Episoder
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There are a lot of books about the history of humankind, many of which are written from an evolutionary biological perspective, but Yuval Noah Harari is not a scientist, he's a historian. So he’s not coming up with anything new about the history of humankind, he’s simply observing theories that already exist and putting them under the philosophical microscope. His train of thought and the different tangents he takes you on in order to explain an evolutionary concept is brilliant. He has this uncanny ability of tying evolutionary biology with social science.
Book mentioned:Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
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This is one of Gibran Khalil Gibran's most famous books, it's composed of 26 prose-poetry fables. A prophet named Al Mustafa has been living in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and he’s about to board a ship that’s taking him home, but just as he’s about to leave, a group of people stop him and ask him to give them some final words of wisdom on matters relating to the human condition. Books mentioned:
The Conscious Parent by Dr. Shefali Tsabary
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
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Manglende episoder?
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John O’Brien is a sociologist and lecturer at New York University in Abu Dhabi. He spent three and a half years conducting an ethnographic study of a group of Muslim teenagers coming of age in post-9/11 America, and this book is the result of his research. Over the span of three and a half years, he follows 7 boys who were between the ages of 11 and 17 when his research began and he observes how they navigate the complexities of being both American teenagers and good Muslims. Spoiler alert, his main thesis and conclusions are pretty weak.
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Written by Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong in the days leading up to Christmas in 1985. As he's dropping off a delivery of coal at the local convent, he discovers something that haunts him. The convent is essentially a mother and baby home, one of the many notorious laundries run by the Irish Catholic church for decades.
Conversation with Mary:
https://salmaintb.podbean.com/e/june-2024-in-conversation-with-the-wonderful-mary-obrien/
Book mentioned:
Foster by Claire Keegan
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith
Film mentioned:
Philomena
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A historical realist novel by Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz. Set in the 1940s, the novel revolves around various characters who live, trade and beg in a bustling alley in the backstreets of Cairo. Through this microcosm of broader society, Mahfouz reflects the changes that were taking place in Egyptian society at the time.
Film mentioned:
The Alley of Miracles
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Frank McCourt was an Irish-American writer and Teacher. He recounts a childhood of utter destitution and extreme poverty, between the early 1930s until the late 1940s. When they were in New York his family struggled quite a lot as the great depression had just started, but things took a turn for the worse when they moved to Limerick in Ireland.
Books mentioned:
‘Tis by Frank McCourt
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Article about Angela’s Ashes: https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/angelas-ashes-7-things-may-not-know-pulitzer-prize-winning-memoir-author-169766#:~:text=Paddy%20Malone%2C%20a%20schoolmate%20of,'misery'%20of%20Limerick%20city.
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Dr. Denis Mukwege is a gynaecologist from The Democratic Republic of The Congo, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his incredible services to survivors of rape, and his global campaigns to end the use of rape as a weapon of war. In his book, he recounts his experience in treating women with injuries caused by sexual violence. He named the book The Power of Women as a tribute to the thousands of women he has treated over the years who have confronted some of the darkest circumstances imaginable but still find the courage to carry on and find meaning in life.
Oprah’s interview with Dr. Mukwege: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-mukwege-the-power-of-women/id1264843400?i=1000542177023
Panzi Foundation: https://panzifoundation.org/
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Jonathan Haidth is a sociologist, and in this book he examines the decline in mental health among adolescents around the world. He observes the link between the rise in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide with the introduction of smart phones in 2010. He offers plenty of evidence and statistics that suggest this rise in mental health issues among people is in large part due to, what he calls, ‘the great rewiring of childhood’.
Book mentioned:
Stolen Focus by Johan Hari
Further materials:
anxiousgeneration.com The Online Supplement: anxiousgeneration.com/supplementThe After Babel Substack: afterbabel.com -
Educated is Tara Westover's memoir. She grew up in a super conservative Mormon family in Idaho in the United States. She details a very unusual upbringing. Her family had a deeply seeded distrust towards the government, they didn’t believe in modern medicine or the public school system. The book is essentially a story of her metamorphosis, how she leaves the bubble she was brought up in and goes out into the real world, only to have everything she’s ever known challenged. Without a formal education, Tara ends up attending university at the age of 17, and then goes on to attend Harvard University, as well as Cambridge University where she obtains her PhD.
