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Every book Naomi Klein recommended on podcasts
Naomi Klein appeared on The Ezra Klein Show to discuss contemporary political movements, Trumpism, and modern cultural shifts. During the conversation, Klein offered a thoughtful selection of book recommendations that addressed investigative journalism, historical political philosophy, and alternative community movements. She recommended Empire of AI by Karen Hao, praising its globe-trotting investigative reporting that exposes the physical and human inputs behind artificial intelligence. Klein also highlighted the forthcoming book Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple, noting its exploration of alternative community histories. Her final recommendation was Fire Alarm, Reading Walter Benjamin's On the Concept of History by Michael Löwy, which examines a critical text written by Benjamin prior to his death while fleeing the Gestapo. Additionally, Klein referenced her own past work, No Logo, while discussing the commercialization of celebrities as lifestyle brands in the 1990s, and she touched upon Naomi Wolf's Outrages to address historical methodology and factual accuracy.
Books recommended by Naomi Klein
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Empire of AI
Empire of AI by Karen Hao is a critically acclaimed investigative work that explores the hidden human and material inputs, dreams, and nightmares behind Sam Altman's OpenAI and the broader artificial intelligence boom.
Recommended“All right, so this is a little bit obvious, but but but Empire of AI um ; by Karen Hao. ; ; Just because it's it it's just such an incredible combination of just on the ground globe-trotting investigative reporting making the material inputs and human inputs of AI visible, but then it has this big idea thesis around empire”
Where to get it
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Fire Alarm
Fire Alarm by Michael Löwy is a close intellectual commentary and philosophical analysis of Walter Benjamin's famous text On the Concept of History, written while Benjamin was fleeing the Gestapo in 1940.
Recommended“And the third book is a book called Fire Alarm, Reading Walter Benjamin's On the Concept of History by Michael Löwy. ; Um and Walter Benjamin is the is this is the text that he wrote ; ; right before he took his own life fleeing the Gestapo in 1940. ; Um and it gets at this idea of the”
Where to get it
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Here Where We Live Is Our Country
Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple is a historical book exploring the story of the Jewish Bund and providing a look at alternative perspectives.
Recommended“Um I guess we've been talking around this, but um my my friend Molly Crabapple has an absolutely brilliant book coming out ; called Here Where We Live Is Our Country, the story of the Jewish ; un- Bund, and it's available for pre-order, comes out in April, and I think it gets at what an alternative story of hearness”
Where to get it
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No Logo
No Logo is a 1999 book by Naomi Klein that served as both an inspiration for and a chronicle of the burgeoning anti-globalization movement of the late twentieth century.
Discussed“You know, it was clear like we had the in No No Logo I wrote about the first um celebrities who were themselves lifestyle brands, like Michael Jordan and Oprah.”
Where to get it
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Outrages
Discussed“Yeah, so the year year before the pandemic in 2019 she published a book called Outrages ; and she very famously made um a a a basic like a a foundational factual error in that book where she misinterpreted a phrase in the historical record.”
Where to get it
Books Naomi Klein wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naomi Klein on Trumpism and Our Age of ‘Unlikely Bedfellows’ | The Ezra Klein Show | The Ezra Klein Show | 2026-03-20 | 5 |
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And I've been wanting to return to that theme, which was actually the subject of my first book uh that I wrote in the late 1990s and came out in 2000, No Logo.”
“Um and yeah, she wrote a bunch of best-selling books. She wrote a book called Fire with Fire.”
“This is sort of what I wrote about in The Shock Doctrine. This is the the revolution against regulation”