# book episode (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 2 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover book episode. Page: Feed: --- ## [Privacy's Defender](https://kpwags.com/books/cindy-cohn-privacys-defender/) _2026-08-17 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This book is a memoir of sorts of Cindy Cohn who was a lawyer for, and then eventually the executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The book is divided into three parts talking about some of the biggest cases, she and the EFF dealt with over the last 30 years or so. One of the biggest themes of the book was how she and the EFF fought to protect our privacy on the internet.… ## [Three great podcasts for academics](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/three-great-podcasts-for-academics) _2026-08-13 · Desperately Seeking_ Featuring writing and pedagogy, and bonus footnoted podcasts on writing ## [I Am Not a Robot](https://kpwags.com/books/joanna-stern-i-am-not-a-robot/) _2026-08-09 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I found this book from an episode of the Decoder Podcast . The premise is that Joanna Stern used AI, LLMs, and robots for many of her tasks and jobs for 2025. The book goes through her experiences, what the tools did well, what they struggled with, and what they simply failed miserably at. I appreciated her humor in her writing and talking about some of her experiences, both good and bad. As you… ## [Real Talk About Writing a Book, Episode 5](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/real-talk-about-writing-a-book-episode-146) _2026-08-04 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ On copywork and learning how to write a book ## [Band of Brothers](https://kpwags.com/books/stephen-e-ambrose-band-of-brothers/) _2026-08-03 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I picked this book up after re-watching the HBO series and the accompanying podcast. I figured reading the source material would provide more insight into these extraordinary men and what they went through in their World War II campaigns. The book starts off talking about all the training they went through. The Airborne were a new concept, the US had never had airborne divisions prior to World War… ## [Real Talk About Writing a Book, Episode 4](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/real-talk-about-writing-a-book-episode) _2026-07-01 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ Finding time to write a book when you have a heavy service workload. ## [Real Talk About Writing a Book, Episode 3](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/real-talk-about-writing-a-book-episode-5f4) _2026-06-24 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ What draft am I on anyway? ## [Real Talk About Writing a Book, Episode 2](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/real-talk-about-writing-a-book-episode-a72) _2026-06-17 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ On starting over as a way to engage with hard but good critique ## [Real Talk about Writing a Book, Episode 1](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/real-talk-about-writing-a-book-episode-603) _2026-06-15 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ In which I tell you how my book came to be & beg for readers ## [Reflections on Food & Communication](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/reflections-on-food-and-communication) _2026-05-28 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ The 4th Conference on Food & Communication, Lille, 2025 ## [Anthony Ettinger on LinkedIn (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/y3kNqCwgBjRM) _2026-05-28 · **Sponsored**_ Public LinkedIn profile at linkedin.com/in/anthonyettinger. ## [Means of Control](https://kpwags.com/books/byron-tau-means-of-control/) _2026-05-06 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I heard of this book from 404 media and it made me kind of want to smash all my technology and go move into the woods as a hermit. This book does a good job diving into all the various ways technology companies have started to slurp up all our data, originally for advertising and tracking purposes, but eventually making its way into various government databases as well. And all the data we… ## [Too Big to Fail](https://kpwags.com/books/andrew-ross-sorkin-too-big-to-fail/) _2026-03-28 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I graduated college and started my career shortly before the 2008 financial crisis hit. I remember the aftermath and learning about the subprime mortgages that were the primary cause behind it. This book provides an interesting perspective about some of the government officials and company executives dealing with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG. The book focuses a great deal on both Lehman… ## [Mood Machine](https://kpwags.com/books/liz-pelly-mood-machine/) _2026-03-26 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I've known now for a while that streaming is bad for artists, and while I still have