Tara’s interview with Oprah: https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/super-soul/id1264843400?i=1000437295457
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Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail is Malika Oufkir's first memoir. It is a full account of her unlawful and unjust political incarceration at the age of 19, along with her mother and five siblings, in various squalid desert prisons across Morocco. For over two decades, they suffered from starvation and diseases in isolation as punishment for their father's attempt to overthrow King Hassan II in 1972.
Ahmed Marzouki’s ten part interview on Al Jazeera: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFF3C67C9E43201CA
Malika’s interview with Oprah: https://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/after-the-show-with-malika-oufkir-transcript/all
Books mentioned:
Tazmamart: Cellule 10 by Ahmed MarzoukiTazmamart: 18 Years in Morocco’s Secret Prison by Aziz BineBineFreedom: The Story of My Second Life by Malika Oufkir -
The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis is a memoir that sheds light on a part of French society that are unseen by those in the political centre; people who have been actively excluded from art, film and literature. By revisiting his childhood, Edouard is also trying to unpack the socioeconomic context that he was brought up in.
Edouard Louis on The Guardian Books Podcast: https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2017/feb/28/fact-or-fiction-autobiographical-novels-edouard-louis-books-podcast
Ken Loach and Edouard Louis in conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J89RTrx1_eM&t=1737s
Mentioned films:
I, Daniel Blake
Sorry We Missed You
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Man's Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is one of the most famous accounts of The Holocaust, it also encompasses a basic exploration of the parameters of Logotherapy. Originally published in German in 1946, Dr. Frankl asks why those who have experienced great suffering don't commit suicide. He tries to answer this question through Nietzsche’s assertion that: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how”, and the existential notion that “to live is to suffer and to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”
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Revolutionary Road is a classic mid-twentieth century novel by Richard Yates. It's a critique of American suburban life in the 1950s and the lies we tell ourselves, and each other, in maintaining a picturesque family life. It raises questions about the nature of insanity, and what happens when our inner selves start to revolt against our forced conforming to the collective norm.
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The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is a witty and deeply cynical narrative. Our first person narrator, Balram, is under no illusions of righteousness. He understands that he has been born into a broken system, where one needs to be ruthless in order to thrive and prosper. He has awoken from the fallacy of the master and servant dynamic, and takes his destiny into his own hands.
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Join my wonderful friend Mary and I in an extended conversation about all the incredible books she’s read over the years. She talks about Irish writers, old and new; reading obsessions, past and present; the miracle of the written word; and so much more!
Mary is one of my closest and dearest friends and I am so happy that you get to hear from her. She is an extremely avid reader who relishes in having complex intellectual and philosophical discussions. She’s someone who hasn’t lost the art of debate without extreme polarisation, and is always prepared to reflect, rethink and keep an open mind.
