I’ve been hosting my podcast at the Athletic (iTunes, Spotify) for over three and a half years now, and I’ve had the privilege of interviewing a number of authors whose work I’ve enjoyed. Of course, I boost their books on the show and on the site formerly known as Twitter, but I wanted to create a more lasting spot where you can find all of the books I’ve discussed on the podcast, allowing me to thank the authors once more for their time.
I’ve listed the book(s) I discussed with the authors on their episodes; it’s not an exhaustive bibliography and in some cases it’s not even my favorite book by that particular author. If a book is on this list, however, I have read it, and I recommend it. I’ve loosely organized them into categories, although some of them defied easy categorization. I’ll try to update this somewhat regularly as well.
All links go to Bookshop.org; if you order through those links I receive a small commission.
Business
Oliver Burkeman – Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
John A. List – The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale.
Children’s Books
Matthew Cherry – Hair Love.
Cooking
Michael Ruhlman – The Book of Cocktail Ratios, Ruhlman’s Twenty.
Nik Sharma – The Flavor Equation.
Culture
Matt Singer – Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.
Fiction
Jasper Fforde – The Constant Rabbit.
Susanna Hoffs – This Bird Has Flown.
Will Leitch – How Lucky, The Time Has Come.
Elizabeth McCracken – The Hero of This Book.
History
Elizabeth Hinton – America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s.
David Grann – The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.
Robert Kolker – Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family.
Josh Levin – The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth.
Memoir
Jason Kander – Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics & PTSD.
Kathryn Schulz – Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness.
Music
Jonathan Abrams – The Come–Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip–Hop.
Philosophy
Scott Hershovitz – Nasty, Brutish, & Short: Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids.
Lee McIntyre – On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy.
Justin E.H. Smith – The Internet is Not What You Think It Is: A History, A Philosophy, A Warning.
Politics
Dan Pfeiffer – Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America.
Psychology
Max Bazerman – Complicit: How We Enable the Unethical and How to Stop.
Sian Beilock – Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have to.
Angela Duckworth – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.
Ellen Hendricksen – How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety.
Katy Milkman – How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.
Richard Nisbett – Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking.
Michael Schur – How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.
Claude Steele – Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do.
Ozan Varol – Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary.
Science
Caroline Criado Perez – Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.
Peter Hotez – Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad.
Ed Yong – An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.
Sports
Craig Calcaterra – Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game.
Russell Carleton – The New Ballgame: The Not-So-Hidden Forces Shaping Modern Baseball.
Julie DiCaro – Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America.
Jessica Luther & Kavitha Davidson – Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan.
Jonathan Mayo – Smart, Wrong, & Lucky: The Origin Stories of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars.
Joe Posnanski – Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, The Baseball 100.
John Shea – 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid.