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Books

71 items

TOP PICK i

The story of J.C.R. Licklider and the birth of the personal computer revolution.

The Dream Machine

M. Mitchell Waldrop

cshistory

TOP PICK i

Timeless lessons on learning and creativity from a legendary Bell Labs scientist.

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

Richard W. Hamming

csengineeringscience

TOP PICK i

The extraordinary memoir of Singapore's founding prime minister.

From Third World to First World

Lee Kwan Yew

asiapoliticseconomicshistory

TOP PICK i

How Robert Moses shaped twentieth century New York.

The Power Broker

Robert A. Caro

historypolitics

TOP PICK i

Hard science fiction epic about humanity's first contact with an alien civilization.

The Three Body Problem

Cixin Liu

asiasci-fispace

i

The Japanese master filmmaker's candid memoir.

Something Like an Autobiography

Akira Kurosawa

artasia

i

A director's no-nonsense playbook for turning scripts into screen magic.

Making Movies

Sidney Lumet

art

i

The physician turned Jurassic Park author explores mysticism, medicine, and mountain climbing across continents.

Travels

Michael Crichton

arttravel

i

Mind-bending stories exploring language, time, and what it means to be human.

Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang

philosophysci-fi

i

The comedic odyssey of Earth's last human amid cosmic absurdity and a depressed robot.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

comedysci-fispace

i

Wealthy uploads awaken in a self-sustaining virtual cosmos hijacked by their own simulations.

Permutation City

Greg Egan

literaryphilosophysci-fi

i

Rebels on a lunar penal colony, aided by a sentient AI, ignite revolution against Earth.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Robert A. Heinlein

politicssci-fispace

i

Humanity's doomed bid to contact inscrutable alien minds unravels catastrophically.

Fiasco

Stanisław Lem

sci-fispace

i

Harry Potter reimagined as a scientist applying rationality to magic.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Eliezer Yudkowsky

philosophysci-fi

i

NASA's legendary flight director recounts the triumphs and crises of space exploration.

Failure Is Not an Option

Gene Kranz

engineeringhistoryspace

i

Lessons in preparation, perspective, and problem-solving from orbit.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Chris Hadfield

spacetravel

i

Inside Lockheed's legendary secret division that built the SR-71 and stealth fighter.

Skunk Works

Ben Rich

engineeringhistory

i

The self-effacing memoir of a brilliant British jet engine pioneer.

Not Much of an Engineer

Stanley Hooker

engineeringhistory

i

The playful adventures and curious mind of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.

Surely You are Joking, Mr Feynman!

Richard Feynman

historyscience

i

Undergraduate physics explained with Feynman's characteristic clarity and insight.

The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Richard Feynman

mathscience

i

A comprehensive look at how energy use has shaped human societies.

Energy and Civilization: A History

Vaclav Smil

economicshistoryscienceengineering

i

A road trip through America's geologic soul.

Annals of the Former World

John McPhee

sciencetravel

i

A blueprint for how skyscraper farms might feed tomorrow's megacities.

The New City

Dickson Despommier

scienceengineering

i

An odyssey into the icy frontier guarding Earth's climate secrets.

Antarctica

Gabrielle Walker

sciencetravel

i

A rigorous treatment of the physics underlying planetary atmospheres and climate.

Principles of Planetary Climate

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

science

i

Hofstadter's collection of quirky essays written for Scientific American is unified by its primary concern: to examine the way people perceive and think.

Metamagical Themas

Douglas R. Hofstadter

philosophyscience

i

Biographical portraits of the giants who shaped mathematical thought.

Men of Mathematics

Eric Temple Bell

mathhistory

i

A panoramic introduction to modern mathematics.

Mathematics

Aleksandrov, Kolomogorov, & Lavrent’ev

math

i

Jaynes presents probability as the mathematics of optimal reasoning under uncertainty.

Probability Theory

E.T. Jaynes

mathphilosophy

i

How fractal mathematics reveals the inadequacy of conventional financial risk models.

The Misbehavior of Markets

Benoît B. Mandelbrot

economicsmath

i

Connecting information theory, Bayesian inference, and machine learning.

