A Book with Legs: The Smead Book List - Spring Book List
Date: March 30, 2026
Host: Cole Smead (CEO & Portfolio Manager), joined by Bill Smead (Chief Investment Officer & Founder)

Episode Overview

In this quarterly book list episode, Cole and Bill Smead share recent reads, current reading materials, and notable book recommendations relevant to value investing, economic history, mental models, and contemporary social topics. They blend literary insights with reflections on market cycles, speculation, social change, and investing lessons, all delivered with their signature blend of curiosity, pragmatism, and familial banter. The session closes with audience questions on energy stocks and homebuilders in the current economic landscape.

Recently Read Books

Financial History, Bubbles & Manias

• Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin
  • [01:13] Bill: “It resummarized a book I'd read recently, Once in Golconda. He added a lot of interesting personal tidbits about major players in the 1920s and 1930s… Again, so important in our business to appreciate and understand history and the way that history doesn't repeat itself—but it rhymes.”
• Once in Golconda (inspiration for Sorkin’s book)
• Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
  • [03:23] Cole: “The fun part... was just fun to figure out what was actually going on when you lived through it but weren’t getting to see all these discussions and things.”
• The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes
  • [05:10] Cole: “A really good frame...what happened and how big of a factor agricultural employment was.”
  • [05:39] Cole: “Shameless plug, we’ve done Amity for both The Forgotten Man, as well as her other book The Great Society, which we did for the Oasis a couple years ago.”

Biography & Entrepreneurial Stories

• The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel
  • [05:53] Bill: “Maybe the most entertaining book I've read in a long, long time… It deserves to have a movie made out of it… He just dealt fairly with people everywhere along the line, which I just thought was so wonderful about the book.”

Societal Critique & Technology

• The Age of Extraction by Tim Wu
  • [07:46] Discusses digital extraction (e.g., social platforms, Facebook): “Very timely… Tim really asked the question, what's beneficial?”
  • [08:07] Cole: “Where Tim really is in agreement with our view... the most natural force you always have to have at present is competition… That was his big thing: 'Is it really a competitive landscape?'”

Freedom of Speech & Academia

• Campus Speech by Chemerinsky & Gilman
  • [09:14] Bill: “A great book if that subject of freedom of speech on college campuses is a big issue now… But I kind of had a headache by the time I got done—almost every one of the key subjects ends up being kind of a catch-22.”

Natural World & Nostalgia

• Evergreen by Trent Pressler
  • [10:38] Cole: “He really gives the history of trees. When I hear 'spread your seed', I don’t think of a farmer, I think of a pine cone opening up… He bemoans the death of the traditional Christmas tree.”
  • Personal anecdote about Christmas tree nostalgia, market trends, and family tradition.

American Regional History

• Polar War by Ken Rosen
  • [13:31] Cole: “Not the first time the United States has had grandeur about the Arctic… the Russians are really the people that consider themselves Arctic experts.”
• The Crazies by Amy Gammerman
  • [14:22] Story of Montana's Crazy Mountains, rural-urban tension, local politics, and rich/poor divides: “All politics are local, especially in Montana… The west is so untamed, not only in its geography, but really in relationship.”

Computational Thinking

• Laws of Thought by Tom Griffiths
  • [16:36] Cole: “Anything compute-wise is just a reflection of humanity… Like an intern, it lacks experience, has to be taught. That is what it is, a reflection of the human experience and a tool that's reflective of the human experience.”
  • On language and artificial intelligence: quoting Noam Chomsky's insight about children and language acquisition as “divine, above what we can expect logically, past our pay grade.” [20:35]
  • Discussion of metaphysics, split-brain phenomena, and the “awesome, divine” aspect of human reasoning.
    • [21:23] Bill: “He said that in 2000 brain surgeries, he concluded reasoning doesn’t come from either side of the brain.”

Genetics & Human Nature

• Original Sin by Katherine Paige Harden
  • [23:36] Cole: “Her book is mainly...a lot of her work has been done around some of the twin research out there… Your DNA codes you, but secondly, your parents code you… It's nature and choice, just like it's nature and nurture.”
  • On personal responsibility vs. victimhood: “You control your destiny even though all those things do affect you.”

Currently Reading

• Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles by William Quinn & John D. Turner
  • [27:22] Discussion of bubble dynamics (spark, oxygen/leverage, damage): “In 1636, you could trade one fine tulip bulb for a house, a fine carriage, and two good horses. About $700–800,000 in today’s dollars.”
• The Seven Crashes by Harold James
  • [28:53] Cole: “If you're going to read that, I’ll give you another lens... real estate bubbles are truly different—they just hit differently. The real estate bubbles had to have leverage because you always gotta have borrowed money on real estate.”

