A Book with Legs

By Smead Capital Management

In each episode, we explore value investing through an entirely unique lens, bringing in authors to discuss books that have directly or indirectly influenced the decisions the Smead Capital Management... more

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The podcast currently has 134 episodes available.

Best of A Book with Legs

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Liaquat Ahamed - 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
In this episode of A Book with Legs, Cole Smead, CEO and Portfolio Manager, and Bill Smead, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Smead Capital Management, sit down with Liaquat Ahamed to discuss his book, “1873: The Rothschilds, The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World.” Liaquat Ahamed explores 1873 as the first truly global financial crisis, centered on the Rothschild family, then the wealthiest bankers in the world. The conversation traces how the Rothschilds nearly collapsed in 1848, losing 40% of their capital, only to rebuild over the next 25 years into a bank controlling a third of the entire European banking system. Liaquat and the Smeads discuss how market psychology moves in generational cycles, why it can take a full generation to recover confidence after a crash, and how President Grant’s decision to defend the gold standard during the 1873 panic prolonged deflation across the U.S. economy. “1873: The Rothschilds, The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World,” published by Penguin Press, is available now. Sign up to be notified about new episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452V800
August 03, 20261h 6min
Number 2: Kenneth Rogoff - Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
In this episode of A Book with Legs, Cole Smead, CEO and Portfolio Manager at Smead Capital Management, sits down with Dr. Kenneth Rogoff to discuss his book, "Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead." Kenneth Rogoff is the Maurits C. Boas Professor of Economics at Harvard University. From 2001 to 2003, he served as Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, and earlier in his career was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board. He is the co-author, with Carmen Reinhart, of the New York Times bestseller "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly," as well as "Foundations of International Macroeconomics" and "The Curse of Cash." He earned his Ph.D. in economics at MIT and is also an international grandmaster of chess. The conversation explores the dollar's position at the center of global finance, from the history of currency dominance dating back to Spain, to the rise of populism and its threat to the dollar's exorbitant privilege, to real, candid stories from Rogoff's own experience meeting Chinese leadership and warning of the country's real estate crisis years before it hit. They also discuss the euro's uneven path, the Mexican peso crisis, and what stablecoins and cryptocurrency really mean for the future of money. Read Kenneth's column here: https://www.project-syndicate.org/columnist "Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead," published by @YaleUniversityPress , is available now. Sign up to be notified about new episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452V800
September 14, 20261h 12min
Number 3: Adrian Wooldridge - The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism
In this episode of A Book with Legs, Cole Smead, CEO and Portfolio Manager at Smead Capital Management, sits down with Adrian Wooldridge to discuss his book, “The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism.” Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist at Bloomberg News, and previously spent more than twenty years at The Economist, serving as political editor and Washington bureau chief. He is the author of twelve previous books, including “Capitalism in America,” co-written with former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, and “The Aristocracy of Talent.” The conversation traces the intellectual roots of liberalism, from Erasmus and Hobbes to Mill and Tocqueville, and explores where the philosophy has drifted from its original ideals. Along the way: how the concentration of power in figures like the Mag 7 and today’s tech leaders echoes Montesquieu’s warnings, how identity politics shifted the unit of analysis from individuals to groups, and what Wooldridge believes must change to recover what he calls “the revolutionary center” before autocracy, fascism, or societal stratification takes hold. “The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism,” published by Pegasus Books, is available now. Sign up to be notified about new episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452V800
August 31, 20261h 18min
Number 4: Bryan Burrough - The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild
In this episode of A Book with Legs, Cole Smead, CEO and Portfolio Manager, welcomes back Bryan Burrough to discuss his book, “The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild.” Bryan Burrough is a New York Times bestselling author or coauthor of eight books, including the Wall Street classic “Barbarians at the Gate,” which he previously discussed on A Book With Legs podcast, as well as “Public Enemies,” “The Big Rich,” and “Forget the Alamo.” He spent nearly a decade as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and has been a longtime special correspondent for Vanity Fair. The conversation traces how a Southern honor code, a new piece of technology, the Colt revolver, and a generation of traumatized Civil War veterans collided in one state to produce three decades of violence, and how journalism turned killers into folk heroes. Along the way: how Texas became home to 30% of all major postwar gunfights in America, the true origins of the gunfighter in Southern dueling culture rather than frontier life, and how legends like Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, and Jesse James were built as much by newspapers as by their own actions. “The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild,” published by Penguin Press, is available now. Sign up to be notified about new episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452V800
August 17, 20261h 11min
Number 5: The Smead Book List - Summer 2026
What is the Smead Capital Management team reading, and what ideas are shaping their view of today's markets? In this quarterly Book List episode of A Book with Legs, Smead Capital Management CEO and Portfolio Manager Cole Smead is joined by longtime listener Steve to discuss the books that have recently captured their attention. Cole and Steve discuss their recent reads which cover a range of topics from investor psychology, Chinese history, mathematics and intelligence, to business turnarounds and cooperation. They also share the books currently on their nightstands and discuss what they hope to learn from future reads. Along the way, the conversation touches on energy markets and the role of history in understanding today's investment landscape. Sign up to be notified about new episodes: https://hubs.ly/Q0452V800
June 29, 20261h 9min