The Shawn Ryan Show
Book Recommendations

The Shawn Ryan Show

The "Shawn Ryan Show" is hosted by Shawn Ryan, former U.S. Navy SEAL, CIA Contractor, and Founder of Vigilance Elite. We tell REAL stories about REAL people from all walks of life. We discuss the ups and downs, wins and losses, successes and struggles, the good and bad in a respectful but candid way...

Episodes 386
Books 310
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels Cover

Alex Epstein

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

It was mentioned as Alex Epstein's first book, which he considered revising before ultimately deciding to completely rewrite it as 'Fossil Future'.

"

Originally I was going to revise my first book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.

— Episode: #26 Alex Epstein - The Global Energy War

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Episode: #26 Alex Epstein - The Global Energy War

It was mentioned as Alex Epstein's first book, which he considered revising before ultimately deciding to completely rewrite it as 'Fossil Future'.

"

Originally I was going to revise my first book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.

The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy Cover

Michael Mann

The Madhouse Effect

How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy

It was discussed in the context of how it focuses on the negative impacts of fossil fuels on the climate but fails to acknowledge their benefits, particularly for agriculture, illustrating a flaw in how experts often evaluate energy issues.

"

And it's all about how fossil fuels are allegedly having a harmful impact on climate.

— Episode: #26 Alex Epstein - The Global Energy War

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Episode: #26 Alex Epstein - The Global Energy War

It was discussed in the context of how it focuses on the negative impacts of fossil fuels on the climate but fails to acknowledge their benefits, particularly for agriculture, illustrating a flaw in how experts often evaluate energy issues.

"

And it's all about how fossil fuels are allegedly having a harmful impact on climate.

Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win Cover

Peter Schweizer

Red-Handed

How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win

Author Peter Schweizer joined the show to discuss his investigative work in Red-Handed, which details alleged Chinese influence over American elites across politics, big tech, and Wall Street. Host Shawn Ryan highly praised the book, noting its success as a #1 New York Times bestseller and emphasizing the depth of research, which included over a thousand open-source citations. Ryan strongly recommended the book to listeners, highlighting the importance of the revelations it contained and the "waves" it was creating.

Highly Recommended
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Episode: #19 Peter Schweizer - China's Influence Over the U...

It detailed China's influence in various sectors of American society, including big tech, Wall Street, and politics, and alleged that many American elites had been bought off or influenced by the Chinese government.

"

His book has become the #1 NYT best seller 3 weeks in a row.

All of the information Peter discovered is cited with over a 1000 foot notes in his new book.

You put over a year's worth of research into this. You have a hundred pages of footnotes, 1,093 citations of where you found all of your research and it sounds like just about everything was open source information, which is all cited. So people can look it up themselves.

Your book is creating a lot of waves in a very short amount of time.

I would recommend everybody go look at some of the things that Peter Thiel has said.

Principles: Life and Work Cover

Ray Dalio

Principles

Life and Work

Guest Peter Schweizer discussed Ray Dalio's Principles: Life and Work, immediately noting the irony of its title. Schweizer highlighted that Dalio had previously offered glowing praise for Wang Qishan, a powerful and controversial Chinese official known as a harsh enforcer. This context was used to question the author's adherence to the principles laid out in his own work regarding China.

Critiqued
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Episode: #19 Peter Schweizer - China's Influence Over the U...

It was discussed in the context of the author's glowing praise for Wang Qishan, a powerful Chinese official, which was considered questionable given Wang's reputation as a harsh enforcer.

"

Dalio wrote this book in 2017 called Principles, which is kind of an ironic title based on what I'm about to tell you.

Create Your Own Light: Finding Post Traumatic Purpose Cover

Travis Howze

Create Your Own Light

Finding Post Traumatic Purpose

During his interview, author Travis Howze explained that he initially wrote Create Your Own Light as a personal account of dealing with traumatic experiences and overcoming PTSD. Host Shawn Ryan offered a strong endorsement, emphasizing that despite his general aversion to reading, he found it to be a "good book" filled with heart and soul. The discussion highlighted the book's surprising success and its positive impact on the military and emergency services communities dealing with trauma.

