Person
Vivek Ramaswamy's book recommendations
Across 6 podcasts. Every show Vivek Ramaswamy appears on, in one place — not just one.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s most recommended books
- The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
- The Bhagavad Gita by Jack Hawley
- The Constitution of Liberty by Friedrich August Hayek
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Gordon Malkiel
- An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Bible by Bible
- Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides' Trap? by Graham Allison, Andrew Hastie
Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur and politician. He founded Roivant Sciences, a biotechnological pharmaceutical company, in 2014 and was its chief executive officer until 2021. Ramaswamy entered national politics as the youngest presidential candidate in the 2024 Republican primaries, but withdrew his bid and endorsed Donald Trump. He is currently the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio in the 2026 gubernatorial election and has been endorsed by both Trump and the Ohio Republican Party. During podcast appearances on shows like The Ezra Klein Show, The Megyn Kelly Show, and The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, Ramaswamy has both recommended and discussed foundational philosophical and economic texts. When asked for reading suggestions, he explicitly recommended Friedrich Von Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty and The Road to Serfdom, as well as Jack Hawley's translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Beyond direct recommendations, Ramaswamy used Hayek's The Road to Serfdom to argue that classical libertarians recognize a nation cannot depend on adversaries for self-defense. He also referenced Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street to draw analogies regarding poll accuracy, and mentioned biblical narratives from Exodus and Genesis during discussions about human nature, feeling lost, and choosing a spouse wisely, in addition to briefly acknowledging his own book, Woke, Inc.
Books recommended by Vivek Ramaswamy
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Nation of Victims
Nation of Victims by Vivek Ramaswamy investigates the rise of identity politics, the erosion of meritocracy, and the cultural shift toward grievance-based narratives in modern American society.
Discussed“And then actually the unfinished work was what led to Nation of Victims, which is the book that I'm putting out now.”
Where to get it
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The Road to Serfdom
The Road to Serfdom by F.
Discussed“like even if you're classical hiek style libertarian read the road to serfdom he would even admit and even embrace the idea that Nation cannot depend on its adversary for its own National self-defense”
Where to get it
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The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a profound philosophical novel that explores deep spiritual questions surrounding faith, free will, morality, and the human condition.
Discussed“actually which came from not the Bible but from fyodor dostoyevsky's book uh the brothers karamazov Brothers gay uh in his chapter entitled The Grand Inquisitor actually and it tells the story of how Christ comes back to Earth during the 15th or 16th century or whatever in Seville Spain”
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“1776 was the year of the birth of the nation that was the year of The Wealth of Nations that was Adam Smith's famous text it was also the year of the Declaration of Independence and I think that both of these are America's parents”
Where to get it
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The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Jack Hawley, is an ancient sacred text that imparts profound spiritual wisdom, ethical duties, and philosophical guidance through a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Krishna.
Recommended“and I'd actually because I'm in the mood today I'll recommend the bgav with Gita which is a um which is you obviously religious text but has has great important”
Where to get it
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The Constitution of Liberty
The Constitution of Liberty by Friedrich August Hayek is a classic defense of classical liberalism and individual freedom, examining the institutional frameworks necessary for a free society.
Recommended“so I would say uh the constitution of Liberty by Friedrich Von Hayek”
Where to get it
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A Random Walk Down Wall Street
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Gordon Malkiel is a foundational financial text arguing that stock market prices are completely unpredictable and that passive index investing outperforms active stock picking.
Discussed“The reality is it reminds me of there's an old book called A Random Walk Down Wall Street, something to that effect, which basically concludes that a monkey throwing darts at a dartboard, picking stocks that way would either equally perform or outperform on a post-fee basis most professional Wall Street analysts or portfolio managers.”
Where to get it
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An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore is a documentary film and companion book highlighting the looming crisis of global warming and urging urgent action to protect the environment.
Discussed“this is supposed to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth”
Where to get it
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Bad Blood
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou is an immersive investigative non-fiction book that uncovers the massive corporate fraud behind Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-testing startup, Theranos.
Discussed“Megan I don't know what I've seen in the documentaries and and uh read in in the book about her bad blood”
Where to get it
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Bible
The Bible is a foundational anthology of sacred texts and scriptures central to both Judaism and Christianity, detailing narratives of creation, prophetic guidance, historical accounts, and moral teachings that have shaped Western civilization for millennia.
Discussed“In some ways, we are running contrary to our nature as man, which leaves a vacuum in its wake that leaves us lost, like the Israelites in The Book of Exodus.”
Where to get it
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Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides' Trap?
Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides' Trap? by Graham Allison and Andrew Hastie explores the historical pattern wherein a rising power threatens to displace a ruling hegemon, frequently culminating in war.
Discussed“and that if you know there's the famous thought experiment of the thucydides trap graham allison popularized it which said that effectively when you have a an empire in decline another rising empire they're inevitably destined to enter into physical conflict”
Where to get it
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Elements
Elements by Euclid is an ancient mathematical treatise that systematically established the foundational principles and axioms of geometry over two millennia ago.
Discussed“And you're studying Exodus, but this might be more of a Genesis example.”
Where to get it
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Lean In
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg is a prominent corporate manifesto that examines the structural barriers women face in the workplace and encourages female leaders to pursue professional ambition assertively.
