Next Big Idea Club Nominees Fall 2020
Magazine / Next Big Idea Club Nominees Fall 2020

Next Big Idea Club Nominees Fall 2020

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Next Big Idea Club Nominees Fall 2020

Every season, Next Big Idea Club curators Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink, and Malcolm Gladwell review dozens and dozens of upcoming books to identify the new must-read nonfiction titles. And this season, we’re inviting our members to help with the discovery process—if you’re passionate about a nonfiction book coming out in August, September, October, or (at the latest) November of 2020, we invite you to nominate it for inclusion in the Next Big Idea Club!

The books currently under consideration for Fall 2020 are listed below, and to send in your own recommendation, simply fill out this form by Monday, August 31st. Books that receive five or more recommendations will become official nominees, and will be added to the list on this page. Thank you so much for your input—we can’t wait to see which new books you’ll send our way!

Fall 2020 Nominees

2030: How Today’s Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything

By Mauro F. Guillén
Publication Date: August 25, 2020

The world is changing drastically before our eyes―will you be prepared for what comes next? A groundbreaking analysis from one of the world’s foremost experts on global trends, including analysis on how COVID-19 will amplify and accelerate each of these changes. View on Amazon

Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

By Nicholas A. Christakis
Publication Date: October 27, 2020

Featuring new, provocative arguments and vivid examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, Apollo’s Arrow envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature. View on Amazon

Building for Everyone: Expand Your Market with Design Practices from Google’s Product Inclusion Team

By Annie Jean-Baptiste
Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Building for Everyone will show you how to infuse your business processes with inclusive design. You’ll learn best practices for inclusion in product design, marketing, management, leadership and beyond, straight from the innovative Google Product Inclusion team. View on Amazon

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

By Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin D. West
Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. View on Amazon

Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

By Anne Helen Petersen
Publication Date: September 22, 2020

An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials—the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change. View on Amazon

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

By Laila Lalami
Publication Date: September 22, 2020

Pulitzer Prize­­–finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. View on Amazon

Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide

By John Cleese
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

The legendary comedian, actor, and writer of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and A Fish Called Wanda fame shares his key ideas about creativity: that it’s a learnable, improvable skill. View on Amazon

Decoding the World: Roadmap for the Questioner

By Po Bronson and Arvind Gupta
Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Find out where our world is headed with this dazzling first-hand account of inventing the future from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the founder of science accelerator IndieBio. View on Amazon

Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women

By Kate Manne
Publication Date: August 11, 2020

With wit and intellectual fierceness, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern. View on Amazon

Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them

By Karl Pillemer
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

In an era when powerful outside forces such as technology and mobility are lessening family cohesion, Dr. Pillemer combines dramatic stories, science-based guidance, and practical repair tools to help people find the path to reconciliation. View on Amazon

Friday Forward: Inspiration & Motivation to End Your Week Stronger Than It Started

By Robert Glazer
Publication Date: September 1, 2020

At once uplifting and deeply thought-provoking, these stories will challenge you to propel yourself outside your comfort zone to unlock your innate potential. View on Amazon

The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, Grit, and IQ—Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness

By Craig Wright
Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Looking at the 14 key traits of genius, from curiosity to creative maladjustment to obsession, Professor Craig Wright, creator of Yale University’s popular “Genius Course,” explores what we can learn from brilliant minds that have changed the world. View on Amazon

How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs

By Guy Raz
Publication Date: September 15, 2020

Based on the highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz, this book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture. View on Amazon

Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them

By Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
Publication Date: August 18, 2020

In their provocative and practical new book, world-renowned business thinker Gary Hamel and expert coauthor Michele Zanini lay out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are fully human and free from the shackles of bureaucracy. View on Amazon

The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt

By Sinan Aral
Publication Date: September 15, 2020

A landmark insider’s tour of how social media affects our decision-making and shapes our world in ways both useful and dangerous, with critical ideas on how to protect ourselves in the 2020 election and beyond. View on Amazon

I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in an Age of Disconnection

By John Bowe
Publication Date: August 11, 2020

A veteran journalist discovers an ancient system of speech techniques for overcoming the fear of public speaking—and reveals how they can profoundly change our lives. View on Amazon

The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most

By Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Vinsel and Russell explain how we devalued the work that underpins modern life—and, in doing so, wrecked our economy and public infrastructure. They offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward neglected activities like maintenance, care, and upkeep. View on Amazon

