Person
Every book Yannis Pappas recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Yannis Pappas appears on, in one place — not just one.
Yannis Pappas frequently appears as a guest on prominent programs such as The Joe Rogan Experience and the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he engages in wide-ranging discussions that span history, comedy, human psychology, and cultural phenomena. Across these appearances, Pappas has recommended and discussed several notable books that explore the depths of human suffering, resilience, and motivation. During an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Pappas brought up Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score to illustrate how trauma affects the physical body, connecting it to broader conversations about mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder therapy. In another discussion on the same podcast, Pappas and the host talked about Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning to examine the psychological realities and survival of the Holocaust, a work also mentioned alongside Sheila Faith Weiss's The Nazi Symbiosis, which deals with the use of Holocaust victims by Nazi scientists for research. Furthermore, Pappas referenced Ernest Becker's philosophical work The Denial of Death on the Lex Fridman Podcast, agreeing with the premise that much of the human condition is rooted in the fear of mortality. Pappas also touched upon other written works and cultural touchstones during his podcast appearances, including Jose Canseco's Juiced to discuss steroid revelations in baseball, William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice in the context of difficult decisions, and the sports documentary Athlete A regarding systemic abuse scandals in gymnastics.
Books recommended by Yannis Pappas
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“well like ‘Man's Search for Meaning’ with Victor Frankl. You ever read that? No. Victor Frankl, he survived the Holocaust...”
Where to get it
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The Body Keeps the Score
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk is an influential exploration of how trauma physically impacts the brain and body, offering pathways to healing through modern science and therapy.
Recommended“there's a book called um the body keeps the score by I think his name is Bessel”
Where to get it
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The Nazi symbiosis
The Nazi Symbiosis by Sheila Faith Weiss examines the complex historical interactions and exploitation of vulnerable populations by German researchers during the World War II era.
Recommended“They said, okay, let's liberate them now! What scientific data was it yielding supposedly? Yeah, it's this book I read called The Nazi Symbiosis. They talked all about it.”
Where to get it
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Animal Farm
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic allegorical novella that uses a farmyard setting to satirize the corruption of socialist ideals and the rise of totalitarianism following the Russian Revolution.
Discussed“and one of my favorite books is animal farm by orwell and the horses don't get a good ending in that”
Where to get it
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Juiced
Juiced by Jose Canseco is a tell-all memoir detailing the widespread use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball.
Discussed“it's called juiced you know if there's a reason why yeah juice wild times rampant roids smash hits and how baseball got big”
Where to get it
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Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice by William Styron is a powerful and tragic novel that examines guilt, suffering, and moral survival in the aftermath of the Holocaust, famously adapted into an acclaimed film starring Meryl Streep.
Discussed“sophie's choice that's a good one yeah that's a real sophie's choice where you gotta choose between explain that to people what is sofia sophie's choices like she had to choose it's great movie by a great movie with meryl streep uh you know that a lot of people just was you were supposed to read the book in high”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning psychological and philosophical study arguing that human civilization is ultimately driven by an unconscious terror of mortality.
Discussed“i i mean i'm with ernest becker as a philosopher uh he wrote a book called denial of death”
Where to get it
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The Resilient Athlete: A Quranic Approach to Mental Toughness and Peak Performance
The Resilient Athlete: A Quranic Approach to Mental Toughness and Peak Performance by Arian Sadiqi explores the intersection of spiritual faith, psychological resilience, and athletic excellence.
Discussed“have you seen athlete a the documentary no dude it's called athlete a it's like hard it's disturbing like these girls are abused like that that dude Nasser like um molested like for 20 years with impunity”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“i'm like the bull durham yeah even when i did new faces in montreal which is like comics that's like when the industry takes a look at your whatever i was like i was like the dude i mean i was in what was i i was in my late 30s i felt like bull durham”