Highly Recommended
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Episode: #6 Travis Howze - Heroic Firefighter

The book discussed the author's traumatic experiences and how he dealt with overcoming PTSD. He wrote it for himself initially, but it has been surprisingly well received by military and emergency services communities.

"

Create Your Own Light.

You can get Create Your Own Light on Amazon right?

I wrote this book just kind of for me About all the new traumatic experiences I've had and how I dealt with getting over them.

It's a good book. And you know, there's a lot of heart and soul in there, which is Which is cool. You know, I like the way you just Yeah, and and it's helping a lot of fucking people and you know and and Even after that, you know When we first spoke or messaged I think You sent me the book and you're like, I don't know if you like reading or writing I fucking hate it and then I wound up writing a book and I was like, yeah, right but after Talking to you. I actually believe you I Fucking hate reading I hate reading And I hate writing and it's it's actually it's so bad that People give me something and I'm just like I mean, I'm just I I'm not gonna read it, but I did is I did read that. I appreciate it.

Yeah, you can get it on Amazon and it's it's It's a surprisingly doing very very well and I say surprisingly because I wrote this book just kind of for me About all the new traumatic experiences I've had and how I dealt with getting over them.

Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House Cover

Cliff Sims

Team of Vipers

My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House

Author Cliff Sims appeared on the show to provide a detailed look into his memoir, Team of Vipers, which chronicled his time in the Trump White House. Sims explained that he wrote the book to give an honest, first-hand account of the administration’s internal dynamics and counter prevailing media narratives. He detailed how the title was chosen to reflect the intense factional fighting and internal conflicts among the staff, characterizing the environment as a "team of vipers."

Highly Recommended
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Episode: #136 Cliff Sims - White House Myths, Doomsday Bunk...

Cliff Sims wrote this memoir to provide an honest, first-hand account of his time in the Trump administration, intending to counter media narratives. The book detailed the internal fighting and factional dynamics within the White House staff, which he characterized as a "team of vipers."

"

And so the book was titled Team of Vipers and it was a playoff of Lincoln's team of rivals.

And so what I wanted to do was give a first hand account was honest look of of what the first year and a half of the trump administration what the white house was all about.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) Cover

Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

And Other Clinical Tales (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

It was cited as a 1986 book by Oliver Sacks describing autistic savants who could spontaneously generate prime numbers.

"

He also wrote a book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and came out in 1986. In it, he describes these autistic young men who were identical twins, who were institutionalized,...

— Episode: #236 Dr. Diane Hennacy - ESP Enigma: The...

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Episode: #236 Dr. Diane Hennacy - ESP Enigma: The Scientifi...

It was cited as a 1986 book by Oliver Sacks describing autistic savants who could spontaneously generate prime numbers.

"

He also wrote a book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and came out in 1986. In it, he describes these autistic young men who were identical twins, who were institutionalized, who could spit out prime numbers.

The Green Berets. by Robin Moore (1965-10-01) Cover

Robin Moore

The Green Berets. by Robin Moore (1965-10-01)

The hosts referenced The Green Berets as a popular book that had been released during the Vietnam era.

"

the book had been out and of course Roger Donilon was the recipient of the first Medal of Honor

— Episode: #193 John Stryker Meyer - MACV-SOG: The...

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Episode: #193 John Stryker Meyer - MACV-SOG: The Secret War...

The hosts referenced The Green Berets as a popular book that had been released during the Vietnam era.

"

the book had been out and of course Roger Donilon was the recipient of the first Medal of Honor

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 Cover

Christopher Clark

The Sleepwalkers

How Europe Went to War in 1914

The host cited it as a historical analysis of how European powers unintentionally entered World War I.

"

the book called The Sleepwalkers

— Episode: #289 Michael Lester - Is the United Stat...

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Episode: #289 Michael Lester - Is the United States Going t...

The host cited it as a historical analysis of how European powers unintentionally entered World War I.

"

the book called The Sleepwalkers

Crystallizing Public Opinion Cover

Edward Bernays

Crystallizing Public Opinion

It was identified as Bernays' bestselling book about propaganda and public relations.

