Person
Every book Jerusalem Demsas recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Jerusalem Demsas appears on, in one place — not just one.
Jerusalem Demsas’s most recommended books
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Don't Blame Us by Lily Geismer
- Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv
- The Bulldozer in the Countryside by Adam Rome
- A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Jerusalem Demsas is an Eritrean-American journalist. She is the founder and editor of The Argument, an online media company, and a former staff writer at The Atlantic who writes about institutional failures, particularly as they affect the housing crisis in the United States. Discussing her reading and research on podcasts like The Ezra Klein Show and Conversations with Tyler, Demsas recommended several works. She recommended Lily Geismer's Don't Blame Us to explain the historical background of regulatory opposition in Boston suburbs, and Adam Rome's The Bulldozer in the Countryside for its insights into the origins of American environmentalism. She also recommended George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain as a book on writing and thinking, Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction novel Children of Time for its relevance to community building, and Rachel Aviv's Strangers to Ourselves for how it portrays tensions between individual and systemic problems. Additionally, she discussed Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and referenced Jonathan Swift's essay A Modest Proposal.
Books recommended by Jerusalem Demsas
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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders is a masterclass of literary criticism where the acclaimed author and professor analyzes classic Russian short stories by masters like Chekhov and Tolstoy to reveal how great fiction works on the human mind.
Recommended“this final book I always like to recommend a um a fiction book on this so well it's not really fiction but George saunders's book a swim in the pond in the rain is a book on writing but all really great books about writing are actually great books about thinking”
Where to get it
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Children of Time
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is an acclaimed science fiction novel that chronicles the evolution of an advanced civilization built by intelligent genetically modified spiders.
Recommended“I feel like people don't read enough fiction especially science fiction I think he was actually on the show Adrian Tchaikovsky but children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is really great and I think actually feels relevant to the story of like building new communities how they develop”
Where to get it
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Don't Blame Us
Don't Blame Us by Lily Geismer is a political history focusing closely on the suburbs of Boston to trace the policy shifts, cultural developments, and citizen opposition that contributed significantly to modern regulatory sclerosis.
Recommended“the first is by Lily gismer it's called don't blame us and it's a book uh that looks very closely at the Boston suburbs to see the changes that led to a lot of the regulations and opposition that is causing a lot of the sclerosis we see today”
Where to get it
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Strangers to Ourselves
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv is a critically acclaimed exploration of mental illness and personal identity that examines real-life case studies.
Recommended“and the final one I think is strangers to ourselves by Rachel this is a book that I think I'm I'm recommending it for a couple reasons one because I thought that it was probably one of the best”
Where to get it
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The Bulldozer in the Countryside
The Bulldozer in the Countryside by Adam Rome is an environmental history examining how the modern American environmental movement emerged largely as a grassroots reaction against the sweeping post-war transformation of the urban core and natural landscapes.
Recommended“and then there's bulldozer in the Countryside by Adam Rome it's another really great book about environmentalism and really kind of situates environmentalism in the United States as coming up as a reaction to changes in the urban core”
Where to get it
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A Modest Proposal
Jonathan Swift's satirical essay A Modest Proposal presents a savage critique of poverty and British indifference in Ireland by mockingly suggesting that impoverished parents sell their infants as food for the wealthy.
Discussed“then I also think it's a question of length like a modest proposal which is an essay this is very spherical essay where he proposes people just like eating babies as a solution to I guess too many um too many children um uh who are in poverty”
Where to get it
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The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed by Ursula K.
Discussed“so the dispossessed is great I mean I don't know we can start I suppose with the maybe a really basic plot summary”
Where to get it