Information Theory

David J.C. MacKay

csmath

i

Essays on programming, startups, and why makers are the new power brokers.

Hackers and Painters

Paul Graham

businesscs

i

Candid interviews with startup founders on the early days of their companies.

Founders at Work

Jessica Livingston

business

i

Nike's founder reflects on building an empire from a car trunk.

Shoe Dog

Phil Knight

business

i

Practical advice on scaling companies into unicorns.

High Growth Handbook

Elad Gil

business

i

Intel's legendary CEO on management principles that drive productivity.

High Output Management

Andrew Grove

business

i

Warren Buffett's partner shares a lifetime of mental models and wisdom.

Poor Charlie's Almanack

Charles Munger

businessphilosophy

i

What randomized controlled trials reveal about the economic lives of the world's poorest.

Poor Economics

Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo

economicspolitics

i

An analysis of starvation and famines, through the lens of ownership and exchange, instead of food supply alone.

Poverty and Famines

Amartya Sen

economicspolitics

i

A critique of ideal theory: justice through comparative outcomes, not Rawlsian institutional design.

The Idea of Justice

Amartya Sen

economicsphilosophy

i

The role of institutions in determining prosperity: why some nations thrive while others remain poor.

Why Nations Fail

Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson

economicspolitics

i

Why some Asian economies succeeded while others stalled: land reform, manufacturing policy, and finance.

How Asia Works

Joe Studwell

asiaeconomicshistory

i

A historical examination of the industrial policies used by developed countries during their own rise.

Kicking Away the Ladder

Ha-Joon Chang

economicshistory

i

A century of unprecedented productivity growth, and why it may not return.

The Rise and Fall of American Growth

Robert J. Gordon

economicshistory

i

A passionate history of five centuries of exploitation in Latin America.

Open Veins of Latin America

Eduardo Galeano

economicshistorypolitics

i

Development considered through the lens of violence and how societies control it.

Violence and Social Orders

Douglass C. North

historypolitics

i

The birth of the modern prison and how power shifted from spectacle to surveillance.

Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault

historyphilosophypolitics

i

Fukuyama traces states' evolution from tribal kinships to modern bureaucracies.

The Origins of Political Order

Francis Fukuyama

historypolitics

i

The former Secretary of State examines competing visions of global order.

World Order

Henry Kissinger

historypolitics

i

How Lyndon Johnson transformed himself from Senate outsider to the most powerful legislator in American history.

Master of the Senate

Robert A. Caro

historypolitics

i

America's political transformation from 1965 to 1972 through the rise of Richard Nixon.

Nixonland

Rick Perlstein

historypolitics

i

A comprehensive history of the American Civil War and the forces that led to it.

Battle Cry of Freedom

James M. McPherson

historywar

i

The enduring trauma of Northern Ireland's Troubles told through the story of a mother's murder.

Say Nothing

Patrick Radden Keefe

historypoliticswar

i

The making of the world's largest democracy.

India After Gandhi

Ramachandra Guha

asiahistorypolitics

i

Observations on politics, language, and the human condition.

Essays

George Orwell

literarypoliticstravel

i

A history of China from the Mind dynasty through the twentieth century.

The Search for Modern China

Jonathan D. Spence

asiahistory

i

A communist spy's double-life through the fall of Saigon and exile in America.

The Sympathizer

Viet Thanh Nguyen

asiahistorywar

i

A POW surgeon's memories of love and survival on the Thai-Burma Railway.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan

asiahistoryliterarywar

i

A haunting tale of forbidden love and caste in Kerala, India.

The God of Small Things

Arundhati Roy

asialiterary

i

A Mumbai family navigates duty, dignity, and decline in modern India.

Family Matters

Rohinton Mistry

asialiterary

i

The Arab world from the Ottoman conquests to the Arab Spring.

The Arabs: A History

Eugene Rogan

history

i

Africa's history from its geological formation to the twentieth century.

Africa

John Reader

africahistory

i

The European partition and conquest of Africa between 1876 and 1912.

