Books first mentioned on podcasts in week 2023-W36

“Barack Obama wrote in his memoir, "Every successful man is either trying to live up to his father's expectations or live down his father's sins." This is especially relevant for Elon, who had a violent and troubled childhood, with a psychologically complex father.”

“In 'Innovators,' another book of yours that I love, you write about individuals and groups. One of the questions the book addresses is whether it is individuals or groups that turn the tides of history.”

“And when she was going for tenure at the university, she wrote a biography of 'Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.' They denied her tenure because it was beneath the dignity of the academy to write history through one person.”

“That's one of the reasons you write books about these people, so that if you're a young woman in a school where you're not being told to do science, and you read 'The Code Breaker' about Jennifer Doudna, you say, 'Okay, I can be that.'”

“She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and is just one of my major heroes in life. Anyway, she had this conversation years ago with Bill Moyers and what I think is so fascinating, she said, you're only free when you realize you belong nowhere, everywhere, no place at all.”

“Yeah, it's, uh, if you read 'The Little Prince,' did you hear that book when you were a kid?”

“I remember at the start of the pandemic, you’ll probably know the book about the Spanish Flu. Yeah, The Great Influenza by John Berry. Yeah, so I was reading that book, and it's the same—like down to the freaking masking, all of it is the same.”

“And you know, what was interesting part of the research for Master of Change was just seeing throughout history how whenever there are periods of accelerated or punctuated change, there are always demagogues and grifters that just prey on people’s homeostatic mindset and natural inclination to be scared of change and to want to cling to the old stability or”

“I sometimes think of those Amelia Bedelia books about the girl who takes everything literally; you ask her to plant a bulb, and she puts a light bulb in the dirt. Here's prompt engineer Anna Bernstein.”

“The Hallow app also helps you connect with a community of like-minded individuals, sharing experiences, insights, and encouragement along the path to spiritual growth. Download the app for free at hallow.com/Jordan.”

“I mean, there are verses in Ecclesiastes that talk about repetition throughout time, but there's always that same driving force and that element that created the Soviet Union and many other nightmares before and after it.”

“Joining us today is the author of The Last Politician, the first real insider account of the Biden presidency, which is out this week—Frank Foer.”

“Another famous book that references Prometheus is the subtitle of Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein. And, yeah, what's the full title? It is Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus.”

“If it was just about building the H-bomb, the atomic bomb, of course there's already a book with that title, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, right? But also a prize-winning book, by the way.”

“Your last two books, 'Extraterrestrial' and 'Interstellar,' and what's interesting is the tone of those books is very different than your tone now; they're very measured; they're very scientific.”