Ross Douthat is a Catholic conservative, who wrote a book called “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.” I’m a … Californian.
recommended
Uh I will recommend uh Julian Jackson's biography of Charles de Gaulle [snorts] on general principles. I haven't read it recently but just strong strong recommend there.
Answering The Ezra Klein Show's closing question, three books to recommend, in “Ross Douthat: The Exit Interview” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ross-douthat.html). Quoted from the episode's YouTube auto-captions.
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Hardware, services4 years
Software5 years
Podcasts, courses, other8 years
Books25 years
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.