The Scramble For Africa

Thomas Pakenham

africahistory

i

Belgium's brutal exploitation of the Congo Free State under Leopold II's personal rule.

King Leopold's Ghost

Adam Hochschild

africahistorypolitics

i

Uncovering hidden legacies woven through the African diaspora.

From Babylon to Timbuktu

Rudolph Windsor

africahistory

i

The UN commander's haunting account of the Rwanda genocide and collective international failure.

Shake Hands with the Devil

Romeo Dallaire

africahistorywar

i

Portuguese refugees from Angola struggle to rebuild in a Portugal that doesn't want them.

The Return

Dulce Maria Cardoso

africahistoryliterary

i

Ten generations of an Egyptian family cycle through power, corruption, and redemption in a Cairo alley.

The Harafish

Naguib Mahfouz

africaliterary

i

A disgraced professor confronts post-apartheid South Africa's moral complexities.

Disgrace

John Maxwell Coetzee

africaliterary

i

A 999-line poem hijacked by deranged, unreliable commentary.

Pale Fire

Vladimir Nabokov

literary

i

Exploring how we can sustain desire amid the domesticity of long-term relationships.

Mating in Captivity

Esther Perel

psychological

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Blogs & Newsletters

30 items

i

Microbiology explored through the lens of curiosity and wonder.

Small Things Considered

science

i

Thoughts on longevity and biotechnology.

Laura Deming

science

i

Insights from a leading AI researcher.

Andrej Karpathy

cs

i

Curated AI research papers and developments.

AlphaSignal

cs

i

A researcher's thoughts on algorithms and software performance.

Daniel Lemire

cs

i

Reflections on software engineering and product development.

Daniel Na

cs

i

Filippo Valsorda on cryptography, security, and the Go programming language.

Cryptography Dispatches

cs

i

A cryptographer's takes on cryptography and security.

Cryptography Engineering

cs

i

Will Larson on engineering leadership and organizational design.

Irrational Exuberance

cs

i

Insights on tinyML and the occasional whimsy.

Pete Warden

cs

i

A topologist's thoughts.

Kevin Knudson

math

i

Discoveries in math and the sciences.

Quanta Magazine

mathscience

i

Contrarian takes on economics, science, and culture.

FreakTakes

businessscience

i

The VC's essays on technology and business.

Marc Andreessen

business

i

Lessons from the co-founder of Kayak (and many other ventures).

Paul English

business

i

Essays on startups, programming, and how to think clearly.

Paul Graham

businesscs

i

Wired co-founder on technology, culture, and what's next.

Kevin Kelly

business

i

Wisdom on wealth, happiness, and living well.

Naval Ravikant

businessphilosophy

i

Thoughts on software and business from the co-founder of Stack Overflow.

Joel Spolsky

businesscs

i

Reflections from the OpenAI founder.

Sam Altman

business

i

Ben Thompson's analysis of tech strategy and economics.

Stratechery

business

i

Patrick McKenzie demystifies finance, fintech, and payments.

Bits About Money

economics

i

A deeptech investor's guide to writing, startups, and growth..

Julian Shapiro

science

i

A contrarian take on tech culture and politics.

Pirate Wires

politics

i

Essays on governance, progress, and building civilization.

Palladium Magazine

politics

i

Criticism on art, literature, and ideas.

The New Criterion

artliterarypolitics

i

Essays and videos exploring ideas, culture, and the human condition.

Aeon

philosophyliterary

i

Scott Alexander's explorations of science, philosophy, and society.

Astral Codex Ten

literaryphilosophy

i

Mental models and timeless wisdom for better decision-making.

Farnam Street

philosophy

i

Community blog on rationality, AI safety, and effective thinking.

LessWrong

philosophy

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🎥

Movies & TV Shows

58 items

i

A Senegalese teenager's brutal journey to reach Europe.

Io Capitano

2023

africaliterary

i

A rancher's cruelty and hidden depths disrupt life on a Montana ranch.

The Power of the Dog

2021

literarypsychological

i

A couple navigates love and loss through the pain of divorce.

Marriage Story

2019

literarypsychological

i

A drummer confronts his identity when sudden deafness threatens his music.

