The Realignment: Summer Reading Project(s), Upcoming Episodes, and More...
Subscribe to The Realignment's Supercast for last Friday's AMA episode
Welcome Back to The Realignment
Thanks for checking out The Realignment’s Substack newsletter.
Visit our Supercast page to access last Friday’s Ask Me Anything episode.
Hey everyone, welcome back to The Realignment’s Substack.
Some readers/listeners have been asking about the Substack/Supercast merger project. The TLDR is TBD. It’s way more complicated than I thought it would be. I’m also currently working on two other podcast projects at the moment, so I’ll continue to ask for patience. As always, the support is deeply appreciated.
That said, Saagar and I continue to maintain our now regular Supercast AMA publishing schedule, so I’m excited that the podcast professionalization project continues despite logistical hurdles.
The next subscriber-exclusive Substack will hit on these creator economy related problems, while expanding on last week’s episode with Ben Smith.
Summer Reading Project(s)
As part of my effort to end my phone addiction, I’ve started spending more time reading paper books, disconnected from a screen and the internet. While reading was hard at first from a focus perspective, I’ve started to improve my ability to remain undistracted. For anyone wondering how they can get better at reading, I’ve found that its best to think of it as equivalent to going to the gym for the first time after a long absence. At first it’s hard, and you may have been better at exercising/reading in the past, but it gets easier as you put in the literal and figurative reps.
Another motivational strategy that works for me is break reading into themes. Depending on how deep a book is, I’ll split my reading between Audible/audiobooks easy/popular listens and denser paper books.
Project One: Atomic History
ICYMI, the new trailer for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film on the making of the atomic bomb, looks incredible:
In the spirit of The Realignment’s focus on books and history, I’ve decided I’m going to read the following three books in the lead up to the movie:
Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II by Evan Thomas (Upcoming Guest)
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Evan Thomas is coming on the show later this month to discuss Road to Surrender, but Kai Bird and Richard Rhodes’s books are ambitious reading undertakings. According to Amazon, both books come in at a combined 1,600 pages.
Project Two: The Arsenal of Democracy
My second reading list revolves around an upcoming project I’m launching at the Hudson Institute. As some readers/listeners may know, I hosted a show called Counterbalance with Michael Doran at Hudson. I’m still working out the specifics over the next few weeks, but you can guess the focus/topic based on my prep below:
The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War by A.J. Baime
Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman
Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned The Tide in the Second World War by Paul Kennedy
V Is For Victory: Franklin Roosevelt's American Revolution and the Triumph of World War II by Craig Nelson (Upcoming Guest)
The Sack of Detroit: General Motors and the End of American Enterprise by Kenneth Whyte
American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company by Bryce G. Hoffman
Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry by Steven Rattner
Heavy Metal: The Hard Days and Nights of the Shipyard Workers Who Build America's Supercarriers by Michael Fabey
Last Friday’s Paid Episodes
Every other Friday, Saagar and I publish a Supercast-exclusive discussion episode. Subscribers can submit questions and topics for us to at The Realignment’s Ask Me Anything page.
You can preview the episode here. The full audio is available at our Supercast page for subscribers.
Last Week’s Free Episodes
366 | Ben Smith: Genius, Rivalry, Delusion, and the Collapse of BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Vice, and the Digital Media Era
365 | Michael Lind: How the Suppression of Wages is Destroying America
Upcoming Episodes
May 9 | Ashlee Vance on When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
May 11 | Andrew Hoehn & Thom Shanker on Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats
The Realignment Bookshop
We’ve created a Realignment Bookshop affiliate store showcasing books by guests, what we’re actively reading this year, and deeper dives into the featured topic of an episode.
If you purchase a book using our link, the show gets a 10% commission, a local, independent bookseller gets support, and you get an awesome book!
What We’re Reading: 2023 Edition
Let us know what you think about this or any other week’s episodes. Please share The Realignment with anyone who’d enjoy the podcast.