Past Books & Documentaries

• July 2024

  • ​Book: Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper.

  • Podcast: Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra Season 2

  • Other media: Ken Burns' 2024 graduation keynote address at Brandeis University

• June 2024

  • Book: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman​

  • Film: The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix)

• May 2024

  • Book: From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman​

  • Film: 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (Netflix)

• April 2024

  • Book: The Book of Joy by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams​

  • Film: Rustin (Netflix)

• March 2024

  • Book: King: A Life by Jonathan Eig​

  • Film: Bobi Wine: The People's President (Disney+, Hulu, NatGeo)

• February 2024

  • Book: King: A Life by Jonathan Eig​

  • Film: American Buffalo, A Film by Ken Burns (PBS)

• January 2024

  • Book: Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin​

  • Film: American Symphony (Netflix)

 

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• November 2023

  • Book: The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II​

  • Film: Forks Over Knives

• October 2023

  • Book: The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II​

  • Film: Live to 100: Secrets to Blue Zones (Netflix)

• September 2023

  • Book: Stonewall by Martin Duberman​

  • Series: Painkiller (Netflix)

• August 2023

  • Book: Stonewall by Martin Duberman​

  • Film: Oppenheimer (in theatres)

• July 2023

  • Book: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell​

  • Film: My Octopus Teacher (Netflix)

• June 2023

  • Book (continued): Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe​

  • Podcast: NYPL podcast about Uncle Tom's Cabin (ft. Henry Louis Gates & Margo Jefferson)

• May 2023

  • Book: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe​

  • Show: Down To Earth with Zac Efron (Netflix)

• April 2023

  • Book: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond​

  • Film: Bad Press (Cleveland International Film Fesitval)

• March 2023

  • Book: And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham​

  • Film: All That Breathes (HBO)

• February 2023

  • Book: And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham​

  • Film: Slay the Dragon: End Gerrymandering or Democracy Dies, We Can Stop It. (Hulu)

• January 2023

  • Book: The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall​

  • Podcast: Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra (MSNBC)

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• December 2022

  • Film: Our Great National Parks (Netflix)​

• November 2022

  • Book: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah​

  • Film: The Pilgrims: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns (PBS American Experience)

• October 2022

  • Book: Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew​​

  • Film: The Janes (HBO)

• September 2022

  • Book: Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America by Kathleen Belew​

  • Film: Navalny (HBO)

• August 2022

  • Book: Nemesis by Matt Kuhns​

  • Film: Attica

• July 2022

  • Book: Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches that Would Have Rewritten History by Jeff Nussbaum​​

  • Film: January 6 Committee public hearings

• June 2022

  • Book: Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches that Would Have Rewritten History by Jeff Nussbaum​

  • Film: The Abortion Divide (PBS Frontline: Season 37, Episode 17)

• May 2022

  • Book: Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath by Bill Browder​

  • Film: Benjamin Franklin: A Ken Burns Film (PBS)

• April 2022

  • Book (continued): Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by US Representative Jamie Raskin​

  • Film: Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Netflix)

• March 2022

  • Book: ​Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by US Representative Jamie Raskin

  • Film: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (HBO)

• February 2022

  • Book: Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter​

  • Film: In the Same Breath (HBO)

• January 2022

  • Book: The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio​

  • Film: 137 Shots (Netflix)

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• December 2021

  • Film 1: The Way We Shopped (PBS/YouTube)​

  • Film 2: Amazon Empire: The Rise & Reign of Jeff Bezos (PBS Frontline/YouTube)

• November 2021

  • Book: AI 2041: Ten Visions of our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan​

  • Film: Coded Bias (Netflix)

• October 2021

  • Book: AI 2041: Ten Visions of our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan

  • Film: Knife Skills (YouTube)

• September 2021

  • Book: One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson​

  • Film: 

• July 2021

  • Book: ​Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein

  • Film: Judas and the Black Messiah

• June 2021

  • Book: Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum​

  • Film: Disclosure (Netflix)

• May 2021

  • Book: Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson.​

  • Film: The White Tiger (Netflix)

• April 2021

  • Book: A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough​

  • Film: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (Netflix)

• March 2021

  • Film: Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (Netflix)​

  • Book: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

• February 2021

  • Film: All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon)

  • Book: A Promised Land by Barack Obama​

• January 2021

  • Film: Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

  • Book: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

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• December 2020

  • ​Film: Capital in the 21st Century (Netflix)

• November 2020

  • Book: Pelosi by Molly Ball​

• October 2020

  • Book: Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier than You Think by David Litt​

  • Film: The Great Hack (Netflix)

• September 2020

  • Book: Democracy in One book of Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier than You Think by David Litt​

  • Film: The Sapphires (Netflix)

• August 2020

  • Book: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander​

  • Film: The Vote (PBS American Experience)

• July 2020

  • Book: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale​

  • Films: I am Not Your Negro (YouTube) and Just Mercy (Amazon)

  • Podcast: The Wilderness Season 2 Episodes 5 & 6 (Crooked Media)

• June 2020

  • Book: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry​

  • Film: Becoming (Netflix)

  • Podcast: The Wilderness Season 2 Episodes 1-4 (Crooked Media)

• May 2020

  • Book: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry​

  • Film: Influenza 1918 (PBS)

• April 2020

  • Book: Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America by Sherrod Brown​

  • Film: American Factory (Netflix)

• February 2020

  • ​Book: Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America by Sherrod Brown

• January 2020​

  • Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas

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• November 2019​

  • Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell​

• October 2019

  • This America: The Case for the Nation by Jill Lepore​

• September 2019​

  • The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

• August 2019​

  • Humans: A Brief History of How We F*ed It All Up by Tom Phillips​

• June-July 2019​

  • The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson​

• May 2019

  • ​War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow​

• April 2019​

  • Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World by Paul Shapiro​

• March 2019​

  • Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover​

• January 2019​

  • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari​

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• November 2018​​

  • The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels by John Meacham​

• September 2018

  • Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright​

• July 2018

  • The United States Constitution​

• June 2018​

  • Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years by David Litt​

• May 2018

  • The Common Good by Robert B. Reich​

• March 2018​

  • Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff​

• February 2018​

  • Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari​

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• November 2017

  • The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert​

• September 2017​

  • The All New Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff​

• August 2017​

  • Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low Carbon Living by James Eckhouse​

• May-June 2017

  • This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein​​