Mohsin Hamid is one of the greatest writers of this generation. He was born in 1971 in Lahore, Pakistan before moving to California at age 3 while his dad did a doctorate at Stanford. At age 9, in 1980, he moved back to Pakistan and remained there until he was 18 when he came back to the US to go to Princeton. He graduated summa cum laude and studied under novelists Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates. Mohsin's first novel, Moth Smoke (2000), told the story of an ex-banker and heroin addict in c...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 54 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Happy full moon! Hard to believe we are halfway through our fifth year of this epic pilgrimage. Are you up for going to the Bronx to hang out on a book bus? What!? Well, a few months ago I got an email from 3 Booker Karen where she said "Hi Neil. I love this! Have you seen it?" The this was this video , going viral, about a woman in the Bronx trying to get funding to start up a bookstore on wheels. I couldn't believe that the 1.6 million residents of Manhattan have 82 bookstores whereas the 1.4 ...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Alok ("A-loke") Vaid-Menon was born in College Station, Texas in 1991 to parents from India and Malaysia. When they were young they'd dress up in their mom and sister's clothes and dance around the living room for all their extended family, including their Auntie Urvashi (a gender non-confirming lesbian of color and national activist). The entire room would clap and cheer them on over syrupy bowls of gulab jamon. But when they performed a similar Bollywood routine onstage at the school talent sh...
Jun 29, 2022•1 hr 47 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Happy Summer Solstice! (and happy Winter Solstice!) Have you noticed we're tilting further toward the sun compared to every other time of the year? While our Australian, Chilean, and Easter Islander friends are tilting further away? This means is time for another 3 Book bookmark -- our relatively recent innovation to add a little spice to our 333 chapters along the way. Sometimes a bookmark will be me on another podcast, sometimes it'll be me giving a speech, and sometimes, like this time, it'll...
Jun 21, 2022•5 min
Nancy Pearl is a Superhero Librarian. One of our values on 3 Books is "Librarians and booksellers are doctors for the mind" and while we've hung out with a number of booksellers, Nancy is somehow our very first librarian! How did we find Nancy? Well, 3 Booker Cindy Sharek left us a gushing voicemail at 1-833-READ-A-LOT singing Nancy's praises and we were convinced. She's won the Librarian of the Year Award, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association,...
Jun 14, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 105
Boniface Mwangi is a Nairobi-based social justice activist fighting for equity in his home country and abroad. In 2007 his photos of violence following the national election went viral and spawned global attention on political instability and corruption in Kenya. He is the subject of the Sundance-award winning documentary Softie and the author of the photojournalism book Unbounded which has been hailed by Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Over two million people follow him @bonifacemwan...
May 30, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 104
Jonathan Haidt is the Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU's Stern School of Business and the author of bestsellers The Righteous Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis and The Coddling of the American Mind . He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, selected as one of the Top 50 Thinkers in the world, and delivered four TED Talks . I was lucky to be introduced to Jon by our mutual friend Roger Martin, our guest in Chapter 68 . We sit at his kitchen table to discuss his then...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 103
This is a very unique chapter! It is a double chapter, in a way. To begin with I was so lucky to interview Susan Cain at our very first live chapter of 3 Books at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. So many 3 Bookers came out and celebrated on a snowy night just before the pandemic began. (We had no idea!) At the time Susan was deep in the throes of writing her new book Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole but as we discuss a lot of her work in process we didn't want to scoop the bo...
Apr 30, 2022•2 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 102
The best movie I have seen in years is called Everything, Everywhere All At Once and it was written and directed by Daniels. Daniels? Yes, Daniels. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, to be specific. Two brilliant artists who met in college and began stitching together short films before working on music videos like Turn Down For What by DJ Snake and Lil John (over a billion views), Simple Song by The Shins, and Tongues by Joywave. Watch those to see their energy and magic. Daniels made their feat...
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Welcome to Chapter 100! Thank you for four years of this journey and conversation. To mark the move into triple digits I thought we could do a reflection and visioning discussion … back in the basement with Leslie just like we did in Chapter 1 . We will discuss some highs and lows, lessons learned, current podcast challenges, and some dreams for the future. Thank you for being a 3 Booker and joining this heart-forward community of book lovers, writers, makers, sellers, and librarians. Whether yo...
