Today's episode features #1 Robert Caro superfan, Conan O'Brien.
The Power Broker by Robert Caro is a biography of Robert Moses, who is said to have built more structures and moved more earth than anyone in human history. And he did it without ever holding elected office. Outside of New York City, Robert Moses wasn't exceptionally well known. Inside of New York, he was mostly accepted by the media as simply the man who built all those nice parks. But The Power Broker, which is subtitled Robert Moses and The Fall of New York, changed all that. It is a tour de force of journalism, history, and biography. Roman also argues it's really fun to read and is strongly in contention for the best book ever written.
But there is something of a catch, which can hang readers up: the book is a daunting 1200 pages long. As influential and amazing as this bestseller is, many people own an unopened copy gathering dust on their bookshelf. But that is a crime because this book needs to be read or at least discussed at length on a podcast.
Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan (Flop House, Daily Show) are starting The Power Broker book club that will run through all of 2024 as bonus episodes and in this introductory episode, Conan O'Brien joins us to talk all things Robert Caro.
Breaking Down The Power Broker
465- Shirley Cards
464- Finding Julia Morgan
463- Fifty-Four Forty or Fight
462- I Can't Believe It's Pink Margarine
461- Changing Stripes
323- The House that Came in the Mail Again
460- Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse
459- Yankee Pyramids
458- Real Fake Bridges
457- Model Organism
456- Full Spectrum
455- A Field Guide to Water
454- War, Famine, Pestilence, and Design
453- The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food
452- The Lows of High Tech
451- Hanko
450- Stuff the British Stole
449- Mine!
448- Katie Mingle's Right to Roam
447- Flag Days: The Red, the Black & the Green
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