Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

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What would happen if a genetically modified biological weapon escaped from a laboratory and began spreading around the world? 

In this episode Professor Jeffrey Sachs speaks with award-winning investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen about her latest book, Biological War: A Scenario, a chilling exploration of the risks posed by biological weapons in an age of rapidly advancing biotechnology.

Drawing on interviews with scientists, military officials, and national security experts, Jacobsen examines how advances in genetic engineering could make dangerous pathogens more transmissible, more lethal, and more resistant to existing medical t...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Professor Sven Beckert for a compelling discussion of his book Capitalism: A Global History, a sweeping account of the economic system that has transformed how we live, work, and organize our societies.

Together, they explore the origins and evolution of capitalism over the past millennium, challenging the idea that it was simply a Western invention. Beckert traces capitalism’s development across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, examining the roles of trade, state power, imperial expansion, slavery, technological change, and labor in shaping the global ec...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and philosopher Professor Steven Nadler for a thought-provoking discussion of Baruch Spinoza and Nadler’s book, Spinoza: Atheist.

Together, they explore Spinoza’s extraordinary life, his excommunication from Amsterdam’s Jewish community, and his groundbreaking ideas about religion, science, politics, and human freedom. At the heart of the conversation is Spinoza’s controversial conception of God: was he an atheist, a pantheist, or something else entirely?

Sachs and Nadler examine Spinoza’s rejection of a personal and providential God, his belief in understanding nature through reason and...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Sam Dalrymple for a fascinating discussion of his book Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia. Drawing on extensive archival research, personal histories, and overlooked narratives, Dalrymple reveals how the dissolution of the British Raj reshaped a vast region stretching from Yemen and the Gulf to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, giving rise to many of the political fault lines that continue to define the modern world.

Together, they explore the five partitions that fractured the British Indian Empire, including the division...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and tax policy expert Professor Dorothy A. Brown for a thought-provoking discussion of her books, The Whiteness of Wealth and Getting to Reparations. Drawing on decades of research, Brown examines how seemingly race-neutral tax policies have contributed to widening racial wealth disparities in the United States and explores what meaningful economic repair could look like in practice.

Together, they discuss how the U.S. tax system has historically advantaged white households while limiting wealth-building opportunities for Black Americans. The conversation explores the hidden ways tax policy shapes...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Professor Rana Mitter, for a compelling discussion of his book Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945. Drawing on extensive archival research and long-overlooked sources, Mitter brings to light China’s central, and often underappreciated, role in the global fight against Imperial Japan during World War II.

Together, they explore how China’s prolonged resistance tied down vast numbers of Japanese troops, shaping the broader trajectory of the war in Asia and beyond. They examine the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the fragile alliances between Nationalists and Comm...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs for a compelling conversation on Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK by James W. Douglass. In this sweeping work, Douglass reexamines the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, arguing that these four leaders were killed not by isolated actors, but within a deeper context of national security power and Cold War politics.

Drawing on extensive documentary evidence, witness testimony, and declassified records, Douglass challenges the official lone-gunman narratives and situates each assassination...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Michael J. Carley, retired Professeur at the Université de Montréal, for a discussion of his groundbreaking trilogy on the international crises of the 1930s: Stalin’s Gamble, Stalin’s Failed Alliance, and Stalin’s Great Game. Drawing on decades of archival research, Carley challenges the familiar Cold War narrative that paints Stalin and Hitler as “dual dictators” and instead uncovers a forgotten history of the Soviet Union’s sustained efforts to build a collective security alliance against Nazi Germany.

Sachs and Carley exp...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Yakov M. Rabkin, historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Montreal, for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion on the history of Zionism, Jewish thought, and the modern state of Israel. Delving into Rabkin’s path-breaking work, including his newest book, Israel in Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism, Rabkin and Sachs discuss the early opposition to modern Zionism from many parts of the world Jewry, and the deep theological, political, and cultural divides that Zionism has created in Jewish communities around the world.  

Together, Rabkin and Sac...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor James Romm, classicist and historian at Bard College, for a captivating discussion on one of the most dramatic and fascinating political experiments of the ancient world: Plato’s involvement with power politics in Syracuse (Siracusa). Drawing on Romm’s newest book, Plato and the Tyrant, Sachs and Romm explore the extraordinary story of how the great philosopher Plato attempted over the course of three decades to bring philosophy into the heart of government.

