Book · recommended on 3 episodes
Life and Fate
Vasily Grossman
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Vasily Grossman
Find it on AmazonAffiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
This book by Vasily Grossman has come up 3 times on Lex Fridman. 3 of those mentions were genuine on-air recommendations, not just passing references. The people who brought it up: Dan Houser, Douglas Murray, guest. The earliest mention we indexed is from 2022-06-21 and the most recent from 2025-10-31. Every occurrence below links to the episode page and to the exact second it was said on YouTube.
“the most complete one, because it is this all of life being there, probably is Life and Fate, which is amazing.”— Dan Houser
The guest here is Dan Houser: Legendary video game creator, co-founder of Rockstar Games, and lead writer behind the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series. He has since founded a new company, Absurdventures, building new worlds across books, comics, audio, and games. Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser on creating GTA and Red Dead Redemption, the craft of storytelling in games, and his new studio Absurdventures.
“one of my great heroes Vasley Gman says at the center of life and fate almost everything that is worth saying about anti-semitism”— Douglas Murray
The guest here is Douglas Murray: British author and journalist who has reported firsthand from the front lines in Ukraine and Israel. He wrote The War on the West, The Madness of Crowds, and the new book On Democracies and Death Cults. Douglas Murray defends strong views on Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza, arguing against propaganda, appeasement of aggressors, and the resurgence of antisemitism.
“vastly grossman's life and fate so in the middle of life and fate um which a persian friend of mine said was one of only two great novels of the 20th century”— guest
The guest here is Douglas Murray: British author and commentator known for The Madness of Crowds, The War on the West, and The Strange Death of Europe. A controversial conservative thinker who critiques what he sees as cultural Marxism and the deconstruction of Western history. Douglas Murray argues Western civilization faces a one-sided cultural assault rooted in resentment, with gratitude as the antidote.
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