Best Ross Richey Podcasts (2025)

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The New Testament in Its World - A Brief, Thousand-Page Intro 6:09

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16m ago6:09

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Everything you wanted to know about 1st Century Palestine, but were afraid to ask… The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians By: N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird Published: 2019 992 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An deep dive on the New Testament covering (as the subtit…

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Superbloom - Volume 23 in the "Social Media is Awful" Series 6:46

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Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart By: Nicholas Carr Published: 2025 272 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? On its surface, this is a fairly typical anti-social media book, though Carr does have some interesting things to say about weaknesses inherent to the medium: content collapse, algorithmic engineering, and hostility…

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We Belong to the Land - The Best Palestinian Making His Best Case 9:51

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A story of one Palestinian's fight against brutality, bureaucracy, and bishops. We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli Who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation By: Elias Chacour and Mary E. Jensen Published: 1990 212 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An autobiographical account of Chacour's struggles as a Palestinian Christia…

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Five Fictional Books In Search of a Common Thread 13:33

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Asterios Polyp by: David Mazzucchelli The Last Equation of Isaac Severy: A Novel in Clues by: Nova Jacobs The Impossible Fortune: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by: Richard Osman The Moviegoer by: Walker Percy Academy of Outcasts by: Larry CorreiaBy Jeremiah

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The Kid Stays in the Picture - A Story of Old "New Hollywood" 5:17

9d ago5:17

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The power of positive thinking and cocaine! The Kid Stays in the Picture By: Robert Evans Published: 1994 432 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This is the autobiography of Robert Evans. It jumps around a lot, but it's mostly built around his time as head of production for Paramount pictures from basically 1966-1974. Evans had basically zero …

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A Short History of England - What Gives a Country Its Soul? 9:33

14d ago9:33

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Chesterton mostly lost me after Arthur and Alfred, but I feel like I got his point in spite of that. A Short History of England By: G.K. Chesterton Published: 1917 107 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The book is titled the "History of England", but it's really a book about the soul of England. Chesterton examines this soul chronologically f…

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The Wager - A Real Life "Lord of the Flies" 8:17

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I actually never got around to discussing the Lord of the Flies element of this book. But trust me it's in there! The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder By: David Grann Published: 2023 352 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This book is about what happened to HMS Wager, a Royal Navy ship that was shipwrecked on the south coast of Ch…

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Daily Laws - Measured Microdoses of Machiavellian Manipulations 8:51

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Banned in most prisons! That feels like a point in the book's favor, but I'm not entirely sure I can articulate why. The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature By: Robert Greene Published: 2021 464 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A "page a day" book collecting bits of wisdom from Robert Greene's…

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Saga of the Forgotten Warrior - Larry Correia Without Guns (Mostly) 7:22

21d ago7:22

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If John Wick and Judge Dredd loved each other very much… Saga of the Forgotten Warrior By: Larry Correia 1- Son of the Black Sword 2- House of Assassins 3- Destroyer of Worlds 4- Tower of Silence 5- Graveyard of Demons 6- Heart of the Mountain Briefly, what is this series about? The series is set on the continent of Lok, in a world inspired by feud…

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Romancing Opiates - Working With British Prisoners Makes One Grumpy 10:31

23d ago10:31

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When "stigmatizing" has become a bad word and a bad thing everywhere and for every one, one brave British curmudgeon dares to demand it's return! Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy By: Theodore Dalrymple Published: 2006 160 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This book aims to shatter some of the myths around …

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The Unaccountability Machine - Once Again It's Somehow All Milton Friedman's Fault 8:42

27d ago8:42

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Maybe the answer really is to be found in early 1970's Chilean socialism… The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind By: Dan Davies Published: 2024 304 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The development of accountability sinks, a construct used by governments, corporations, and really …

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The Future of Truth - I'll Be Honest It Doesn't Look Great 7:35

29d ago7:35

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Pick it up because it's short. Continue it because of the brutal Bavarian accent. Finish it because maybe he's on to something? The Future of Truth By: Werner Herzog Published: 2025 128 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Legendary badass, and sometimes filmmaker Werner Herzog weighs in on the concept of truth, how best to represent truth, and …

