Person
Every book Helen Lewis recommended on podcasts
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Helen Lewis appears on, in one place — not just one.
Helen Lewis’s most recommended books
- Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford
- The Genius Factory by David Plotz
- Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda Paramahansa
- Benefit of Clergy by George Orwell
- Hereditary Genius by Francis Galton
- Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
- Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari
- The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
- The Last Men by Charles Cornish-Dale
- The Price of Greatness by Hilary Emmanuel
Helen Lewis MBE was a pioneer of modern dance in Northern Ireland who made her name as a dance teacher, choreographer, and Holocaust survivor, and she died on December 31, 2009. On podcast appearances such as The Ezra Klein Show and Honestly with Bari Weiss, Lewis discussed and recommended various historical and biographical works. She recommended Nancy Mitford's biography Madame de Pompadour regarding the mistress of Louis the XV of France, and recommended David Plotz's The Genius Factory about a eugenicist millionaire project. Lewis also discussed Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in relation to the historical unhappiness of housewives, and referenced arguments found in Charles Cornish-Dale's The Last Man concerning modern diet elites. Additionally, she brought up Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists while talking about Renaissance creators, mentioned a book titled The Price of Greatness, cited a critical essay by George Orwell on Salvador Dalí's memoir, and discussed Francis Galton's Hereditary Genius in the context of IQ history and eugenics.
Books recommended by Helen Lewis
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Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford is a historical biography detailing the life of the influential chief mistress of King Louis XV of France.
Recommended“Nancy Mittford's biography of Madame de Pompador, Mistress of Louis the 15th of France.”
Where to get it
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The Genius Factory
The Genius Factory by David Plotz is a non-fiction investigative book that uncovers the bizarre history of a repository established to propagate the DNA of exceptionally gifted individuals.
Recommended“So, I have brought The Genius Factory by David Plots, which is the story of one mad eugenicist millionaire who decides that the way to solve all of America's problem is to get lots of Nobel Prize winners to donate their sperm...”
Where to get it
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Autobiography of a Yogi
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is a renowned spiritual classic chronicling the author's life, encounters with Indian sages, and the pursuit of Kriya Yoga.
Discussed“so at his funeral he gave everybody a copy of autobiography of a yogi by Yogananda”
Where to get it
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Benefit of Clergy
Discussed“It's from the essay benefit of clergy which is his review of Salvador Darly's memoir in which he says Salvador Darly horrible.”
Where to get it
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Hereditary Genius
Hereditary Genius by Francis Galton is a controversial nineteenth-century work that attempts to systematically analyze and rank human intelligence and success based on hereditary lines.
Discussed“Francis Golton who's um a really brilliant 19th century kind of dilotant scholar half cousin of Charles Darwin and he writes this slightly mad but you know inspired book called hereditary genius in which he tries to rank everybody in Britain by lettered classes”
Where to get it
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Invisible Women
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez is a profound examination of how modern society systematically ignores women, building a world designed primarily around a male default.
Discussed“my friend Karen and creative Paris wrote about in her book invisible women that one of the things these studies won't do often they will often exclude women from them if you're looking at any kind of medical study”
Where to get it
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Lives of the Artists
Discussed“The thing that was interesting looking at those Renaissance artists is that Giorgio Vasari's lives of the artist.”
Where to get it
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The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is a landmark 1960s feminist text that investigated the widespread unhappiness and unfulfilled potential of women trapped in domestic suburban roles.
Discussed“It was something that Betty Fredan was writing about in the feminine seat when she was talking about specifically the unhappiness of stay-at-home housewives.”
Where to get it
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The Last Men
Discussed“So, not I don't think all of those things are ridiculous, you know, and that's that's that's something that comes up a lot in um The Last Man, the idea that, you know, elites are keeping you fat...”
Where to get it
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The Price of Greatness
Discussed“There's a book out there called the price um the price of greatness.”
Where to get it
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White Fragility
White Fragility by Dr.
Discussed“and and and white fragility there is a chapter called white women's tears which is all about how you know that it is emotionally manipulative when white women are confronted with their racism that they will burst into tears and everyone will Comfort them”
Where to get it
Books Helen Lewis wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Right’s Pre-Modern ‘Masculinist’ Fantasy | The Ezra Klein Show | The Ezra Klein Show | 2026-06-05 | 4 |
| Is Anyone a Genius? | Honestly with Bari Weiss | 2025-07-08 | 4 |
| Investigating The World Of Modern Gurus - Helen Lewis - #570 | Modern Wisdom | 2022-12-29 | 3 |
Other mentions (8: passing, ad reads, own books)
“In my first book, which is a history of feminism, I wrote about some of the women who wrote to Mary Stoopes, who was our kind of version of Margaret Sanger, a contraceptive pioneer.”
“I wrote in difficult women about the problems of boys in school which again I think are real.”
“And one of the things I thought about a lot writing the book is you can tell a lot about a society by the category of people that are that we're fishing for geniuses in.”
“You know, I have a I have a story in the book that I think will really resonate with um honesty listeners, which is about a very left-wing queer theater director who was making work that was essentially celebrating pedophilia.”
“And I talk about um Harvey Weinstein as another example of this in the book.”
“I think, you know, he could have been an Elon Musk level figure, but he just, you know, he had all the way through trouble accessing the places where knowledge would happen.”
“And that's the, you know, that's the takeaway is that that we can't alter human nature. Sure, I'm into that. But what we can absolutely do is change the the soil in which the seeds are growing. Um, so I Yeah, I I'm not I'm not a full I'm not fullbore great man, but I and I'm not fullbore blank”
“and like I did have a and the conclusion that okay eventually came to in difficult women is that you have to have a kind of policy-based idea of feminism”