and use my Apple Music subscription, I have been using it less and less, focusing on growing my music collection. This book focuses on Spotify and how it ruthlessly worked to cut costs squeezing more and more from musicians and songwriters. Spotify's stated goal when it launched was to "level the playing field"… ## [Blood in the Machine](https://kpwags.com/books/brian-merchant-blood-in-the-machine/) _2026-03-01 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I picked a good time to read this book. Right now, the tech job market is in a weird place. The layoffs have slowed a bit lately, but we're also in a low-hire environment where those who have been laid off, as well as recent graduates are often having trouble finding work. Today, much of that is coming from how AI and LLMs are being used to try to supplement workers or replace the need to hire… ## [Chip War](https://kpwags.com/books/chris-miller-chip-war/) _2026-02-03 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ Despite working my entire adult life on computers, I never really dug all that deep into the history of the development of computer chips. They're such a key piece of almost everything in our lives so it's a little embarrassing I didn't know all this history. This was a captivating book. It talked about the history of the development of some of the first chips that sent Apollo astronauts to the… ## [An Academic's Year in Review](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/an-academics-year-in-review) _2025-12-31 · Desperately Seeking_ And planning for the next one ## [The AI Con](https://kpwags.com/books/emily-m-bender-alex-hanna-the-ai-con/) _2025-11-18 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This was a fascinating read about a little bit of the history or the current AI hype and many of its problems. It did a fantastic job of digging into what the different tools being hyped actually are as well as the basics on how they work, and why they aren't as "powerful" as they seem. They point out the issues many of these tools have with built-in biases, the costs of the creatives behind the… ## [Billion Dollar Whale](https://kpwags.com/books/bradley-hope-tom-wright-billion-dollar-whale/) _2025-09-23 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I had heard about this book a while ago and when it was mentioned again in Apple in China , I decided to see if it was available through my library, and sure enough it was. This book goes through the history of the 1MDB scandal . For those unaware, 1MDB was a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that ended up being a slush fund for the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak and his family, Jho Low, and… ## [Apple in China](https://kpwags.com/books/patrick-mcgee-apple-in-china/) _2025-09-12 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This was a look at how Apple grew from manufacturing primarily in America to almost exclusively in China. It was a fascinating look from when Apple had to sell their own factories just to avoid bankruptcy to today. It was kind of eerie to see all the decisions that slowly but surely tied them to China. The book goes through in detail all the different things Apple did to take advantage of the… ## [Doom Guy](https://kpwags.com/books/john-romero-doom-guy/) _2025-05-20 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I'm not one who generally likes memoirs, but this was an incredible listen about John Romero's life, growing up and gaining a legacy of one of the DOOM creators. I remember getting DOOM and playing it and thought it was amazing. Listening to the history of how John Romero got into game development, programming in assembly, and how he, John Carmack, and the rest of Id got together to make one of… ## [Crush Every Threat in Real Time (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/rqSQEckOFF9M) _2025-05-19 · **Sponsored**_ One agent for real-time detection, exposure tracking, and active defense. ## [Dark Wire](https://kpwags.com/books/joseph-cox-dark-wire/) _2025-05-10 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This was a fantastic dive into the history of the encrypted phone market. The book goes through the history of the previous encrypted phones like Phantom Secure, EncroChat, and SkyPhones and how those companies got charged, often with their founders facing criminal charges for intentionally supporting organized crime. This all led to the creation of the primary focus of the book and the events… ## [Murder the Truth](https://kpwags.com/books/david-enrich-murder-the-truth/) _2025-04-18 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I found out about this book from an episode of the Techdirt Podcast . I had heard about NYT v Sullivan and knew it was important with regards to free speech and journalism. This book does a good job talking about why the Sullivan decision is so important to the freedoms we enjoy in America, especially the freedom of the press. The book goes on to describe the different attacks the rich and… ## [Winning Fixes