The Avoidable War
Kevin Rudd
Mentioned 1 week ago
What Xi Jinping Wants
Book Recommendations
The Ezra Klein Show
Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What is the future of the Republican Party? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousne...
Episodes
560
Books
1,807
Recently mentioned
Latest Recommendations
The Party's Interests Come First
Joseph Torigian
Mentioned 1 week ago
What Xi Jinping Wants
The Souls of China
Ian Johnson
Mentioned 1 week ago
What Xi Jinping Wants
The Beginning Comes After the End
Rebecca Solnit
Mentioned 1 week ago
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate
Here Comes the Sun
Bill McKibben
Mentioned 1 week ago
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate
The Glorians
Terry Tempest Williams
Mentioned 1 week ago
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate
The Carbon Wave
Leah C. Stokes
Mentioned 1 week ago
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate
Brought to You By
Amy Westervelt
Mentioned 1 week ago
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate
The Holocaust and the Nakba
Bashir Bashir
Mentioned 2 weeks ago
A Radical Vision for Israelis and Palestinians
States of Denial
Stanley Cohen
Mentioned 2 weeks ago
A Radical Vision for Israelis and Palestinians
Tomorrow Is Yesterday
Hussein Agha
Mentioned 2 weeks ago
A Radical Vision for Israelis and Palestinians
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Becky Chambers
Mentioned 2 weeks ago
A Radical Vision for Israelis and Palestinians
Most Recommended
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
The host praised it as an excellent recent work and urged listeners to pick it up.
"
Wolf ... as well as the author of numerous books, including most recently the excellent book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism.
— Episode: How Martin Wolf Understands This Global...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: How Martin Wolf Understands This Global Economic M...
The host praised it as an excellent recent work and urged listeners to pick it up.
"
Wolf ... as well as the author of numerous books, including most recently the excellent book The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism.
Your book of course is The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. It's excellent, people should really pick it up.
The Gates of Gaza
A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands
It was described as an English narrative about journalist Amir Tibon and his father's rescue of him during the Oct.7 attack, presented as a fascinating and moving story.
"
Well, first of all, I'd like to recommend you The Gates of Gaza. The Gates of Gaza is in English, is the story of Amir Tibun. Amir Tibun is an Israeli journalist, the...
— Episode: Ehud Olmert on Israel's Catastrophic War...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Ehud Olmert on Israel's Catastrophic War in Gaza
It was described as an English narrative about journalist Amir Tibon and his father's rescue of him during the Oct.7 attack, presented as a fascinating and moving story.
"
Well, first of all, I'd like to recommend you The Gates of Gaza. The Gates of Gaza is in English, is the story of Amir Tibun. Amir Tibun is an Israeli journalist, the son of General Tibun. And the story is how his father is a general commander of the Israeli ground forces in the past, reserve general, on the 7th of October, when he understood that his son is in Kibbutz Nachal Oz, which was invaded by the Palestinians. He took his wife and a gun, and he went down and saved his son. And the whole story about what happened and how it happened is a fascinating and moving story.
Motherland
A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
The guest recommended this National Book Award finalist for its incisive look at Sovietera feminism and its impact on women, especially Jewish women.
"
Motherland... a National Book Awards finalist. It's about what the Soviet Union was ostensibly this feminist, progressive society, but it treated women like shit. It helped me underst...
— Episode: I Keep Telling People We’re Living in Th...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: I Keep Telling People We’re Living in This Dystopi...
The guest recommended this National Book Award finalist for its incisive look at Sovietera feminism and its impact on women, especially Jewish women.
"
Motherland... a National Book Awards finalist. It's about what the Soviet Union was ostensibly this feminist, progressive society, but it treated women like shit. It helped me understand a lot of my own background.
Rejection
An Outrageously Funny Novel-In-Stories
It was lauded as a bleak, punishing collection of short stories that left a strong impression, with the host saying he read it in a day and highly recommends it.
