Old School with Shilo Brooks

Fewer of us than ever are reading books for pleasure. Shilo Brooks is on a mission to change that. Old School is a new podcast from The Free Press about great books and how reading them can make us stronger, better men. The show features intimate conversations with fascinating men—from fitness gurus to philosophers—about the books that shaped their lives. New episodes out every Thursday. Read with us: https://bookshop.org/lists/old-school-with-shilo-brooks

Episodes

How Thomas Sowell Transformed Coleman Hughes

November 5, 2025 • 60 mins

Why do we believe what we believe? And how do those beliefs shape our politics? Thomas Sowell, one of the world’s most influential economists and social philosophers, set out to answer this question in his 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions. In it, he traces the underlying logic behind all modern political divides—why it is that knowing someone’s position on one issue, say gun control, makes it easy to predict their position on a t...

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Nick Cave on ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’

October 30, 2025 • 57 mins

Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio is a dark, dazzling Italian fable that is worlds apart from Disney’s sanitized version. Beneath its fantasticism and humor, the story is brimming with poverty, violence, and existential peril. In this episode, Australian rock legend Nick Cave joins Shilo Brooks to talk about one of the best-selling and most widely translated books ever written. Together, they explore how transgression...

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Why We Still Need Plato

October 23, 2025 • 54 mins

What is justice? And why should we live justly? These questions lie at the heart of Plato’s Republic, the foundational text of Western philosophy. In building his utopian city, Plato reveals how the quest for perfect justice can slip into tyranny. Yet his call for relentless self-examination—for resisting nihilism and seeking meaning—remains a starting point for us all. In this episode, Dr. Cornel West joins Shilo Brooks to discus...

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What Steven Pinker Taught this Pro Bodybuilder about Genetics

October 16, 2025 • 67 mins

Dr. Mike Israetel is a bodybuilder and scientist who believes reading is as important as a gym session. Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate changed his life. In this episode, Israetel joins Shilo Brooks to discuss how this explosive book on genetics, human nature, and the myth of infinite potential turned his own outlook (and coaching style) upside down, inspiring humility, killing illusions, and sharpening his science-first approach t...

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MeatEater’s Steven Rinella on Lessons from the Wilderness

October 9, 2025 • 68 mins

Few people have turned a love of the wild into a cultural force quite like Steve Rinella, the outdoorsman and author behind the MeatEater empire. Jim Harrison’s Wolf, published in 1971, changed Rinella’s life. In this episode, Rinella sits down with Shilo Brooks to discuss this stream-of-consciousness novel replete with chaos and male angst. He reflects on growing up in rural Michigan and seeing himself in Harrison’s protagonist—a ...

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The Old Man and the Sea with Admiral James Stavridis

October 9, 2025 • 59 mins

Admiral James Stavridis once commanded fleets as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Now he commands a collection of 5,000 rare books. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea changed Stavridis’ life. In this episode, the admiral sits down with Shilo Brooks to discuss the themes of hardship, pride, and resilience that appear in Santiago’s epic struggle at sea. Stavridis, who stuck out in the military for his love of books, and stuc...

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Introducing: Old School with Shilo Brooks

September 22, 2025 • 57 secs

Fewer of us than ever are reading books for pleasure. Shilo Brooks is on a mission to change that. Old School is a new podcast from The Free Press about great books and how reading them can make us stronger, better men. The show features intimate conversations with fascinating men—from fitness gurus to philosophers—about the books that shaped their lives. Coming October 9th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

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