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The Mind Reels - Bipolarity Raw and Unfiltered 5:50

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Many college age girls lead lives of quiet desperation. The Mind Reels By: Fredrik deBoer Published: 2025 168 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The book follows Alice. Alice has severe bipolar disorder. This doesn't come out until she's at college. It's entirely awful. Going from least to worst bad, we see: large weight fluctuations, social f…

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Drink Your Way Sober - Blocked (Receptors) and Reported (Sobriety) 6:06

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Part memoir, part science writing, part history, and a lot of blaming her neighbor for her empties. Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol By: Katie Herzog Published: 2025 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? You may be familiar with Katie Herzog from Blocked and Reported, the podcast she hosts with Jesse S…

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Replay - Groundhog Day in Novel Form, Sadly Without Any Groundhogs 6:25

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Replay By: Ken Grimwood Published: 1998 320 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A man dies and is sent back to his 18 year old self to relive his life over, and over, and over. Every time he dies he's sent back. He dies in 1988, and awakens in 1963, so there's a lot of discussion of those years (Kennedy Assassination, Moon landing, Iran Hostage…

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What Fresh Hell Awaits Us When SEO Is Replaced With AIO? 14:11

1M ago14:11

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It took 20 years from Bell inventing the telegraph before someone sent an ad with it. It took ~7 years for the first piece of email spam to be sent. Any bets on what it will look like for AI? Experimental AI Summary: I open with my own costly, underwhelming SEO experiment and the fact that I've mostly abandoned Google for LLMs, arguing that if AI c…

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Modern Physics and Ancient Faith - Don't Mess With the Strong Nuclear Force! 8:04

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If you had been placing bets 150 years ago around what physics would have to say about the existence of God, you would have lost a lot of money. Modern Physics and Ancient Faith By: Stephen M. Barr Published: 2003 312 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Barr takes all the discoveries of 20th-century physics, stuff like the Big Bang, quantum mec…

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Age of Diagnosis - Words Have Power! (said the podcaster) 7:29

2M ago7:29

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You've heard about placebo's? Well what about nocebos? The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker By: Suzanne O'Sullivan Published: 2025 320 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The idea that putting labels on something is not a free lunch—like everything else there are tradeoffs. Rather than framing numerous…

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Inner Excellence - The Fine Line Between Cliche and Coaching 5:33

2M ago5:33

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It's another self help book. Is this the one that will finally put you over the top, or another in a long line of endeavors that look like progress, but are really procrastination? Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life By: Jim Murphy Published: 2020 360 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? As …

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Damnable Tales - Spooky Stories for Long Nights 4:59

2M ago4:59

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Thomas Hardy wrote horror? Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology By: Various, Edited by Richard Wells Published: 2021 479 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A collection of 22 older scary stories, presented in chronological order. The oldest story is from 1875, while the newest was written in 1965. But the majority are clustered in the late-…

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Game Wizards - Epic Rap Battles of History Gygax v. Arneson 11:21

2M ago11:21

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Gary Gygax (Grognard 13/Writer 10/Businessman 2) vs. Dave Arneson (Plaintiff 14/Storyteller 9/Writer 1) Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons By: Jon Peterson Published: 2021 400 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The history of Dungeons and Dragons, TSR's meteoric rise, the fights that inevitably happen when something becomes e…

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Progressive Myths - Some of the Things You've Been Told Are Wrong 6:27

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It's possible that in our pursuit of justice and equity that a few things might have been exaggerated. Progressive Myths By: Michael Huemer Published: 2024 277 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A wide-ranging debunking of most of the myths that flourished during the recent peak of social justice activism. Some myths concern specific incidents…

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The Bushido of Bitcoin - How Chivalry and Sound Money Will Save Us 6:03

2M ago6:03

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I expected to see a katana plunged into the heart of crypto. Instead I got a piece of wall art, where the two ideas were placed in near proximity, but without any contact. The Bushido of Bitcoin By: Aleksandar Svetski Published: 2024 529 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Bitcoin will be the thing that saves the world from the fiat money creat…

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Does Your Assessment of AI Risk depend on Your Answer to Fermi's Paradox? 12:28

