Person
Every book James Lindsay recommended on podcasts
Across 4 podcasts. Every show James Lindsay appears on, in one place — not just one.
James Stephen Lindsay, known professionally as James A. Lindsay, or Conceptual James, is an American author and mathematician. In 2017 and 2018 he, Peter Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose submitted hoax articles to academic journals in order to test scholarship and rigor in several academic fields, an act which became known as the grievance studies affair. On podcast appearances, Lindsay discussed and analyzed several notable texts. He highlighted Bjørn Lomborg's How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place as an intelligent approach to global resource allocation, and referenced Carl Schmitt's Political Theology to discuss esoteric geopolitics. He also brought up Patrick J. Deneen's Regime Change to explain the intellectual vision of the radical right, David Horowitz's Radical Son alongside Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's The Communist Manifesto to illustrate leftist destabilization tactics, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed regarding educational strategies, Andrzej Łobaczewski's Political Ponerology to examine psychopathy and totalitarianism, and Josef Pieper's Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power.
Books recommended by James Lindsay
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One-Dimensional Man
One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse is a prominent 1964 socio-political critique examining how advanced industrial society controls human behavior and suppresses dissent through consumerism and technological rationality.
Discussed“his book from 1964 the year before the essay was called one dimensional man sold 300 000 copies”
Where to get it
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How to Be an Antiracist
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X.
Critiqued“sorry he's how is how to be an anti-racist i forgot to say that and that's where he says the only page 19 the only way the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination and the only revenue to present discrimination is future discrimination”
Where to get it
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Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and Stephen R.
Discussed“So let's look through Hitler's autobiography, and political manifesto and see if we can find anything. So I'm reading this book for the first time in my life, and it's shockingly bad in all regards.”
Where to get it
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The Great Narrative
The Great Narrative by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret is a socio-economic policy book that proposes a collaborative global framework to address contemporary systemic crises and shape a new moral structure for society.
Discussed“do you know klaus schwab has a new book after cover 19 the great reset you know what it's called what i [ __ ] you not it's called the great narrative”
Where to get it
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Thought reform and the psychology of totalism
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton is a renowned psychological study examining the mechanisms of brainwashing, ideological reform, and totalistic control implemented in China.
Discussed“literally the title of his his book that he wrote off of this is called thought reform and the psychology of totalism a study of brainwashing in China”
Where to get it
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White Fragility
White Fragility by Dr.
Discussed“yeah it's like like this book now white fragility right Robin D'Angelo's book white fragility it's that's the one that Matt Taibbi destroyed”
Where to get it
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How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place
How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place by Bjørn Lomborg is an analytical and pragmatic guide that evaluates global challenges and applies cost-benefit analysis to determine the most effective ways to allocate resources for maximum humanitarian and economic impact.
Recommended“Bjorn wrote a book a while back called 'How to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place,' which is an intelligent approach to... I wouldn't say the polycrisis because that isn't how he frames it!”
Where to get it
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Abuse of language, abuse of power
Discussed“I read a very I think one of the most important essays in English which is Joseph Peeper's uh abuse of language abuse of power I don't know if you've heard of this Joseph Peeper was a Catholic and he had some he wrote this I don't know what else he did honestly I should probably look into it but”
Where to get it
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Capital
Capital by Karl Marx is a foundational theoretical and economic critique of capitalism, analyzing how commodities, labor, and capital interact within industrial economies.
Discussed“if we focus on his economic analysis in capital we miss the entire picture”
Where to get it
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Cheiro's Book of Numbers
Discussed“and then you know Jordan was talking out of the Book of Numbers the other day I've taken the Book of Numbers very seriously this is wandering in the desert and they're very dissatisfied”
Where to get it
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Covid-19: The Great Reset
Covid-19: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret is a socio-political book exploring global restructuring in the wake of the pandemic.
Discussed“he's got a book called coven 19 the great reset he's got a few books actually i've read some of some of his other ones but i read all of that one and it's just corporate gobbledygook”
Where to get it
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Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic is an accessible introductory text outlining the core tenets and academic framework of critical race theory.
