Turek Books Podcast

Comedian and writer Zach Pugh joins host Joshua Turek to discuss Moby Dick, Don Delillo, Denis Johnson, being attracted to grimey literatrue, The Fort Bragg Cartel and Chris Hedges, the need for pretentiousness to return to our society among other things. Get Joshua's new poetry book "Ugly Whimsy" out April 10th! Preorder first edition now! Originally recorded Jan 2026

The Fort Bragg Cartel
Moby Dick
The Failures of Nonviolence
Underworld by Don Dellilo
Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges
Europe Central by William T Volman
Rainbow Stories by William T Volman
Jesus Son by Denis Johnson
Drag Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Long Live the Post Horn
it by stephen king
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Author and Comedian Amy Silverberg joins host Joshua Turek to discuss the reasons why we live creative lives, her love of books including her debut novel First Time Long Time, and Josh's impending fatherhood. Originally recorded 1/12/2026

Books Talked About Include:
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
100 years of solitude by marquez
a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan
A Confederacy of Dunces
debt by david graeber
a peoples history of the united states
grapes of wrath
So far gone by jess walter
Flesh by David Zalay
Beauty Land by Burtino
Rock Hawk by Robinson Jeffers
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle
Middlemarch by George Elliott
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Author of "Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Jesus is Alive" Melissa Lozada-Oliva talks literary influences, books she's put down, and enjoying the act of reading before we're too old to see the pages anymore.

Books Talked About Include:

tana french
Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Debt by David Graeber
Grapes of Wrath
Autobiography of Macolm X
Somebody Walks Over Your Grave by Marian Enriquez
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Leguin
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Filmmaker and actor David Hull (Crazy Ex) joins host Joshua Turek to discuss books about eels, wolves, the dust bowl, politics gone wrong and ketamine therapy.

Recorded Dec 6, 2025

Books Talked About Include:
Slumberland, Sell Out, Tuff, White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
James, Erasure, American Fiction, God’s Country by Percival Everett
Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden by Steinbeck
Notes From Underground - Dostoevsky
Book of Eels Patrick Sphenson
Frost Lines by Neil Shea
The Cigarette
American Dreamer by Henry Wallace
A Kim Jong Il Production
The Wicker Man
The Day of the Locust
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Astrologer and Filmmaker Liz Vazquez joins host Joshua Turek to discuss books documenting our pressing issues and outer space and how they're all related.

originally recorded January 26, 2026

Books talked about include
Trickster makes the world by Lewis Hyde
Shiver by Junji Ito
Who I am and What I want by David Shimley
The Problem with Work
Carceral Capitalism
Nechro Politics Achille Mbembe
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
The History of Forgetting by Norman Klein
Becoming Human by Zakiyah Iman Jackson
Black shirts and reds by Michael Parenti
Inventing Reality
American Fascists by Chris Hedges
Loaded by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnes
American Cosmic - Diana Walsh Pasulka
The Administration of Fear by Paul Verilio
The Information Bomb
Shambhala
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