Discussed“i'm thinking about sheryl sandberg and her book lean in which encouraged people to work hard and go for it”
Where to get it
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The big short
The Big Short by Michael Lewis is a non-fiction book examining the accumulation of risk and the bursting of the housing bubble that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Discussed“I got my first job in New York at an elite hedge fund in the fall of 2007 you know the fund I worked at got an honorable mention in Michael Lewis's book The Big Short this is my first job out of college”
Where to get it
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The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith is a seminal 1759 work of moral philosophy that examines the psychological foundations of human judgment, empathy, and social order.
Discussed“Adam Smith's first book was actually about ethics”
Where to get it
Books by Vivek Ramaswamy
Appearances
Other mentions (47: passing, ad reads, own books), the 30 most recent
“It's a centerpiece of the book that I'm putting out this week as well. We got to be honest. I'm a realist about this. You're always going to be taking a risk.”
“This plays right into one of the themes of truths, the future of America first, which is there are two genders. Right. And I think that what we see is when we talk about this across the country,”
“One of the things I'm trying to do both with this book and the way in which we're going to college campuses, like the one you aired before across the country is to be able to engage in an affable manner with people who deeply disagree with us, but without compromising at all on the core principle of standing for”
“And this also the book is called, you know, truth, the future of America first. I think this too is part of the importance of the future of America first is I don't care about the appearance of appearing pugilistic.”
“And that's one of the things that I learned from the campaign, but also one of the things that I'm trying to do through this book is you won't see me at the end of a, at the end of a hard fight, compromise on principle or policy in the end.”
“So my basic thesis in the book is I actually pick up where I left off my last book Woke Inc which was about the curious merger of political and social agendas with corporate America's interests”
“So my basic thesis in the book is I actually pick up where I left off my last book Woke Inc which was about the curious merger of political and social agendas with corporate America's interests”
“So one way or another as I say in the book we see ourselves as victims of one another are an immutable agent on a tectonic plate of group identity a prisoner of whatever direction that tectonic plate moves”
“But it's very difficult to give up your status as a victim so there's a game theory problem here even I don't mean to be too philosophical about this but one of the cases I make in the book is Immanuel Kant actually talked about a paradox of fishermen”
“Jussie Smollett fake hate crime hoax that was dismissed as a conservative talking point actually in the first chapter of the book one of the things I detail is how many countless examples we have seen of these alleged hate crime hoaxes”
“So one of the things I discovered Megan is in the culture we live in right now it is very difficult to persuade someone of a point of view that they do not already hold so one of my methods that I try to bear in this book to accomplish that otherwise”
“This is part of the book where there I mean there are literally like seven examples of these back-to-back I mean this is not a one-off incident right there's just a small thing you bring that up”
“I mean that's that's the ultimately the case I make in the in the book is that look at the end of the day China actually believes in hiring based on merit”
“but at the end of the day we may be so far down the path that one of the things i predict in the book and this is part of when i trace the parts of roman history as well you know the optimistic part of this megan is that we often think about the fact that there was one”
“i mean there's 11 chapters in the book one of them is dedicated to conservative victimhood i think that you know the ratio is it is it asymmetric in the world the way that you that the way that exactly that you described i think absolutely it is”
“are we actually that much better off just mad without without laying out a path forward and so i made some cases for some provocative ideas in the book a revival of civic duty”
“a title of the book is entitled a theory of duty it's a play on john rawls's famous a theory of justice that was a north star for much of the liberal movement for much of the latter 20th century”
“we were carthage which i don't know not i didn't go to harvard so explain carthage and how we might be carthage instead of rome and china might be rome well so i draw an extended uh allegory in the book between the punic wars between between rome and carthage the two great empires of their day”
“and so i do spend some time going into the book into some detail on what's at stake i mean why does china care about invading taiwan it's not just about national pride”
“and at the end of the day we i said this before i'll say it again it may be necessity that compels us to actually uh that's actually get our act together to revive merit to revive that shared pursuit of excellence i hope that my book or or other speakers on this topic”
“I mean I was the chief Dei Crusader anti- Dei Crusader what four or five years ago when I wrote woke Inc and criticized the spread of wokeism through Corporate America and other parts of our culture”
“we are not victims we're not a nation of victims I wrote a book a couple years ago called nation of victims we should not at our best be a nation of victims”
“So I, and sort of in this, this part of why I wrote this book, okay? And I mean the book is called "Truths," so, I better darn well have well sourced facts in here, right?”
“And so, this is one of the core themes in my book. And you're talking about that as lies as artifice. I named the book truths for a reason.”
“So it's one of the things and it's great to see you again by the way because we have mostly kept that pledge and I think it's been Yeah. It's been a fun forcing function for me to also in conversations like this to take some space and reflect on what has been still a a life-changing journey. And you”
“I wrote Woke Inc. which actually was our first basis to get to know one another that first book and I've written this is my fourth book I've written in the last three years but this one's different in that it's not actually an academic exposition of any kind.”
“I had written three books I had traveled the country I had been to Most states in this Union as a consequence of my business activities across to the books I had written”
“I had written three books I had traveled the country I had been to Most states in this Union as a consequence of my business activities across to the books I had written”
“and I've spoken about this to the left my books are all about this I've preached this to the left”
“that's what the whole book is about the capitalist punishment book that I'm putting that's out today”