"

His bestselling book that he wrote about all of this is called Crystallizing Public Opinion.

— Episode: #253 Chase Hughes - Real MKUltra Documen...

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Episode: #253 Chase Hughes - Real MKUltra Documents, Alien...

It was identified as Bernays' bestselling book about propaganda and public relations.

"

His bestselling book that he wrote about all of this is called Crystallizing Public Opinion.

Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror Cover

Erik Prince

Civilian Warriors

The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror

Palmer said that he had read Eric Prince's book "Civilian Warriors," referring to it while discussing Prince's role in the defense industry.

"

but yeah, then that of course read his, read his book, uh, Civilian Warriors.

— Episode: #171 Palmer Luckey - Superhuman Soldier...

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Episode: #171 Palmer Luckey - Superhuman Soldiers, AI Miss...

Palmer said that he had read Eric Prince's book "Civilian Warriors," referring to it while discussing Prince's role in the defense industry.

"

but yeah, then that of course read his, read his book, uh, Civilian Warriors.

War Is a Racket Cover

Smedley Butler

War Is a Racket

He described it as a short pamphlet about a veteran who became critical of corporate wars, calling it a small read that critiques war profiteering.

"

War Is a Racket. I've heard this. It's a very small read and it's written by a man who was very upset.

— Episode: #305 AJ Pasciuti - Marine Scout Sniper o...

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Episode: #305 AJ Pasciuti - Marine Scout Sniper on Hunting...

He described it as a short pamphlet about a veteran who became critical of corporate wars, calling it a small read that critiques war profiteering.

"

War Is a Racket. I've heard this. It's a very small read and it's written by a man who was very upset.

He wrote a book that nobody really talks about and it's called War Is a Racket. It's a very small pamphlet and it's talking about how he was effectively a corporate, he was a thug for corporations.

The Silva Mind Control Method Cover

José Silva

The Silva Mind Control Method

She explained that the book taught visualization techniques that matched the extended remoteviewing method used by the program.

"

It was called The Silva Mind Control by Dr. Silva. And in it, he taught--it was very close to the extended remote viewing. He taught about how you can go down and visualize, like if I want to pick up...

— Episode: #145 Angela Ford - Meet the Army Psychic...

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Episode: #145 Angela Ford - Meet the Army Psychic Who Track...

She explained that the book taught visualization techniques that matched the extended remoteviewing method used by the program.

"

It was called The Silva Mind Control by Dr. Silva. And in it, he taught--it was very close to the extended remote viewing. He taught about how you can go down and visualize, like if I want to pick up information on you, I would go down and I would visualize--I would visualize you.

Psychic Warrior: Inside the Cia's Stargate Program : The True Story of a Soldier's Espionage and Awakening Cover

David Morehouse

Psychic Warrior

Inside the Cia's Stargate Program

The book was mentioned as the first publication that revealed details about the CIA's Stargate program and its daily operations.

"

The name of the book is called Psychic Warrior. I don't believe the gentleman is practicing anymore. It was really the first book that came out that kind of revealed the Stargate prog...

— Episode: #168 Lue Elizondo - X-15 Rocket Plane, U...

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Episode: #168 Lue Elizondo - X-15 Rocket Plane, UFO Cover-U...

The book was mentioned as the first publication that revealed details about the CIA's Stargate program and its daily operations.

"

The name of the book is called Psychic Warrior. I don't believe the gentleman is practicing anymore. It was really the first book that came out that kind of revealed the Stargate program and kind of the daytoday operations.

Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade Cover

Robert Cialdini Ph.D.

Pre-Suasion

A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade

It was mentioned as a classic work on human influence written by Bob Cialdini.

"

And Bob Cialdini, he wrote the book called Influence. And he wrote another book called PreSuasion. Fantastic books.

— Episode: #253 Chase Hughes - Real MKUltra Documen...

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Episode: #253 Chase Hughes - Real MKUltra Documents, Alien...

It was mentioned as a classic work on human influence written by Bob Cialdini.

"

And Bob Cialdini, he wrote the book called Influence. And he wrote another book called PreSuasion. Fantastic books.

