media
(books, podcasts, articles, & the rest)
goodreads
Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
READ 2025
Another 'please let me tell you about this' book, more about the shocking historical context of opioids and medical advertising in general. This book has made me think seriously about philanthropy, and especially about the potential lasting and far-reaching consequences of any work in the biotech industry– an it's made me wonder what the Oxycontin of the modern day will be, 20 years from now.
Wild Dark Shore
Charlotte McConaghy
READ 2025
Third novel by a favorite author, and this one continued to impress! Such a haunting combination of darkness and light in characters, setting, and theme… dark and wild are apt descriptors. The narration too was captivating and so fitting to each character. The overall tempo so dynamic, in that it ebbed and flowed with suspense and tension, and everyday and geologic timescales; and it touched so many concepts close to my heart: the ocean, whales, the romance! Not often do I read something that makes me so sympathetic (maybe even heartbroken) towards the human characters while also conveying the wonder and tragedy of our relationship with the rest of the natural world.
Novo Nordisk (Ozempic)
Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
READ 2024
Fascinating and unlikely history of Novo Nordisk
The Dawn of Everything
David Graeber, David Wengrow
READ 2021
Making me rethink everything I learned in history, and making ponder more deeply what exactly it means to be human in relation to others.
Can't Even
Anne Helen Petersen
READ 2021
This book is everything I never knew I needed to put words to. Petersen analyzes and contextualizes the forces that dominated my high school and college years, whether personally or by observation: the compulsion to work, guilt over rest, constant push to become a 'walking college resume,' the need to have a cool job you were so passionate about, the idea that college was the answer to security... It's fascinating to learn about the political and economic measures that fostered these themes that feel so individual.
Migrations
Charlotte McConaghy
READ 2021
An all-time favorite novel and author
After Geoengineering
Holly Jean Buck
READ 2021
This is the climate book I’ve been searching for without knowing it existed: Dr. Buck calls out the spectrum of climate interventions between exploitative technology and nature-cures-all, diving deep into the technical and philosophical weeds of it all. My interest in this topic made the book a slow, dense, and incredibly rewarding read, and short hypothetical “sketches” of future worlds interspersed between the policy talk made it all the more worthwhile (and complemented the wild choose-your-own-adventure/disaster introduction, which you should read even if it’s the only section you do!).
Women & Power
Mary Beard
READ 2021
A powerful, direct, and digestible explanation of women and power. I don't think I'll forget what this 30 minute read taught me any time soon. Go read it!
Coffeeland
Augustine Sedgewick
READ 2021
Epic, in the truest sense of the word. The history of America, and its relationship with Latin America in particular, and the development of our productivity-obsessed culture, through the story of coffee.
Kochland
Christopher Leonard
READ 2020
A sprawling, thorough, and fascinating portrait of Charles Koch’s life work. Learning the human aspect behind a worldview I disagree so profoundly with is complicated, but I think ultimately lays the ground for more constructive conversation.
Winners Take All
Anand Giridharadas
READ 2020
This made me think hard about my life and my dreams to 'change the world.' Gave me the language and framework to more carefully consider, analyze, and interpret society in a more complete way.
The MANIAC
Benjamín Labatut
Fire Weather
John Vaillant
Friday Night Lights
H. G. Bissinger
No Friend But the Mountains
Behrouz Boochani, transl. from Farsi by Omid Tofighian
Costco
Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
The Best Minds
Jonathan Rosen
The End of Drum-Time
Hanna Pylväinen
Cobalt Red
Siddharth Kara
Dark Emu
Bruce Pascoe
Orwell's Roses
Rebecca Solnit
This Is Your Mind on Plants
Michael Pollan
Wonderworks
Angus Fletcher
The Bird Way
Jennifer Ackerman
Nose Dive
Harold McGee
To Be Honest
Michael Leviton
The Biggest Bluff
Maria Konnikova
Thriving Together: Salmon, Berries, and People
Jess Housty
Billionaire Wilderness
Justin Farrell
The Code Breaker
Walter Isaacson
Of Wolves and Men
Barry Lopez
Good Reasons for Bad Feelings
Randolph M. Nesse
Against “Feel Free To Take Some Time If You Need It"
Anne Helen Petersen
Animal, Vegetable, Junk
Mark Bittman
The Book Collectors
Delphine Minoui, transl. from French by Lara Vergnaud
David Attenborough
David Attenborough
Chatter
Ethan Kross
Under a White Sky
Elizabeth Kolbert
The Undocumented Americans
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Land
Simon Winchester
George Saunders on Kindness, Capitalism & the Human Condition
Ezra Klein, George Saunders
A Terrible Thing to Waste
Harriet A. Washington
Why Fish Don't Exist
Lulu Miller
Why We Swim
Bonnie Tsui
Undersea
Rachel Carson
A Promised Land
Barack Obama
Fire in Paradise
Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano
The Reason for Flowers
Stephen L. Buchmann
Inconspicuous Consumption
Tatiana Schlossberg
Horizon
Barry Lopez