Together, they delve into Plato’s journey to the court of the autocr...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Prof. Ilan Pappè, historian at Exeter University, UK, for an in-depth conversation on one of the most enduring and contentious issues of our time: the Israel-Palestine conflict. Drawing on Pappè’s powerful new books—Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic and A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Sachs and Pappè discuss the historical, political, and ideological forces that have shaped the Zionist movement and the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.    

Together, they explore how lobbying networks in the UK and US have in...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and futurist Ray Kurzweil for a compelling conversation on the accelerating pace of technological change and its profound implications for the future of humanity. In his new book, The Singularity Is Nearer, Kurzweil revisits and updates his groundbreaking predictions on AI & AGI, exponential growth, and human evolution and longevity.

Together, they explore a future where AI rivals human intelligence by 2029, nanotechnology rebuilds the world atom by atom, and our minds merge with the cloud to expand intelligence beyond biological limits. They examine radical life extension, the promise...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and American historian Lauren Benton for a discussion on the hidden histories of empires and the lasting impact of imperial violence. In her book, They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence Benton uncovers how European powers built and maintained their empires through relentless cycles of raiding, slaving, and plunder—while portraying their conquests as missions of order and peace.

Together, they explore the brutal mechanics of colonial expansion, the blurred lines between war and peace, and how fragile truces paved the way for endless conflict. Was im...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian, Professor Richard Overy for an insightful conversation on one of humanity’s most unsettling questions: Why do we wage war? In his book, Why War? Overy takes us on a journey across time, from the ancient battlefields of the Roman Empire to the devastation of the World Wars and the conflicts shaping our present.

Together, they examine what drives organized violence? Is it hardwired into human nature, or does it stem from competition for resources, power, and security? Drawing on psychology, history, and political strategy, Ov...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and global security expert Jon Wolfsthal to unravel the stark reality behind the Doomsday Clock - now set at a perilous 89 seconds to midnight. What does this ominous timepiece truly measure, and why has humanity never been closer to catastrophe? Wolfsthal offers a behind-the-scenes look at the decision-making process that determines the clock’s position and insights into how and if we can move the clock further away from midnight. 

Together, they dive deep into the rising threats of nuclear war, climate change, AI-driven warfare, and biological ris...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and historian Eugene Rogan, professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford, as they delve into the complex history of the Arab world, from the Ottoman conquest in 1516 to today’s geopolitical crises of the modern Middle East. Through the lens of his acclaimed book The Arabs: A History, Rogan brilliantly examines the long history of foreign domination, the rise of Arab nationalism, the roles of Europe and the US as outside powers, and the unresolved conflicts shaping the Middle East until today.  

Together, they offer us a m...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and award-winning journalist Annie Jacobsen as they discuss Jacobsen’s chilling and rigorous depiction of nuclear war in her groundbreaking book, Nuclear War: A Scenario. With meticulous research and interviews with military and political insiders, Jacobsen takes us through a riveting, heart-pounding, second-by-second scenario of a world-ending nuclear war.  From the technological aspects of nuclear weapons and missile defense systems to the horrifying and total incapacity of modern society to survive a nuclear onslaught, Jacobsen depicts the razor-thin margin separating us from catastrophe.

Together, they delve into the...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political scientist Glenn Diesen as they discuss Professor Diesen’s new book, The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order. Professor Diesen explains Europe’s fractured security framework which he believes has steered the continent toward conflict with no clear way to reverse course. The conversation focuses on Ukraine - a nation itself divided within a divided Europe, and a pivotal piece in the deadly geopolitical chess game between NATO and Russia.

Together, they dissect the high-stakes battle between NATO and Russia, where compromise has so far been...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and retired Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant Dennis Fritz, a former Pentagon insider, as they explore the extremely important insights in Fritz’s new book, Deadly Betrayal, which uncovers the ugly truths behind the Iraq War in 2003. Drawing from dramatic evidence, Fritz explains how a group of high-level Pentagon officials (a “cabal” in Fritz’s description) in the Bush Jr. Administration manipulated intelligence, pressured other nations, and swayed Congress and public to support a disastrous war. 

Together, they delve into the astounding evidence that Fritz uncovered during hi...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political scientist Aaron Good as they discuss Good’s book, American Exception: Empire and the Deep State. Good delves into the breakdown of U.S. democracy, focusing on the continuity of American foreign policy, the erosion of the rule of law, and the concentration of wealth and power among the corporate elite

Together, they uncover the hidden forces shaping American governance, including the creation of a national security state after World War II and the rise of a covert empire. The podcast explores how the U.S...

