Person
Derren Brown books: every book Derren Brown wrote and recommended
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Derren Brown appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Derren Brown
Derren Brown’s most recommended books
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
- Resonance by Hartmut Rosa
- The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
- The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading by Ian Rowland
- The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
Derren Brown is an English mentalist, illusionist, and writer who is known as a psychological illusionist and uses his live performances to expose supernatural claims through psychology, showmanship, magic, misdirection, and suggestion. During podcast discussions, Brown recommended several influential books. He highlighted Ben Goldacre's Bad Science as essential reading for school children to understand skepticism, Ian Rowland's The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading as the premier resource on cold reading techniques, Hartmut Rosa's Resonance as an alternative perspective on a successful life, and Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation as a work he frequently gives to others. He also credited Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion with giving structure to his lack of belief around the time he became an atheist, and brought up David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous to discuss the relationship between people and nature. Conversely, he critiqued Rhonda Byrne's The Secret for its self-help narrative surrounding intention and blame.
Books recommended by Derren Brown
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The God Delusion
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins is a prominent polemical work that argues against the existence of a creator deity and critiques the societal impacts of religion.
Recommended“and it took a little while to properly come out of it in fact that the Richard Dawkins book The The God Delusion came out around the time that I had sort of mentally made that step but didn't quite”
Where to get it
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Bad Science
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is an insightful examination of sensationalized medical claims, media misinformation, and the flaws in how scientific studies are communicated to the public.
Recommended“actually this is I think pretty sure it's fellow Brit Ben Golder wrote a book called bad science which I think is is worth should be required reading for every school child on some level at least parts of it”
Where to get it
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Resonance
Resonance by Hartmut Rosa is a sociological examination of human relationships with the world and the ways people find meaningful connections in modern society.
Recommended“There's a German sociologist called hartmut Rosa who's got a terrific book it's a it's not an easy read it's a beast of a thing called resonance have you come across this you come across resonance”
Where to get it
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The Anxious Generation
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is a prominent non-fiction book examining the severe mental health crises and loneliness epidemic among youth caused by smartphones and social media.
Recommended“I'm a big fan of Jonathan hate mhm who if you haven't had on this podcast you you should I have he's outstanding wonderful brilliant guy I've just finished his book The anxious generation which is his last one and often find myself giving those to people”
Where to get it
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The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading
The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading by Ian Rowland is widely regarded as a comprehensive manual detailing the psychological techniques and verbal strategies used by mentalists and psychics to simulate paranormal abilities.
Recommended“I think the best book I've seen on cold reading and it might be very hard to get now and it's a book written for magicians I have a load of sort of old pamphlets and strange old books on these things but there's one relatively modern for me at least so written in the last 20 years called the”
Where to get it
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The Spell of the Sensuous
The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram is a philosophical exploration of how human perception, language, and culture are deeply interconnected with the natural environment.
Recommended“an example of this is a great book called the spell of the sensuous by david abrams who actually was a magician originally who went out and lived amongst his people”
Where to get it
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The Secret
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a bestselling self-help phenomenon centered on the law of attraction, which posits that positive visualization and focused intention can manifest wealth, health, and happiness directly into a person's life.
Critiqued“you know you read something like the secret I suppose but she's is it rurn Ronda bur is telling us quite specifically you know you send your wishes out to the universe and if it doesn't provide it's because you didn't you didn't commit to it enough you didn't commit enough to that to that belief”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (7: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I remember a couple of years ago I had the book on happy happiness come out which is essentially a book of Greek philosophy come out”
“and he came back with angels and demons”
“and he came back with angels and demons oh [ __ ] it's fantastic”
“I'm starting a new book or getting my head around a new book so I'll write this book on happiness right the clarity it'll be linked to the shown earth”
“I'm starting a new book or getting my head around a new book so I'll write this book on happiness right the clarity it'll be linked to the shown earth thank you that that's available in America now which is quite a new thing and it's a lot of it's about stoicism and an approach to happiness is very different”
“so i had a book on happiness that i wrote which i wrote while i was on tour”
“so i wrote i i wrote this book happy it is it's actually just become available in the in the us on amazon”