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Wiser Than Yesterday: Educational Book Reviews and Summaries

by Book Nerds Sam Harris & Nicolas Vereecke

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Latest episodes

  • The Language Puzzle: How we talked our way out of the Stone Age - Steven Mithen

    March 3, 2026 · 37 min

    The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. The Language Puzzle by Steven Mithen explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the…

  • Bruce Lee: Artist of life - The 6 habits of power and wisdom from a legend

    February 17, 2026 · 16 min

    Bruce Lee was an intense man with such sheer concentration of energy that no one who encountered him, on screen or in person, could help but be drawn to him and his enthusiasm for life and knowledge. Bruce Lee: Artist of Life explores the…

  • Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human - Richard Wrangham

    September 8, 2025 · 37 min

    In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the…

  • Thinking Fast & Slow - Daniel Kahneman

    August 26, 2025 · 45 min

    Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make…

  • Impact: How to Measure World Change

    August 12, 2025 · 31 min

    Is Brexit more important than Bitcoin? How do we rank Buddhism vs TikTok? The world changes, technology advances, but what really matters and how much? Sam explains the Innovation Richter Scale, a framework for understanding impact at…

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  • Poor Charlie's Almanac - Charlie Munger

    July 29, 2025 · 35 min

    The favourite mental models and timeless lessons from Charlie Munger on how to build worldly wisdom. Charlie Munger was the business partner of Warren Buffet and the cofounder of Berkshire Hathaway. The most successful investing company in…

  • The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond - Stone Age Lessons on Innovation

    July 15, 2025 · 31 min

    Heard enough lame insights about caveman psychology? Jared Diamond goes hard into what life was really like, how we thought and how it compares to today. A masterclass of a book when it comes to truly understanding our history and humanity…

  • The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon - Brad Stone

    July 1, 2025 · 37 min

    We share the 10 best mental models about innovation from tech titan Jeff Bezos. This episode covers the story of Amazon and some of the incredible shifts it has created on the planet. From the obvious online shopping wave to things like…

  • False Alarm - Bjorn Lomborg - The cost of climate change panic

    April 7, 2023 · 32 min

    In False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg examines how climate change panic costs us trillions, hurts the poor, and fails to fix the planet. This is a divisive book and even had us as hosts disagreeing on subjects. Bjorn Lomborg proposes to debunk the…

  • The Culture Code: Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - Daniel Coyle

    March 21, 2023 · 36 min

    Teamwork is renowned for being the key to success. The practicalities of making it happen to rely on building a brilliant culture. But what does that mean? This book breaks down some memorable and thought-provoking examples leading to some…

  • 4000 weeks: Time management for mortals - Oliver Burkeman

    March 9, 2023 · 33 min

    4000 weeks is a productivity book that is anti-productivity. We are all going to die and optimising our day for every last morsel of work is not the way to be happy or effective. We break down the biggest lessons from the book which are…

  • The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch

    February 24, 2023 · 20 min

    What we do if most of civilization collapsed to survive as a species? What human knowledge is most important to preserve and use to rebuild society as quickly as possible?   Lewis Dartnell assesses the most important actions to take during…

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About the show

Wiser than Yesterday hosts open-ended discussions, breakdowns, and summaries of the world's most thought-provoking and inspiring books. Our hosts, Nicolas Vereecke and Sam Harris digest non-fiction books from all centuries and genres. They discuss the biggest philosophical insights and practical lessons for health, wealth, wisdom, and happiness. This podcast is here to help listeners become smarter. To learn about new ideas and to gain more perspectives on the books and ideas they are familiar with. Each season we tackle a new field and read the best books on a given topic such as racism, startups, stoicism, or personal finance. We cast a wide net to summarise all sides of opinions in an area to come to a wider understanding of the topic at large as well as help listeners navigate the different opinions and ideas they haven't heard of. We dive into topics such as philosophy, business, equality, psychology, politics, economics, and who knows what else. Our goal is to simply explore the best ideas and learn new things. You're most welcome to join us for the ride. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.