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Every book Matthew Yglesias recommended on podcasts
Matthew Yglesias appeared on the Modern Wisdom podcast in an episode titled Is One Billion Americans A Good Idea? - Matthew Yglesias - #218, published on September 10, 2020. Through his dialogue on the show, he emerges as a thoughtful economic and political commentator deeply engaged in public policy, demographic trends, and speculative societal structures. During the episode, Matthew Yglesias brought up the novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. He referenced the book while discussing creative thought experiments, noting its premise as an intriguing work of alternate history. By highlighting Michael Chabon's fictional world-building centered around an alternative geographic and political scenario for Alaska, Yglesias used the novel to illustrate complex concepts of counterfactual thinking and speculative futures. His discussion of the book points to an appreciation for literate, imaginative storytelling that challenges conventional geographic assumptions and explores the fascinating outcomes of divergent historical paths within a narrative framework.
Books recommended by Matthew Yglesias
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon is a celebrated alternate history novel that imagines a temporary Jewish settlement established in Sitka, Alaska, during World War II, following the collapse of the Zionist effort in Palestine.
Recommended“i don't know if you know that michael chabon's novel um the yiddish policeman's union but it's basically like alternate history”
Where to get it
Books Matthew Yglesias wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is One Billion Americans A Good Idea? - Matthew Yglesias - #218 | Modern Wisdom | 2020-09-10 | 1 |
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and the book is about trying to recapture those sort of very traditional very american sentiments and then also just discuss um a project that sounds a little loopy to people in sort of real technical terms and see that it's it's not as loopy as it sounds”
“so we've got a whole chapter in the book about this”
“so when they listen to this they're going to be saying do you know what matthew just said on that episode no but they're not against it either”