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Join Professors Jeffrey Sachs, Christina Gerhardt and UN Senior Advisor on Small Island Developing States, Simona Marinescu as they discuss human induced global warming, the implications of rising sea levels, and Gerhardt’s book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean. This discussion shifts our focus to the frontlines of climate change—low-lying islands and despite contributing the least to global warming, these islands bear the brunt of its impacts. 

Together, they explore the local stories of various islands and coastlines through immersive storytelling, scientific insight, and research from...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Dr. Alfred de Zayas as they discuss de Zayas’s book, Building a Just World Order which delves into the possibility of a democratic and equitable international order, essential for sustainable development and the welfare of future generations

Together, they explore the work of Dr. Alfred de Zayas, the first Independent Expert on a Democratic and Equitable International Order appointed by the UN. They discuss his 14 reports outlining 25 principles for a just global system, including reforms to the UN, human rights protections, and economic justice. Dr. Za...

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Please join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and China expert, Jean Dong as they discuss Dong’s fascinating book, Chinese Statecraft in a Changing World: Demystifying Enduring Traditions and Dynamic Constraints. Ms. Dong offers a rich and subtle historical perspective on China’s statecraft, diplomacy, and national objectives.  Her historically based analysis offers us great insights into the new geopolitics of our age. 

 Together, Prof. Sachs and Ms. Dong explore the history and practice of Chinese statecraft, revealing its continuities and changes over long periods of history.  They explore how geographical factors have shaped C...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Monika Wiesak as they discuss one of America's most iconic leaders in, America's Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy. Listen in as they delve into the thrilling saga of a young, audacious visionary who dared to challenge the status quo and redefine the course of history.

Together, they uncover the untold story of courage and sacrifice of JFK’s legacy—one where he embarked on a daring mission to reshape the world order, advocating for decentralized power, global peace, and the...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs in his conversation with authors James and Tom Risen on their important, new book The Last Honest Man, a gripping biography of Idaho Senator, Frank Church.  The Risens describe the remarkable events of 1975, when Senator Church almost single-handedly took on the CIA and FBI, to hold them accountable for serious crimes that they had committed, including the CIA’s assassination plots and the CIA’s and FBI’s illegal surveillance of American citizens. 

This is an inspiring story of how one idealistic Senator battled the powerful and secretiv...

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Join Professors Jeffrey Sachs and Bryan Van Norden as they discuss Prof. Van Norden’s book, Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto. As a leading expert in Chinese philosophy, Prof. Van Norden promotes an inclusive, multicultural approach to philosophical inquiry, and urges educational institutions to uphold cosmopolitan ideals.

Together, they delve into Prof. Van Norden’s powerful critique of American higher education's neglect of philosophical traditions from non-Western cultures, including China, India, and Africa. Prof. Van Norden challenges the long-standing Eurocentric bias of philosophy departments, and advocates a multicultural appro...

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Join Professors Jeffrey Sachs and an expert on religious conflict, Richard E. Rubenstein as they discuss Rubenstein’s book, Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages. Rubenstein skillfully guides us through the vivid controversies of the Middle Ages, making the philosophical debates of yesteryear both lively and accessible

Together, they discuss the riveting events that unfolded - sparking riots, initiating heresy trials, and causing seismic shifts within the Catholic Church.Throughout their discussion, you’ll uncover the origins of the age-old tension between reas...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political and media analyst Norman Solomon as they discuss Solomon’s important new book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine. 

Listen in as Solomon and Sachs explore the intricate interplay between the mainstream media and powerful political forces that promote America’s disastrous “wars of choice” – including the US-led wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and currently the US-Russia proxy war in Ukraine and the US backing of Israel’s war in Gaza.   

Solomon’s book explores how American foreign...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist David Daokui Li as they discuss Professor Li’s brilliant new book, China's World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict. Listen in as Professor Li explains the deep nature of Chinese politics and economics – based on China’s long history, Confucian culture, and meritocratic political system. 

Together, they delve into a wide-ranging discussion of politics, education, philosophy, culture, and international relations.  Professor Li helps us to understand the similarities and differences in the Chinese and US approaches to politics and economics, and explains how US-Chine...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Jessica Rawson, one of the world’s most eminent scholars of China, as they discuss Rawson’s book, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China. Listen in to learn about the roots of Chinese civilization through the stories of twelve grand tombs, each helping to reveal a pivotal phase in China’s history. 

