Person
Every book Paul Bloom recommended on podcasts
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Paul Bloom appears on, in one place — not just one.
Paul Bloom’s most recommended books
- The Principles of Psychology by William James
- Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
- Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- The Alien Corn by William Somerset Maugham
- The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
- A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- It by Stephen King
Paul Bloom discussed numerous influential psychology texts, fiction pieces, and historical concepts across multiple podcast appearances. On EconTalk, Bloom recommended William Somerset Maugham's short story 'The Alien Corn' to illustrate the dilemma of pursuing one's strengths versus weaknesses. He also praised Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct while discussing innate language processes, and recommended Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents as his top choice for reading Freud. Additionally, he recommended Rory Sutherland's book Alchemy as an insightful read on human behavior and business, and noted that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow served as a catalyst for his own writing regarding intense work and satisfaction. On Conversations with Tyler, Bloom highlighted William James's The Principles of Psychology, describing it as a neglected classic that blew him away when he finally read its chapter on habit. In the same conversation, he discussed Robert Wright's claims regarding monotheism and polytheistic origins as referenced in the Hebrew Bible. Through these recommendations, Bloom underscored foundational works in psychology, human nature, and behavioral science that continue to inform his research and intellectual pursuits.
Books recommended by Paul Bloom
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The Principles of Psychology
The Principles of Psychology by William James is an 1890 foundational classic in the field of psychology that explores human consciousness, habit, and emotion.
Recommended“I I I have gone through my my my adult life my my whole life without ever reading Principles of Psychology by William James. And then a couple of friends of mine invited me on their podcast to talk about his chapter on habit. And I read it and it blew me away. It's an incredible book.”
Where to get it
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Alchemy
Alchemy by Rory Sutherland is an insightful examination of behavioral economics and the psychological quirks that drive human decision-making in business and everyday life.
Recommended“and it's fantastic book by Rory Sutherland who's an an admin I guess in the UK called Alchemy”
Where to get it
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Civilization and Its Discontents
Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents is a foundational psychoanalytic text exploring the inevitable friction between individual desires for freedom and the restrictive demands of civilized society.
Recommended“my favorite book for Freud is civilization and that's discontents”
Where to get it
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Flow
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychological masterpiece that explores the state of optimal experience, immersion, and deep engagement where challenges perfectly match an individual's skill level, resulting in profound fulfillment and distorted perceptions of time.
Recommended“one of the one of the catalysts of the book though i didn't know it at the time was i read this book uh flo by uh chick sent me a long time ago and it had his radical thesis which is that people are better off when they're engaged in sort of serious intense work than when they're on”
Where to get it
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The Alien Corn
The Alien Corn by William Somerset Maugham is a compelling short story that examines the complex human dilemma of pursuing artistic ambitions versus recognizing personal limitations.
Recommended“There's a very um powerful Somerset mom short story called The Alien Corn uh which is about a young man who desperately wants to be a great pianist, a great musician”
Where to get it
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The Language Instinct
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker is a seminal popular science exploration of how humans acquire, use, and biologically possess language.
Recommended“Steve Pinker wrote a wonderful book called language Instinct where he talks about that process you were talking about before baby is instinctual”
Where to get it
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A Billion Wicked Thoughts
A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam is a popular science book exploring human sexuality, desire, and psychology by analyzing massive datasets of online behavior and search patterns.
Discussed“um yeah yes it's weird stuff um there's there's from his book there's another book called something like 10 billion wicked thoughts and basically if you you know sex research into what people like the uses to ask people”
Where to get it
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Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is a memoir that explores strict traditional Chinese parenting methods, cultural differences in academic drive, and the intense pressures placed on children.
Discussed“Amy Amy Chua who who is a friend of mine who brought the the idea in her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”
Where to get it
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Blink
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is an exploration of rapid cognition and the power of the unconscious mind, demonstrating how the human brain makes decisions in the blink of an eye using minimal information.
Discussed“I know you know Malcolm Gladwell famously wrote a book blinks making a similar claim that that the gut the intuition is is fast”
Where to get it
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It
It by Stephen King is a sprawling horror novel that chronicles a group of childhood friends facing an evil entity in their hometown, sparking generations of terror and nostalgia.
Discussed“so you know I'm I'm reading a Stephen King novel now the Institute and a lot of those this boy who's trapped up he's been kidnapped”
Where to get it
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Lolita
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a controversial and acclaimed novel about an adult man's obsessive and abusive relationship with a young girl.
Discussed“you know you're one of my favorite books is Lolita by Nava cough you know”
Where to get it
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“um because this is um my subtitle the search for meaning is a is a shout out to his book man search for meaning”
Where to get it
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Memento
Memento is a critically acclaimed neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan, following a man with anterograde amnesia who attempts to find his wife's murderer.
Discussed“or or these cases like these famous case where people can't form new memories is in the excellent movie Memento Christopher Nolan's film this guy can't form new memories”
Where to get it
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Moonwalking with Einstein
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer is a fascinating non-fiction work that chronicles the author's year-long journey into the U.S.
Discussed“he's a writer he wrote a book called moonwalking with Einstein where he outlies the sort the historical the classical memory techniques where you basically got to make Vivid associations between things”
Where to get it
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The Confessions
The Confessions is a profound spiritual autobiography by Saint Augustine that chronicles his journey from a restless, hedonistic youth to a life of Christian faith.
Discussed“the classic example which is Saint Augustine in the confessions one day he and his friends go into an orchard and they just start stealing the pears”
Where to get it
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The Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible by Dan Cohn-Sherbok is an ancient foundational collection of religious texts detailing the history, law, and prophetic traditions of the Jewish people.
Discussed“So, one idea and this this is Robert Wright's claim. I think other people have argued this that we start off polytheistic polytheism is sort of the default. Society start off polytheistic. Even in the Hebrew Bible, it might begin rather polytheistic when when God talks about not worshipping other gods uh instead of him, he's literally talking about other”
Where to get it
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The Institute
Discussed“so you know I'm I'm reading a Stephen King novel now the Institute and a lot of those this boy who's trapped up he's been kidnapped”
Where to get it
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The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud is a foundational psychoanalytic text that introduces the concept of dream analysis as a window into the unconscious mind and repressed desires.
Critiqued“but I wouldn't recommend anybody waiting into the interpretation of Dreams it's just it's a very big book”
Where to get it
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The Invisible Gorilla
Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons's book examines the limits of human perception and attention through classic psychological experiments.
Discussed“in fact they came to a book called Invisible Gorilla summarized by by Dan Simons and Chris chabri”
Where to get it
Books Paul Bloom wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (6: passing, ad reads, own books)
“i have come up with a new book uh called uh the sweet spot uh the pledge was suffering a search for meaning”
“i have come up with a new book uh called uh the sweet spot uh the pledge was suffering a search for meaning”
“so you know my book is titled the sweet spot and i have vowed not to try to insert the phrase to sweet spot into every conversation i fall into because it's very tempting”
“and I was my most recent book against against empathy and and I'm interested in closer if they're not addressed in the self”
“so some days I regret calling my book against empathy because the word empathy has a lot of meanings”
“and right so I hadn't booked against empathy and the subtitle is the case for rational compassion”