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Steve Levitt books: every book Steve Levitt wrote and recommended
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Steve Levitt appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Steve Levitt
Steve Levitt’s most recommended books
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
- Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
- Life Undercover by Amaryllis Fox
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan
- Eve by Cat Bohannon
- The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Steven D. Levitt is an American economist, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, and co-author with Stephen J. Dubner of Freakonomics and its sequels, SuperFreakonomics and Think Like a Freak. He won the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work on crime, and Time named him one of its "100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006. He hosts People I (Mostly) Admire, part of the Freakonomics Radio network.
On People I (Mostly) Admire he often recommends his guests' books and others that bear on the episode's subject. He pointed listeners interested in the future of universities to Michael M. Crow's The Fifth Wave, and suggested Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms. He highlighted Brian Cox's Black Holes, Irving Finkel's The Ark Before Noah and Bill McGowan's Speak, Memorably. He recommended David Yeager's 10 to 25 for changing how adults talk with young people, and called Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass one of the most popular books of the past decade. This page collects every book he recommended or discussed, with his own words and the episode.
Books recommended by Steve Levitt
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Superfreakonomics
SuperFreakonomics by Steven D.
Discussed“I was in New York City shortly after the release of super Freakonomics the follow-up to Freakonomics and that book was proving to be quite controversial because of a chapter we had written on climate change”
Where to get it
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Freakonomics
Freakonomics by Steven D.
Critiqued“A lot of the content from the Hartley podcast was used in a rather snarky article that the magazine published titled, 'Why Freakonomics Failed to Transform Economics.'”
Where to get it
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is a seminal exploration of behavioral psychology that examines the two systems of the human mind—intuitive thinking and deliberate reasoning—and how cognitive biases drive systematic errors in judgment.
Discussed“It's what Danny Conorman calls system one versus system two thinking. Can you explain to someone why those two modes of thinking matter? Reading Danny Conaman's book, Thinking Fast and Slow, really was just a life-changing experience for me and so many other people”
Where to get it
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Between Two Kingdoms
Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad is a compelling memoir chronicling the author's battle with leukemia and her subsequent journey of recovery and reintegration into normal life.
Discussed“I'm not generally an emotional or an empathetic person, but I cried over and over reading your book between two kingdoms.”
Where to get it
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Sapiens
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is a sweeping narrative that traces the evolutionary and historical development of the human species from prehistoric bands to modern civilizations.
Discussed“And so what was interesting as I read his amazing book Sapiens, there is not a character in the entire book.”
Where to get it
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Enlightenment Now
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker is a widely acclaimed book that uses data and numerous charts to argue for long-term human progress, global prosperity, and the triumphs of reason and science.
Discussed“Five years ago, we talked a lot about his book entitled Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.”
Where to get it
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Life Undercover
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox is a memoir detailing the author's nearly a decade-long career as a clandestine CIA operative.
Discussed“So I absolutely loved your book.”
Where to get it
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The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is an acclaimed young adult novel that follows two teenagers coping with terminal cancer diagnoses who fall in love while navigating the painful realities of mortality.
Discussed“Have you read The Fault in Our Stars? It's John Green's book about two young people, I think, with cancer who are dying, who fall in love. It's one of my favorite books. I love John Green. I had him on the show. He was amazing.”
Where to get it
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Scarcity
Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir is a psychological exploration of how having too little of things like money or time shapes human thinking, decision-making, and behavior.
Discussed“But in this week's episode, I pick up in the middle of our conversation with me telling Sendil about my first reaction to hearing that he had written a book entitled Scarcity.”
Where to get it
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Eve
Eve by Cat Bohannon is a popular science book exploring how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution.
Discussed“I did not expect to like this book I'm generally just not that interested in things that happened 200 million years ago or even 10,000 years ago I tend to be much more excited by modern events but in chapter after chapter K bannan offers such a fresh and surprising perspective that I couldn't put the book down”
Where to get it
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The Soul of an Octopus
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery is a fascinating exploration into the inner lives, intelligence, and consciousness of one of the natural world's most mysterious creatures.