Discussed“this is quoting from another book which is a critical race theory and introduction in case we wonder if it's about critical race theory racism is the ordinary state of affairs in society not an aberration from them”
Where to get it
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Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Discussed“It's very, if you go back and you read the first page of Marx's "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right," which sounds obscure, but that's the very famous, "religion is the opiate of the masses" page. It's just one page.”
Where to get it
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Das Kapital
Das Kapital by Karl Marx is a monumental three-volume economic and social analysis of capitalism, the commodification of labor, and the alienating effects of industrial modernization.
Discussed“If we focus on his economic analysis in 'Capital', we miss the entire picture.”
Where to get it
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Faces at the Bottom of the Well
Discussed“like get your head on 1992 1992 he wrote a book called faces at the bottom of the well and what he said is that black society as a face as the bottom of the well and whites”
Where to get it
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Fashionable Nonsense
Discussed“and so this is why I did it ended up writing a best-selling New York Times bestselling book called fashionable nonsense talking about how these guys use these fashionable terms and just say the right political things and it's all nonsense”
Where to get it
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Feeling Power
Discussed“so we get this book and read it, it's called feeling power, it's insane and I was like holy crap”
Where to get it
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Good White People
Discussed“there's a book by Shannon Sullivan a major scholar called good white people that just rails on this”
Where to get it
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How to Read the Bible
How to Read the Bible by James L.
Discussed“and just as you know the poor Israelites you know go through this cycle dozens of times through the through the books of the Bible”
Where to get it
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Limits to Growth
Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows is a foundational 1972 report commissioned by the Club of Rome that models the consequences of unchecked industrialization against finite global resources.
Discussed“because there was a book in 1972 published by the club of rome called the limits to growth”
Where to get it
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On Liberty
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill is a classic 1959 political essay that serves as one of history's most robust defenses of individual freedom, free expression, and intellectual liberty.
Discussed“that's in John Stehr Mills book on liberty is it's not enough to have heard that the other side the argument from the other side exists you need to hear the best case put forward by people who really really subscribe to it”
Where to get it
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Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire is a foundational educational and political text that argues education is inherently non-neutral and shapes worldview through specific ideological frameworks.
Discussed“in Paulo Freed's pedagogy of the oppressed he's talking about this as like an educational program and then he says in a footnote in the first chapter he says I derived this from literally I derived this from Maoong's cultural revolution”
Where to get it
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Phänomenologie des Geistes
Discussed“So these sects that you're referring to in the Middle Ages of kind of bizarre Christianity were actually Gnostic heresies that were developing, and I think that by means of Hegel coming down through Marx, who inverted it, I believe we actually are looking at a Gnostic heresy hidden inside of economics, social — in fact, if we read 'Phenomenology”
Where to get it
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Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)
Discussed“I had read that infamous quirky but I think important book political ponerology Yes um is that Lubachsky or something like this is that name that the author and um I had read that and found it striking and at the same time almost I think sometimes you know a chapter here a chapter there”
Where to get it
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Political Theology
Discussed“Tracy Strong, a philosopher that I don't agree with on many things, wrote the foreword to the English translation of Carl Schmitt's 1923 or thereabouts book called Political Theology.”
Where to get it
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Race, racism, and American law
Discussed“and he was referring to derek bell's race racism and american law from 1970”
Where to get it
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Radical Son
This autobiography details a political journey and critiques modern leftist movements through a personal and historical lens.
Discussed“what his big takeaway about how the left operates the issues are completely throwaway the the point is to destabilize but it's actually on the last page of the communist manifesto why this is the case so all the way back Karl Marx Frederick Engles 1848 they publish you know a few sentences down is, you know, workers of the”
Where to get it
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Regime Change
Regime Change by Patrick J.
Discussed“the vision that they are aiming for looks something like the book called regime change published by Patrick Denine in 2023 which JD Vance has sat alongside Denine and promoted this book with him and endorsed this book.”
