The bookshelf
Books mentioned on the show, and where to hear about them.
129 titles
Alphabetical by titleThe Almighty Dollar
500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money
Ametora
How Japan Saved American Style
Antoni
Let's Do Dinner
The Anxious Generation
Bible
Religious text; no particular edition specified.
The Big Rig
Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream
Breakneck
China's Quest to Engineer the Future
Buckingham Palace
The Interiors
Burning Down My Masters’ House
My Life at the New York Times
Cannibalism
A Perfectly Natural History
The Car
The Rise and Fall of the Machine That Made the Modern World
Cat Wars
The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer
The Cockroach Combat Manual
The Country of the Blind
A Memoir at the End of Sight
The Domestic Cat
Bird Killer, Mouser and Destroyer of Wild Life; Means of Utilizing and Controlling It
Driven
The Race to Create the Autonomous Car
Elon Musk
Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Empire of Pain
Eruption
Extremely Online
The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet
Annual publication; no particular year specified.
Flash
The Making of Weegee the Famous
The Ghost Budget
Paying for America’s Wars
Going Infinite
The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
The Gospel of the Hold Steady
How a Resurrection Really Feels
How to Do Nothing
Resisting the Attention Economy
Hyperactive
The Controversial History of ADHD
Iliad
Inflation
A Guide for Users and Losers
Instant
The Story of Polaroid
Japanamerica
How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.
The Land Trap
A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset
Like Catching Water in a Net
Human Attempts to Describe the Divine
Lost and Sound
Berlin, Techno and the Easyjet Set
The Lost World
The Lost World
Major Labels
A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
Micro
Moby-Dick
More Than Words
How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI
Naked Airport
A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg
Number Go Up
Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
On the Origin of Species
Pericles and the Conquest of History
A Political Biography
PiHKAL
Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved
Quran
Religious text; no particular edition specified.
Radical Dharma
Talking Race, Love, and Liberation
Second Life
Having a Child in the Digital Age
The Shallows
What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
Sherlock Holmes
Series
The stories are mentioned collectively.
Signs
The Secret Language of the Universe
Smart on Crime
A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer
Stateless Commerce
The Diamond Network and the Persistence of Relational Exchange
Talmud
Collection of Jewish religious writings; no particular edition specified.
Testing Women, Testing the Fetus
The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America
The Three Trillion Dollar War
The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
The Tiger Leading the Dragon
How Taiwan Propelled China's Economic Rise
Torah
Religious text; no particular edition specified.
Touching the Rock
An Experience of Blindness
The Triumph of Injustice
How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay
Understanding Media
The Extensions of Man
Venezuela
Oil and Politics
The Voucher Promise
“Section 8” and the Fate of an American Neighborhood
What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat
Yes Is More
An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution
You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song
How Streaming Changes Music
"You Just Need to Lose Weight"
And 19 Other Myths About Fat People
The Zen of Therapy
Zero to One
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
From our public episodes through October 9, 2026. Some titles were identified from the conversation. A mention isn’t necessarily a recommendation.
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