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
446- Flag Days: Good Luck, True South
445- The Clinch
444- Pipe Dreams
443- Matters of Time
442- Tanz Tanz Revolution
441- Abandoned Ships
308- Curb Cuts (Repeat)
440- La Brega in Levittown
439- Welcome to Jurassic Art Redux
438- The Real Book
437- Science Vs Snakes
436- Oops, Our Bad
435- The Megaplex!
434- Artistic License
433- Florence Nightingale: Data Viz Pioneer
432- The Batman and the Bridge Builder
431- 12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness
Judas and the Black Messiah, Episode 1: The Chairman
430- The Doom Boom
Judas and the Black Messiah Trailer from 99% Invisible and Proximity Media
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