The Next Big Idea Club’s June 2024 Must-Read Books
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The Next Big Idea Club’s June 2024 Must-Read Books

Arts & Culture Habits & Productivity Technology
The Next Big Idea Club’s June 2024 Must-Read Books

I’m pleased to share what I consider the most promising, must-read nonfiction titles scheduled for release in June 2024. These titles make up our first group of nominees for Season 25 of the Next Big Idea Club.

Our Next Big Idea Club curators—Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink—will narrow the list down to a handful of finalists and, ultimately, two official season selections.

Authors will also be invited to create a “Book Bite”, a 15-minute audio self-recording that features five key insights from their book. Imagine chatting with a stranger on an airplane—only that person just happened to write a fascinating nonfiction book!

And now, the June 2024 titles are…

Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net

By Jessica Calarco
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women. Holding It Together chronicles the causes and dire consequences. View on Amazon

Negotiating While Black: Be Who You Are to Get What You Want

By Damali Peterman
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A real-world, one-of-a-kind resource for anyone who has ever been underestimated, overlooked, or misunderstood at the negotiating table. View on Amazon

Build Like a Woman: The Blueprint for Creating a Business and Life You Love

By Kathleen Griffith
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

From the self-made businesswoman and founder of the global platform Build Like A Woman comes the essential resource to unleash your business, take up space, and create your dream life. View on Amazon

How to Love Someone Without Losing Your Mind: Forget the Fairy Tale and Get Real

By Todd Baratz
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A brutally honest guide that cuts through the bullsh*t and sky-high expectations of modern love to help you build healthier and more fulfilling relationships, from the creator of viral Instagram account YourDiagnonsense. View on Amazon

The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network

By David Robson
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

This groundbreaking study reveals how social connections are far more important than we thought, showing us the steps we can take to build better relationships and improve our lives. View on Amazon

Everything and Nothing at Once: A Black Man’s Reimagined Soundtrack for the Future

By Joél Leon
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

With incisive, searing prose, Everything and Nothing at Once deconstructs what it means to be a Black man in America. View on Amazon

The Death of Truth

By Steven Brill
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

How did we become a world where facts have lost their power to hold us together? Best-selling journalist Steven Brill documents the forces and people that have created and exploited this world of chaos and division—and offers solutions. View on Amazon

Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change

By Nicole Vignola
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Discover the neuroscience of a better you in this revolutionary book that teaches you how to rewire your brain to achieve peak mental wellbeing. View on Amazon

World Class: Purpose, Passion, and the Pursuit of Greatness On and Off the Field

By Grant Wahl
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

The definitive collection of beloved late journalist Grant Wahl’s work—a masterclass in the art of sportswriting. View on Amazon

Psychedelic Outlaws: The Movement Revolutionizing Modern Medicine

By Joanna Kempner
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

How a group of ordinary people, debilitated by excruciating pain, developed their own medicine from home-grown psilocybin mushrooms—crafting near-clinical grade dosing protocols—and fought for recognition in a broken medical system. View on Amazon

Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water

By Amorina Kingdon
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A captivating exploration of how underwater animals tap into sound to survive, and a clarion call for humans to address the ways we invade these critical soundscapes. View on Amazon

Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation

By Tom McGrath
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Yuppie values had an undeniable impact on the world—from gentrification and an obsession with career success to an indulgent materialism. Most significantly, their me‑first mindset helped create the largest income inequality in a century. View on Amazon

This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder

By Alan Townsend
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A compassionate, vulnerable, and transformative exploration of the nurturing and spiritual power of scientific wonder, as illuminated through the tragic dual cancer diagnoses of author Dr. Alan Townsend’s wife and daughter. View on Amazon

The Explorers: A New History of America in Ten Expeditions

By Amanda Bellows
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A fascinating new history of America, told through the stories of a diverse cast of ten extraordinary adventurers, from Sacagawea to Matthew Henson to Sally Ride, who pushed the boundaries of discovery and determined our national destiny. View on Amazon

Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey into the Heart of American Democracy

By Francis Barry
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Bringing together two of America’s unifying loves—road trips and Abraham Lincoln—Frank Barry takes readers on a thought-provoking journey into the heart of our democracy and the soul of our country. View on Amazon

What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World

By Prentis Hemphill
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level. View on Amazon

Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever

By Joseph Cox
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

How an enormous sting operation revealed the fundamental problems of policing in such a vast and high-speed economy. This is a caper for our modern world, where everyone is connected and no one is completely free. View on Amazon

Our Next Reality: How the AI-powered Metaverse Will Reshape the World

By Alvin Wang Graylin
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Over the last 100 years, technology has changed our world. Over the next decade it will transform our reality. View on Amazon

The Captive Imagination: Addiction, Reality, and Our Search for Meaning

By Elias Dakwar
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

A profound, humane, and revolutionary new framework for understanding and addressing addiction. View on Amazon

Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes: Odes to Being Alive

By James Parker
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

From the vertiginously talented Atlantic staff writer James Parker, a collection of uproarious prose odes that show how to find gratitude in unexpected places. View on Amazon

Why War?

By Richard Overy
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Why has war been such a consistent presence throughout the human past? A leading historian explains, drawing on rich examples and keen insight. View on Amazon

The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets

By Thomas Cech
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Exploring the most transformative breakthroughs in biology since the discovery of the double helix, a Nobel Prize–winning scientist unveils the RNA age. View on Amazon

Modern Friendship: How to Nurture Our Most Valued Connections

By Anna Goldfarb
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

It’s never been easier to shed friendships, which is precisely why we need a new approach to keeping them strong. Anna argues that we need to update our approach to friendships in a way that accounts for the hyper-fluid society we live in. View on Amazon

The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers

By Zeke Hernandez
Publication Date: June 4, 2024

Most books making a case for immigration tell you that immigration is good for immigrants. This book is all about how newcomers benefit you, your community, and your country. View on Amazon

The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines

By Matt Beane
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

From one of the world’s top researchers on work and technology comes an insightful and surprising guide to protecting your skill in a world filling with AI and robots. View on Amazon

The Trolls of Wall Street: How the Outcasts and Insurgents Are Hacking the Markets

By Nathaniel Popper
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

The dramatic story of an improbable gang of self-proclaimed “degenerates” who made WallStreetBets into a cultural movement that moved from the fringes of the internet to the center of Wall Street, upending the global financial markets and changing how an entire generation thinks about money, investing, and themselves. View on Amazon

Money and Promises: Seven Deals That Changed the World

By Paolo Zannoni
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

Spanning many countries, political systems, and historical eras, this book shows that at the heart of banks is an intricate exchange of debts and promises that shaped the modern world as we know it. View on Amazon

Good Judgment: Making Better Business Decisions with the Science of Human Personality

By Richard Davis
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

An organizational psychologist teaches how to select the right employees and business partners, assess investment opportunities shrewdly, resolve conflicts better and faster, and optimize performance on the job using the science of personality. View on Amazon

Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life

By Eric Weiner
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiring and practical lessons in a book that’s part biography, part travelogue, part personal prescription. View on Amazon

Make Art or Die Trying: The Only Art Book You’ll Ever Need If You Want to Make Art That Changes the World

By Stuart Semple
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

A guide to harnessing the power of creative ideas to create art and change in your life and community. View on Amazon

The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging

By Julia Hotz
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

In this combination of diligent science reporting, moving patient success stories, and surprising self-discovery, journalist Julia Hotz helps us discover lasting and life-changing medicine in our own communities. View on Amazon

Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality

By Renée DiResta
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

A brilliant, original analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of power and influence, revealing how the machinery that powered the Big Lie works to create bespoke realities revolutionizing politics, culture, and society. View on Amazon

Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform our Lives, Work, and World

