Ezra Klein's Podcast is a Gold Mine of Book Recommendations

This "thoughtful, clear and persuasive analysis" of America's dysfunctional political system was one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2022 and also a recommended read by Bill Gates. While it's certainly no secret that Americans are deeply divided along political lines, "what Klein adds especially to our understanding of how we got here--why Trump is more a vessel for our division than the cause, and why his departure will not provide any magical cure," observed the New York Times Book Review.

"This is one of the best policy books I’ve read. It’s a book I hope future governments and current governments will absorb." - Ezra Klein is a journalist and the host of the Ezra Klein Show.

"The best political book that I’ve ever read... It is a novelization of the French revolution... It is so unbelievably good and so compelling." - Annie Lowrey is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

"Hidalgo presents a very different way of thinking about economic growth. Rather than merely thinking about labor and capital and land, he thinks what matters is connection — people connecting with each other, companies and people and universities and even countries." - James Pethokoukis is a columnist and blogger at the American Enterprise Institute.

"I recommend this book to everybody. I think it is the single best book on what Israel is because it is a book that is better able than any other to hold both the idealism and violence at its heart, to take seriously both the way it was a miracle for some and a tragedy for others." - Ezra Klein is a journalist and the host of the Ezra Klein Show.

"Elizabeth writes really beautifully and eloquently about the threat of domestic terrorism... specifically looking at [how] right-wing Christian nationalism... has actually manifested in a clear-and-present danger to the country... Elizabeth’s book is fantastic." -Tim Alberta is a journalist and author.

"It’s a great piece of journalism on where we are now with this epidemic and what can be done, what’s being done, and what we need to do more of." – Barbara Kingsolver is a novelist.

"I just can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s 1,000 pages, but I consider it one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read. And I would almost go so far as to say, you can’t really understand the Soviet Union until you’ve read this book." - Ruy Teixeira is a political scientist and commentator.

"Unbelievably brilliant and prescient ... [Amusing Ourselves to Death] is more relevant to our world today than almost anything being written today ... you should actually just read this book and not file this away as a neat recommendation in the back of your head." - Ezra Klein is a journalist and the host of the Ezra Klein Show.

"Babel has the most astonishing examination of imperialism and language and appropriation as part of its fantasy plot." - Adrian Tchaikovsky is a fantasy and science fiction author.