Podcast
Breaking Points book recommendations
Latest mentions
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Fully Automated Luxury Communism
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The Deficit Myth
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The Book of Frank Herbert
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Catch as Catch Can
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The Shallows
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Trump: The Art of the Deal
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The Canceling of the American Mind
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The American Wine Society Basic Guide to Pruning
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Generation Kill
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Neoconservatism
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Mein Kampf
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Hitler
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Band Of Brothers
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Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust
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There Is No Place for Us
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The age of entitlement
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The Jungle
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Cribsheet
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The First Forty Days
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Bringing Up Bébé
Most recommended on Breaking Points
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Trump: The Art of the Deal
Across multiple episodes of Breaking Points in April 2025, the hosts repeatedly referenced Donald J. Trump and Tony Schwartz's book, Trump: The Art of the Deal. The references were made while discussing the administration's negotiation tactics, shifting tariff policies, and the political framing of international trade disputes. The hosts used the book's title to sarcastically characterize or analyze Trump's approach to creating chaotic situations and subsequently declaring victory.
Discussed“I guess they'll go back to from the this will create jobs. Now they go back to Art of the Deal in the the meme that shows him going back and forth.”
Where to get it
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Abundance
On Breaking Points, the hosts discussed the book 'Abundance' co-authored by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The hosts noted that Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson were making media rounds to share the abundance concept and political theory. They announced and anticipated upcoming interviews with Derek Thompson regarding the discourse surrounding the new book.
Discussed“Ezra Klein has been making the media rounds for his new book on abundance and is getting very little push back.”
Where to get it
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All the Demons Are Here
Discussed“uh there's a new Biden book that is going to be coming out it is is um the inside story of his Decline and the cover up Jake Tapper is involved so that's led a lot of people to ask whether he is the right person to be um doing the reporting there whether he was himself in on part”
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Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Discussed“How to raise kids who aren't The Anxious Generation, The Self-driven Child, and even throwbacks like Battle Him of the Tiger Mother.”
Where to get it
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Delay, Deny, Defend
On Breaking Points, the hosts discuss Jay M. Feinman's book Delay, Deny, Defend across episodes in December 2024. They note that the book surged to the top of the Amazon bestseller list after being cited in connection with the murder of a healthcare CEO. The hosts analyze how the title reflects the well-known playbooks and tactics insurance companies use to deny coverage.
Discussed“You have the book 'Deny, Delay, Defend' which was cited on the shell casings by Luigi Mangion; that has surged to number three on the Amazon bestseller list.”
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Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham with 12 Silly Sounds!
Discussed“yes and there was the Green Eggs and Ham breeding that was much derided at the time”
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Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Discussed“And so to break down what this means for the world going forward, we're lucky to be joined by Aaron Basani, who's the co-founder of Navara Media and wrote an excellent book that I really recommend to everyone. Put this up on the screen titled Fully Automated Luxury Communism.”
Where to get it
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Neoconservatism
Discussed“This is a guy who again when he was in his what mid20s wrote neoconservatism and why we need it in ' 06 when the Iraq war was a disaster has since written books about migration about wokeness and now about whatever his latest in defense of the west book is.”
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The age of entitlement
Discussed“I mean, if people want to read a good um book on this, Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell is a a short read and it was hugely influential. I mean, I've seen some people point to the book Richard Hanania wrote a couple of years back, but Caldwell is the book that really um was influential on the right”
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The Jungle
Discussed“That was much more like, think of, you know, more denzian. Think of like, you know, Upton Sinclair and the way workers were treated in, you know, in the jungle.”
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A biography of James A. Garfield
Discussed“Anyway, I don't know a lot about Garfield; I do have a biography of him on my shelf, though, which is interesting.”
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A People's History of the United States
Discussed“If you want to put your kid into some Howard Zin University, that's your right.”
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Band Of Brothers
Discussed“That's like reading Band of Brothers for the first time about World War II.”
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Becoming
Discussed“I mean, to be honest, if you read both of their books, I have no idea how either of them is still in that marriage. It's totally insane... But if you read behind between the lines of, you really should read the chapters of his rise in his book and in her book. And if you read that, you're like,”
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Black Beauty
Discussed“Ryan writes about this in his book as a very organic, genuinely bottom-up way.”
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Blessing the World
Discussed“Derek Thompson is going to join us for an interview about his new book and the political theory that he is sharing here with Ezra Klein yeah I'm excited to talk to him this uh book taking there's a lot of discourse around it”
Where to get it
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Bringing Up Bébé
Discussed“It's called Bringing Up Bay. One American mother discovers the wisdom of French parenting.”
Where to get it
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Can't Hurt Me
Discussed“From his Goodreads profile, he had a couple of books listed He had David Goggins' 'Can't Hurt Me' and also some books indicating his interest in addressing back pain, including 'Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery', 'Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance', and 'Back Mechanic' by Dr. Stuart McGill”
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Catch as Catch Can
Discussed“so that if I order you to return them you can't come back with some catch 22 argument of oh too bad already let him go.”
