Why Is This Happening? Podcast Reading List
1. 
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
by:
Naomi Klein
4.29 avg rating — 51,932 ratings 
3. 
Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations
by:
Amy Chua
4.20 avg rating — 4,007 ratings 4. 
The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam
by:
Eliza Griswold
3.83 avg rating — 854 ratings 5. 
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging
by:
Alex Wagner
3.42 avg rating — 838 ratings 6. 
Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United
by:
Zephyr Teachout
3.86 avg rating — 549 ratings 7. 
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War 4.09 avg rating — 2,491 ratings
8. 
"A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide
by:
Samantha Power
4.26 avg rating — 10,877 ratings 
11. 
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by:
Ibram X. Kendi
4.53 avg rating — 37,882 ratings 12. 
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by:
Isabel Wilkerson
4.48 avg rating — 113,286 ratings 13. 
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster 4.37 avg rating — 61,007 ratings
14. 
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
by:
Beth Macy
4.07 avg rating — 44,187 ratings 15. 
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by:
John M. Barry
3.98 avg rating — 42,018 ratings 16. 
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
by:
Brittney Cooper
4.38 avg rating — 13,757 ratings 
18. 
The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin
by:
Corey Robin
3.94 avg rating — 2,722 ratings 19. 
19. 
The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story
by:
Joy-Ann Reid
4.05 avg rating — 778 ratings 21. 
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
by:
Tim Wu
4.08 avg rating — 4,775 ratings 
23. 
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
by:
Tim Wu
3.89 avg rating — 7,934 ratings 23. 
Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
by:
Ira Katznelson
3.96 avg rating — 768 ratings 
27. 
World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability
by:
Amy Chua
3.82 avg rating — 1,352 ratings 28. 
The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America
by:
Amy Chua
3.62 avg rating — 2,274 ratings 29. 
Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall
by:
Amy Chua
3.78 avg rating — 975 ratings 30. 
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by:
Naomi Klein
4.16 avg rating — 27,262 ratings 31. 
Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
by:
Eliza Griswold
4.26 avg rating — 4,531 ratings 32. 
Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law 4.17 avg rating — 195 ratings
34. 
Weather: An Illustrated History: From Cloud Atlases to Climate Change
by:
Andrew C. Revkin
3.80 avg rating — 87 ratings 35. 
Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast
by:
Andrew C. Revkin
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings 36. 
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
by:
Eric Klinenberg
3.97 avg rating — 5,123 ratings 
38. 
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
by:
Rebecca Traister
4.37 avg rating — 11,931 ratings 
40. 
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
by:
Carol Anderson
4.47 avg rating — 14,603 ratings 41. 
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
by:
Carol Anderson
4.39 avg rating — 3,306 ratings 42. 
Obama's Race: The 2008 Election and the Dream of a Post-Racial America
by:
Michael Tesler
3.62 avg rating — 26 ratings 43. 
Post-Racial or Most-Racial?: Race and Politics in the Obama Era
by:
Michael Tesler
4.07 avg rating — 46 ratings 44. 
Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America
by:
John Sides
4.13 avg rating — 485 ratings 45. 
Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior Book 6)
by:
Avidit Acharya
3.94 avg rating — 126 ratings 
47. 
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
by:
Ta-Nehisi Coates
4.38 avg rating — 30,602 ratings 48. 
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
by:
Ta-Nehisi Coates
4.08 avg rating — 10,969 ratings 
50. 
Whose Trade Organization?: A Comprehensive Guide to the World Trade Organization
by:
Lori Wallach
4.12 avg rating — 16 ratings 
53. 
Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy 4.26 avg rating — 1,500 ratings
54. 
For-Profit Universities: The Shifting Landscape of Marketized Higher Education 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
56. 
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
by:
Adam Gopnik
3.86 avg rating — 1,026 ratings 57. 
The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
by:
Brenda Wineapple
4.06 avg rating — 1,699 ratings 58. 
One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps
by:
Andrea Pitzer
4.35 avg rating — 555 ratings 59. 
The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality
by:
Bhaskar Sunkara
3.62 avg rating — 1,891 ratings 60. 
The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement 4.30 avg rating — 778 ratings
62. 
Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost
by:
Caitlin Zaloom
3.63 avg rating — 261 ratings 63. 
Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation
by:
Andrew Marantz
4.20 avg rating — 3,049 ratings 
65. 
67. 
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation
by:
Natalie Y. Moore
4.03 avg rating — 2,070 ratings 68. 
72. 
The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens
by:
Gabriel Zucman
3.96 avg rating — 1,215 ratings 73. 
The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay
by:
Emmanuel Saez
4.30 avg rating — 1,421 ratings 74. 
75. 
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
by:
Rebecca Solnit
3.94 avg rating — 3,771 ratings 
77. 
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
by:
Heather McGhee
4.62 avg rating — 20,496 ratings 78. 
Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College
by:
Jesse Wegman
4.26 avg rating — 1,254 ratings 79. 
To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
by:
Robert Draper
4.31 avg rating — 983 ratings 
83. 
It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
by:
Stuart Stevens
4.12 avg rating — 3,964 ratings 
85. 
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes 4.42 avg rating — 3,203 ratings
86. 
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
by:
Zeynep Tufekci
4.08 avg rating — 1,428 ratings 87. 
Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change
by:
Eitan D. Hersh
4.09 avg rating — 1,413 ratings 88. 
Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy
by:
Adam Jentleson
4.25 avg rating — 2,555 ratings 89. 
Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America
by:
Alec MacGillis
3.90 avg rating — 2,306 ratings 90. 
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
by:
Clint Smith
4.70 avg rating — 38,099 ratings 91. 
Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy
by:
Herman Pontzer
4.13 avg rating — 3,382 ratings