Episode 500 – The quincentenary celebration

Episode 500 - The quincentenary episode

‘Books are made by humans, for humans, in conversation with other humans, and they are still the best vehicle we have for sustained thought.’ It’s episode 500 of The Extraordinary Business Book Club. (I KNOW!!!) To mark the milestone, I handed the mic over to YOU, the listeners, to reflect…

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Episode 486 – Going All In at the London Book Fair

Episode 486 - Going All In at the London Book Fair

‘If you’re into it, read into it.’ Fresh (sic) from the London Book Fair, this week’s episode brings together perspectives from across the industry on the National Year of Reading campaign. Does reading even still matter? [Spoiler alert: it matters more than ever!] And how can we – as an…

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Episode 460 – Shaking things up

Episode 460 - Shaking things up

People who write business books – at least, business books worth reading – tend to think a little differently. This ‘Best Bits’ episode features a formidable line-up of disruptors, each of whom brings a very personal toolkit for unsettling the status quo, in work and in life. Challenging the system…

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Episode 433 – Writing for Busy Readers with Todd Rogers

Episode 433 - Writing for Busy Readers with Todd Rogers

‘The TL;DR, the too-long-didn’t-read of the whole thing, is that everybody’s skimming. So we need to write in a way that makes it easy for skimmers if we want to achieve our goals as writers.’ Todd Rogers has been using behavioural science for good for many years, from strengthening democracy…

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Episode 375 – Semiotics & structure with Rachel Lawes

Episode 375 - Semiotics & structure with Rachel Lawes

‘I’m not going to live to be 10,000 years old, so I’d rather just write material that someone’s actually going to use. So top-down writing works for me because it’s a very economical way to write.” Dr Rachel Lawes is the world’s leading expert in semiotics and its application in…

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Episode 299 – A Twixtmas meditation

Episode 299 - A Twixtmas meditation

‘We’re designed as cyclical creatures, from the most basic microcycle of breathing in and out to the annual cycle of the seasons, and if the New Year to come is our time for resolutions and purposeful action, the days before it, these Twixtmas days, are a time for gathering our…

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Episode 280 – The Best Bits: The joy of business books

Episode 280 - The Best Bits: The joy of business books

We talk a lot on this show about the grind of writing business books, and indeed of business in general, but there’s a lot of joy to be found in the process too. This Best Bits episode celebrates all those moments, from the creative peace of the early morning start…

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Episode 279 – Wot the Book! with Leanne Hamley

Episode 279 - Wot the Book! with Leanne Hamley

‘We wanted to explore how books, which seem to be a real missing link in the corporate world, could be brought in and really used to enhance people’s development… If I could step away from everything and invest in myself, what does that look like?’ If there’s one experience common…

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Episode 243 – Bookshop.org with Jasper Sutcliffe

Episode 243 - Bookshop.org with Jasper Sutcliffe

‘A town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.’ – Neil Gaiman, American Gods For most booklovers, bookshops – especially independent bookshops, that care about their books and their readers, stock just…

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Episode 242 – Making the world shut up with Uri Bram

‘With a book you’re not just paying for the pages you read, you’re paying for someone to make the rest of the world shut up for a minute while you can concentrate.’ Uri Bram knows a thing or two about the value of content and attention. He curates the internet,…

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