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Talking Books

Listen and hear from books. Understand more from great writers and thinkers.
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Episodes

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 7

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Aug 02, 20241 hr

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art from James Nestor

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmon...

Aug 01, 20247 hr 19 min

The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence: When Computer Exceed Human Intelligence from Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the twenty-first century--an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. Kurzweil's prophetic blueprint for the future takes us through the advances that inexorably result in computers ex...

Aug 01, 20243 hr 35 min

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 6

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Aug 01, 20241 hr

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 5

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Jul 31, 20241 hr

Jordan Peterson Speaks at the Cambridge Union

Jordan Peterson discusses his reasons for writing self-help books, his goal being to provide a case for why certain axiomatic propositional statements were not simple or obvious, while also creating a thorough process to help others understand these ideas. Peterson emphasizes the importance of finding meaning and leading a practical, actionable life, and the difficulty of maintaining order in one's environment. He also talks about the importance of interpersonal relationships and the need to dis...

Jul 30, 20241 hr 15 min

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World Part 1 From Tim Ferriss

In 2017, several of my close friends died in rapid succession. It was a very hard year, as it was for many people. It was also a stark reminder that time is our scarcest, non-renewable resource. With a renewed sense of urgency, I began asking myself many questions: Were my goals my own, or simply what I thought I should want? How much of life had I missed from underplanning or overplanning? How could I be kinder to myself? How could I better say “no” to the trivial many to better say “yes” to th...

Jul 29, 20242 hr 48 min

Stanford: How to Live your Life at Full Power — Graham Weaver

Graham Weaver, Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Founder of Alpine Investors, shares the three most important principles for living a full life as part of the GSB 2024 Last Lecture Series. Hint: It involves discovering the power of your second voice.

Jul 28, 202433 min

Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life - Never Think Small by Arnold Schwarzenegger

The seven rules to follow to realise your true purpose in life-distilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger from his own journey of ceaseless reinvention and extraordinary achievement, and available for absolutely anyone. The world's greatest bodybuilder. The world's highest paid movie star. The leader of the world's sixth largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke. But this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold's strato...

Jul 28, 202450 min

Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life - Have A Clear Vision by Arnold Schwarzenegger

The seven rules to follow to realise your true purpose in life-distilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger from his own journey of ceaseless reinvention and extraordinary achievement, and available for absolutely anyone. The world's greatest bodybuilder. The world's highest paid movie star. The leader of the world's sixth largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke. But this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold's strato...

Jul 27, 202455 min

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind with Yuval Noah

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Hebrew: קיצור תולדות האנושות, Qitzur Toldot ha-Enoshut ) is a book by Yuval Noah Harari, first published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 based on a series of lectures Harari taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in English in 2014. The book, focusing on Homo sapiens, surveys the history of humankind, starting from the Stone Age and going up to the twenty-first century. The account is situated within a framework that intersects the natural sciences w...

Jul 26, 202415 hr 19 min

Titans of History: The Giants Who Made Our World from Simon Sebag Montefiore Part 1

The giant characters of history - from Mozart to Michelangelo, Shakespeare to Einstein, Henry VIII to Hitler, Catherine the Great to Margaret Thatcher, Jesus Christ to Genghis Khan ­- lived lives of astonishing drama and adventure, debauchery and slaughter, but they also formed our world and will shape our future. In this eclectic and surprising collection of short and entertaining life stories, Simon Sebag Montefiore introduces his choice of kings, empresses, sultans and conquerors, as well as ...

Jul 26, 202411 hr 58 min

Stumbling On Happiness with Daniel Gilbert

In this fascinating and often hilarious work – winner of the Royal Society of Science Prize 2007 – pre-eminent psychologist Daniel Gilbert shows how – and why – the majority of us have no idea how to make ourselves happy. We all want to be happy, but do we know how? When it comes to improving tomorrow at the expense of today, we're terrible at predicting how to please our future selves. In ‘Stumbling on Happiness’ Professor Daniel Gilbert combines psychology, neuroscience, economics and philosop...

Jul 25, 20247 hr 26 min

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 bil...

