Building Books Podcast

The Building Books podcast is excited to welcome investigative journalist and respected author, Brian Livingston, to the show. Brian is the coauthor of 11 books in the Windows Secrets series, has written for a wide variety of computing journals, and is the author of the new BenBella Book, Muscular Portfolios: The Investing Revolution for Superior Returns with Lower Risk.

Muscular portfolios are financial strategies designed by experts to never lose more than 18-20% in a bear market. Livingston’s new book is the first publication to reveal which 13 index funds are the ones that go with Mebane Faber’s research, which nine index funds are the ones that go with Steve LeCompte’s research, and much, much more.

The Building Books Podcast is thrilled to welcome former national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, Michelle Gielan. Michelle is author of one of BenBella’s favorite books, the bestselling Broadcasting Happiness. She is also the founder of the Institute of Applied Positive Research, the Executive Producer of Happiness Advantage Special on PBS, and a featured professor at Oprah’s Happiness Course. Yeffeth and Gielan walk through her extraordinary career changes (from computer engineer to broadcast journalist to positive psychology researcher), and the life events that led her down the path to where she is today. Gielan debunks the myth that negativity sells, sharing a series of studies with Ariana Huffington that showed that just three minutes of negative news in the morning can increase your chances of having a bad day by 27%.

Listen in to hear how Gielan’s book and influence are changing the way people and businesses like Nationwide Brokerage Services (and even BenBella Books!) are thinking. You may even learn a little about not just managing your own happiness, but the impact you have on those around you.

The Building Books podcast is excited to welcome Ryan Craig to the show. Ryan is the co-founder and managing director of University Ventures, an investment firm dedicated to re-imagining the future of higher education and creating pathways from education to employment. The University Ventures portfolio companies are working to make higher education more affordable, pioneering new approaches to learning, and helping employers think differently about how and where they really discover talent.

Ryan is also author of A New U: Faster and Cheaper Alternatives to College. The book addresses the fact that our society has been in a frame of mind for almost 30 years where it’s college or bust. The point of his book is to try to burst that bubble and demonstrate that we’re now seeing hundreds and thousands of alternative pathways that don’t lead to blue collar jobs only. These new pathways are leading to great first jobs in the industries of the future such as technology and healthcare.

Listen in as Glenn and Ryan discuss the difference between selective versus non-selective universities, the metrics of affordability in relation to employability, and the emergence of “last mile” training programs. This discussion is as eye opening as it is interesting, and you don’t want to miss it.

The Building Books podcast is thrilled to welcome BenBella author and Emmy Award-winning journalist, Robert Rand, to the show. Rand has worked in television, print, and digital media everywhere from Philadelphia to San Francisco to Miami to L.A. His greatest claim to fame, however, is his unmatched connection to the infamous Menendez brothers and their murder trial.

Rand is author of the recently published book entitled, The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation. Listen in to hear the incredible journey he has been on with this story since the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez in August of 1989. From courtroom coverage for the Miami Herald, CourtTV, ABC, and CBS, to getting hired by Wolf Films as a consultant to work on development of the NBC eight-hour limited series, “Law and Order: True Crime the Menendez Murders,” Rand’s journalistic experience and knowledge of this well-known case is unparalleled.

Also interesting is his road to becoming an author, the writing process itself, and how he started with 250,000 words and scaled it back to 100,000. In the words of Glenn Yeffeth, “the book really reflects just an incredible encyclopedic knowledge of everything that went on.” This is truly a compelling episode that you don’t want to miss.

The Building Books podcast is excited to welcome Susan Weinberg, Senior Vice President and publisher for Perseus books, to the show. Susan has led an exciting career in publishing, from her start in the business with Book-of-the-Month Club, to her time with HarperCollins, to her esteemed position with Perseus Books today.

Listen in as Susan walks you through both a day and a decade in the life of a publisher. She shares the intricate details of what makes her job so interesting and what makes it so rewarding. Learn what she considers the “secret sauce” of publishing success, and what sets her current company apart from the vast sea of other publishers.

Between the two of them, Glenn and Susan have decades of industry advice and success to share. If the evolution of the publishing industry and current trends are of interest to you, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Welcome to Building Books, a publishing podcast for anyone who wants to learn more about how book publishing really works. In this introductory episode, meet your host Glenn Yeffeth and learn more about the show. Every week Glenn will dive into a variety of topics on book publishing via conversations with industry professionals and authors, or with monologues on what’s going on in the publishing world.