Discussed“are you familiar with the nature writer sa Montgomery y among many other books she wrote one called the soul of the octopus”
Where to get it
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The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a foundational 1776 text by the Scottish thinker often regarded as the father of modern economics, exploring free markets, capitalism, and the mechanics of national wealth.
Discussed“I'd forgotten that Dubner had done this three-part series on Adam Smith, and to win the Adam Smith Award, Dubner crafted an absolutely brilliant speech in which he talked about Adam Smith's life and details; it was really masterful.”
Where to get it
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A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking's landmark popular science book has served as an iconic introduction to cosmology and black holes for millions of readers worldwide.
Discussed“I think like many people my first real introduction to black holes was Stephen Hawkings book a brief history of time and I think that book must have come out in the 1980s and it sold millions and millions of copies probably one of the bestselling science books of all time.”
Where to get it
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker is a sweeping historical and data-driven book arguing that violence has steadily declined over the course of human history.
Discussed“I think a great example comes from another one of your books called the better angels of our nature which argues that violence has greatly decreased over time and that doesn't strike me as being a very funny topic”
Where to get it
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Why Nations Fail
Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A.
Discussed“so back in 2012 you and James Robinson published a book called why Nations fail the origins of power prosperity and poverty”
Where to get it
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Power and Progress
Power and Progress by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson is a critically acclaimed economics book examining how technological innovations shape societal prosperity and the distribution of gains.
Discussed“I want to talk about your most recent book it's co-authored with Simon Johnson and it's called power and progress came out in May of 2023”
Where to get it
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Outlive
Outlive by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford is a comprehensive health and longevity guide focused on practical steps to improve vitality, manage biological markers, and extend lifespan through proactive medicine.
Recommended“It has taken him seven years to collect and organize his insights into his first book. It's called 'Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.'”
Where to get it
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How to Say Goodbye
How to Say Goodbye by Wendy MacNaughton is a poignant collection of illustrations and prose that gently explores grief, mortality, and the emotional realities of saying farewell.
Discussed“so I'm breaking out of my fear of artist mode to talk to you today because you have created something that's incredibly beautiful and that touched me so deeply it's a book of illustrations of pros and it's called how to say goodbye”
Where to get it
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Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer is a foundational philosophy text that galvanized the modern animal rights movement by arguing against the moral permissibility of animal exploitation.
Discussed“I personally know at least a dozen people who became vegetarian after they read his book animal Liberation and the effective altruism movement is in large part the consequence of his early writings on the topic”
Where to get it
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Range
Range by David J.
Discussed“I had David Epstein on the show a couple years back he's written some great books like range and the sports Gene”
Where to get it
- Drug Use for Grown-Ups by Carl L. Hart
- Woke Racism by John McWhorter
- Career and Family by Claudia Dale Goldin
- Breath by James Nestor
- Sum by David Eagleman
- The evolution of cooperation by Robert M. Axelrod
- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
- Livewired by David Eagleman
- Creative Acts for Curious People by Sarah Stein Greenberg
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- Nine Nasty Words : English in the Gutter by John McWhorter
- The Premonition by Michael Lewis
- The undoing project by Michael Lewis
- Deep by James Nestor
- Nudge by Richard H. Thaler
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Noise by Daniel Kahneman
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
- The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall, Douglas Abrams
- The Sports Gene by David Epstein
- Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
- High Price by Carl Hart
- Once upon a Prime by Sarah Hart
- The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
- Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
- Subtract by Leidy Klotz
- Waking Up by Sam Harris
- Plant Hunter by Cassandra Leah Quave
- The Perfection Trap by Thomas Curran
Steve Levitt’s latest episodes with books
Steve Levitt’s book recommendations by year
All 187 books Steve Levitt recommended or discussed across 145 episodes, filed by the year each episode came out. Each year goes episode by episode, with the minute every book came up.