Jul 24, 202411 hr 37 min

The All-In Pod Special: The Besties Take Napa

(1:44) The podcast's impact on the besties (3:04) Future of AI, return potential (13:27) Why the besties play poker (16:37) Most impactful advice they've ever received (24:33) Happy Birthday Friedberg!

Jul 24, 202426 min

Going Infinite: The Story of Sam Bankman-Fried from Michael Lewis

I asked him how much it would take for him to sell FTX and go do something other than make money. He thought the question over. "One hundred and fifty billion dollars," he finally said-though he added that he had use for "infinity dollars"...' Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't just rich. Before he turned thirty he'd become the world's youngest billionaire, making a record fortune in the crypto frenzy. CEOs, celebrities and world leaders vied for his time. At one point he considered paying off the entire ...

Jul 24, 20248 hr 56 min

Emperor of Rome from Mary Beard

Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Beard asks bigger questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.

Jul 24, 202414 hr 52 min

Peter Thiel's 2024 Talk at the Cambridge Union

In the Cambridge Union debate between entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, questions arose about his political stance regarding the upcoming presidential elections and the possibility of Donald Trump selecting JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate. Thiel also discussed the challenges facing biotech startups, the importance of asking unpopular questions, and the potential impact of AI on scientific innovation. Thiel acknowledged the difficulties in biotech, including heavy investments, re...

Jul 23, 20241 hr 19 min

The Laws Of Human Nature

We are social animals. Our very lives depend on our relationships with people. Knowing why people do what they do is the most important tool we can possess, without which our other talents can only take us so far. Drawing from the ideas and examples of Pericles, Queen Elizabeth I, Martin Luther King Jr, and many others, Greene teaches us how to detach ourselves from our own emotions and master self-control, how to develop the empathy that leads to insight, how to look behind people's masks, and ...

Jul 23, 202428 hr 26 min

Walter Isaacson's 'Elon Musk' Part 2

Epic feats. Epic failures. An epic story.Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk? From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era – a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial ...

Jul 22, 202410 hr 2 min

Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

The Pax Romana has long been revered as a golden age. At its peak, the Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to Arabia, and contained perhaps a quarter of humanity. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state the world had yet seen. Beginning in 69AD, a year that saw four Caesars in succession rule the empire, and ending some seven decades later with the death of Hadrian, Pax presents a dazzling history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier,...

Jul 22, 202414 hr 52 min

U.S. and China: Edging Toward the Brink? Roundtable with Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson, the celebrated historian who predicted Cold War II in 2018, has assembled the sharpest minds from both sides of the Bamboo Curtain for a discussion on the future of U.S.-China relations. David Daokui Li Andrew Erickson Niall Ferguson Keyu Jin Matt Pottinger

Jul 22, 20241 hr 30 min

Guns, Germs and Steel

Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe? And what can it teach us about our current crisis? Jared Diamond puts the case that geography and biogeography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and aboriginal Australians.

Jul 22, 202416 hr 19 min

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 4

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Jul 22, 20241 hr

The Iconoclast - A Conversation with Peter Thiel and Andrew Sorkin

Peter Thiel has made no secret of his feelings about economic and cultural issues. Hear him discuss his vision for the future, his bets on AI and digital currencies, his thoughts on the state of America — and why he’s staying out of the 2024 U.S. presidential election (for now).

Jul 22, 20241 hr 1 min

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 3

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Jul 22, 20241 hr

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 2

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Jul 22, 20241 hr

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Part 1

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. Released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life. The anecdotes in the book are based on recorded audio conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton.

Jul 21, 20241 hr

The All In Interview: The Jonathan Haidt Interview

( 0:00 ) New format: The All-In Interview! ( 0:59 ) Jonathan Haidt joins Jason and Friedberg: broader themes of his work, gamification and supercharged social media ( 12:39 ) Understanding how humans are wired from an evolutionary biology perspective ( 27:22 ) Haidt's proposals to help younger generations ( 33:12 ) Linking themes and trends in Haidt's books with recent college protests ( 48:17 ) Explaining traditional liberalism and conservatism ( 56:55 ) Lightning Round: Parenting tips, Gen Z e...

Jul 10, 20241 hr 14 min

Walter Isaacson's 'Elon Musk' Part 1

Epic feats. Epic failures. An epic story. Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk? From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era – a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial...

Jul 08, 202410 hr 26 min
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