"
The final is a work of fiction by Tony Tulathimutte called Rejection. I absolutely tore through it. I read the whole thing in basically a day and it just stuck with me and I really re...
— Episode: Democrats are Losing the War for Attenti...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Democrats are Losing the War for Attention. Badly.
It was lauded as a bleak, punishing collection of short stories that left a strong impression, with the host saying he read it in a day and highly recommends it.
"
The final is a work of fiction by Tony Tulathimutte called Rejection. I absolutely tore through it. I read the whole thing in basically a day and it just stuck with me and I really recommend it highly. It's an intense reading experience with a 1012 page granular description that left me physically paralyzed yet unable to stop reading.
Backlash
The Undeclared War Against Women
Both speakers highlighted Backlash, with Michelle saying she revisited it many times and Ezra urging listeners to reread it.
"
When I went back to Backlash and I've gone back to that book many times, you know, I just was marking up my pages like crazy.
— Episode: Michelle Goldberg Grapples With Feminism...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Michelle Goldberg Grapples With Feminism After Roe
Both speakers highlighted Backlash, with Michelle saying she revisited it many times and Ezra urging listeners to reread it.
"
When I went back to Backlash and I've gone back to that book many times, you know, I just was marking up my pages like crazy.
Obviously, you should go out and reread Backlash or read it if you haven't read it yet.
Uncivil Agreement
How Politics Became Our Identity
Ezra Klein described it as a touchstone and one of the most important political books of the last decade, noting that its core thesis argues Americans experience politics through identity rather than policy.
"
Liliana Mason is a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and the author of the 2018 book Uncivil Agreement, How Politics Became Our Identity.
— Episode: How Identity Politics Took Over the Repu...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: How Identity Politics Took Over the Republican Par...
Ezra Klein described it as a touchstone and one of the most important political books of the last decade, noting that its core thesis argues Americans experience politics through identity rather than policy.
"
Liliana Mason is a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and the author of the 2018 book Uncivil Agreement, How Politics Became Our Identity.
I think this gets to the core thesis of your 2018 book, Uncivil Agreement, which was very, very influential for me, which is that Americans don't experience politics through policy. They experience it through identity.
Lawless
How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Ezra Klein recommended the book as an accessible, scathing indictment of the Roberts Court that argues the Republican justices are partisan in robes.
"
I have to recommend my podcast co-host Leah Lippman's book Lawless, which is a very accessible and pretty scathing indictment of the Roberts court. And I think a fullthroated defense...
— Episode: The Supreme Court Is Backing Trump's Pow...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: The Supreme Court Is Backing Trump's Power Grab
Ezra Klein recommended the book as an accessible, scathing indictment of the Roberts Court that argues the Republican justices are partisan in robes.
"
I have to recommend my podcast co-host Leah Lippman's book Lawless, which is a very accessible and pretty scathing indictment of the Roberts court. And I think a fullthroated defense of the thesis that the Republican justices, as she calls them, are just partisans in robe.
The Turnaway Study
Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having―or Being Denied―an Abortion
Kate Shaw described it as an amazing look at the tangible effects of being denied an abortion, noting that the data show it is extremely damaging to both women and their children.
"
The first of these is Diana Greene Foster's Turnaway Study and I know that Annie Lowry ... did a great Atlantic piece on the book recently and we actually had Diana on my podcast, Strict Scrutiny, las...
— Episode: A Guide to the Supreme Court's Rightward...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: A Guide to the Supreme Court's Rightward Shift
Kate Shaw described it as an amazing look at the tangible effects of being denied an abortion, noting that the data show it is extremely damaging to both women and their children.
"
The first of these is Diana Greene Foster's Turnaway Study and I know that Annie Lowry ... did a great Atlantic piece on the book recently and we actually had Diana on my podcast, Strict Scrutiny, last month but the book is an amazing, amazing look at the ontheground tangible effects of being denied an abortion for women who want one and of getting an abortion. And you know whatever people's moral intuitions about abortion are, the data in this study about what happens to women who don't get abortions that they want, what happens to them and to their existing children because the numbers show that most people who seek out and obtain abortions are already parents trying to care for the kids they have. It's extremely damaging both to women and to their children to be denied wanted abortions and the book is fantastic.
