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On Books

On Books is a podcast about books. Think of it as a two-person book club — or a series of thirty-minute audiobooks. Each week on the show host Chris Castiglione brings you a new book. Highlights include: Mating in Captivity, Sapiens, Sex at Dawn, Letters to a Young Poet, Educated, How Not to Die, Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, as well as exclusive interviews with Neil Strauss, Haruki Murakami, Kevin Kelly, Peter Singer and more.
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Apr 6, 2020

In this episode I chat about Writing Movies for Fun and Profit by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. I'm joined by One Month's Zach Valenti and Sydney Flint. 

Check out the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Mar 23, 2020

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a best-selling 2011 book by Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics winner Daniel Kahneman which summarizes research that he conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers all three phases of his career: his early days working on cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.

In this episode of On books I chat with Alex Miles Younger about some of our favorite learnings from book. 

 Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Mar 9, 2020

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a best-selling 2011 book by Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics winner Daniel Kahneman which summarizes research that he conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers all three phases of his career: his early days working on cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.

In this episode of On books I chat with Alex Miles Younger about some of our favorite learnings from book. 

 Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Feb 24, 2020

This week I discuss Catching the Big Fish (by David Lynch) with Kevin Allison (RISK!; MTV's The State, and Reno 911).

In our interview we chat about the book, as well as: finding creativity, Transcendental Meditation, self-help books,  and Kevin's exploration into the world of erotic hypnosis workshops.

 

Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

 

Feb 3, 2020

In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks tells 24 short-stories (all true) of some of his patients. The first chapter chronicles the story of one of Sacks' patients with visual agnosia (face-blindness) who literally mistakes his wife for a hat.

The book is split into four sections: each section dealing with a particular aspect of brain function such as deficits, excesses, and altered perceptions.

In this episode of On books we cover three Oliver Sacks books: Awakenings, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" (the story), Musicophilia. As well as an interview with Princeton University Neuroscience Professor Nathaniel Daw. 

Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Jan 27, 2020

Habit - a decision you made at some point. And then stopped making, but continue acting upon.

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg brings us scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter at The New York Times, where he writes for the business section. You can follow him on Twitter @cduhigg.

For more on The Power of Habit, and On Books... visit @ www.on-books.com

Jan 13, 2020

Why is the book called The Fault in Our Stars?

It's based on this quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 

Cassius: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”  - Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

In this quote, Cassius seems to be arguing that it's not fate that controls our lives, but rather that we're in control, and that we are thus responsible.

The title The Fault in Our Stars seems to be saying the opposite. With the two main characters, Augustus and Hazel, John Green shows us of that sometimes we're not in control of our lives.

Clearly Augustus and Hazel didn't do anything to cause the cancer they have, yet they have to live with it. The book poses the question: is it possible to find happiness in life despite the fault in our stars?

In this episode of On Books I chat The Fault in Our Stars with Kate Gavino (The author and illustrator behind lastnightsreading.tumblr.com). 


Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Jan 6, 2020

This week on the show I chat with Mark Katakowski and Steven Clausnitzer of ForeverLabs. ForeverLabs is a Y Combinator company that helps people live longer by offering stem cell banking and storage. 

In this episode, we'll chat talk about the book that inspired Mark and Steven to start the project (Ending Aging by Aubrey de Grey) as well as how ForeverLabs works (How do you get started banking your stem cells? Is it safe?). And I'll share my experience having my stems cells banks last week using ForeverLabs. 

Learn more about ForeverLabs here: https://foreverlabs.com/

Details of my experience are online at: https://castig.org/how-i-banked-my-stem-cells/

 And.....

🎉 I have a new podcast called the LEARN TO CODE PODCAST. 🎉 

Read the announcement about my new podcast here:
https://learn.onemonth.com/new-learn-to-code-podcast/

Dec 23, 2019

In Blink, Gladwell shares stories that celebrate the power of quick decisions, as well as those moments when our instincts betray us.

In this episode of On books we cover: Thin-slicing, and "The Right - and Wrong - Way to Ask People What They Want." This includes stories of Coke vs. Pepsi, Butter vs. Margarine, and a man who can predict with 95% accuracy whether a couple will still be married fifteen years later (just after meeting them for 15 minutes).

Read the book notes @ www.on-books.com

Dec 9, 2019

In 1903 Franz Kappus (a 17 years old student) wrote the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (27 years old) asking his advice on becoming a writer.

The book is a collection of Rilke’s replies over a series of 10 letters. In the letters Rilke beautifully articulates advice on topics of creativity, dealing with criticism, inspiration, love, life, and loneliness.

Testimonials from famous people

“For me the letters are a credo of creativity and a source of inspiration. After reading Rilke it became clear that I had no choice in the matter. I had to create.” – Dennis Hopper

When asked, “What advice would I give to someone looking to make music their career?” Sarah Mclachlan responded, “I’d tell them to go read Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. Because his advice is better than any advice I could ever give.”

Learn more and read the show notes @ www.on-books.com

Dec 9, 2019

In this episode I'll give a summary, some highlights and exceprts from the book Leading at the Speed of Growth by Katherine Catlin

Nov 11, 2019

What do I cover in this episode of the podcast?

  • The main gist of the book
  • An overview of the four main parts of the book
  • Quotes and stories from the book
  • At the end I’ll do a kind of oral meditation for you, contrasting an essentialist and a nonessentialist. I imagine that if you like this, you might come back to this part of the podcast and relisten to it a few times.

Essentialism is one of those books that I come back to and re-read a few times a year. And the reason I say I “re-read it”, is because this book is more like a meditation. In this episode I’ll gives highlights, takeaways and read some quotes from Essentialism.

In this week's On Books I'll dive into Essentialism by Greg McKeown. 

Oct 7, 2019

Jim Henson created a legacy around The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fragile Rock, and Labyrinth. His life is a testament to the idea that you can use art, and creativity to change the world. The book is an snapshot of Jim’s journey from the early days of creating Kermit out of his mother’s felt coat, to philosophical understandings art vs. commerce, how to run a creative business, manage working long hours, and be an amazing father.

More information on Jim Henson, and his autobiography are available on my site at: http://castig.org/jim-henson-the-biography/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/castig

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