Apr 01, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 100
Welcome to Bookmark #5. Last year we started experimenting with the idea of releasing four extra episodes during the year to mark the spring and fall equinoxes, as well as the summer and winter solstices. You may recall we released my guest appearance on Nora McInerny's wonderful podcast, Terrible Thanks for Asking , we then released my SXSW Talk: Building Trust in Distrustful Times , we followed this up with my appearance on Ologies with Alie Ward and we released the annual Best Of 2021 . This ...
Mar 20, 2022•1 hr 45 min
Just dial 416-482-5665 and chances are Doug Miller will pick up the phone at Doug Miller Books, an incredible stuffed-to-the-ceiling bookstore that represents a mere sliver of the over 500,000-book collection of self-described bibliomaniac Doug Miller. Why do I say chances are? Well, Doug works in his shop 364 days a week. He comes mid-morning every day and shovels the front walks of six of his neighbors in Koreatown in Toronto, Canada. I have known Doug Miller for over ten years and it was a ra...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 99
I'm very pleased, privileged, and proud to introduce or re- introduce you to the sunbeaming sage that is IN-Q. IN-Q is an award winning poet, multi-platinum song-writer and the bestselling author of the book Inquire Within which I highly, highly recommend. It deserves an even bigger spotlight! It's a wonderful collection of IN-Q's poetry. Poetry? Oh yes. Oh, oh yes. His achievements include being named to Oprah's Super Soul 100 list of the world's most influential thought leaders, being the firs...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 40 min•Season 1Ep. 98
Are you a passionate fan of Design Matters like I am? It's one of the world's oldest podcasts and one of the best shows out there. Debbie Millman scratches her insatiable curiosity and explores what it means to live a rich, fulfilling, intentional life with luminaries like Brené Brown , Cheryl Strayed , Brandon Stanton , Seth Godin , and, of course, Roxane Gay . (All guests of 3 Books , too! Clearly we have tethers between our hearts.) Where do we start with Debbie Millman? Well, she's 'one of t...
Feb 16, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 97
David Cheesewright is the former CEO of Walmart International. In that role he led over a million people, across over fifty different businesses, and nearly thirty countries. A behemoth! Both the job and the company. How much of a behemoth? Well, Walmart is literally # 1 overall on the Fortune 500 which means no company in the entire world made more money than they did. How did a small town store from Bentonville, Arkansas rise to be the largest company in the world? Well, one big way they do it...
Feb 01, 2022•2 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 96
"Why are women, who have the whole male world at their mercy, not funny? Please do not pretend to know what I am talking about." So begins a 2007 Vanity Fair article by Christopher Hitchens called "Why Women Aren't Funny". College student Bess Kalb picked up a copy of the magazine, read it on her train ride from New York to Rhode Island, and, in her words, "became radicalized." She decided then and there to drop out of school and become a comedy writer. She scored an internship with The Colbert ...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 56 min•Season 1Ep. 95
Daniel Torjman is beautiful. And so is his incredible store 18 Waits . Two years ago I was walking down Queen Street West in Toronto and I noticed a couple nice men's shirts in a window and stepped inside. I was greeted by an old hardwood floor, jazz playing on a record, classic literature on display, and an incredibly curated assortment of shirts, coats, bandanas, and hats. I started chatting with owner (tailor! captain!) Daniel Torjman and discovered we were the same age and he was also a fair...
Jan 02, 2022•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Can you believe it? We started 3 Books back on March 31, 2018 with the goal of counting down the 1000 most formative books in the world. We said we would hang out on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon for nearly 15 straight years until we collected all 1000 of them. We set the intention of making this show an 'intrinsically-motivated journey' and pledged to doing it with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. To help guide ourselves we starte...
Dec 21, 2021•4 hr 21 min
Hello 3 Bookers! Let's close off our fourth year of 3 Books by sitting down with Chris Hadfield at his kitchen table. His five-month old puppy New Henry is sniffling and occasionally barking on his lap. Fat snowflakes slowly drift down outside the big window above the shelf full of succulents. And lying between us is a stack of Christmas cards that Chris is signing along with my copy of his brand new bestselling thriller The Apollo Murders … as well, of course, as his three most formative books....
Dec 19, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 93
Were you one of the 500 million people who read Choose Your Own Adventure books? When I was growing up in the 80s these books were at the front of every library in every elementary school. Or, at least, in mine! I know for sure the kids at Sunset Heights Public School in Oshawa, Canada all went gonzo for them. If you don't know Choose Your Own Adventure , the books are written in the second person. The protagonist is … you! Who are you? Well, you might be a private investigator, mountain climber...
