No Stupid Questions

This book was mentioned in the context of behavioral economics and the concept of nudging people toward pro-social behavior as an alternative to mandates.

This book, written by urban economist Ed Glazer, was cited as an argument for how cities make people happier, richer, and smarter, though the speaker noted that gains from city living had begun to level off before the pandemic.

This 1918 version of the country mouse and city mouse story, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, was mentioned as a version many listeners would be familiar with.

The speaker treasured this biography, recalling vividly the cover, feel, smell, and even the remainder table where it was purchased, linking the physical experience strongly to the book's impact on his path as a writer.

This book, a retelling of the Jewish legend of Golem, was referenced by Saul Friedlander in his memoir, indicating it was a source for the quote about knowledge and memory.

Stephen misremembered the author and title for 'How to Win Friends and Influence People,' noting that the core message people remember is about using people's names, although the book also advocated for liberal compliments.

This book, by a Stanford political scientist, was discussed in relation to philanthropy's impact on democracy. The main critique explored was how philanthropy converts private assets into public influence, thereby subverting the democratic process.

This book was mentioned, and the author noted that a recipe in it was a recreation of his mother's Mapo Tofu, although it wouldn't taste quite the same due to missing random ingredients from his childhood.

This was identified as a kid's book written by the guest, which the host bought for her godkids. The host found it fascinating regarding the cultural aspects of food growing up.

This work exemplified filial piety through stories of exemplary sons, one of whom allowed mosquitoes to bite him so his parents could sleep peacefully. The book was temporarily banned during the Chinese Cultural Revolution but later republished with modernized suggestions for keeping parents happy.

This book argued that there are two kinds of popular: pecking order popular (the mean popular crowd) and likable popular, which the author suggested was the good kind of popular.

The book was mentioned as Gabrielle Hamilton's work detailing her inadvertent education as a chef, suggesting she initially wanted to be a writer.

This memoir was cited as the source for the famous story about a hospice nurse asking patients about their regrets, where the regret of working too hard was commonly mentioned, especially by men.

Stephen mentioned that Danny Kahneman wrote about what Nassim Taleb calls the narrative fallacy in this book.

The biography detailed Jonas Salk's intense drive to create the polio vaccine and pointed out how he was disliked by the medical community for being unorthodox and seeming selfish in his approach.

This book, created by a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Defense, consisted only of a catalog of true stories about epic screw-ups by federal workers, which was found to be more successful in communicating rules than just stating the regulations.

One speaker mentioned recently reading this book, which they loved, noting that Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature for it despite being an outsider writing about Chinese culture.

The book featured a famous living funeral, which the speakers felt exemplified a practice that should be the norm rather than the exception for sharing virtues.

This was Eugene Mirman's nine-volume comedy album, which was mentioned in the context of discussing what material he chose not to include on it.

This was identified as a semi-autobiographical book written by Carrie Fisher, which was later adapted into a movie starring Meryl Streep.