Person
Every book Jesse Michels recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Jesse Michels appears on, in one place — not just one.
Jesse Michels’s most recommended books
- The Half-Life of Facts by Samuel Arbesman
- UFOs and Nukes by Robert L. Hastings
- Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx
- Messengers of Deception by Jacques Vallee
- Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Book of Sam by Sam Johnston
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
- A New New Testament by Hal Taussig
- Behold a Pale Horse by William Cooper
- DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman
Jesse Michels is a researcher and podcaster who is best known for hosting American Alchemy and exploring unconventional topics such as unidentified anomalous phenomena, frontier science, and alternative history on programs like The Joe Rogan Experience. Michels has recommended and discussed several books during his podcast appearances. He recommended Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel Childhood's End while discussing aliens incepting the world through telepathic children, and he highlighted Robert Hastings's book UFOs and Nukes, which compiles extensive eyewitness accounts from military personnel regarding UFO encounters at nuclear missile sites. Michels also recommended Samuel Arbesman's book The Half-Life of Facts to illustrate the concept of scientific knowledge evolving and overturning accepted dogmas, and suggested Liu Cixin's science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem when discussing state control of scientific advancement. Additionally, Michels discussed John Marco Allegro's book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross in relation to ancient religion and psychedelics, and mentioned Adam Becker's book What Is Real? while exploring quantum mechanics and Einstein's views.
Books recommended by Jesse Michels
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The Half-Life of Facts
The Half-Life of Facts by Samuel Arbesman is a non-fiction book that explores how scientific knowledge, facts, and physical models decay or evolve over time much like radioactive isotopes.
Discussed“There's a great book by a guy named Sam Arbisman called The Half-Life of Facts where he talks about facts themselves as kind of being similar to like radioactive isotope decay. Like they have a decay function. Our physical models of reality are always wrong.”
Where to get it
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UFOs and Nukes
UFOs and Nukes by Robert L.
Recommended“there's a great book by a guy named Robert Hastings called UFOs and nukes and it's like 600 pages and it is 167 Qcle cleared ICBM security personnel, radar operators, employees at nuclear bases”
Where to get it
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Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844
Discussed“In 1844 I believe he wrote a book um called you know is e economic and philosophic manuscripts. I hate Karl Marx.”
Where to get it
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Messengers of Deception
Messengers of Deception by Jacques Vallee is a well-known examination of unidentified flying objects that explores the complex social and psychological deceptions often surrounding the phenomenon.
Discussed“in Messengers of Deception, Jacques Valle's book, he talks about because he's not a believer in Lazar. He talks about Lazar being forced to drink a liquid.”
Where to get it
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Childhood's End
Childhood's End by Arthur C.
Recommended“There's a great book by the great Arthur C. Clark called Childhood's End.He talks about um aliens sort of incepting the world through telepathic children.”
Where to get it
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The Book of Sam
The Book of Sam by Sam Johnston explores various thematic elements of modern life and human thought.
Recommended“But also look at there's a great book called The Half-Life of Facts by Sam Arbisman. And he talks about how like at any given time 50% of you know received knowledge like our our physical model of the universe is wrong.”
Where to get it
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The Three-Body Problem
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu is a sweeping science fiction novel exploring humanity's first contact with an alien civilization against the backdrop of China's cultural revolution.
Recommended“And like I don't know if you've read there's a um great uh Chinese science fiction novel called The Three Body Problem. Great show on Netflix, too. It's amazing.”
Where to get it
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A New New Testament
Discussed“If you look at every culture, whether it's or or maybe a better example is medieval Christianity with St. Thomas Aquinas or just read the New Testament like a multitude of angels.”
Where to get it
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Behold a Pale Horse
Behold a Pale Horse is a 1991 book by Milton William Cooper that compiles various conspiracy theories regarding secret societies, government cover-ups, and extraterrestrials.
Discussed“He's writing weird like disinfoy style stuff with Bill Cooper. Behold the pale horse guy, which is a wild book. Which is a wild book.”
Where to get it
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DMT: The Spirit Molecule
DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman is a scientific and clinical investigation into the effects of dimethyltryptamine, chronicling the first FDA-approved human clinical studies on psychedelics in decades.
Discussed“And you've had Rick Straman on. He talks, you know, DMT, the spirit molecule. He talks about DMT as like night vision or like like it's like a it's like goggles or a window, you know, it's like Aldis Huxley, the doors of your perception.”