Dec 04, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 92
Welcome to Chapter 91 of 3 Books! How are you holding up in 2021? It has been a wild 20 months. You've been telling me you are thankful for the show and I have been telling you I'm thankful for you. I appreciate your notes, your phone calls, your letters, and your reviews and we travel and meet across space and time — meeting up whenever the moon above is is completely full or completely empty. Today I am so thrilled to share with you the enigmatic, witty, multi-hyphenate Nora McInerny . In 2014...
Nov 19, 2021•2 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Welcome. Have a seat on the couch. Plug your headphones in for the dishes. Strap in for the long car ride. Let's chill for a bit. I'm so happy to have you as part of the 3 Books community. Welcome 3 Bookers! Welcome, Cover to Cover Club Members! And welcome, Secret Club Members. Thank you for being part of our ridiculous conversation over nearly 15 years. I was in my late 30s when I started 3 Books and I'll be in my early 50s when I'm done. What a joy this pilgrimage has been so far! Just think ...
Nov 04, 2021•2 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 90
I was riding my bike in downtown Toronto the other day and rolled past my old neighborhood a couple blocks north of Lake Ontario. And as I was riding I noticed my old burger joint! The whole neighborhood has changed — parking lots have become condos, motels have become hotels — but the burger joint has survived. I was excited so I locked my bike up in the middle of the concrete jungle and popped my head inside to ask if they're open since it was just after 11am. "Absolutely we're open!," a frien...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 89
I love Mel Robbins. I am one of the 30 million people who've viewed her TED Talk "How to stop screwing yourself over" and I'm one of the two million people who have a copy of The Five-Second Rule on my bookshelf. If you asked me five years ago if I'd have a book on my shelf telling people to simply count backwards from five to get out of bed, ask somebody out, or leave a toxic relationship well … I would have thought you were batty. But that would have been just a few months before I met Mel and...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Happy Fall Equinox Northern Hemisphere people. And Happy Spring Equinox to our friends south of the equator! Are you ready for a new Bookmark? Just as a reminder, I'm experimenting with offering you a Bookmark four times this year. A little place to put the marginilia of this show. Six months ago on the Spring equinox we had our first bookmark with my guest appearance on Nora McInerny's award winning podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. For the second Bookmark, on the exact minute of the June so...
Sep 22, 2021•1 hr 33 min
I grew up reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series but it had been years — decades even! — since I'd read a game book. Then I stumbled upon the fascinating book Meanwhile by Jason Shiga and was completely sucked back into this incredible genre. When you open Meanwhile you are a young boy on his way to an ice-cream shop. If you get vanilla? You go home. The end! But if you get chocolate? You plunge into thousands of endlessly splintering storylines. You meet a mad scientist. You jump in a tim...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Do you ever feel book guilt? Do you ever feel book shame? Do you ever feel bad when you quit a book? Do you ever feel like the books you read aren't 'hard' enough? These are common feelings that I know I've had. I say we need to get rid of all the book shame and book guilt we learn as we grow up because there really is no right or wrong way to read. We need to escape the book exhaustion that can come with endless Shakespeare, mandatory classics, and piles of textbooks. We need to tell kids that ...
Sep 07, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Happy Sturgeon Moon, everybody! And happy Blue Moon, too! Jane McGonigal joins us on Chapter 85 of 3 Books to help us celebrate. Let's start off with a question. What would you do if you jumped out of a desk chair and slammed your head directly into an open cupboard door which gave you a massive concussion that left you bedridden for months? Oh, and you were told "No reading, no writing, no video games, no work, no email, no running, no alcohol, and no caffeine." Well, most of us would probably ...
Aug 22, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Do you have a therapist? Do you meet up with someone on a regular basis to open up, talk about yourself, and get into the weeds of your emotions? Maybe the ones you can articulate, the ones you can't articulate, the ones you're angry about having, the ones you're confused about having. I started seeing a therapist about 10 years ago. After the loss of my marriage and my best friend, it was suggested by my parents that I would benefit from seeing a therapist. I'm embarrassed to admit I said no. "...
Aug 08, 2021•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 84
"Our technologies, markets and cultural institutions, once forces for human connection and expression, now isolate and repress us. It is time to remake society together, not as individual players, but as the team we actually are: Team Human." That little paragraph is printed right on the cover of the latest book by Douglas Rushkoff. Do you know Douglas Rushkoff? He's a vivid, big-thinking author behind books like Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus , Present Shock , Program or Be Programmed , Scree...
Jul 24, 2021•1 hr 58 min•Season 1Ep. 83