Just Us: An American Conversation

By Claudia Rankine
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history. View on Amazon

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

By Michael Strevens
Publication Date: October 13, 2020

Like Yuval Harari’s Sapiens or Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 classic, The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsThe Knowledge Machine overturns much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world. View on Amazon

Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

By Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Publication Date: September 29, 2020

From the bestselling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience and virtue. View on Amazon

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain

By David Eagleman
Publication Date: August 25, 2020

Acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman covers decades of the most important research into the functioning of the brain and also presents new discoveries from his own research: about synesthesia, dreaming, and wearable devices that are revolutionizing how we think about the five human senses. View on Amazon

Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity

By Sam Harris
Publication Date: August 11, 2020

This book includes a dozen of the best conversations from the Making Sense podcast, including talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glenn Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically. View on Amazon

Master of None: How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top

By Clifford Hudson
Publication Date: October 13, 2020

In this revelatory memoir, the former CEO of Sonic challenges established thinking, offering counterintuitive career advice essential for every professional at all levels, whether you’re just starting out or in the middle of your career. View on Amazon

The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South

By Chip Jones
Publication Date: August 18, 2020

Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding the 1968 death of Bruce Tucker, and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. View on Amazon

Powerful Purpose of Introverts: Why the World Needs You to Be You

By Holley Gerth
Publication Date: September 15, 2020

In this eye-opening book, Holley Gerth shares everything you need to know, from brain science to the psychological, relational, and spiritual aspects of being an introvert. View on Amazon

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

By Seth Godin
Publication Date: November 3, 2020

From the bestselling author of LinchpinTribes, and The Dip comes an elegant little book that will inspire artists, writers, and entrepreneurs to stretch and commit to putting their best work out into the world. View on Amazon

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

By Morgan Housel
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics. View on Amazon

 

Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics

By Juan Enriquez
Publication Date: October 13, 2020

From the TED stage to the page, Juan Enriquez, author of As the Future Catches You and Evolving Ourselves, presents a lively and engaging guide to ethics in a technological age. View on Amazon

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

By Lisa Feldman Barrett
Publication Date: November 17, 2020

In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. View on Amazon

The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

By Eric Weiner
Publication Date: August 25, 2020

The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey, following in the footsteps of history’s greatest thinkers and showing us how each—from Epicurus to Gandhi, Thoreau to Beauvoir—offers practical and spiritual lessons for today’s unsettled times. View on Amazon

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World

By Fareed Zakaria
Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Covering topics from natural and biological risks to the rise of “digital life” to an emerging bipolar world order, CNN host Fareed Zakaria helps readers think beyond the immediate effects of COVID-19 to see a surprising new world taking shape. View on Amazon

Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day

By Jay Shetty
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life. View on Amazon

Too Much Information: Understanding What You Don’t Want to Know

By Cass Sunstein
Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Renowned Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein explains how information can make us happy or miserable, and why we sometimes avoid it and sometimes seek it out. View on Amazon

Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms

By Shellye Archambeau
Publication Date: October 6, 2020

Full of empowering wisdom from one of Silicon Valley’s first female African-American CEOs, this inspiring leadership book offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals. View on Amazon

Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future

By Margaret Heffernan
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

From former CEO and popular TED speaker Margaret Heffernan comes a timely and enlightening book that equips you with the tools you need to face the future with confidence and courage. View on Amazon

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

By Martha S. Jones
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of black women who were the vanguard of women’s rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals. View on Amazon

The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

By Joseph Henrich
Publication Date: September 8, 2020

Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. View on Amazon

What Girls Need: How to Raise Bold, Courageous, and Resilient Women

By Marisa Porges
Publication Date: August 4, 2020

A former White House strategist and fighter jet pilot now at the helm of one of the premier schools for girls in the country illuminates the ways parents and educators can support audacity and ambition in girls everywhere. View on Amazon

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency

By Roger L. Martin
Publication Date: September 29, 2020

With lucid analysis and engaging anecdotes, Martin argues that we must stop treating the economy as a perfectible machine and shift toward viewing it as a complex adaptive system in which we seek a fundamental balance of efficiency with resilience. View on Amazon

Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny

By Debora L. Spar
Publication Date: August 18, 2020

Harvard Business School professor and former Barnard College president Debora L. Spar offers an incisive and provocative account of how technology has transformed our intimate lives in the past, and how it will do so again in the future. View on Amazon

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