On Being with Krista Tippett

The Carrying

Ada Limón

It was the book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.

Bright Dead Things

Ada Limón

It was a finalist for the National Book Award.

The Hurting Kind

Ada Limón

This is her most recent published volume.

You Are Here

David Nicholls

It was edited by Ada Limn as part of her project focusing on how poetry can connect us to the natural world.

Complications

Atul Gawande

The book is about Gawande's experience as a surgical resident, and it was reviewed by Sherwin Nuland in the New York Review of Books.

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When I started writing for The New Yorker and then wrote my first book, Complications, during my surgical residency, he wrote the review in the New York Review of Books and then reached out to me.

The Three-Body Problem (The Three-Body Problem Series, 1)

Cixin Liu

The book was about a three-sun planetary system and how a message from this system affects Earth, as well as the consequences of that message. The book explores the extinction of humanity, but the continuation of life in other forms.

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So I just, I finished recently this three book series by a Chinese science fiction writer named Liu Cixin. It begins with a book called The Three-Body Problem.

The Philosophy of Loyalty

Royce Josiah

This book, published at the beginning of the 20th century, by philosopher Royce argued that people have a deep need to live for something larger than themselves.

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I end up calling it loyalty in the book I wrote about Royce. A philosopher who was at Harvard in the late 19th century and wrote a book at the very beginning of the 20th century called The Philosophy of Loyalty. And what it meant was that we all have a, he was arguing we all have a deep need to live for something larger than ourselves.

The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande

This book is one of Gawande's four books. It was not discussed in the podcast.

The Trayvon Generation

Elizabeth Alexander

It is Elizabeth Alexander's most recent book.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Padmasambhava

This book of poetry was described as being beautiful, and was mentioned by name during the podcast episode. The author of the podcast episode described reading the first poem from the book and it being too long to read aloud, and also mentioned its ending. He also described reading a portion of the poem about anti-immigrant rhetoric, and how it mirrored his own life experiences.

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This is a beautiful book of poetry.

The Devil's Highway

Luis Alberto Urrea

This book of nonfiction reportage focuses on the Mexican-American border and was the result of an adventure that changed the author's perspective of the border. It tells the story of 26 Mexican men attempting to cross the desert, which was known as 'The Devil's Highway', where 14 died from heatstroke. It was described as being both reportage and narrative nonfiction, and as being written out of frustration with people's dehumanizing perceptions of migrants.

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His books include Into the Beautiful North, The Devil's Highway, The Hummingbird's Daughter, and a 2023 novel, Goodnight Irene, inspired by his mother's service in the Red Cross.

The Hummingbird's Daughter

Luis Alberto Urrea

This historical novel was based on the author's father's Aunt Teresa, a Mexican mystic folk healer and revolutionary insurgent. The author described the process of writing it as a 20-year study with shamans and medicine people, and said that the book explores the soul's journey. It was mentioned as one of the author's books that explores the complicated nature of human identity and borders.

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His books include Into the Beautiful North, The Devil's Highway, The Hummingbird's Daughter, and a 2023 novel, Goodnight Irene, inspired by his mother's service in the Red Cross.