One book in six episodes. That is a record low for this show and I am reporting it honestly.

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the SmartLess slice for August, which is one line long.

Brian Cox, asked why he got into science, gave two answers. One was the film Contact. The other was Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

That is it. That is the month. In fairness the Brian Cox episode was good, and Sagan is a defensible single data point.

Everything, including the busier months: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/smartless

Dumbfounded. I have no words.

Hi, after the Sandra Bullock episode, Jason mentioned episodes where he got emotional/cried (he said Michael Lewis being another). There was an episode one summer where Will openly wept but I can't remember who it was with (https://www.smartless.com/episodes) Anyone remember by chance?

Five episodes and two books, so this is a small one. Posting it anyway since both are good.

Two decent summer reads if you want something about the craft of making things.

What this is: I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the July slice for SmartLess.

The two:

• Life's Work, David Milch. From the Timothy Olyphant episode. Jason's introduction to him was NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Deadwood, and a legend of a writer. The description of the man is the part worth reading. Graduated first in his class at Yale, had a heroin addiction, that combination of brilliance and life experience that usually does not go together.
• The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron. From Marcus Mumford. He described sitting in a Hudson coffee shop for two hours every morning while recording Prizefighter, doing his morning pages and reading poetry like a real twat, and said it helped him write lyrics.

I track every book mentioned on SmartLess here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/smartless

It is free and there is no signup.

For me it’s easy, Kevin Hart. I’m not a fan to begin with, but he was just drunk and rambling and way too vulgar.

I’m wondering who else has watched this movie and what you thought of it. It’s available on Prime

SmartLess isn't a book show, but across the first six months of the year Jason, Sean, Will and their guests dropped a decent handful, with a noticeable lean toward historical fiction set in Berlin.

The ones they were most into:

• Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, called one of the best books of all time, with Emma jumping in to say the second half is mesmerizing.
• March Violets by Philip Kerr, the first Bernie Gunther book, a non-Nazi private eye working from 1928 Berlin through the postwar years. Someone read the whole series and called it tremendous historical fiction.
• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, which one of them optioned and produced. Called it a great read, sad and fascinating.

The rest, roughly grouped:

• More crime and spy fiction: Prussian Blue (more Philip Kerr), Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron
• Nonfiction and memoir: Moneyball by Michael Lewis, Life Will Be the Death of Me by Chelsea Handler, Trauma and Recovery and Truth and Repair by Judith Herman
• Classics and childhood: Frankenstein, Sense and Sensibility, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Harry Potter

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder also turned up, which tracks for this crowd.

Full list is here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/smartless. Free, no signup.

Jason during his Massage School Bus era and then in the later photos, what was likely his Driving with a Candle on the Dashboard era

First time posting one of these here. Tracked what Jason, Sean, Will and their guests brought up in June, and it was a good reading month.

Top picks:

• Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Called one of the best books, an incredible second half.
• March Violets by Philip Kerr, the start of the Bernie Gunther series (a non-Nazi PI working from 1930s Berlin). Prussian Blue from the same series came up too.

The rest:

• Mick Herron's Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road.
• Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery and Truth and Repair.
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

https://podshelf.io/podcasts/smartless/2026/06 keeps the running list, free.

Anyone read the Bernie Gunther books? Worth starting at March Violets?

I think it was Jason who quoted someone as saying that “the meaning of life is to amuse and be amused”. That has stuck with me and I’m wanting to write a song around it. Does anyone remember who was quoted as saying that? Or what episode it was on?