Sound of Metal

2019

artpsychological

i

The Coen Brothers' darkly comic meditation on mortality, told through six vignettes set in the American West.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

2018

comedyliteraryphilosophy

i

The story of how Malaysia was created.

Road to Nationhood: Formation of Malaysia

2018

asiadocumentaryhistory

i

A child's disappearance in a German town reveals a time travel conspiracy that spans several generations.

Dark

2017

psychologicalsci-fi

i

Armando Iannucci's political satire follows Soviet officials scrambling for power after Stalin's death.

The Death of Stalin

2017

comedyhistorypolitics

i

Profiles of visionary designers across diverse creative fields.

Abstract: The Art of Design

2017

artdocumentary

i

Five sisters in rural Turkey resist conservative traditions.

Mustang

2015

literary

i

Sebastião Salgado's four-decade journey photographing humanity and nature.

The Salt of the Earth

2014

artdocumentary

i

Six tales of revenge and rage in Argentina.

Wild Tales

2014

comedypsychological

i

Anthology series of Midwestern crime stories filled with dark humor and moral chaos.

Fargo

2014

comedypsychological

i

A young drummer and his abusive instructor in a battle of wills.

Whiplash

2014

art

i

A New York chef uncovers cuisine, culture, and untold stories in offbeat global destinations.

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

2013

documentarytravel

i

Indonesian death squad leaders reenact their 1960s mass killings.

The Act of Killing

2012

asiadocumentaryhistorywar

MUST WATCH i

Investigating war crimes in the final phase of Sri Lanka's civil war.

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields

2011

asiadocumentaryhistorywar

i

A domestic dispute in Tehran spirals into a legal battle with no clear truth or innocence.

A Separation

2011

literaraypolitics

i

A filmmaker's letter to his murdered friend's son becomes a quest for justice.

Dear Zachary

2008

documentary

i

A Romanian student helps her friend seek an illegal abortion during Ceaușescu's regime.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

2007

historypolitics

i

A Stasi spy in East Berlin spies on a playwright.

The Lives of Others

2006

historypoliticspsychological

i

Two rival magicians engage in an escalating war of obsession and sacrifice.

The Prestige

2006

psychologicalsci-fi

i

A couple erases each other from their memories.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004

sci-fi

i

A NASA scientist returns to his Indian village and rediscovers his roots.

Swades

2004

asiatravel

i

Detectives hunt a serial killer in 1980s South Korea with limited resources.

Memories of Murder

2003

asiapsychological

i

Robert McNamara reflects on his role in major 20th century conflicts.

The Fog of War

2003

documentaryhistorywar

i

Two boys take divergent paths through Rio's violent favelas.

City of God

2002

historywar

i

A dysfunctional family of former prodigies reunites under one roof.

The Royal Tenenbaums

2001

comedy

i

Two neighbors discover their spouses are having an affair and form a connection.

In the Mood for Love

2000

asiaartliterary

i

A Taiwanese family navigates love, death, and modernity across three generations in contemporary Taipei.

Yi Yi

2000

asialiteraryphilosophy

i

Inside the lives of staffers in a fictional White House administration.

The West Wing

1999

politics

i

A father uses imagination to shield his son from the horrors of a concentration camp.

Life Is Beautiful

1997

historywar

i

A pop idol's transition to acting spirals into paranoia and violence.

Perfect Blue

1997

artasiapsychological

i

Disney's darkest animated tale of prejudice, sanctuary, and acceptance.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1996

psychological

i

Heroin addicts navigate life, friendship, and desperation in Edinburgh.

Trainspotting

1996

psychological

i

A narrator revisits his wild adolescence in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution's unmoored chaos.

In the Heat of the Sun

1994

asiahistoryliterary

i

Two Peking Opera stars navigate art, love, and betrayal across turbulent decades.

Farewell My Concubine

1993

asiahistory

i

A wordless meditation on humanity and nature across 24 countries.

Baraka

1992

documentary

i

Ken Burns' epic documentary on America's bloodiest conflict.

