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Bookcast

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Bookcast episodes

  • Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious | Gerd Gigerenzer
    Why is split second decision-making superior to deliberation? Gut Feelings delivers the science behind Malcolm Gladwell?s Blink
    Reflection and reason are overrated, according to renowned psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer. Much better qualified to help us make decisions is the cognitive, emotional, and social repertoire we call intuition?a suite of gut feelings that have evolved over the millennia specifically for making decisions. ?Gladwell drew heavily on Gigerenzer?s research. But Gigerenzer goes a step further by explaining just why our gut instincts are so often right. Intuition, it seems, is not some sort of mystical chemical reaction but a neurologically based behavior that evolved to ensure that we humans respond quickly when faced with a dilemma? (BusinessWeek).

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    20 min
  • Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity | David Allen

    In today's world, yesterday's methods just don't work. In Getting Things Done, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares the breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen's premise is simple: our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential. In Getting Things Done Allen shows how to:

    From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

    Apply the "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule to get your in-box to empty Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations Plan projects as well as get them unstuck Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed Feel fine about what you're not doing

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    19 min
  • Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

    From the legendary vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, lessons in investment strategy, philanthropy, and living a rational and ethical life.

    “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up,” Charles T. Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compendium of eleven talks delivered by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman between 1986 and 2007 has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs seeking to absorb the enduring wit and wisdom of one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st centuries. 

    Edited by Peter D. Kaufman, chairman and CEO of Glenair and longtime friend of Charlie Munger—whom he calls “this generation’s answer to Benjamin Franklin”—this abridged Stripe Press edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack features a brand-new foreword by Stripe cofounder John Collison. 

    Poor Charlie’s Almanack draws on Munger’s encyclopedic knowledge of business, finance, history, philosophy, physics, and ethics—and more besides—to introduce the latticework of mental models that underpin his rational and rigorous approach to life, learning, and decision-making. Delivered with Munger’s characteristic sharp wit and rhetorical flair, it is an essential volume for any reader seeking to go to bed a little wiser than when they woke up.

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    20 min
  • Breakfast at the Victory: The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience | James P. Carse
    The author explores manifestations of the divine in his daily life in this blend of spiritual meditation and memoir.
    Tapping spiritual sources that range from the silence of the Buddha to the words of Robert Forst, James Carse uncovers the rich paradoxes of everyday experience and emerges as a genuine American mystic. Breakfast at the Victory, Carse writes, is “an invitation to see how extraordinary the ordinary is.” After reading it, life may never appear the same.
    Praise for Breakfast at the Victory
    “Carse has the wondrous gift of seeing the whole universe in a grain of sand. Starting from deceptively small beginnings, he opens up a whole world of daily miracles.” —Pico Iyer, author of Video Night in Kathmandu
    “Succeed[s] in teaching a kind of vision and appreciation for the otherwise regular and humdrum.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
    “Plainspoken yet brilliant.” —Booklist
    “This thought-provoking book turns ordinary experiences on their heads, almost forcing readers to find the mystical in their own subjective engagement of daily events. . . . [Carse] brings the profound within the grasp of everyone.” —Publishers Weekly

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    27 min
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything | Bill Bryson
    Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller: but even when he stays safely in his own study at home, he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know. How do we know what is in the centre of the Earth, or what a black hole is, or where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out?On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, like the painfully shy Henry Cavendish who worked out many conundrums like how much the Earth weighed, but never bothered to tell anybody about many of his findings. In the company of such extraordinary people, Bill Bryson takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey, and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

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    15 min
  • A Rap on Race | James Baldwin, Margaret Mead
    In 1970, America's most celebrated Black author and the world's most acclaimed anthropologist met for a seven-and-a-half hour conversation about race and society. The transcript of their discussion is a revealing and unique book filled with candor, passion, rage, and brilliance. "Blunt, peppery, and spontaneous. . . ".--The Atlantic.

