Meleegy's Blog

Things I Rate Highly

I spend a not insignificant amount of time on the Internet. I am a truly internet lover. I read so many newsletters, websites, Substacks, articles; and I read quite a lot of books as well.

So in this post, I want to share some of the things that are very interesting, very entertaining, or insightful.

First, podcasts:

  1. CONFLICTED: an ex spy for MI6, ex-AlQaeda jihadist shares his thoughts on the Middle East
  2. Pivot Podcast: Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway are funny, insightful and thought-provoking
  3. WITH POD; Why Is This Happening: Chris Hayes is the host of this show, and he dives deep into many critical conversations on American and the world.
  4. How to Take Over The World: The host doesn't publish frequently, but even the old episodes are great. The central theme is how an individual can "take over the world", so think Steve Jobs, Napoleon Bonaparte, Walt Disney, etc.
  5. Deep Questions: From the author of one of my absolute favorite books (So Good They Can't Ignore You) comes a podcast about what it takes to do excellent work, live a meaningful life, and enjoy long stretches of deep work.

Books are the hardest category for me to pick favorite. I read so many books, and so many of them are good. So, instead of of sharing my "favorites", I will share ones that I have enjoyed recently:

  1. Educated, Tara Westover
  2. American Prometheus, Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin
  3. Churchill: A Biography, Andrew Roberts
  4. The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman
  5. Fooled By Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (or NNT).

Another form of reading that I greatly enjoy is newsletters. Unfortunately, I am subscribed to entirely too many, and I barely read any of them. But here are some of the ones that I regret passing up and end up reading a month's work of in one sitting:

  1. Money Stuff by Matt Levine, oriented towards finance, but amazing nevertheless. Levine's writing is crisp, witty, yet objective.
  2. Astral Codex Ten by the recently outed Scott Alexander. Alexander is hands down one of the smartest people on the internet. He tackles topics in psychology, science and culture. His writing is challenging, but extremely rewarding.
  3. Trevor McKendrick's Newsletter is a weekly list of articles. Short, sweat, and cheerful.

Currently, I am reading two books simultaneously. A new experiment for me. I used to never cheat on one book with another. However, Crime And Punishment needed a companion book if I were going to get through it at all. So, I am currently reading Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick.

That's it for today! See you in another article.