Markets, Manias, and Asia

• Extensive segments on speaking to CFA societies in Asia, the China real estate bubble, demographic consequences of one-child policy, and systemic banking risk.
  • [31:12] Cole: “Levered real estate bubbles always deflate. If you’re in a democracy, they deflate quickly. If you’re in a communist society, they deflate slowly.”

Mathematics

• The Great Math War by Jason Socrates Bardi
  • [32:41] Cole: “He's giving a history of really math and he does it through three people: George Cantor, Ellie J. Brewer, and David Hilbert…”

Recommendations & To-Be-Read

• A Will to Serve by Jim Ellis
  • [33:23] Seattle civic history and lessons in local leadership.
• The Emergent Mind by Gaurav Suri
• Streetwise by Lloyd Blankfein
  • [36:52] “He’s been out doing a road show tour. It would be fun to have him on.”
• House of Fidelity by Justin Baer
  • [36:52] “Recommended by our colleague Will—history of Fidelity.”
• Worldly Wisdom (Charlie Munger's Stanford talk, 1990s)
  • [36:52] Cole: “Got a little green copy of that here.”
• The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans
  • [37:26] Bill: “If you’ve seen The Offer about the making of The Godfather, you met Robert Evans. This is going to be a fantastic book.”

Listener Book Suggestions

• The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod
  • [62:56] Recommended by "Superfan Steve"—ties into biology and human behavior.
• The Expectant Father by Armin Brott
  • [62:56] Parenting book for soon-to-be fathers.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Bill Smead [01:13]: “So important in our business to appreciate and understand history and the way that history doesn't repeat itself—but it rhymes.”
• Cole Smead [08:07]: “The most natural force you always have to have at present is competition. That's what creates the creative juices to make business more efficient and capital structures, etc.”
• Bill Smead [05:53]: “The Gambler...deserves to have a movie made out of it.”
• Bill Smead [21:23]: “[Brain surgeon] said that in 2,000 brain surgeries, he concluded that reasoning doesn't come from either side of the brain.”
• Cole Smead [47:57]: “The most attractive risk in my opinion is where you get torque, where the change in the business prospects over the next two to three years can take the fixed cost structure and drive the highest amount of free cash flow growth.”

Market & Investment Q&A

Will Energy Stocks Fall If US Stops Bombing Iran?

• [38:10]
  • Bill Smead: “We are in probably a 15-20 year time period that began in 2020 where we have a rotational bull market in commodities based on scarcity, et cetera, underinvestment and scarcity... over the course of the 15 years that end 2035, we expect that commodities will outperform common stocks like they have in all past mean reversion trades.”
• [40:25]
  • Bill Smead: “The ESG people scared everyone out of the industry... now AI comes on, you’re using a massive amount of natural gas to make electricity...”

Will Home Builders Do Well Despite Affordability Issues?

• [50:40]
  • Bill Smead: “The weirdest thing is the homes that are built in the United States, the biggest home building booms were in 1972, 1978, and 1984… the mortgage rate in all three was higher than it is right now.”
• [53:53]
  • Cole Smead: “What is not being said is what could happen here is that the stock market gets poor enough... The idea that investors won’t go out and buy Treasuries ... they will go buy Treasuries.”
• [61:33]
  • Bill: “Right now, there are more people between 25 and 40 than there’s ever been in the history of the United States... The demand for homes is going to be there... You’re likely to get better prices when there is no end in the difficulties in sight than you would if you wait.”

Notable Themes & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Subject / Book | Key Takeaways | |-----------|-------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------| | 01:13 | Inside the Greatest Crash / Bubbles | Learning from history, market parallels | | 05:53 | The Gambler | Entrepreneurial spirit, fairness, capitalism | | 07:46 | Age of Extraction / Tim Wu | Digital economics, competition, net neutrality | | 10:38 | Evergreen | Natural history, market decline, family traditions | | 16:36 | Laws of Thought | AI, metaphysics, the divine in cognition | | 23:36 | Original Sin | Genetics, nature vs. nurture, personal agency | | 27:22 | Boom and Bust; The Seven Crashes | Anatomy of bubbles, real estate risk | | 31:12 | China Bubbles | Democracy vs. authoritarian unwinding of bubbles | | 32:41 | The Great Math War | Math history, intellectual evolution | | 33:23 | Will to Serve (Seattle) | Civic decline, generational change | | 38:10 | Market Q&A – Energy Stocks | Commodity supercycle, underinvestment, ESG | | 50:40 | Market Q&A – Homebuilders | Historical booms, rates, demographics, opportunity |

Listeners’ Section

• Audience book suggestions, direct callouts (e.g., Superfan Steve), and an invitation for listeners to send in further recommendations.

Closing Reflection

The episode provides a rich mosaic of book-inspired discussion, interweaving financial wisdom, historical lessons, market mechanics, and practical psychology, all underscored by an appreciation for learning, adaptation, and the enduring value of reading widely.

For more episodes and to submit book recommendations, email podcast@smeadcap.com or connect on X (@smeadcap).