Person
David Wallace-Wells's book recommendations
Key facts
- David Wallace-Wells has recommended or discussed 5 books on podcasts, as of August 22, 2025.
- David Wallace-Wells has talked about books on 2 podcasts, as of August 22, 2025.
- Those books came up in 2 episodes, as of August 22, 2025.
- The 3 books David Wallace-Wells has mentioned in the most episodes, as of August 22, 2025: Doppelganger, Plagues upon the Earth and Dark Ecology.
- The latest episode with a book mention from David Wallace-Wells aired on August 22, 2025.
Updated
Across 2 podcasts. Every show David Wallace-Wells appears on, in one place — not just one.
David Wallace-Wells is an American journalist known for his writings on climate change, notably authoring the 2017 New York magazine essay The Uninhabitable Earth, which became the most-read article in the history of the publication. On podcasts, Wallace-Wells has recommended and discussed several notable works concerning history, psychology, and environmental crises. On The Ezra Klein Show, he recommended Naomi Klein's Doppelganger as a premier book exploring the psychic distortions of living online during the initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same episode, he also recommended Kyle Harper's Plagues Upon the Earth, praising it as a comprehensive history of how disease has shaped human civilization, politics, and social life across history. Earlier, during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, he discussed Timothy Morton's books Hyperobjects and Dark Ecology, introducing the author's concept of a hyperobject to describe climate phenomena too massive to be easily comprehended. Additionally, he referenced Paul R. Ehrlich's historical book The Population Bomb to analyze past doomsday predictions surrounding population growth and agriculture.
Books recommended by David Wallace-Wells
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Doppelganger
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein is a piercing work of nonfiction that explores the psychic distortions, political fragmentation, and public confusion of modern life, particularly examining the isolation and paranoia amplified online during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recommended“Um, I wanted to start with Naomi Klein's doppelganger, which I think is about the best book about the psychic distortions of our experience living especially online in the first year or two of the pandemic, having so much of our external world um, withdrawn and the sort of, you know, crash course in um, libertarianism, lack of society, living”
Where to get it
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Plagues upon the Earth
Kyle Harper's Plagues upon the Earth is a sweeping historical examination of disease and how pathogens have continuously shaped human history, politics, and civilization.
Recommended“And then I also wanted to recommend um Kyle Harper's Plagues Upon the Earth, which is a history of disease and the way that it has shaped history and politics um social life, civilization for, you know, the whole of um human history.”
Where to get it
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Dark Ecology
Discussed“there's this he's actually an english professor named timothy Morton who wrote a book about climate he calls it a hyper object which is like it's a it's a phenomenon that's so big that we can't actually hold it in our heads at once”
Where to get it
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Hyperobjects
Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton is a philosophical exploration of massive ecological phenomena, such as climate change and radiation, that are so vast and enduring that humans can only perceive them in fragments rather than in their totality.
Discussed“there's this he's actually an english professor named timothy Morton who wrote a book about climate he calls it a hyper object which is like it's a it's a phenomenon that's so big that we can't actually hold it in our heads at once”
Where to get it
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The Population Bomb
The Population Bomb by Paul R.
Discussed“there was um there was a really famous book in the middle of the 20th century called the Population Bomb”
Where to get it
Books by David Wallace-Wells
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAHA Is a Bad Answer to a Good Question | The Ezra Klein Show | The Ezra Klein Show | 2025-08-22 | 2 |
| #1259 - David Wallace-Wells | The Joe Rogan Experience | 2019-03-06 | 3 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Tell people with the name of your book one more time please it's called the uninhabitable earth the subtitle is life after warm”