Summer Reading and Still Perplexed About AI?

For this year’s summer reading recommendations, host Lee Rawles shares three recommended reads, three books on her to-be-read pile, and three TV shows she’s enjoyed. The recommended reads are all fiction this time around, ranging from a spooky contemporary, to a historical novel about the Black Death, to a frothy sweet romance novel. Her to-be-read pile includes a Danish book about time loops, a history of the world in 12 shipwrecks, and a romantic fantasy book with the tag line: “Two heroes. One brain cell.”

After her pop culture picks, this episode includes a re-airing of a May 2025 interview with Richard Susskind about his book How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed. There have been so many developments in the AI landscape in the year since it first aired that it’s worth listening back to Susskind’s predictions and warnings to see what’s already come true and what has changed.

Recommended Reads:

• The Children, by Melissa Albert
• The Last Hours and The Turn of Midnight, by Minette Walters
• The MASH Up, by Laura Marie Meyers

To Be Read:

• On the Calculation of Volume I, by Solvej Balle
• A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, by David Gibbons
• Bromantasy, by Maire Roche

Recommended Watches:

• Star City, on Apple TV
• Silo, on Apple TV
• The Other Bennett Sister, on Britbox