The Civil War

1990

documentaryhistory

i

An Iranian man impersonates a famous director, blurring documentary and fiction.

Close-Up

1990

artasiadocumentaryliterary

i

Two siblings struggle to survive in Japan during the final months of WWII.

Grave of the Fireflies

1988

asiawar

i

A nine-hour oral history of the Holocaust from survivors and witnesses.

Shoah

1985

documentaryhistorywar

i

Salieri's envy of Mozart's genius drives him to destruction.

Amadeus

1984

art

i

A poetic meditation on memory, time, and the images we create.

Sans Soleil

1983

documentaryliteraryphilosophypsychological

i

A wordless visual poem contrasting nature and modern civilization.

Koyaanisqatsi

1982

documentary

i

A detective hunts rogue androids in a neon-soaked dystopian Los Angeles.

Blade Runner

1982

sci-fi

i

A young boy's descent into São Paulo's underworld of crime.

Pixote

1980

historywar

i

A captain journeys upriver to terminate a rogue colonel in Vietnam.

Apocalypse Now

1979

asiawar

i

A guide leads two men through a mysterious Zone where wishes come true.

Stalker

1979

artsci-fiphilosophypsychological

i

A rebellious patient challenges an authoritarian nurse in a psychiatric ward.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

1975

comedypsychological

i

A mysterious monolith sparks humanity's evolution.

2001: A Space Odyssey

1968

sci-fispace

i

The Algerian resistance wages urban guerrilla warfare against French colonial forces in 1950s Algiers.

The Battle of Algiers

1966

africahistorywar

i

Kon Ichikawa's artistic chronicle of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Tokyo Olympiad

1965

asiadocumentary

i

A wealthy executive faces an impossible choice during a kidnapping crisis.

High and Low

1963

asiapsychological

i

British POWs build a bridge for their Japanese captors with fatal consequences.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957

asiahistorywar

i

A ballerina torn between love and the demands of her art.

The Red Shoes

1948

art

i

An angel shows a desperate man the ripples of goodness his life created.

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

artcomedyphilosophy

i

A dizzying montage capturing a day in Soviet urban life.

Man with a Movie Camera

1929

artdocumentary

↑

🎙️

Podcasts & YouTube

23 items

i

Virologists unpack the latest virus research and outbreaks in lively discussions.

This Week in Virology

science

i

Scientists explore microbes and how they shape life on Earth.

This Week in Microbiology

science

i

Biologists discussing evolutionary biology.

This Week in Evolution

science

i

The history and future of farming.

Urban Agriculture

science

i

Mars mission updates, settlement strategies, and interviews with the people building our multi-planetary future.

WeMartians Podcast

space

i

An astrophysicist explains space news and cosmic phenomena.

Dr. Becky

space

i

Mathematicians share the theorems they find most beautiful.

My Favorite Theorem

math

i

Steven Strogatz illuminates math's elegance in everyday wonders.

The Joy of X

math

i

Stunning visual explanations of mathematics and its beauty.

3Blue1Brown

math

i

Data-driven methods for engineering and applied mathematics.

Steve Brunton

engineering

i

How infrastructure and engineering shape our everyday world.

Practical Engineering

engineering

i

In-depth conversations with AI researchers on what's new.

Machine Learning Street Talk

cs

i

Computer scientists explore computer science.

Computerphile

cs

i

Long-form conversations on AI, science, politics, and the human condition.

Lex Fridman Podcast

csengineeringpolitics

i

China's growing engagement with Africa and the Global South.

The China in Global South Podcast

africaasiapolitics

i

Epic, immersive storytelling through history's most dramatic moments.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

history

i

Chronicling the political upheavals that shaped the modern world.

Revolutions by Mike Duncan

history

i

Short histories of events that deserve to be remembered.

The History Guy

history

i

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ideas that shaped civilization.

BBC In Our Time

historyliterary

i

Deconstructing world-class performers.

Tim Ferris Show

business

i

Stanford talks with founders.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

business

i

Exploring companies' origins, business models, and moats with investors and operators.

Business Breakdowns

business

i

The complete stories behind the greatest companies.

Acquired

business

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