By Jamie Metzl
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

The definitive account of the technological precipice on which we stand and the map to where we go from here. View on Amazon

The Hacker Mindset: A 5-Step Methodology for Cracking the System and Achieving Your Dreams

By Garrett Gee
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

For the countless people feeling trapped in their jobs and whose talents aren’t being fully utilized, this book offers a wake-up call to break free from the constraints of ordinary employment and achieve true financial freedom. View on Amazon

Playing from the Rough: A Personal Journey through America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses

By Jimmie James
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

The story of one man’s quest to become the first person to play each of America’s 100 greatest golf courses in a single year, an odyssey that brings him face to face with the gulf between his impoverished childhood in the Jim Crow South and the successful executive he became. View on Amazon

Just Add Water: My Swimming Life

By Katie Ledecky
Publication Date: June 11, 2024

A three-time Olympian, a seven-time gold medalist, a twenty-one-time world champion, eight-time NCAA Champion, and world record-holder in individual swimming events, Ledecky shares what it takes to compete at an elite level. View on Amazon

Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap

By Louise Story & Ebony Reed
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A sweeping, deeply researched narrative history of Black wealth and the economic discrimination embedded in America’s financial system through public and private actions that created today’s Black-white wealth gap. View on Amazon

The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life

By Leslie Zane
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

Award-winning Fortune 500 brand consultant and behavioral expert Leslie Zane shatters conventional marketing wisdom, showing readers how to tap into the hidden brain where instinct prevails, creating a powerful network of connections that drive people to buy your product, company, or vision. View on Amazon

The AI-Savvy Leader: Nine Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work

By David De Cremer
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

Leaders, don’t let AI get the best of you. View on Amazon

What’s Next Is Now: How to Live Future Ready

By Frederik Pferdt
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

The renowned global thought leader and Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist introduces a forward-thinking mindstate that will help you navigate ambiguity and uncertainty with intention, transform problems and challenges into profound opportunities, and create exactly the future you want to see. View on Amazon

Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World

By Kelly Clancy
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A wide-ranging intellectual history that reveals how important games have been to human progress, and what’s at stake when we forget what games we’re really playing. View on Amazon

Complicit: How Our Culture Enables Misbehaving Men

By Reah Bravo
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A thoroughly researched and deeply personal examination of how women unintentionally condone workplace abuse in a post-#MeToo world—and what we can do to change things for the better. View on Amazon

The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage

By Jonathan Turley
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A timely, revelatory look at freedom of speech—our most basic right and the one that protects all the others. View on Amazon

Nature of Our Cities, The: Harnessing the Power of the Natural World to Survive a Changing Planet

By Nadine Galle
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A stirring exploration of how innovators from around the world are combining urban nature with emerging technologies, protecting the planet’s cities from the effects of climate change and safeguarding the health of their inhabitants. View on Amazon

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

By Madhumita Murgia
Publication Date: June 18, 2024

A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making. View on Amazon

Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves

By Nicola Twilley
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food—for better and for worse. View on Amazon

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

By Ray Kurzweil
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

The noted inventor and futurist’s successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will transform the human race in the decades to come. View on Amazon

Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV

By Emily Nussbaum
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

The rollicking saga of reality television—an ambitious cultural history of America’s most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning New Yorker writer. View on Amazon

Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps

By Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor & Josh Halloway
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

From your friends at Pod Save America and Crooked Media comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection. View on Amazon

The Grief Cure: Looking for the End of Loss

By Cody Delistraty
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

In this lyrical and moving story of the world of Prolonged Grief, journalist Cody Delistraty reflects on his experience with loss and explores what modern science, history, and literature reveal about the nature of our relationship to grief and our changing attitudes toward its cure. View on Amazon

Heavyweight: A Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory

By Solomon Brager
Publication Date: June 25, 2024

A moving and provocative graphic memoir exploring inherited trauma, family history, and the ever-shifting understanding of our own identities. View on Amazon

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