Where to get it
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Stamped from the Beginning
Critiqued“he wrote two really kind of influential books one is stamped from the beginning which is what i was just saying america was stamped from the beginning in racism”
Where to get it
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The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto is a political pamphlet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that outlines class struggle and the core tenets of communism.
Discussed“the point is to destabilize but it's actually on the last page of the communist manifesto why this is the case so all the way back Karl Marx Frederick Engles 1848 they publish you know a few sentences down is, you know, workers of the world unite.”
Where to get it
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The Critical Turn in Education
The Critical Turn in Education by Isaac Gottesman is a scholarly work that details the historical infiltration and ideological shifts within educational institutions through a critical Marxist framework.
Discussed“it's called the critical turn in education and i've been doing a podcast series on this book uh it's written by a guy named isaac gotzman”
Where to get it
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The End of History and the Last Man
The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama is a prominent political science and philosophy book arguing that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies may signal the endpoint of humanity's sociocultural evolution.
Discussed“and the last man was the title of the 1989 book by francis fukuyama”
Where to get it
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The Open Society and Its Enemies
The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper is a monumental post-World War II philosophical critique of totalitarianism that explores the historical roots of closed societies and defends the principles of liberal democracy.
Discussed“Carl popper wrote a book in 1945 called the open society and its enemies and so the open Society is what we've been taking for granted basically in the post World War II era”
Where to get it
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The phenomenology of spirit
The Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is a monumental 1807 philosophical work that traces the historical and systematic development of human consciousness, knowledge, and self-awareness.
Discussed“in fact if we read phenomenology of spirit from Hegel 1807 a publication”
Where to get it
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The Politics of Education
Discussed“ferrari famously says in this book from 85 which brought him into the u.s a book called the politics of education”
Where to get it
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The Postmodern Condition
Discussed“I had been reading liotard the the postmodern condition Um and he has this very confusing se they're all very confusing sections throughout the whole book”
Where to get it
Books James Lindsay wrote
- The Queering of the American Child
- The Marxification of Education
- Cynical Theories
- Fashionable Nonsense
- Everybody Is Wrong About God
- How to Have Impossible Conversations
- Autobiography of Rev. James Lindsay, D.D.
Appearances
Other mentions (13: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I wrote a book about the trans stuff it just came out on the 29th um called the queering of the American child to talk about how schools have been turned into like indoctrination centers”
“I just published a book y'all it's called the marxification of education really good you should pick it up”
“the title of the book is going to be the marxification of education and i'm aiming you know”
“and like right off the bat somebody said like i'm like my wikipedia said you know james lindsay portrays himself as a serious commentator he wrote a book how to have impossible conversations and yet he goes on twitter and makes your mom jokes”
“if you start informing these people this is like the hail mary then there's a way out of this where in fact it all can almost evaporate as i think helen put in cynical theories as like a puff of its own contradictions or something like that”
“If you start informing these people this is like the hail mary then there's a way out of this where in fact it all can almost evaporate as i think helen put in cynical theories as like a puff of its own contradictions or something like that”
“like all of a sudden it's like needful things it's like the whole town's going crazy because of demon possession”
“and anybody who's interested will be able to read this in great detail in the book I wrote with Helen which is due out in May called cynical theories by 2010 or so it had become just the phrase that is probably best used”
“and so this is why I did it ended up writing a best-selling New York Times bestselling book called fashionable nonsense talking about how these guys use these fashionable terms and just say the right political things”
“and I would I had just written this book or was in the process I don't remember exactly the date I'd written this book trying to look at the psychological motivations behind belief in God and what people mean by that”
“I think one of the most important things and this isn't our forthcoming book about how to have impossible conversations Peter and I just finished one of those important things is to learn to disavow the extremists on your side”
“that's a call everybody's wrong about God and it sounds like I'm just gonna go after religion but it's actually the culmination of my study of religious psychology”
“you know l ron hubbard was at Dianetics or whatever”