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Commentaries on the laws of England
Discussed“you mentioned the Benjamin Franklin quote that I had cited where he said it is more just to allow 100 guilty people to go free than to punish wrongfully a single innocent person that comes from Blackstone which is the foundation of American and British law”
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Cribsheet
Discussed“And that is why I am urging any expectant parent read these books and her follow-up crib sheet.”
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Den of Thieves
Discussed“Anyway uh den of thieves great book recommendation if you've never read it uh the movie Wall Street was uh based on some of the characters that were in there iosi and Michael I Michael milin is one of the most notorious white collar criminals literally of all time”
Where to get it
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Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Discussed“I do recommend if anybody ever wants to, you should read uh Ezra Vogle has a biography of Deng Xiaoping and Deng specifically was purged and was one of these people who was purged and actually sent to go work in a factory and his period during the cultural revolution and the great leap forward.”
Where to get it
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Dreams from My Father
Discussed“I mean, to be honest, if you read both of their books, I have no idea how either of them is still in that marriage. It's totally insane... But if you read behind between the lines of, you really should read the chapters of his rise in his book and in her book. And if you read that, you're like,”
Where to get it
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Generation Kill
Discussed“I mean that changed a lot of people's minds or that book generation kill having the guy literally in the front Humvey and people were like this is a cluster [ __ ]”
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Hillbilly Elegy
Discussed“Yeah, and I know we're going to get into all of that, because again, we have a Sager tweet, but it echoes something that you actually heard from JD Vance in Hillbilly Elegy that he's since kind of recanted this critique of American culture.”
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Hitler
Discussed“Chapter 1, volume 2, Ian Kershaw's Hitler, 1936 to 1945, called Nemesis.”
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Homage to Catalonia
Discussed“Obviously, people say 'man' in George Orwell's book 'Homage to Catalonia.' But it's much more of a thing in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.'”
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If I Must Die
Discussed“Next week, on Tuesday, there's a book called 'If I Must Die,' which is Ratallah's posthumously published book of prose and poems.”
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Industrial Society and Its Future
Discussed“The Times published the entire Unabomber manifesto, so...”
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It Ends With Us
On Breaking Points, the hosts discussed It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover in the context of its cinematic adaptation starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. The speakers examined the media intrigue surrounding viral premiere clips of Blake Lively, noting that the story had grown from a bestselling book into a significant cultural and celebrity discussion point.
Discussed“Well, Crystal, the saga of 'It Ends With Us,' starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, has officially crossed the threshold from a story of celebrity intrigue to one of greater import.”
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Kids for cash
Discussed“They called this man— I remember covering this case—it was the 'Kids for Cash.'”
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Mao Tŝe-tung's quotations
Discussed“Go read some Mao; like you think that any of those revolutionaries would be tolerating this level of indiscipline when they actually believe that their revolution is important, is so important that it is going to save humanity?”
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Mein Kampf
Discussed“And then once he got power, then he carried then then he and people say, "Well, he wrote Minecom."”
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My Life
Discussed“So do you have any good books on the history of the Clinton administration? I only read My Life, which is complete propaganda, by the way. It's just laughable.”
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Nineteen Eighty-Four
Discussed“Now rewind to Vietnam; all the people who feel nostalgic have this Cronkite book behind me. People should go and read it because the news has always been fake; it's just that now you know it's fake.”
Where to get it
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No Logo
Discussed“uh is none other than uh Naomi Klene who relevant to this uh this conversation is the author of uh many uh books but in particular no logo published in 1999 which kind of drew inspiration from and also provided inspiration to uh the burgeoning anti-globalization movement at the time.”
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Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust
Discussed“He's author of a number of books including the origins of woke and also has his own Substack.”
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Positively American
Discussed“so Chuck Schumer um is having a hard time selling his new book and man Ryan just keeps getting's trying to compete with Ezra Klein”
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Ready Player One
Discussed“and he is ready player one he is the hero of the story he is the only acting person with agency who is acting and creating this Grand Adventure of humanity”
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Study Guide
Discussed“In my book, The Squad, I interviewed a lot of AOC's staff members who said very early in 2019 that this was a fundamental question facing her as she came into office: would she try to get along with her colleagues and move up the ranks of the Democratic Party, building power that way, and then use that power for”
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The 1619 Project
Discussed“Well, I think that if you're going to teach it in such a way, uh, like the 1619 project did, which was also funded and then used at some of these elite universities to say America is irrevocably racist, then what are we all doing here?”
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The 48 Laws of Power (Special Power Edition)
Discussed“He features very prominently in um the popular book I'm forgetting 48 Laws of Power there are a ton of Toran quotes”
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The American Wine Society Basic Guide to Pruning
Discussed“In Greg, you didn't just write cancelling of the American mind. That was a follow-up to a really great book you wrote as well called The Coddling of the American Wine with John Height. And that's a really important book.”
