Brian O’Leary is back on the pod to talk about the dad book. This is the airport nonfiction, narrative history, and adventure bio, etc. The Wall Street Journal just declared this ‘category’ a dying breed. As Dads with books, Brian and I draft our favorite picks.

We talk Charles Manson and the CIA, why a German U-boat off the East Coast makes Shadow Divers impossible to put down, and the case for James Michener (bestseller nobody under fifty remembers). And a lot more.

Brian’s Substack and podcast (the O’Leary Review):

Gentleman Speculator is from Andrew Flattery at Flattery Wealth Management.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00:00 Nixon on his old man

00:01:00 What a dad book is, and why the Journal called it dying

00:11:00 Books you can actually find at the airport

00:12:00 Chaos, Charles Manson and the CIA

00:18:00 The book your own father gave you, Endurance

00:24:00 Sports, and The Boys in the Boat

00:27:00 The First All-Star Game and the 1932 plot on FDR

00:33:00 Biography, The Wright Brothers

00:39:00 Hidden gems, and the forgotten James Michener

00:46:00 The anti-recommendation, Bernard Cornwell

00:53:00 The GOATs, Shadow Divers and The Sportswriter

00:57:00 What Brian is working on now

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