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    25 min
  • A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life | Jack Kornfield
    “This important guidebook shows in detail and with great humor and insight the way to practice the Buddha’s universal teachings here in the West. Jack Kornfield is a wonderful storyteller and a great teacher.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
    “Jack is helping to pave the path for American Buddhism, bringing essential basics into our crazy modern lives. And the language he uses is as simple and as lovely as our breath.”—Natalie Goldberg
     
    Perhaps the most important book yet written on meditation, the process of inner transformation, and the integration of spiritual practice into our American way of life, A Path with Heart brings alive one by one the challenges of spiritual living in the modern world. Written by a teacher, psychologist, and meditation master of international renown, this warm, inspiring, and expert book touches on a wide range of essential issues including many rarely addressed in spiritual books. From compassion, addiction, and psychological and emotional healing, to dealing with problems involving relationships and sexuality, to the creation of a Zen-like simplicity and balance in all facets of life, it speaks to the concerns of many modern spiritual seekers, both those beginning on the path and those with years of experience.
     
    A Path with Heart is filled with practical techniques, guided meditations, stories, koans, and other gems of wisdom that can help ease your journey through the world. The author’s own profound—and sometimes humorous—experiences and gentle assistance will skillfully guide you through the obstacles and trials of spiritual and contemporary life to bring a clarity of perception and a sense of the sacred into your everyday experience. Reading this book will touch your heart and remind you of the promises inherent in meditation and in a life of the spirit: the blossoming of inner peace, wholeness, and understanding, and the achievement of a happiness that is not dependent on external conditions.
     
    Sure to be a classic, A Path with Heart shows us how we can bring our spirituality to flower every day of our lives. It is a wise and gentle guidebook for an odyssey into the soul that enables us to achieve a deeper, more satisfying life in the world.

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    28 min
  • A Message to Garcia | Elbert Hubbard
    This tale of a soldier’s self-reliance during the Spanish American War is history’s greatest motivational lesson, now collected with Elbert Hubbard’s most treasured inspirational works.
    A Message to Garcia touched so profound a chord in readers that, after its publication in 1899, it became one of the most widely read works in human history. A Message to Garcia tells the story of an American soldier charged with delivering a critical message to a leader of Cuban rebel forces during the Spanish American War. In Hubbard’s account, he delivered the urgent missive with no questions asked, no complaining, and no hedging. The enduring and almost unbelievably simple message of the essay is this: When asked to perform a task, don’t ask How...? or Why...? or Wouldn’t it be better if . . . ? Just do it—and you will become more valued and respected than you ever imagined possible.

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    10 min
  • Geek in Japan | Hector Garcia
    Created specifically for fans of Japanese "cool culture," A Geek in Japan is one of the most iconic, hip, and concise cultural guides available.
    This new edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded with new chapters on Japanese video games, architecture, and a special section on visiting Kyoto. Reinvented for the internet age, it's packed with personal essays and hundreds of photographs, presenting all the touchstones of both traditional and contemporary culture in an entirely new way.
    The expansive range of topics include:
    Bushido, Geisha, Samurai, Shintoism, and BuddhismTraditional arts and disciplines like Ukiyo-e, Ikebana, Zen meditation, calligraphy, martial arts, and the tea ceremonyInsightful essays on code words and social mores; dating and drinking rituals; working and living conditions and symbols and practices that are peculiarly JapaneseJapanese pop culture genres and their subcultures, like otaku, gals, visual kei, and cosplay
    For visitors, the author includes a mini guide to his favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo as well as tips on special places of interest in other parts of Japan. Garcia has written an irreverent, insightful, and highly informative guide for the growing ranks of Japanophiles around the world.

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    15 min
  • Essays on Moral Development | Lawrence Kohlberg
    Lawrence Kohlberg's "Essays on Moral Development" explores the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and education in understanding how individuals develop their moral reasoning. The collection of essays is divided into three volumes, each addressing distinct facets of moral development. Volume I focuses on the philosophical underpinnings, Volume II examines the psychological stages, and Volume III explores the implications for moral education. Kohlberg presents his stage theory of moral development, arguing that individuals progress through identifiable stages of moral reasoning. He critically analyzes various educational ideologies, including cultural transmission, romanticism, and progressivism, advocating for an approach that stimulates moral development through Socratic dialogue and the cultivation of justice. The essays grapple with complex questions regarding value relativity, the role of moral principles, and the relationship between moral judgment and action, seeking to bridge the gap between philosophical theory and practical application in education and society.

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    25 min

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