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Russ Roberts’s book recommendations in 2025

64 books · 37 episodes · Russ Roberts’s most recommended books, all years →

Every episode from 2025, newest first

In Defense of Intuition (with Gerd Gigerenzer)

EconTalk · 2025-12-29

The Intelligence of Intuition by Gerd Gigerenzer · discussed · at 0:22
Mathematica by David Bessis · discussed · at 4:13
Primal Intelligence by Angus Fletcher · discussed · at 5:03

Free Will Is Real (with Kevin Mitchell)

EconTalk · 2025-12-15

Determined by Robert M. Sapolsky · discussed · at 0:43
Free Agents by Kevin J. Mitchell · discussed · at 3:09

Colonialism, Slavery, and Foreign Aid (with William Easterly)

EconTalk · 2025-12-08

Violent Saviors by William Easterly · discussed · at 0:16
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith · discussed · at 25:09
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith · discussed · at 27:31

The Perfect Tuba: How Band, Grit, and Community Build a Better Life (with Sam Quinones)

EconTalk · 2025-12-01

The Perfect Tuba by Sam Quinones · discussed · at 0:15

The Wonder of the Emergent Mind (with Gaurav Suri)

EconTalk · 2025-11-17

The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines by Gaurav Suri · discussed · at 0:09
The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts · recommended · at 1:06:51

Shampoo, Property Rights, and Civilization (with Anthony Gill)

EconTalk · 2025-11-10

Evil by Roy F. Baumeister · discussed · at 51:41

Primal Intelligence (with Angus Fletcher)

EconTalk · 2025-11-03

Primal Intelligence by Angus Fletcher · discussed · at 5:55
Mathematica by David Bessis · discussed · at 54:15

A Mind-Blowing Way of Looking at Math (with David Bessis)

EconTalk · 2025-10-27

Mathematica by David Bessis · recommended · at 1:03

Twenty Years of Freakonomics (with Stephen Dubner)

EconTalk · 2025-10-20

The economics of discrimination by Gary Stanley Becker · discussed · at 9:08

The Invisible Hierarchies that Rule Our World (with Toby Stuart)

EconTalk · 2025-10-06

Anointed by Toby Stuart · discussed · at 10:28

Eating with Intelligence (with Julia Belluz)

EconTalk · 2025-09-29

Food Intelligence by Julia Belluz · discussed · at 10:29

Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge

EconTalk · 2025-09-22

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry · discussed · at 13:45
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman · book club pick · at 42:39
Universal Economics by Armen Albert Alchian · discussed · at 1:10:49
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... by Steven Pinker · recommended · at 1:22:03

How Did America Build the Arsenal of Democracy? (with Brian Potter)

EconTalk · 2025-09-15

Memoirs of the Second World War by Winston Churchill · discussed · at 44:20

Humans Are Overrated (with Christine Webb)

EconTalk · 2025-09-01

The Arrogant Ape by Christine Webb · discussed · at 14:09
Tribe by Sebastian Junger · discussed · at 27:21

Hemingway, Love, and War (with David Wyatt)

EconTalk · 2025-08-25

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway · discussed · at 0:15

Learning to Think Like Someone Else (with David Marquet)

EconTalk · 2025-08-11

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway · book club pick · at 0:06

Read Like a Champion (with Doug Lemov)

EconTalk · 2025-07-28

Atonement by Ian McEwan · discussed · at 42:11
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway · recommended · at 47:53
Middlemarch by George Eliot · recommended · at 48:57
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner · discussed · at 56:36
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner · recommended · at 57:06

James Marriott on Reading

EconTalk · 2025-07-21

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson · discussed · at 40:34
My Brilliant Friend by Chiara Lagani · discussed · at 42:10
The Social Contract by Robert Ardrey · discussed · at 44:29
The Three Languages of Politics by Arnold Kling · recommended · at 45:30
CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? by ANTHONY TROLLOPE · recommended · at 1:05:37

What Is Capitalism? (with Mike Munger)