Where to get it
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The antitrust paradox
Discussed“What she said on Hasan's show is one of the reasons conservatives don't like her, as Rachel Bard has talked about, is that the consumer welfare standard of Robert Bork was gospel on the right for a long time.”
Where to get it
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The Anxious Generation
Discussed“How to raise kids who aren't The Anxious Generation, The Self-driven Child, and even throwbacks like Battle Him of the Tiger Mother.”
Where to get it
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The Book of Frank Herbert
Discussed“A good book, a good novel to think of this all through is the is the book June I think which offers a really interesting prism. On the one hand, you have hyper advanced technologies accompanying effectively a quasi feudal political order and you know we always presume that technological advance will go hand in hand with you know social”
Where to get it
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The Canceling of the American Mind
Discussed“First of all, you are the author of several books and more recently this one. Let's put it up there on the screen, The Cancelling of the American Mind. But more recently, uh you know, you might look at that and be like, "Oh, this is a right-wing guest or something."”
Where to get it
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The Children
Discussed“another one of my favorite books is called uh it's like this no it's uh the best and the brightest David halberstam and specifically a reconstruction of the US decision to you know escalate into Vietnam”
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The Constitution of the United States and related documents
Discussed“If you read the Constitution, there is no such thing as an independent agency, and yet there it is.”
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Host picks
Guest picks
Guests who recommended books
Latest mentions
Discussed Fully Automated Luxury Communism
“And then I'm going to speak with Erin Bastani. He wrote the book Fully Automated Luxury Communism several years back which I read at the time then I just reread and rereading it.”
Discussed The Deficit Myth
“It's a good point and I I I I agree with you Crystal that I I I I've been citing Stephanie Kelton's work in the past, you know, the deficit myth, which I think is an important book really I important in the Obama era, right, to kind of undercut a lot of the Republican claims there.”
Discussed The Book of Frank Herbert
“A good book, a good novel to think of this all through is the is the book June I think which offers a really interesting prism. On the one hand, you have hyper advanced technologies accompanying effectively a quasi feudal political order and you know we always presume that technological advance will go hand in hand with you know social”
Discussed Catch as Catch Can
“so that if I order you to return them you can't come back with some catch 22 argument of oh too bad already let him go.”
Discussed The Shallows
“Um, and Nicholas Carr started writing on this. When was the Shallows? Was like 2011. That's right.”
Discussed Trump: The Art of the Deal
“Oh, well, I guess it's art of the deal.”
Discussed The Canceling of the American Mind
“First of all, you are the author of several books and more recently this one. Let's put it up there on the screen, The Cancelling of the American Mind. But more recently, uh you know, you might look at that and be like, "Oh, this is a right-wing guest or something."”
“In Greg, you didn't just write cancelling of the American mind. That was a follow-up to a really great book you wrote as well called The Coddling of the American Wine with John Height. And that's a really important book.”
Discussed Generation Kill
“I mean that changed a lot of people's minds or that book generation kill having the guy literally in the front Humvey and people were like this is a cluster [ __ ]”
Discussed Neoconservatism
“You are a literal dilotant who flits about the world, writes neoonservatism and why we need it and now madness of crowds and the strange death of your It's like are you a expert on immigration?”
Discussed Mein Kampf
“And then once he got power, then he carried then then he and people say, "Well, he wrote Minecom."”
Discussed Hitler
“Chapter 1, volume 2, Ian Kershaw's Hitler, 1936 to 1945, called Nemesis.”
Discussed Band Of Brothers
“That's like reading Band of Brothers for the first time about World War II.”
“He's author of a number of books including the origins of woke and also has his own Substack.”
Discussed There Is No Place for Us
“And then we've have um Brian Goldstone on. He's written written a really important Roen... Um written a really important new book about, you know, we talk so much about the working poor. He digs into the working homeless, which is increasingly a reality, people who are doing everything they can, working full-time, but because housing and rent is so”
Discussed The age of entitlement
“Christopher Caldwell wrote a book called uh the age of entitlements back in I think it came out like in 2016 um saying it's kind of making it like Goldwater is Right argument all along but no I mean I think the that's the tension was between the conservative ideologues who from a charitable charitable perspective just had this very”
Discussed The Jungle
“Go read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair or the history of the Triangle Sherk Waist Fire for a refresher on how workers were treated at that time.”
Discussed Cribsheet
“And that is why I am urging any expectant parent read these books and her follow-up crib sheet.”
Discussed The First Forty Days
“By reading books such as the first 40 days, I learned this is not normal in the rest of the world.”
Discussed Bringing Up Bébé
“It's called Bringing Up Bay. One American mother discovers the wisdom of French parenting.”