Turek Books Podcast

Comedian and writer Zach Pugh joins host Joshua Turek to discuss Moby Dick, Don Delillo, Denis Johnson, being attracted to grimey literatrue, The Fort Bragg Cartel and Chris Hedges, the need for pretentiousness to return to our society among other things. Get Joshua's new poetry book "Ugly Whimsy" out April 10th! Preorder first edition now! Originally recorded Jan 2026

The Fort Bragg Cartel

Moby Dick

The Failures of Nonviolence

Underworld by Don Dellilo

Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges

Europe Central by William T Volman

Rainbow Stories by William T Volman

Jesus Son by Denis Johnson

Drag Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Long Live the Post Horn

it by stephen king

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author and Comedian Amy Silverberg joins host Joshua Turek to discuss the reasons why we live creative lives, her love of books including her debut novel First Time Long Time, and Josh's impending fatherhood. Originally recorded 1/12/2026

Books Talked About Include:

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

100 years of solitude by marquez

a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan

A Confederacy of Dunces

debt by david graeber

a peoples history of the united states

grapes of wrath

So far gone by jess walter

Flesh by David Zalay

Beauty Land by Burtino

Rock Hawk by Robinson Jeffers

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle

Middlemarch by George Elliott

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author of "Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Jesus is Alive" Melissa Lozada-Oliva talks literary influences, books she's put down, and enjoying the act of reading before we're too old to see the pages anymore.

Books Talked About Include:

tana french

Lady Chatterly’s Lover

Debt by David Graeber

Grapes of Wrath

Autobiography of Macolm X

Somebody Walks Over Your Grave by Marian Enriquez

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Leguin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filmmaker and actor David Hull (Crazy Ex) joins host Joshua Turek to discuss books about eels, wolves, the dust bowl, politics gone wrong and ketamine therapy.

Recorded Dec 6, 2025

Books Talked About Include:

Slumberland, Sell Out, Tuff, White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty

James, Erasure, American Fiction, God’s Country by Percival Everett

Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden by Steinbeck

Notes From Underground - Dostoevsky

Book of Eels Patrick Sphenson

Frost Lines by Neil Shea

The Cigarette

American Dreamer by Henry Wallace

A Kim Jong Il Production

The Wicker Man

The Day of the Locust

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Astrologer and Filmmaker Liz Vazquez joins host Joshua Turek to discuss books documenting our pressing issues and outer space and how they're all related.

originally recorded January 26, 2026

Books talked about include

Trickster makes the world by Lewis Hyde

Shiver by Junji Ito

Who I am and What I want by David Shimley

The Problem with Work

Carceral Capitalism

Nechro Politics Achille Mbembe

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

The History of Forgetting by Norman Klein

Becoming Human by Zakiyah Iman Jackson

Black shirts and reds by Michael Parenti

Inventing Reality

American Fascists by Chris Hedges

Loaded by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz

Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnes

American Cosmic - Diana Walsh Pasulka

The Administration of Fear by Paul Verilio

The Information Bomb

Shambhala

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author Lauren Lavin, of the upcoming essay collection "The Third Beat", joins host Joshua Turek to talk about books her friends and contemporaries have written, comics, zines, and the mutuality of creative relationships and how they've fostered her own journey as a writer.

books talked about include:

until it feels right - emily costa

girl on girl

House Next Door - Anne Rivers Siddons

Comet Bus #57 by Aaron Comet Bus

I wish that there was something I could quit

popgun war - Ferrel Dalrimple

Girl in the World - Caroline Cash

It’s too late to say I’m sorry by Joey Comeau

The Girl Who Couldn’t Come - Joey Comeau

Still Alive by LJ Pemperton

Service by John Tottenham

Double Black Diamond by Miles Klee and Mads Gobbo

Lulu in Hollywood - Louise Brooks

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Joshua Turek is joined by guest Brian Recker, author of the new book "Hell Bent" (How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love). They discuss the books Brian read while researching his own, which details redefining his own spirituality and Christian beliefs. Discussing masculinity and softening the world, the two detail their own unique paths toward similar conclusions.

to sign up for Josh’s next Zoom weekend poetry workshop on Jan 18&19 check joshuaturek.com

Books Talked About Include:

Debt by David Graeber

Hell Bent by Brian Recker

Adam’s Return by Richard Rohr

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Spoke in the Wheel by Renate Wind

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

the will to change bell hooks

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political commentator Lily Eagla joins host Joshua Turek to discuss mutual aid, retraining the offline world back into your brain, and books that radicalized her.

Sign up for Joshua's weekend Zoom Poetry workshop now for the Dec6&7 gathering!

books

mutual aid by dean spade

Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

The Year of Living Biblically

Our American Israel

100 years was on palestine by rashid kalidi

the autobiography of malcolm x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Larry Charles and host Joshua Turek talk SF and LA noir, science fiction grounded on Earth, Larry's new memoir Comedy Samurai . They talk personal growth, the transformative power of literature and how reading can serve as both a source of pleasure and a means of preserving sacred knowledge.

for Josh's poetry books, they're on sale until the end of the year, signed copies available domestically at joshuaturek.com

Books Talked About Include:

Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson

City of Night by John Reshy

crime writers: edward bunker, jim thompson, david goodis, raymond chandler, dashiell hammet

The Woman Chase by Charles WIliford

The Ripley Books by Patricia Highsmith

In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes 

The Motel Life by Willy Vlauten

The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg

Service by John Tottenham

Ablutions by Patrick Dewitt

Days of the Locust by Nathaniel West 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Yasha Levine and Host Joshua Turek discuss everything from technofeudalism to pistachios.

San Francisco! For tickets Nov 1 to see Yasha's new documentary at Roxie Theater with live Q&A hosted by Joshua Turek here

For Josh's poetry books and his weekend Zoom workshop on Nov 8 & 9 visit his site

Books Talked About Include

Society of the Spectacle - Guy Debord

Surveillance Valley - Yasha Levine

The Image - Daniel Boorstijn

Neil Postman - Amusing ourselves to death

Raven Rock

Dead Cities - Mike Davis

Moderan - David Bunch

Shadow of the torture - Gene Wolf

The Dying Earth Series - Jack Vance sci fi

Cadillac Desert

The American Genocide

The End of th Myth

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.