EconTalk · 2025-07-07

The Truce by Primo Levi · discussed · at 12:36
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith · discussed · at 15:58
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith · discussed · at 16:21

The Deceptive Power of Maps (with Paulina Rowinska)

EconTalk · 2025-06-30

Mapmatics: A Mathematician's Guide to Navigating the World by Unknown · discussed · at 0:10

Leon Kass on the Wisdom of Rousseau

EconTalk · 2025-06-16

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau · discussed · at 0:45
Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau · discussed · at 0:45
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith · discussed · at 12:34
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter · discussed · at 18:28
European Self-representations at the New York World's Fair of 1939 by David E. Nye · recommended · at 21:42

EconTalk #1000 (with Russ Roberts)

EconTalk · 2025-06-02

Aspiration by Agnes Callard · recommended · at 1:04:42
Transformative Experience by L. A. Paul · recommended · at 1:04:42
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith · discussed · at 1:05:01

Nature vs. Nurture (with Paul Bloom)

EconTalk · 2025-05-26

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell · recommended · at 28:22
The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom · discussed · at 1:00:54

The Past and Present of Privacy and Public Life (with Tiffany Jenkins)

EconTalk · 2025-05-12

Strangers and Intimates by Tiffany Jenkins · discussed · at 0:15
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius by Dave Eggers · discussed · at 58:00

The Past and Future of AI (with Dwarkesh Patel)

EconTalk · 2025-04-28

The Scaling Era by Dwarkesh Patel · discussed · at 4:12

Why Christianity Needs to Help Save Democracy (with Jonathan Rauch)

EconTalk · 2025-04-21

Cross Purposes by Jonathan Rauch · discussed · at 0:16

Rational and Religious (with Ross Douthat)

EconTalk · 2025-04-14

Believe by Ross Douthat · discussed · at 1:01
Bittersweet by Susan Cain · discussed · at 1:05:46

The Music and Magic of John and Paul (with Ian Leslie)

EconTalk · 2025-04-07

John & Paul by Ian Leslie · discussed · at 0:04

Do All Creatures, Great and Small, and Made From Silicon, Have Rights? (with Jeff Sebo)

EconTalk · 2025-03-31

The Moral Circle by Jeff Sebo · discussed · at 0:12

Will Guidara on Unreasonable Hospitality

EconTalk · 2025-03-10

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara · discussed · at 0:23

The Struggle That Shaped the Middle East (with James Barr)

EconTalk · 2025-02-24

A Line in the Sand by James Barr · recommended · at 0:24
International Institutions of the Middle East by James Worrall · recommended · at 0:24

Who Won the Socialist Calculation Debate (with Peter Boettke)

EconTalk · 2025-02-17

Socialism by Ludwig Von Mises · discussed · at 11:42

Minimalists and Hoarders (with Michael Easter)

EconTalk · 2025-02-10

The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter · discussed · at 39:01

Coase, the Rules of the Game, and the Costs of Perfection (with Daisy Christodoulou)

EconTalk · 2025-02-03

I Can't Stop Thinking About VAR by Daisy Christodoulou · recommended · at 1:09:06

Why AI Is Good for Humans (with Reid Hoffman)

EconTalk · 2025-01-27

THE ALLIANCE by Reid Hoffman · discussed · at 0:17
Superagency by Reid Hoffman · discussed · at 0:26

Weep, Shudder, Die: The Secret of Opera Revealed (with Dana Gioia)

EconTalk · 2025-01-20

Madam Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini · recommended · at 13:38
La Boheme by .Giacomo Puccini · discussed · at 14:26
The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · recommended · at 14:34
Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · recommended · at 14:34
Anthem by Ayn Rand · discussed · at 32:44

Understanding the Settler Colonialism Movement (with Adam Kirsch)

EconTalk · 2025-01-06

On Settler Colonialism by Adam Kirsch · discussed · at 7:28
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan · recommended · at 36:41

Other mentions in 2025 (45: passing, ad reads, own books)