I’m excited to introduce a new batch of standout nonfiction—the most compelling and thought-provoking titles scheduled for release in October 2025.
Each of these books has earned a spot on our longlist for Season 28 of the Next Big Idea Club. In the coming months, we’ll narrow the field to a few finalists, and ultimately select two official season picks to send to our members (physical books in an actual box! Remember analog things like books and boxes?).
As always, we invite longlisted authors to create a “Book Bite”—a five-minute audio recording where they share five big ideas from their book. Picture striking up a conversation with someone in the checkout line… only they happen to be a brilliant nonfiction author.
So, without further ado, here are the October 2025 must-reads…
Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain
By Nicholas Wright
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A leading neuroscientist and advisor to the Pentagon delivers a new perspective on the human brain and on war. View on Amazon
The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life
By Morgan Housel
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
Lessons on spending money that demonstrate why the most valuable return on investment is peace of mind, why expectations matter more than income, and why doing well with money has less to do with spreadsheets and more to do with self-awareness. View on Amazon
Click Here: The Art and Science of Digital Marketing and Advertising
By Alex Schultz
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
The ultimate guide to digital marketing and advertising – from one of the most influential digital marketers in the world, Alex Schultz, CMO of Meta. View on Amazon
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
By Cory Doctorow
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
We’re living through the Enshittocene, the Great Enshittening, a time in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit. Enshittification identifies the problem and proposes a path to disenshittification. View on Amazon
A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership
By Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhotra & Kurt Strovink
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
From leading global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company comes a compact, insight-packed guide to navigating the distinct phases of leadership that every CEO must pass through on their way to mastery. View on Amazon
Charlatans: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Hucksters Bamboozle the Media, the Markets, and the Masses
By Moises Naim & Quico Toro
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
From snake-oil salesmen to crypto grifters, the gripping story of charlatans—and why we fall for them. View on Amazon
Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley
By Jacob Silverman
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A searing insight into the political radicalization of Silicon Valley, from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel, JD Vance and Donald Trump, and how it will affect the future of all our lives. View on Amazon
Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead)
By Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
Drawing on decades of research, a renowned psychologist reveals an uncomfortable truth: our obsession with authenticity is backfiring. View on Amazon
Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life
By Paul Leonardi
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A revelatory examination of why you’re feeling so worn out—and practical daily strategies to change your relationship with your devices. View on Amazon
Pull: How Gravity Shapes Your Body, Steadies the Mind, and Guides Our Health
By Brennan Spiegel
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
How this invisible force of gravity influences everything from digestion to depression―and how building gravity resilience can help us find balance, stand stronger, and live longer. View on Amazon
Born: A History of Childbirth
By Lucy Inglis
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A groundbreaking history of childbirth filled with medical, political, and social triumphs, Born is the story of how we give birth set against the female struggle to govern their ability to reproduce. View on Amazon
Less Is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm
By Christine Platt
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A practical guide to move beyond decluttering your space and, instead, declutter your life. View on Amazon
Flash Teams: Leading the Future of AI-Enhanced, On-Demand Work
By Melissa Valentine & Michael Bernstein
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A dramatic new future of work in which managers assemble exactly the expertise they need—within minutes. View on Amazon
Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius
By Jon Levy
Publication Date: October 7, 2025
A behavioral scientist debunks the myths of what makes great leaders and effective teams, revealing the simple habits that help leaders unlock team intelligence. View on Amazon
The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025
By Dwarkesh Patel
Publication Date: October 8, 2025
An inside view of the AI revolution, from the people and companies making it happen. View on Amazon
Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection
By Ben Rein
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
A neuroscientist’s guide to boosting your brain health by living a more connected life, and thriving in a post-interaction world. View on Amazon
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation
By Andrew Ross Sorkin
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
1929 unravels the greed, blind optimism, and human folly that led to an era-defining collapse—one with ripple effects that still shape our society today. View on Amazon
The Life Machines: How Taking Care of Your Mitochondria Can Transform Your Health
By Daria Mochly-Rosen & Emanuel Rosen
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
Improve your lifelong health and well-being by understanding what mitochondria really do for you, and how through small lifestyle changes, these awe-inspiring powerhouses can better your life. View on Amazon
Safe Danger: An Unexpected Method for Sparking Connection, Finding Purpose, and Inspiring Innovation
By Ben Swire
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
Former Design Lead at the iconic innovation firm IDEO teaches how to use small, creative risks to build trust, inspire connection, and supercharge employee engagement. View on Amazon
The Fear Knot: How Science, History, and Culture Shape Our Fears – and How to Get Unstuck
By Ruth DeFoster & Natashia Swalve
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
Psychologist Natashia Swalve and journalism professor Ruth DeFoster lead readers through the history and psychology behind our most visible and sensational cultural fears, beginning with the most personal―fear within our bodies―and moving outward to the home, our country, and finally to our broadest society-level fears. View on Amazon
Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want
By Judd Kessler
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
Wharton economist and market designer Judd Kessler pulls back the curtain on hidden markets that determine who gets what in everyday life—and how to tip the scales in our favor. View on Amazon
The Hypocrisy Trap: How Changing What We Criticize Can Improve Our Lives
By Michael Hallsworth
Publication Date: October 14, 2025
How our desire to stamp out hypocrisy is backfiring—and how learning to target our criticisms better can improve our politics, business, and personal relationships. View on Amazon
The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines
By Gaurav Suri & Jay McClelland
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
An eye-opening journey into the inner workings of human and artificial minds. View on Amazon
Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat.
By Ryan Holiday
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
In this much-anticipated final installment in the Stoic Virtues series, Ryan Holiday makes the case for the virtue on which all other virtues depend. View on Amazon
Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship
By Bruce Schneier & Nathan Sanders
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
An informative and wide-ranging exploration of how AI will alter every facet of democracy, and how to harness the technology to distribute rather than concentrate power. View on Amazon
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
By Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon & Aaron Naparstek
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
A searing indictment of how cars ruin everything—and what we can do to fight back. View on Amazon
Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone
By John Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
Two leading economists reveal why today’s personal finance markets are rigged against us and offer practical steps to fix them. View on Amazon
The Winner’s Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now
By Richard Thaler & Alex Imas
Publication Date: October 21, 2025
Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler and rising star economist Alex Imas explore behavioral economics in this fully updated edition of the seminal work The Winner’s Curse. View on Amazon
Portals to a New Reality: Five Pathways to the Future of Physics
By Vlatko Vedral
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
Why five revolutionary experiments in quantum physics promise to open the gates separating us from a true understanding of the universe. View on Amazon
The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports
By Nicholas Thompson
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
A profound meditation on what running can teach us about our limits and our lives by a record-setting distance runner who is now the CEO of The Atlantic. View on Amazon
The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last
By Jimmy Wales
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
A sweeping reflection on the global crisis of credibility and knowledge, revealing “the rules of trust” that transformed Wikipedia from a scrappy experiment into a global utility used by billions of people—and how those rules can help others build things that last. View on Amazon
Safe: An Attachment-Informed Guide to Building More Secure Relationships
By Jessica Baum
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
A guide to fostering more security, intimacy, and peace in our relationships, and in ourselves. View on Amazon
Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder
By Michael McFaul
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
From former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul comes a bold, clear-eyed look at how the autocracies of China and Russia are challenging the current global order, and how America’s future depends on successfully confronting this threat. View on Amazon
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