Person
Nicholas Christakis's books and book recommendations
Across 6 podcasts. Every show Nicholas Christakis appears on, in one place — not just one.
Nicholas A. Christakis is an American and Greek sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. He is also the codirector of the Yale Institute for Network Science. On podcast episodes, Nicholas Christakis discussed several notable works. He mentioned his own books Blueprint, to explain the evolutionary origins of a good society, and Apollo's Arrow, in the context of pandemic forecasts. He also referenced Homer's Iliad to highlight how plagues have historically appeared in canonical Western literature, pointed to a reference book titled National Strategy for Influenza Pandemics to discuss pandemic preparedness, cited Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies regarding the vulnerabilities of open societies, and brought up J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to describe a scene of bravery.
Books by Nicholas Christakis
Books recommended by Nicholas Christakis
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Blueprint
Blueprint by Nicholas A.
Discussed“my prior book was blueprint The evolutionary origins of a good Society and I think that I worked on that for nine years”
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“have you ever read children of time by Adrienne Tchaikovsky”
Where to get it
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Apollo's Arrow
Apollo's Arrow by Nicholas A.
Discussed“i when i uh when i wrote the book uh apologero”
Where to get it
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“he survives the Nazi concentration camps and he goes and he writes a famous book called man's search for meaning after he's liberated it writes it ten days after his liberation”
Where to get it
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National strategy for influenza pandemic
Discussed“There's a book right here, I can look over and see it's called, "National Strategy for Influenza Pandemics." Like there are books that you can open up like a cookbook and they say, "Here's what you do when there's a pandemic."”
Where to get it
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The Book of Five Rings
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi is a classic treatise on strategy, tactics, and philosophy written by a legendary seventeenth-century Japanese swordsman.
Discussed“a Musashi quote the book from the book of five rings”
Where to get it
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The Iliad
The Iliad by Homer is an ancient Greek epic poem that chronicles the wrath of Achilles and the brutal realities of the Trojan War.
Discussed“plagues are plagues are in the bible they're in homer's iliad one of the canonical works of western fiction begins with a plague they're in shakespeare they're in cervantes”
Where to get it
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The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
Discussed“you know there's that that there's that scene in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn rushes the gates you know”
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“so I mean I think you know the open society and its and its enemies you know I think there is a sense in which you can use the tools to destroy the foundation”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (9: passing, ad reads, own books)
“and i actually discussed this in apollo 0 which is that there's this tendency it's theorized and often seen”
“and so what i really want and what i wanted to do in the book in apollo zero was to sort of help people to see the world for how it really is now”
“yes i mean i think um i think one of the things and i make this argument in apollozaro”
“apollo's arrow”
“Well, as you know, because we talked about it the last time you and I met, I just wrote this book. - Yeah, you got a whole book about it. It's right over there. - I know. I wrote this book called, "Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society."”
“so increasingly you know the relationship between human beings and technology is an ancient topic you know Homer talks about this in the Iliad you know what's the role of bronze spears in warfare”
“and of course we've been talking about my book blueprint the evolutionary origin of a good society which is available everywhere and on my lab we have videos and paper scientific papers and all kinds of other information people want to delve deep”
“that's part of this book that I've been working on for 10 years”
“so this book blueprint the evolutionary origins of a good society”