Person
Every book Chuck Nice recommended on podcasts
Chuck Nice’s most recommended books
- Earth in Human Hands by David Grinspoon
- Failure Is Not an Option by Gene Kranz
- The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book by Charles Liu
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
- Dear America by Bernard Edelman
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- Flowers for Algernon by David Rogers, Daniel Keyes
- Ideas And Opinions by Albert Einstein
- Longitude by Dava Sobel
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Chuck Nice has recommended and discussed a variety of books during his appearances on StarTalk Radio alongside Neil deGrasse Tyson. He highlighted David Grinspoon's Earth in Human Hands as a favorite book, praising its valuable information on climate change and how humans are shaping the planet. Nice also recommended Charles Liu's The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book as a great resource for listeners looking to study physics, and mentioned Gene Kranz's Failure Is Not an Option while discussing the famous phrase used by the NASA flight director. Beyond direct recommendations, Nice and Tyson frequently engaged in discussions about other prominent works. They talked about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen while exploring comic book characters and superpowers, examined Albert Einstein's collection of essays Ideas and Opinions, and discussed Dava Sobel's successful books Longitude and The Glass Universe, even quoting subtitles and praising the narrative style of Sobel's historical science writing. Furthermore, Nice playfully brought up Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe to tease Greene about whether string theory was intentionally designed to make the cosmos visually appealing and marketable.
Books recommended by Chuck Nice
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Earth in Human Hands
Earth in Human Hands is a thought-provoking book by planetary scientist David Grinspoon that explores the profound ways humanity is actively shaping and altering the planet.
Recommended“uh my favorite Dr Funky spoon book If I recall correctly uh is Earth in human hands because it's all about how we are shaping this planet and if you want to know some great information about climate change and the anthropocene you should check out that book”
Where to get it
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Failure Is Not an Option
Failure Is Not an Option by Gene Kranz is a memoir detailing the author's legendary career as a NASA flight director during the Gemini and Apollo space programs, most notably the dramatic rescue of Apollo 13.
Recommended“It's the title of his book I think as well, is "Failure Is Not An Option".”
Where to get it
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The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book
The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book by Charles Liu is an accessible reference guide designed to answer common questions about the baffling world of quantum mechanics and modern physics.
Recommended“It's uh it's called the uh quantum the handy. No, sounds like Okay. Okay. It sounds like he's not in a hurry. So, my book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, that's not for him because he sounds like he's got time on his hands. Charles, how how many pages is your book? ... Chuck's book is broken up so”
Where to get it
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Discussed“The dude wrote a book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, where he had to cut off his arm. Yes! So is that possible?”
Where to get it
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Dear America
Discussed“Actually, I have this book called Dear Dear America, which is a collection of letters home from Vietnam, right?”
Where to get it
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Ender's Game
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a military science fiction novel following a gifted child trained through brutal war games to fight an alien species.
Discussed“the for those people who aren't familiar with ender's game that was a novel written by orson scott card a number of decades ago where to fight an alien menace a number of children were put into a place called the battle school”
Where to get it
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Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a poignant science fiction novel about Charlie Gordon, a man with an intellectual disability who undergoes an experimental surgical procedure to dramatically enhance his intelligence, mirroring the earlier cognitive boost of a laboratory mouse named Algernon.
Discussed“i just read flowers for algernon and i went out and saw the movie charlie with cliff robertson”
Where to get it
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Ideas And Opinions
Discussed“No, if you read his uh ideas and opinions, it's a book, right?”
Where to get it
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Longitude
Longitude by Dava Sobel is a historical non-fiction book that tells the dramatic story of John Harrison, an eighteenth-century clockmaker who spent decades developing the marine chronometer to solve the deadly navigational problem of determining longitude at sea.
Discussed“I think most people came to know you through your I don't know if it's your first book but the first book that did really really well of course and that was uh the chronometer story longitude longitude yes uh the story The subtitle you know if you if you read the title in the subtitle's book you say I”
Where to get it
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“Aaron Rosenberg wrote in: Victor Frankl wrote in 'Man's Search for Meaning' that when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Dr. Tan, with this and your experiences in mind, what was a survival situation that surprised you the most in terms of digging deep and confronting yourself?”
Where to get it
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The elegant universe
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene is a bestselling exploration of string theory, quantum mechanics, and the quest for the ultimate physical theory of reality.
Discussed“now certainly not the man who wrote the book The Elegant universe is this a philosophical motivating force for you because Kepler had his own philosophically motivating mathematics where the planets were platonic solids and it was beautiful because it was it was math and and are you why do why what confidence do we have that you are describing”
Where to get it
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The glass universe
The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel is a historical nonfiction book that chronicles the groundbreaking contributions of female astronomers at the Harvard Observatory during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Discussed“give buy me the subtitle what was it the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time oh no I'm buying that book”
Where to get it
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The Unworthy Thor
Discussed“there was actually a period of time to show a a comic book series called the Unworthy Thor where for a moment there he could not pick up the hammer because he was briefly unworthy”
Where to get it
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Watchmen
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is a groundbreaking graphic novel set in an alternate history where superheroes are real, exploring complex moral dilemmas, Cold War tensions, and the psychological toll of vigilantism.
Discussed“There's a cool Dr. Manhattan from the Watchman. The Watchmen series. Yes. Um, the movie got me. I mean, I always The Watchman was the the graphic novel.”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (9: passing, ad reads, own books)
“It sounds like half half of him is in this book. Why do we exist? Like you opened up. He pops out The nine realms of the universe that make you Possible”
“Is that a description that would be in the book String Theory for Dummies? It's there. No doubt.”
“Look at the physics answer book. Wow. Chuck, you wrote that really quick, man. You work you you work fast, brother.”
“And and Brian, you you're just coming off of a tour that put you in the Guinness Book of World Records.”
“Harold and the purple crayon cuz he went Harold went into the sky with his purple crayon.”
“Harold and the purple crayon cuz he went Harold went into the sky with his purple crayon.”
“because of Neil and Cosmos I am now a huge fan of astrophysics”
“one of you will be chosen to receive a cosmic queries book signed by the man himself dr neil degrasse tyson”
“As earliest evidence in, what was it, 2001: A Space Odyssey, right? Okay, "Would it be realistic to use this idea for long term space travel?"”