Mentioned books:The Anxious Generation by Jonathan HaidtThe Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan HaidtThe Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan HaidtStolen Focus by Johann HariCobalt Red by Siddharth KaraWalking with Ghosts by Gabriel ByrneTime Pieces by John BanvilleBlack Beauty by Anna SewellSinbad the SailorArabian KnightsThe Three Musketeers by Alexandre DumasWinnie the Pooh by A. A. MilneThe Tao of Pooh by Benjamin HoffA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James JoyceGreat Expectations by Charles DickensThe Prophet by Kahlil GibranThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo IshiguroBrooklyn by Colm ToibinLong Island by Colm ToibinThe Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. TolkienThe Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienHarry Potter by J. K. RowlingThe Dialogues of Plato by PlatoUlysses by James JoyceThe Reader by Bernhard Schlink Finnegans Wake by James JoyceShort story: Music at Annahullion by Eugene McCabe War and Peace by Leo TolstoyOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García MárquezMills & Boon books: https://www.millsandboon.co.uk/The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James WallerNever Let Me Go by Kazuo IshiguroThe Buried Giant by Kazuo IshiguroMystic River by Dennis LehaneA Time to Kill by John GrishamThe Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin SixsmithThe Poisonwood Bible by Barbara KingsolverHomegoing by Yaa GyasiLolita by Vladimir NabokovDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensDemon Copperhead by Barbara KingsolverThe Cider House Rules by John IrvingWe Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel ShriverFoster by Claire KeeganSmall Things Like These by Claire KeeganThe Barracks by John McgahernDeath and Nightingales Eugene McCabeQuirke by Benjamin Black (John Banville pseudonym)Cormoran Strike by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling pseudonym)The Casual Vacancy by J. K. RowlingProphet Song by Paul LynchMythos by Stephen FryHeroes by Stephen FryOdyssey by Stephen FryThe Odyssey by HomerHamnet by Maggie O’FarrellThe Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'FarrellNotes From a Big Country by Bill BrysonNotes from a Small Island by Bill BrysonDown Under by Bill BrysonAt Home by Bill BrysonIf Walls Could Talk by Lucy WorsleyThe Thursday Murder Club by Richard OsmanThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg LarssonThe Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg LarssonThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg LarssonGuns, Germs and Steel by Jared DiamondAmerican Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. SherwinEmpire of Pain by Patrick Radden KeefeMentioned films/TV shows:The Bridges of Madison CountyThe Remains of the DayNever Let Me GoMystic RiverA Time to KillPhilomenaMichael Collins WildeOppenheimerHBO Mini Series on the American opioid epidemic: DopesickOther mentions:MoLI (Museum of Literature Ireland): https://moli.ie/US meat industry lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SjV4vxnaY3UUniversity of Reading Mills & Boon archive and collection: https://collections.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/collections/mills-and-boon-archive-and-library/Romance Author: Barbara CartlandRussian author: Aleksandr Isayevich SolzhenitsynThe Art of Reading Book Club with Colm Toibin podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9nzyTicyDg&list=PLLWo1zNvgJVO-SU1g0K6CxucAq7cKQ1b7Short story writer: William TrevorStephen Fry talks about God on The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suvkwNYSQoQI (Quite Interesting) BBC Game Show -
On Beauty by Zadie Smith is an incredibly well crafted web of complexities. Its various sub plots tackle different conflicts of identity, such as race, gender, politics and socioeconomics. It's a philosophically thought-provoking narrative that is certainly worth the read.
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In A Heart That Works, Rob Delaney recounts the short life of his son Henry, who died at the age of two after going in and out of hospital for a year with a brain tumour. In his narrative style, Delaney has an uncanny ability to balance between humour and heartbreak. He manages to weave in humour while describing the most gut wrenching events. The book is a kind of reflection of life itself; a never ending fluctuation between comedy and tragedy.
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The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka is a poetic narrative of the immigrant experience, written in first person plural from the perspective of Japanese picture brides in the early 20th century. Follow their journey to America, their false expectations of this new life, and the tragic mass incarceration of their community during WWII in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour. Based on historical events, this is a short read you don't want to miss.
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Barbara Demick conducts extended interviews with six North Korean defectors. They describe their lives in North Korea before escaping, recounting the realities of a regime that puts its image at the cost of the lives and dignities of its own citizens.
Book mentioned: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park.
Yeonmi Park interview with Joe Rogan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGJm4bjRaaE
Yeonmi Park interview with Jordan Peterson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yqa-SdJtT4
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A disturbing and eye opening novel by Lionel Shriver that raises difficult questions. What happens when a mother does not connect emotionally with her child? What if this child commits mass murder? Is the mother to blame? Has her lack of affection created a sociopathic killer?
Sue Klebold's TED Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlnrFpCu0c&rco=1
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