Ezra Klein Show Book Recommendations (Past Year)
Compiled from episodes July 2024 - July 2025
I was listening to the newest episode “Why Does My Mind Keep Thinking That?” (listen on Apple Podcasts) with Mark Epstein and thought that it would be great to capture all of the books mentioned by guests in the last year.
Recent 2025 Episodes
Mark Epstein - Psychiatrist & Buddhist
Episode: "Why Does My Mind Keep Thinking That?“ (July 11, 2025)
- John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie
- Essays After Eighty by Donald Hall
- Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
Aaron David Miller - Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Episode: "A New Middle East?” (June 25, 2025)
- Master of the Game by Martin Indyk
- The Man Who Ran Washington by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
- Tomorrow Is Yesterday by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley
Ehud Olmert - Former Prime Minister of Israel (2006-2009)
Episode: Recent Gaza discussion
- The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon
- Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham
- All or Nothing by Michael Wolff
- Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Zeke Faux - Bloomberg Investigative Reporter
Episode: "The Growing Scandal of $TRUMP" (May 28, 2025) Author of “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall”
- 3 books recommended (specific titles available in full episode)
Catherine Rampell - Washington Post Opinion Columnist & MSNBC Anchor
Episode: "Trump’s Big Budget Bomb" (May 23, 2025)
- 3 books recommended
Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson - CNN Anchor & Political Reporter
Episode: "How Groupthink Protected Biden and Re-elected Trump" (May 21, 2025) Authors of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”
- 3 books recommended
Zack Beauchamp & Andrew Marantz - Vox Senior Correspondent & New Yorker Staff Writer
Episode: "Is Trump Losing? A Debate" (May 16, 2025)
- The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them by Aziz Rana
- Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt
- Political Liberalism by John Rawls
- A World after Liberalism: Five Thinkers Who Inspired the Radical Right by Matthew Rose
- Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Landby Rachel Cockerell
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Rebecca Winthrop - Director, Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution
Episode: "We Have to Really Rethink the Purpose of Education" (May 13, 2025) Co-author of “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better”
- Democracy and Education by John Dewey
- Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic and Matthew Miller
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez - U.S. Representative (Democrat, Washington State)
Episode: "How a Red-District Democrat Is Navigating Trump" (May 6, 2025)
- 2 books recommended
Kenneth Rogoff - Former Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund; Harvard Professor
Episode: "Trump vs. the Dollar" (May 2, 2025) Author of upcoming “Our Dollar, Your Problem”
- 3 books recommended
David Shor - Head of Data Science, Blue Rose Research
Episode: "Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won" (March 18, 2025)
- The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics by Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld
- The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John R. Zaller
- The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns by Sasha Issenberg
Peter Orszag - CEO & Chairman, Lazard; Former OMB Director
Episode: "Trump’s Tariffs Are Part of a ‘Tectonic Plate Shift’ in the Global Economy" (April 11, 2025)
- Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman
- Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman
- Smart Money: How Digital Currencies Will Shape the New World Order by Brunello Rosa and Casey Larsen
- The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets by Thomas R. Cech
- KAPUT by Wolfgang Münchau
Gillian Tett - Financial Times Columnist & Editorial Board Member
Episode: "Is Trump 'Detoxing’ the Economy or Poisoning It?“ (March 14, 2025) Trained anthropologist with a Ph.D.
- Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
- National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade by Albert Hirschman
- The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes
- How to Think Like an Anthropologist by Matthew Engelke
Kimberly Clausing - Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute; UCLA Professor
Episode: "Why Trump’s Tariffs Won’t Work” (March 12, 2025) Author of “Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital”
- The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder
- The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner
Key 2024 Episodes
Patrick Ruffini - Founding Partner, Echelon Insights (Republican Pollster)
Episode: "The Book That Predicted the 2024 Election" (November 9, 2024)Author of “Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP”
- Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior by Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird
- The Real Majority: The Classic Examination of American Electorateby Richard Scammon and Ben Wattenberg
- The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again by Michael Barone
Anne Applebaum - Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian & Atlantic Staff Writer
Episode: "Trump Kicks Down the Guardrails" (November 19, 2024) Author of “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World”
- 3 books recommended
Michael Lind - Tablet Magazine Columnist & New America Co-founder
Episode: "The End of the Obama Coalition" (November 13, 2024) Author of “The New Class War: Saving Democracy From the Managerial Elite”
- 3 books recommended
Faiz Shakir - Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Campaign Manager
Episode: "Would Bernie Have Won?“ (November 26, 2024) Founder and Executive Director of More Perfect Union
- 3 books recommended
Rahm Emanuel - Former White House Chief of Staff & Chicago Mayor
Episode: "Rahm Emanuel’s Plan for a Democratic Comeback in 2026” (December 3, 2024)
- 3 books recommended
Oliver Burkeman - Author
Episode: "Burned Out? Start Here.“ (January 7, 2025) Author of "Meditations for Mortals” and “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals”
- 3 books recommended
Notable 2024 Guests & Their Recommendations
Gloria Mark - Researcher
Episode: "Tired? Distracted? Burned-Out? Listen to This.“ (January 5, 2024)
- The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA by Diane Vaughan
- The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
- The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku
Kyle Chayka - Author/Critic
Episode: "How to Discover Your Own Taste” (January 9, 2024)
- In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki
- Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler
- The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
David French - Author/Commentator
Episode: "The Constitution Says Insurrectionists Can’t Hold Office. So What Is Trump?“ (January 12, 2024)
- Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 by Max Hastings
- Into the Heart of Romans: A Deep Dive into Paul’s Greatest Letter by N. T. Wright
- Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson
Kristen Soltis Anderson - Republican Pollster
Episode: "A Republican Pollster on Trump’s Undimmed Appeal” (January 16, 2024)
- Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz
- Party of the People by Patrick Ruffini
- Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History by Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Alan Sepinwall
Note: This list represents a curated selection from the past year. Ezra Klein’s guests typically recommend 2-3 books each episode, covering topics from politics and economics to psychology, history, and culture. You can find them in the show notes of every episode.