Everything](https://kpwags.com/books/evan-drellich-winning-fixes-everything/) _2025-04-17 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I remember when I first heard about the Astros cheating scheme. As a baseball fan, I was surprised at how brazen it was. I knew teams would often straddle the line and skirt the rules any way they could to gain an advantage, but didn't expect something so bold and blatantly illegal. As much as I borrowed this book thinking it would be focused on the cheating scandal, the scandal itself was not a… ## [Madoff](https://kpwags.com/books/richard-behar-madoff-the-final-word/) _2025-03-24 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I had heard a Fresh Air interview with Richard Behar about the largest Ponzi scheme in American history. I of course had heard about Bernie Madoff and knew the basics, but this book provided more details and insight into it. I found the audiobook on Libby and decided to give it a listen. I mention that because the audiobook contains recorded phone calls between Richard and Bernie. Richard… ## [The Death of Expertise](https://kpwags.com/books/tom-nichols-the-death-of-expertise/) _2025-01-08 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This was a sobering look at where we are as a society. It’s easy to put the blame for all of this on the rise of the internet, but as Tom goes on to describe, there’s a lot more to it. The breakdown of trust between the public, experts, and elected officials in a republic goes in all directions. The public, especially, needs to be able to trust leaders and their expert advisers. This relationship… ## [Challenger](https://kpwags.com/books/adam-higginbotham-challenger/) _2024-12-31 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I’m a pretty big space geek. I’ve always found it captivating. I was born too late to experience the moon race, but I was born just as the Space Shuttle was starting to take off. I didn’t really know what was going on at that point, but the Challenger disaster occurred a couple of years after I was born. I remember when I started getting into space, my Mom mentioning Challenger , and how it was… ## [Nuclear War](https://kpwags.com/books/annie-jacobsen-nuclear-war/) _2024-12-03 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ I had heard about this book on an episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Addendum podcast and quickly put a hold on it at on Libby. The book is an interesting look at what nuclear war might look like. She interviewed countless Department of Defense officials as well as others who at points in their lives were involved with our nuclear war planning. The insight she used from those interviews… ## [Battle Cry of Freedom](https://kpwags.com/books/james-m-mcpherson-battle-cry-of-freedom/) _2024-11-30 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ As someone who enjoys reading about history, this was an in-depth look at one of the darkest periods in American history. The book is long, but it goes into so much depth about the battles, the characters involved, and the politics of both the Union and the Confederacy. So much was going on in the country during the Civil War and James M. McPherson did a great job talking about what was happening… ## [Gift ideas for the academic in your life](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/1120-gift-ideas-for-the-academic) _2024-11-19 · Susana Ramírez, PhD, MPH · Desperately Seeking_ Try as I might to be less consumerist, I do love some good STUFF. Here are some things that people in your life with a job like mine (maybe even you!) might appreciate. ## [Four books about food and culture centering Native experiences](https://desperatelyseeking.substack.com/p/four-books-about-food-and-culture) _2024-11-05 · Desperately Seeking_ Plus two books for the younger readers in your life ## [Pirate.io on Google Play (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Ptb5Bw1ywhUX) _2024-11-05 · **Sponsored**_ Open the Pirate.io listing on Google Play to view the app’s details. ## [The Demon of Unrest](https://kpwags.com/books/erik-larson-the-demon-of-unrest/) _2024-09-17 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ This is the second book of Erik Larson's I've read and it was again well written. The trigger that started what would become the Civil War was the Confederacy's siege of Fort Sumter by Charleston, South Carolina. Larson does a good job going through what happened leading up to the shelling as the newly seceded states wanted to take control of U.S. forts and armories since they declared their… ## [Liar in a Crowded Theater](https://kpwags.com/books/jeff-kosseff-liar-in-a-crowded-theater/) _2024-09-06 · Keith Wagner - Book Notes_ To say I've been upset at the lies, misinformation, and disinformation we see on social media and various TV channels would be an understatement. It makes me angry that people are duped about COVID, voting rights, and who knows what else. But as angry as I might be, the 1st Amendment allows for the speech, and that's the right call. Kosseff does a good job going through past legal cases regarding…