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Nick Thompson

Chief executive of The Atlantic; former editor in chief of Wired

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Oh, that I can answer. So, each of the last two years I’ve given one book to a bunch of people. And this year, it’s a book by Robert Wright called Why Buddhism is True . And it’s a story about mindfulness and about the science of Buddhism and the current neuroscienc, about how our minds work, making the argument that the things people have said about mindfulness, meditation, and the way it changes your capacity to empathize with other people and to break out of the tribalism that we’re all locked into, the things that Buddhism has said about that turn out to be scientifically correct. And here’s a story about why. Wonderful book. Robert Wright is one of the smartest writers I’ve ever read. His book Nonzero is among my five favorite books of all time. So, that book came out recently, and I gave that to my closest friend and my family. The year before, I gave a book by Larissa MacFarquhar called Strangers Drowning which is a story about people who make extraordinary moral choices like the choice to adopt 23 children and bring them into your lives, who just make crazy choices and why they make those choices. And Larissa is one of the smartest writers at the New Yorker. Everything she writes is absolutely brilliant, and the book is brilliant to get into ten discreet chapters about people who make choices like that. So, I gave Larissa’s book last year and Robert Wright’s book this year. Tim Ferriss: Thank you.

Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 26 June 2018 source ↗

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Ryan Flaherty American baseball player & coach
Good question. I’ve heard you ask this before, and I didn’t think you were going to ask me, and I should have been prepared for this. I’m a huge, avid reader. I truly believe – and I tell every person I train – is that one of the biggest reasons – the difference between where you are and where you want to go is knowledge. Read as much as you can. So, that’s a tough question. I think The Alchemist is a big one. I’ve loved that book for a very long time. The Bible is a big one, but I’ll give you an off-the-wall one, which is called The Slight Edge . Have you ever heard of that one?
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 1 June 2018 source ↗
Rich Barton American businessman
Yeah, I am not your typical person probably sitting in this seat and that I, maybe I am, I am not a nonfiction, business book, sorry Tim.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 19 April 2025 source ↗
Eric Cressey Strength and conditioning coach; co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance
All right, I'm going to give you two, because they're kind of categories to it. I'd say the first one underneath this health and human performance realm, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes. It's a Shirley Sahrmann book that I think is landmark. I mean it's decades old, super impactful. Kind of reads like stereo instructions, so you're going to go through a page at a time. But Sahrmann is still a practicing physical therapist at Wash U in St. Louis.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 3 June 2023 source ↗
Kevin Systrom American computer programmer and entrepreneur
Yeah, totally. Of course now, all my friends are having kids. I give kids books, but the one I give people that are trying to learn actively is Principles by Ray Dalio. It’s interesting actually. Someone gave me the PDF. It was a PDF before his book. Gave me the PDF and I skimmed over. I was like, “Oh, this is pretty good.” They were like, “No. I seriously think you’re going to love this.” For some reason, I didn’t get around to it for maybe a year-and-a-half, and then I read the actual book, and I was blown away. It’s both a guide to life, a guide to business, and also I think an insight into Ray and someone who’s built an amazing business. If you guys listening don’t know what he does, he runs a hedge fund called Bridgewater and he’s so much more than just a finance thinker, he’s also just a brilliant philosopher. I give that a lot because I think it’s a great guide to life.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 30 April 2019 source ↗

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