2M ago12:28

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A meditation on technological divinity...By Jeremiah

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If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies - Yudkowsky at his Yudkowskiest 10:07

2M ago10:07

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Don't hold back guys, tell us how you really feel. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All By: Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares Published: 2025 272 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This book makes the AI doomer case at its most extreme. It asserts that if we build artificial superintelligence (ASI) then that …

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Grant - A Brilliant General Constantly Deceived by His "Friends" 9:18

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A man who possessed a singular talent for making war and being duped. Grant By: Ron Chernow Published: 2017 1104 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A biography of Ulysses S. Grant, the greatest general of the Civil War, but also simultaneously one of the most guileless individuals ever profiled by a biographer. What's the author's angle? Chern…

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Chasing My Cure - A Catastrophe of Chaotic Castleman's Crises 7:09

2M ago7:09

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Chiefly Caused by Cytokine Cascades… Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action By: David Fajgenbaum Published: 2019 256 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Right as Fajgenbaum was finishing up the exams for his third year of medical school, he was struck by his first attack of idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease. It nearly…

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The Dhammapada - The Eighth Oldest Wisdom Book 3:39

2M ago3:39

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A small but powerful injection of Buddhism straight into your soul. The Dhammapada By: Unknown Translator: Gil Fronsdal Published: Sometime in the 3rd to 1st century BC 152 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? This is Buddhist scripture in a similar sense to how the New Testament is Christian scripture. In this case it's 423 verses (as opposed t…

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A Primer for Forgetting - But Is It a Primer for Repairing? 7:09

3M ago7:09

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The more people you're asking to forget the messier things become. A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past By: Lewis Hyde Published: 2019 384 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The necessity of forgetting, as conveyed through a broad collection of stories, essays, quotes, reflections, etc. It's more atmospheric than prescriptive. What's…

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Ignition! - Explosion? The Exciting World of Rocket Science 7:46

3M ago7:46

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The history of attempting to make "controlled explosion" into something other than an oxymoron. Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants By: John Drury Clark Published: 1972 216 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An insider's account of the always exciting, frequently terrifying, attempts to develop the perfect liquid propel…

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The Warlord Chronicles - "King" Arthur With More Mud and Less Radiance 3:54

3M ago3:54

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Bernard Cornwell's best (and shortest) historical fiction series. The Warlord Chronicles By: Bernard Cornwell The Winter King Published: 1996 431 Pages Enemy of God Published: 1998 397 Pages Excalibur Published: 1999 436 Pages Briefly, what is this series about? The Arthurian Legends turned into historical fiction. All the tales are related retrosp…

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The Tyranny of Metrics - Measure Your Way to Misery 7:58

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The superior man uses his superior judgement to look superior on all the metrics. The Tyranny of Metrics By: Jerry Z. Muller Published: 2019 248 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The distorting effects of an over-reliance on metrics particularly when it comes to creating incentives. What's the author's angle? Muller was frustrated by the nume…

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Can a Society Be Too Focused on the Law? 16:12

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Lawyers vs. Engineers. Infrastructure in America, China and Europe. Edmund Burke and the Revolutionary War.By Jeremiah

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Breakneck - Hegelian Engineering 9:34

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Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future By: Dan Wang Published: 2025 288 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The rise of China's immense manufacturing prowess, where it comes from (a culture of engineering according to Want), and where it might be going. What's the author's angle? Wang has been putting out a well regarded annual letter …

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Shorting the Grid - The Complicated World of Power Generation 15:13

3M ago15:13

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Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid By: Meredith Angwin Published: 2014 496 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A deep dive into the convoluted nature of the electrical grid with a particular focus on how attempts to make it more effective through competition have failed. Beyond that Angwin describes how the challenge o…

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Strange New World - Try to Imagine 2022 in 2012 5:48

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Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution By: Carl R. Trueman Published: 2022 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The long philosophical journey that took us to the current prioritization of expressive individualism, and how this journey eventually carried us to a strange new world, w…

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Cryptomania NFTs, Hope, Fraud, and Parents 10:29