Awakenings Cover

Oliver Sacks

Awakenings

It was mentioned as a book by Oliver Sacks that inspired a movie about severe Parkinson's disease and the development of LDopa.

"

Oliver Sacks, who was a neurologist, he was the person who was--one of his books was the movie Awakenings, which was about severe Parkinson's disease, where people were frozen until t...

— Episode: #236 Dr. Diane Hennacy - ESP Enigma: The...

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Episode: #236 Dr. Diane Hennacy - ESP Enigma: The Scientifi...

It was mentioned as a book by Oliver Sacks that inspired a movie about severe Parkinson's disease and the development of LDopa.

"

Oliver Sacks, who was a neurologist, he was the person who was--one of his books was the movie Awakenings, which was about severe Parkinson's disease, where people were frozen until the development of LDopa, which then unfroze them.

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves Cover

Matt Ridley

The Rational Optimist

How Prosperity Evolves

This book was cited to illustrate the historical bias towards pessimism, noting that optimistic future predictions, even if ridiculed, often outperformed pessimistic ones.

"

Matt Ridley wrote a great book called Rational Optimist. And he sort of made a study of optimists throughout time. And the conclusion of the book is everyone who made future predictions that they're o...

— Episode: #261 Tobi Lütke - CEO of Shopify: How Sh...

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Episode: #261 Tobi Lütke - CEO of Shopify: How Shopify Beca...

This book was cited to illustrate the historical bias towards pessimism, noting that optimistic future predictions, even if ridiculed, often outperformed pessimistic ones.

"

Matt Ridley wrote a great book called Rational Optimist. And he sort of made a study of optimists throughout time. And the conclusion of the book is everyone who made future predictions that they're optimistic was ridiculed, like underperformed to people who were naysayers about the future.

Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification Cover

Timur Kuran

Private Truths, Public Lies

The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification

The speaker described the book as a short, simple work from the 1950s that explains how societies often accept falsehoods for convenience, using the example of maskwearing rules during COVID19.

"

there's an amazing book you should read from the 50s a bit hard to get on amazon it's called private truths public lies ... it's a very simple idea that sometimes in society everybody starts to preten...

— Episode: #238 Sriram Krishnan - Senior White Hous...

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Episode: #238 Sriram Krishnan - Senior White House Policy A...

The speaker described the book as a short, simple work from the 1950s that explains how societies often accept falsehoods for convenience, using the example of maskwearing rules during COVID19.

"

there's an amazing book you should read from the 50s a bit hard to get on amazon it's called private truths public lies ... it's a very simple idea that sometimes in society everybody starts to pretend to believe a lie just because it's the convenient expected thing to do during covid ... the book says it only takes one person or entity to point out the emperor has no clothes.

Justice Is Coming: How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It Cover

Cenk Uygur

Justice Is Coming

How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It

Cenk Uygur said he had written about the capture of government and media in his book Justice is Coming, noting that Chapter4 covered the former and Chapter5 the latter.

"

I wrote about it in my book, Justice Is Coming. I told Chapter4 is about how they captured the government. Chapter5 is about how they captured the media.

— Episode: #301 Cenk Uygur - The Foreign Influence...

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Episode: #301 Cenk Uygur - The Foreign Influence Crisis

Cenk Uygur said he had written about the capture of government and media in his book Justice is Coming, noting that Chapter4 covered the former and Chapter5 the latter.

"

I wrote about it in my book, Justice Is Coming. I told Chapter4 is about how they captured the government. Chapter5 is about how they captured the media.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition Cover

John Perkins

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, 3rd Edition

Lester cited this book as an example of how the United States uses economic leverage to control other nations through debt.

"

There was a good book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, where he talks about how we've done a lot of those things in Brazil, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia...

— Episode: #227 Michael Lester - Are We the Bad Guy...

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Episode: #227 Michael Lester - Are We the Bad Guys?

Lester cited this book as an example of how the United States uses economic leverage to control other nations through debt.

"

There was a good book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, where he talks about how we've done a lot of those things in Brazil, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia...

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.