"Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard and astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan explore the connections between science and Buddhist philosophy. Taking a scientific and secular approach, the authors explain the Buddhist theory of emptiness: the concept that all beings and events are relational and interconnected and therefore have no separate, absolute reality in space and time. I keep this book on my desk and go back to it often for clarity and inspiration."

"Run, Ronnie, Run! From the creators of Mr. Show — David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. It’s another movie full of one-liners. It’s a little more adult than Juno, but to me it’s kind of a mix of Rock Star, Juno, and Totally Awesome. It’s kind of just dumb, funny humor, also kind of a mockumentary about reality shows. Pretty much half of my daily vocabulary is from that movie."

"The rarest of books about the experience of a science writer uncovering and investigating a cell line that changed the world, all while being thrown into a transformative journey of discovering race and racism in America, the culture of African Americans in the USA, and the painful reality of loss and family. A truly remarkable read—and I failed at science. Fascinating and phenomenal, heartbreaking and utterly compelling."

"The Maysles are masters. Their philosophy of Direct Cinema is proved in these films. Life is as interesting as fiction. This is not reality TV; it is observational documentation in the purest sense. It is not manipulated; the only filter is the obvious love the filmmakers have for their subjects. Salesman is as deep as Death of a Salesman or The Iceman Cometh, and Gimme Shelter is like Greek tragedy."

"The Maysles are masters. Their philosophy of Direct Cinema is proved in these films. Life is as interesting as fiction. This is not reality TV; it is observational documentation in the purest sense. It is not manipulated; the only filter is the obvious love the filmmakers have for their subjects. Salesman is as deep as Death of a Salesman or The Iceman Cometh, and Gimme Shelter is like Greek tragedy."

"Kiarostami’s world-beating mystery is less about method and meta than the filmmaker usually prefers, but the immediacy of its peril and intimacy of its reality are pure soul glue. Such is the film’s veracity that I didn’t see the three-part schematic construction of it until I’d seen it four times, by which point it ceased to make a difference. The ending, for simply being itself without apologies, is peerless."