3M ago10:29

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How much of the mania is inherent to crypto and how much is just SBF? Cryptomania: Hype, Hope, and the Fall of FTX's Billion-Dollar Fintech Empire By: Andrew R. Chow Published: 2024 416 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The 2020-2022 crypto boom. Three groups stand out. The scammers, as represented by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The idealists, a…

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Glee, "Freaky Friday", and the Assassination of Charlie Kirk 9:27

3M ago9:27

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Should I translate someone's glee at the murder of Charlie Kirk into an actual willingness to commit it?By Jeremiah

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Things Fall Apart - Colonialism and Flattening 6:34

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Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) By: Chinua Achebe Published: 1958 209 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The main character is Okonkwo, and saying that he's complicated is to put it mildly. He's desperately afraid of failure, which in his case means following in the footsteps of his father. On top of the complexity of Okonkwo there…

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Remain in Love and Embrace Hatred - A Biography 4:55

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Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina By: Chris Frantz Published: 2022 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The life and musical career of Chris Frantz and his wife Tina Weymouth. With particular attention paid to his antagonistic relationship with David Byrne, the front man for Talking Heads, a band they were both members of. Wh…

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Regretting Motherhood - Soft Antinatalism 7:41

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Regretting Motherhood: A Study By: Orna Donath Published: 2017 272 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Donath interviewed 23 Israeli women who regretted motherhood. In most, but not all, cases these mothers asserted that they still loved their children, they just didn't like the responsibilities and restrictions that came with being a mother. I…

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How Fast Is Technology Moving? Is That Even What We Should Be Measuring? 19:18

3M ago19:18

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Perhaps it's not how fast technology moves, but where it's impact is felt? Also S-curves...By Jeremiah

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The Rules of the Game - That Game Being Massive Naval Combat Between Great Powers 7:56

3M ago7:56

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The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command By: Andrew Gordon Published: 1996 708 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An incredibly detailed examination of the battle of Jutland, combined with an equally detailed history of naval command, and its failings in the lead up to the battle. What's the author's angle? Gordon's target is e…

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Cheap Sex - Marketplaces and Those Who Have Given Up on Shopping 12:04

3M ago12:04

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Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy By: Mark Regnerus Published: 2017 280 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A data-driven look at the modern dating and "hook-up" culture. As you can tell from the title, he argues that sex has become cheap, not so much in dollars and cents, but in the level of commitment it requires. H…

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The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3] - True Freedom 3:48

3M ago3:48

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The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (1918-1956) By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Published: 1973 608 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The final piece of Solzhenitsyn's amazing, depressing, baffling, chilling, frightening, absurd, terrible, cold, weighty chronicle of the Soviet gulags. This part includes the pe…

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Everything Is Tuberculosis - Well Not Everything, But More Than You Suspect 3:57

3M ago3:57

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Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection By: John Green Published: 2025 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The ubiquity of tuberculosis (wait, did I just restate the title?) especially outside of the US. And its prevalence despite the fact that a cure is available. What's the author's angle? Green …

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Gerontocracy as a Supernormal Stimulus 10:35

4M ago10:35

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Biden was just the tip of the iceberg...By Jeremiah

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Forgotten Victory - Maybe the British Were Lions Led By Lions? 4:55

4M ago4:55

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Everything you know about WWI is wrong! Okay... maybe not everything, but some things definitely. Forgotten Victory: The First World War: Myths and Realities By: Gary Sheffield Published: 2001 318 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? An apologetic work directed at British leadership during WWI. It refutes the claim that the British Army was comp…

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Crisis Zone - What Did I Just Read? 5:48

4M ago5:48

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Forbes magazine, the bastion of conservative American business journalism, called it "a filth-spattered lens of depravity and dysfunction". Crisis Zone By: Simon Hanselmann Published: 2021 296 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A very non-traditional household navigates the pandemic using violence and porn production. Who should read this book…

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Noticing An Essential Reader (1973-2023) - Sailer, Not As Scary as You Think 3:30

4M ago3:30

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Noticing: An Essential Reader (1973-2023) By: Steve Sailer Published: 2024 458 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A collection of essays from Steve Sailer covering immigration, culture war stuff, and human biodiversity. What's the author's angle? For some, Sailer is a horrible right-wing racist. For others he's a data-driven contrarian. I most…