of April 16, 2026: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, A Visit from the Goon Squad and Follow the Story.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Charles Duhigg aired on April 16, 2026.
Updated
Across 6 podcasts. Every show Charles Duhigg appears on, in one place — not just one.
Charles Duhigg’s most recommended books
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- Follow the Story by James B. Stewart
- Inside the Box by David Epstein
Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times, currently writes for The New Yorker Magazine, and is the author of three books: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Smarter Faster Better and Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection. In 2013, Duhigg was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series of ten articles on the business practices of Apple and other technology companies. On podcasts, Duhigg recommended David Epstein's forthcoming book Inside the Box to highlight how constraints improve outcomes, James B. Stewart's Follow the Story as a resource on writing, Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad as a novel that teaches writing principles, and George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain as a literary masterpiece. He also discussed his own book Supercommunicators and referenced John Gray's Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus during conversations about conversational skills and cultural communication patterns.
Books Charles Duhigg recommended or discussed
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Supercommunicators
Discussed“There's actually a chapter in the book about bringing together people who were gun control advocates and gun rights enthusiasts.”
Where to get it
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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Recommended“George Saunders who's also an author who who who I whose work I love so it would be a weird it Saunders swiming a pond in the rain is I think a masterpiece I want to recommend that to listeners”
Where to get it
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A Visit from the Goon Squad
Recommended“but actually right now like a non-writing book that I think teaches you a lot about writing is a visit from the Goon Squad by Jenny Ean ah what what's the premise um so it's it's about it's it's a series of vignettes about these interconnected characters in the music industry”
Where to get it
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Follow the Story
Recommended“my favorite book on writing is probably actually this book by Jim Stewart James Stewart the who's at the the he's a columnist of the New York Times now but he also used to write for the new New Yorker and still kind of does it's called follow the story if anyone wants to learn how to write Jim Stewart's”
Where to get it
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Inside the Box
Recommended“So, David Epstein, as I mentioned, he has a new book coming out called Inside the Box, which is about how constraints actually make us better.”
Where to get it
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Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus
Discussed“and and for a number of women again that get habituated they they it's more acceptable or it's or it's pressed on them to be more comfortable having emotional conversations and so when we say Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus it's actually not true”
Where to get it
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Originals
Discussed“Adam Grant writes eloquently about positive procrastination; one way to approach it is to consider whether it's rational procrastination.”
Where to get it
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Smarter Faster Better
Discussed“I talked to, I don't know, 400 or 500 people for this book. And I had this basic rule, which was that when someone told me something that they felt made them more productive, that I wouldn't include it in the book unless it seemed to be universal.”
Where to get it
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The Power of Habit
Discussed“The The first one was that um you know, when I first came up with the idea for The Power of Habit and got interested in it, my wife was about and I were about to have our first kid.”
Where to get it
Books by Charles Duhigg
Appearances
Other mentions (18: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing Good to Great
“And one of the things I learned, I I was talking to Jim Collins, the guy who wrote Good to Great last night on stage cuz he's a new book out.”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“And and since then I've written a couple more books including Supercommunicators which which you'd mentioned.”
Passing In Cold Blood
“I just bought In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, right? Which kind of created the true crime genre.”
Plugged The Power of Habit
“or if you just Google The Power of Habit which was the first book I wrote or super communicators you will definitely find my website”
Plugged The Power of Habit
“or if you just Google The Power of Habit which was the first book I wrote or super communicators you will definitely find um my website”
Passing The Power of Habit
“so what happens is that when when you hear there's three kinds of conversations hear some ways to try and recognize which conversation you're in your brain will actually make that into a habit very very quickly back to the Power of Habit”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“No, I feel the exact same way. It's you know, and and the goal when I was writing super communicators was really to say, I was having communication problems.”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“You know, for me that really was driven home. One of the stories in the book is about Jim Lawler, the CIA officer. And this is a guy”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“But I think that's kind of what life is like, right? Like I think that you know, there's another um book story in the book about the the creation of the the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and basically how these guys, the writers, figured out how to make the show work”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“So in the in the book there's a chapter about this experiment where a bunch of gun control enthusiasts come in came in and a bunch of gun rights activists.”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“And so part of the reason I wrote Supercommunicators is because it's a description of these different skills, these different tools, and once you hear them, you almost start doing them thoughtlessly.”
“Dale Carnegie was really good at winning friends and influencing people, and Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus write books about how to golf.”
Plugged The Power of Habit
“I wanted to lose weight and had this basic question, which motivates this book, too: 'If I’m so smart and successful, why am I 20 pounds overweight, and why can't I get myself to run in the morning?'”
Plugged The Power of Habit
“The core idea in 'The Power of Habit' is quite simple: there's something called a habit loop, and understanding that loop helps people devise strategies to break bad habits and build good ones.”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“that's what makes us a super communicator and these are skills that literally anyone can learn and so that's kind of the goal of the book”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“and and that's kind of what super communicators is about is how to identify what conversation is happening and then how to match the person or invite them to match you”
Plugged Supercommunicators
“I absolutely agree in the book there's this story of um this experiment that was done where they brought together gun rights Advocates and gun control activists”
Plugged Smarter Faster Better
“And so one big question, and this is kind of the focus of my second book, Smarter Faster Better, one big question is, how do we build the habits that force us to slow down and think more deeply about the choices we're making when thinking deeply is hardest?”