Torn Apart
How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World
Kate Shaw called it a searing indictment of the child welfare system.
"
Dorothy Roberts is a law professor at Penn and has this great book, Torn Apart, that is a searing indictment of the child welfare system.
— Episode: A Guide to the Supreme Court's Rightward...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: A Guide to the Supreme Court's Rightward Shift
Kate Shaw called it a searing indictment of the child welfare system.
"
Dorothy Roberts is a law professor at Penn and has this great book, Torn Apart, that is a searing indictment of the child welfare system.
Transcendent Kingdom
A novel
The speaker mentioned having just finished Transcendent Kingdom, a novel about a neuroscientist that also touches on adolescence and development.
"
Personally, I actually just finished a book called Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi.
— Episode: The Teen Mental Health Crisis, Part 2
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: The Teen Mental Health Crisis, Part 2
The speaker mentioned having just finished Transcendent Kingdom, a novel about a neuroscientist that also touches on adolescence and development.
"
Personally, I actually just finished a book called Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi.
Salt Sugar Fat
How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Ezra highlighted Salt Sugar Fat as an entertaining account of how the food industry engineered the modern processedfood environment in the United States.
"
Second one I want to recommend is Michael Moss's Salt, Sugar, Fat. Also a really entertaining book. And it really details the kind of path that the food industry took that brought us to where we are t...
— Episode: Our Brains Weren’t Designed for This Kin...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Our Brains Weren’t Designed for This Kind of Food
Ezra highlighted Salt Sugar Fat as an entertaining account of how the food industry engineered the modern processedfood environment in the United States.
"
Second one I want to recommend is Michael Moss's Salt, Sugar, Fat. Also a really entertaining book. And it really details the kind of path that the food industry took that brought us to where we are today in terms of our current processed food environment in the United States.
Liberation Day
Stories
Ezra described Saunders' new shortstory collection Liberation Day as politically direct, chilling, and more overtly political than his earlier collections.
"
He's got a new collection of short stories out, Liberation Day, which are really interesting, chilling and more, I think, directly political, particularly when you put them all togeth...
— Episode: George Saunders on the ‘Braindead Megaph...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: George Saunders on the ‘Braindead Megaphone’ That...
Ezra described Saunders' new shortstory collection Liberation Day as politically direct, chilling, and more overtly political than his earlier collections.
"
He's got a new collection of short stories out, Liberation Day, which are really interesting, chilling and more, I think, directly political, particularly when you put them all together than a lot of his other collections are.
The story Liberation Day, the opening story of the book is about... (discussion of the opening story and its relation to the SemplicaGirl Diaries).
In Love with the World
A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying
George said he recently loved the Buddhist meditation book for its vivid, urgent presentation of ideas.
"
The one I read most recently that I really loved and I loved it because it did that work of kind of jolting me to attention was a book by Mingyur Rinpoche called In Love with the World
— Episode: Best of: George Saunders on Kindness in...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Best of: George Saunders on Kindness in a Cruel Wo...
George said he recently loved the Buddhist meditation book for its vivid, urgent presentation of ideas.
"
The one I read most recently that I really loved and I loved it because it did that work of kind of jolting me to attention was a book by Mingyur Rinpoche called In Love with the World.
Wolf Hall
She noted she was also reading Wolf Hall, referencing the novel about Tudor England.
"
I was also reading Wolf Hall, where everybody's endlessly dying of tuberculosis.
— Episode: Our Lives Are an Endless Series of 'And'
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Our Lives Are an Endless Series of 'And'
She noted she was also reading Wolf Hall, referencing the novel about Tudor England.
"
I was also reading Wolf Hall, where everybody's endlessly dying of tuberculosis.
War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
The book title was invoked to illustrate how war can provide a sense of purpose, linking it to Arendt's discussion of totalitarianism.