Together, they discuss the political, geographical, technological, and cultural evolution of China. Professor Rawson offers profound and fascinating insights regarding one of the world's great civilizations. With deep insights gleaned from her lifetime of scholar...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political scientist Lindsey O’Rourke as they discuss O’Rourke’s remarkable book, Covert Regime Change.  US foreign policy is based heavily on trying to overthrow foreign governments, and O’Rourke’s account is a powerful and deeply scholarly account of America’s frequent resort to secretive regime-change operations. Her book focuses on the Cold War years (1947-1989), but Sachs and O’Rourke bring the issues up to the current day.   

O’Rourke’s highly insightful study offers a deep and rare look at the how’s and...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and political scientist John Mearsheimer as they discuss Professor Mearsheimer’s latest book, How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy. Hailed as the most influential foreign policy realist of his generation, Mearsheimer and co-author Prof. Sebastian Rosato provide a groundbreaking examination of a central question in international relations: Do states act rationally?

Together, they discuss the book’s core idea: that states are generally rational in their foreign policymaking, in the sense that they use deliberative processes grounded in plausible theories of the world.  Through a fasci...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist Francisco Rodriguez as they discuss Professor Rodriguez’s newest publication, The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. Prof. Rodriguez is an expert on the use of unilateral economic sanctions - when one country imposes economic costs on another, and shares insights on the US as the main user of such unilateral economic sanctions.

Professor Rodriguez offers us a comprehensive assessment of the effects of unilateral sanctions on the living standards in target countries. The effects of sanctions are dramatic: rising poverty, falling living standards, and premature de...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and two of the world's leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, Lord Richard Layard and Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve to discuss their newest book, Wellbeing: Science and Policy. Together, they examine how wellbeing can be measured and how it can be promoted today and for future generations.

What produces a happy life and a happy society? Layard’s and De Neve’s new book offers a systematic exploration that brings together a fascinating and vast body of research in the past 20 years. This thought provoking conversation expl...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Bruce Cumings, renowned historian and  expert in East-Asian history, to discuss Cuming’s book, The Korean War. Together, they discuss the factors that led to the Korean War, its brutal trajectory, and its powerful and fateful impacts US foreign policy. 

The Korean War, though little known or understood today, continues to cast a long shadow on geopolitics and US foreign policy up to this day.  Cumings offers a profound and essential look into a war that is widely misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, but that still...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and bestselling science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, to discuss Robinson’s recent books The Ministry for the Future and New York 2140  for a thought provoking conversation on how climate change has and will potentially affect us all. 

 Together, they explore climate change as an existential threat and the plausible and tumultuous ways the climate crisis will shape our future. What happens as we push beyond planetary boundaries? Will sea levels rise to devastating levels, submerging lower Manhattan and other urban centers of the world? Will climate chang...

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Join Professors Jeffrey Sachs and Chris Coyne, economist and author of In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace, for an eye-opening examination on whether interventionist methods should ever have a place in foreign policy. 

Together, they discuss American imperialism and militaristic culture around the world, proving that nonviolent approaches to domestic and international conflicts not only minimize violence, but also promote cultures of peace throughout the world. Coyne presents his compelling arguments as to why such interventions are a threat to liberal v...

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Glenn Denning, a world-leading specialist in agricultural and food policy to discuss Denning’s new book Universal Food Security: How to End Hunger While Protecting the Planet. Together, they explore how we can achieve a food-secure world while protecting the planet through sustainable agricultural technologies, farm practices, and healthy diets.   

Their discussion ranges broadly over the choices of agricultural technology, food policy, dietary choices, and public institutions needed to achieve global food security with environmental sustainability. Denning shares his wealth of personal experiences as an agri...

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Join Professors Jeffrey Sachs and Orlando Figes, historian and author of The Crimean War (2012) and his new book, The Story of Russia (2022), in a fascinating discussion of Russian history and ideas about Russian history.

Together, they examine the 19th century Crimean War and the powerful light that the Crimean War, 170 years ago, sheds on the current conflict in Ukraine. More generally, Sachs and Figes explore Russia’s complex relationship with the West, and the ideas that Russian and Western thinkers and politicians have held about Western-Russian international relations throughout history.

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In this special episode, join Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, and Professor K. Srinath Reddy for their discussion of The Lancet Commission Report on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Together, they discuss the background to the Commission and the key findings after two years of research. They discuss the possible origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2; including the possibilities that the virus emerged from laboratory research or from an infected animal in the marketplace. They discuss failures of international cooperation and national public-health p...