Where to get it
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Life Itself
Life Itself by Francis Crick is a detailed scientific examination exploring the origins of life on Earth and the hypothesis of panspermia, written by one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA.
Discussed“So in 1973 I believe Francis Crick who discovered the double helical structure of DNA uh wrote a paper and then he followed it up with a book in 1981 called life itself and it's all about how DNA in a 100 million years it's too short of a period of time for it to have formed on Earth.”
Where to get it
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Penetration
Penetration by Ingo Swann and Janet Lee Mitchell is a controversial book exploring remote viewing, psychic phenomena, and alleged government secrets involving extraterrestrial activity.
Discussed“Engo Swan who is another remote viewer in the Stargate program. He wrote a book called Penetration where he's basically like abducted by this guy in a suit like this kind of Men in Black style guy named Axel Rod and he is told to remote view the moon”
Where to get it
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Pre-capitalist economic formations
Discussed“In 1844 I believe he wrote a book um called you know is e economic and philosophic manuscripts. I hate Karl Marx. I think he got so much wrong about human nature.”
Where to get it
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Superintelligence
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom is a foundational exploration of artificial intelligence, examining the path toward human-level and superhuman machine intellect and the profound existential risks it poses.
Discussed“he got really into Nick Bostonramm's super intelligence this book in 2012. I love it. It's good book.”
Where to get it
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The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels is a foundational 1848 political pamphlet that outlines the core tenets of Marxism, class struggle, and the eventual overthrow of the capitalist system.
Discussed“Actually Karl Marx wrote two books. Um you know he wrote uh uh obviously the communist manifesto in 1848.”
Where to get it
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The doors of perception
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a classic philosophical essay chronicling the author's psychedelic experiences and exploring the nature of human consciousness.
Discussed“He talks, you know, DMT, the spirit molecule. He talks about DMT as like night vision or like like it's like a it's like goggles or a window, you know, it's like Aldis Huxley, the doors of your perception.”
Where to get it
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The Invisible College
Discussed“In chapter nine of the invisible college by Jacqu Valet, he talks about the UFOs being this sort of autonomous control system and when we you know it's like a node lights up like when we engage in super advanced research or something.”
Where to get it
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The sacred mushroom and the cross
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Marco Allegro is a controversial scholarly study that posits early Christianity originated from ancient fertility cults centered around the sacramental use of psychedelic mushrooms.
Discussed“And then there's the uh John Marco Allegro, the guy who wrote uh the sacred mushroom in the cross, the the guy who was on the Dead Sea Scrolls Commission, who was an ordained minister, but also was agnostic.And after 14 years of deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls, he's like, I think [laughter] this is all about fertility rituals and”
Where to get it
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What Is Real?
Discussed“There's a great book called What is Real by a guy named Adam Becker about all of this where Einstein was saying the quantum stuff is too spooky as they call it spooky action at a distance.”
Where to get it
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| #2545 - Jesse Michels | The Joe Rogan Experience | 2026-08-25 | 4 |
| UFOs, Aliens, Antigravity & Government Secrets - Jesse Michels - #982 | Modern Wisdom | 2025-08-18 | 2 |
| #2331 - Jesse Michels | The Joe Rogan Experience | 2025-06-03 | 17 |
Other mentions (7: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I had uh Stuart Russellon who wrote human compatible also the guy that wrote the textbook the textbook for AI right that was translated into [ __ ] gazillion languages and used all around the world.”
“That was 17. Uh Cherries of the Gods. No, when I was at Peter Teal's house when Von Dan that must have been 2018, 2019.”
“Cherries of the Gods. No, when I was at Peter Teal's house when Von Dan that must have been 2018, 2019.”
“And Lambda had quoted like Miser Le Miserab to him and was talking about Fantine and her overlords and how she was oppressed or whatever. And it was almost like this like the AI was oppressed just like this character in layer hub.”
“You have angels and demons, you know, that's kind of the passport to Meonia, Dina, American cosmic thesis. Like this stuff has been going on forever.”
“You have angels and demons, you know, that's kind of the passport to Meonia, Dina, American cosmic thesis. Like this stuff has been going on forever.”
“He talks about DMT as like night vision or like like it's like a it's like goggles or a window, you know, it's like Aldis Huxley, the doors of your perception.”