"
To use the famous Chris Hedges book title, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.
— Episode: Anne Applebaum on What Liberals Misunder...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Anne Applebaum on What Liberals Misunderstand Abou...
The book title was invoked to illustrate how war can provide a sense of purpose, linking it to Arendt's discussion of totalitarianism.
"
To use the famous Chris Hedges book title, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.
Welcoming the Unwelcome
Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World
The host listed it as another of Pema Chdrn's beloved books, noting its thematic focus on embracing difficult experiences.
"
There's this book I love and I go back to it called Comfortable with Uncertainty. It's by the Buddhist teacher Pema Chdrn, who has also written really, really, really wellknown beloved books like When...
— Episode: This Is Why I Find Pema Chödrön So Essen...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: This Is Why I Find Pema Chödrön So Essential
The host listed it as another of Pema Chdrn's beloved books, noting its thematic focus on embracing difficult experiences.
"
There's this book I love and I go back to it called Comfortable with Uncertainty. It's by the Buddhist teacher Pema Chdrn, who has also written really, really, really wellknown beloved books like When Things Fall Apart and Welcoming the Unwelcome.
It's like when things fall apart. Comfortable with uncertainty. How we live is how we die. But, you know, a different kind of freedom. Welcoming the Unwelcome.
Siddhartha (Hardcover Book)
It was recalled as a highschool reading that the speaker loved and that opened his eyes to a different philosophical tradition.
"
The third is a book on way back, my great high school teacher, Mr. Evans, my English teacher assigned Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha, which is loosely based on the story of the historical Buddha. ......
— Episode: Why Is Murder Spiking? And Can Cities Ad...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Why Is Murder Spiking? And Can Cities Address It W...
It was recalled as a highschool reading that the speaker loved and that opened his eyes to a different philosophical tradition.
"
The third is a book on way back, my great high school teacher, Mr. Evans, my English teacher assigned Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha, which is loosely based on the story of the historical Buddha. ... It is a book that I loved and one that I think a lot of teenagers love. It also opened my eyes to a very different tradition of thought.
Buckley
The Life and the Revolution That Changed America
Will Sommer recommended Sam Tanenhaus' new biography of William F. Buckley, describing it as a large but worthwhile book.
"
So, first, Sam Tannenhaus' new biography of William F. Buckley. It's big, but it's worth it so far from as far as I've gotten.
— Episode: Why Trump Can’t Shake Jeffrey Epstein
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Why Trump Can’t Shake Jeffrey Epstein
Will Sommer recommended Sam Tanenhaus' new biography of William F. Buckley, describing it as a large but worthwhile book.
"
So, first, Sam Tannenhaus' new biography of William F. Buckley. It's big, but it's worth it so far from as far as I've gotten.
Command and Control
Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (ALA Notable Books for Adults)
Walz recommended the book, noting it covers the nuclear accident at Damascus and that it's a good read if you can't sleep.
"
If you don't want to sleep, read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser. It's about the nuclear accident at Damascus.
— Episode: Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats...
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?
Walz recommended the book, noting it covers the nuclear accident at Damascus and that it's a good read if you can't sleep.
"
If you don't want to sleep, read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser. It's about the nuclear accident at Damascus.
1929
Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation
The guest mentioned that he had promised to read 1929 and had just started it, indicating a recent interest but no strong endorsement yet.
"
All those Stoics out there listening. Look, I mean, just because I was with Andrew yesterday, and I did promise I was going to read 1929. You can't recommend it if you haven't read it...
— Episode: The Contradictions of Gavin Newsom
Listen on Audible
7-day free trial
Episode: The Contradictions of Gavin Newsom
The guest mentioned that he had promised to read 1929 and had just started it, indicating a recent interest but no strong endorsement yet.
"
All those Stoics out there listening. Look, I mean, just because I was with Andrew yesterday, and I did promise I was going to read 1929. You can't recommend it if you haven't read it. No, I just started reading it.
Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.