What makes a thriller truly unputdownable? Which novels have a sense of place that feels like its own character? What are your favourite darker reads for winter nights. We answer these questions and more on our latest episode of Ask Penguin. 

We’re joined by best-selling author, Paula Hawkins, who discusses art, love and remote islands in her latest thriller, The Blue Hour, as well as answering your latest questions with plenty of book recommendations to help you find your next read.

Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller The Girl on the Train became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies. Published in over fifty languages, it was a No.1 bestseller around the world and a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt.

Paula's subsequent thrillers have all been instant Sunday Times bestsellers. In 2021 A Slow Fire Burning was nominated for Thriller of the Year at the British Book Awards, and in 2025 The Blue Hour was voted the Good Housekeeping Good Books winner.

What makes a setting feel so vivid it becomes a character? With Paula Hawkins

The White House is portraying the race to adopt AI as an existential crisis. It’s the next Manhattan Project, they say, a technology so important it will require an unprecedented build out of energy infrastructure and massive data centers. But the Manhattan Project was a government-led technological drive whereas AI is led by salesmen and corporations.What could possibly go wrong? On this episode of Angry Planet, Ben Buchanan is here to tell us about the government’s role in fostering AI. Buchanan was an AI advisor during the Biden administration where he helped write the policy that paved the way for private-public partnerships between DC and AI companies. Now he’s a professor at John Hopkins and, though he’s still an AI advocate, he’s got concerns. Slop, public land use, and autonomous weapons. We get into it all on this episode of Angry Planet. <ul><li>AI as an arm’s race</li><li>Nukes are cheaper than AI</li><li>Government’s role in the construction of AI infrastructure</li><li>What are the stakes of the AI competition between the United States and China?</li><li>“More powerful AI systems will enable more powerful cyber operations.”</li><li>“It’s the hardest thing we do as a species.”</li><li>Turning over federal lands to data centers</li><li>How Trump is shooting himself in the foot regarding AI</li><li>“We’re just chasing power all across the country.”</li><li>“We’re going to be building data centers for a very long time.”</li><li>How the AI expert uses AI</li><li>“There’s a long list of concerns.”</li><li>Accident reports and autonomous weapons</li></ul> <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/artificial-intelligence-grand-bargain-buchanan-collins" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The AI Grand Bargain</a> <a href="https://sais.jhu.edu/users/bbuchan8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ben Buchanan</a> <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-identifies-16-federal-sites-across-country-data-center-and-ai-infrastructure" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DOE on federal lands for data centers</a> <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-has-a-plan-to-keep-its-ai-from-building-a-nuclear-weapon-will-it-work/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Anthropic Has a Plan to Keep Its AI From Building a Nuclear Weapon. Will It Work?</a> <a href="https://www.esd.whs.mil/portals/54/documents/dd/issuances/dodd/300009p.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DoD Direction 3000.09 Autonomy in Weapons Systems</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>.<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

The US Government’s AI Grand Bargain

In this episode, meet journalist Marion Winik, botanist and biochemist Diana Beresford-Kroeger, and endocrinologist Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen. Tune in to hear Marion Winik talk about why recording her audiobook was both thrilling and a dream come true, Diana Beresford-Kroeger on the poetry of the Irish Gaelic language, and Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen on how her patients' stories inspired her book.

First Comes Love by Marion Winik
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/192274/first-comes-love-by-marion-winik/9798217290604/

The Global Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305528/the-global-forest-by-diana-beresford-kroeger/9798217296057/

Weightless by Rocio Salas-Whalen, MD
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/806992/weightless-by-rocio-salas-whalen-md/9798217280285/

S10 E48: Marion Winik, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, and Rocio Salas-Whalen, MD

What were our favourite books of the year and what are we most excited to read in 2026? Join the team behind the Ask Penguin podcast to look back at standout titles, memorable podcast moments, and the reading intentions we’re taking into the New Year.



What were the best books of 2025?

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A NEW YORK TIMES "BEST THRILLER" and "BEST CRIME NOVEL" OF THE YEAR

PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR

ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE”

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S “100 MUST-READ BOOKS”

“Extraordinary . . . Reminds me of Donna Tartt’s 1992 debut, The Secret History . . . I was so thoroughly submerged in a rich fictional world, that for hours I barely came up for air.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR

“This expertly paced thriller …has the kineticism of a well-crafted miniseries.” —The New Yorker

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.


Listen to an excerpt from THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore, read by Saskia Maarleveld

Another week and another Angry Planet about the horrifying systems that rule our lives. Is there a depressive theme running through the work right now? Possibly. I promise we’ll soon replace it with rage. This week on the show we have Sven Beckert to talk about his new book Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard and his tome is an attempt to capture the entire history of an economic system in one book. It’s a doorstop, but it’s also readable and clear-eyed. Some come with me on a journey that runs through the plantations of South Carolina to the tech markets of Shenzhen. <ul><li>Cotton as an entry point to the history of capitalism</li><li>The economic big bang</li><li>Industrial Revolution as mutation</li><li>“It’s still being born.”</li><li>Human data is oil to be fracked</li><li>The Quaker Oats metaphor</li><li>“The market is God.”</li><li>Ascribing morality to economics</li><li>When Gary Hart ushered in Neoliberalism</li><li>“Capitalism is a series of regime changes.”</li><li>Moments of great change offer opportunities</li></ul> <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/capitalism-a-global-history-sven-beckert/a8c65a49e75babdf?ean=9780735220836&amp;next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Capitalism: A Global History</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/opinion/davos-neoliberalism-trump-tariffs.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate.</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>.<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

‘Capitalism Is a Series of Regime Changes’

Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has written about what he saw for The New Republic and he’s on the show today to talk about it. <ul><li>Some light smoking banter</li><li>Ben’s timeline</li><li>Google’s CEO dancing in a bar in Kyiv</li><li>Ukraine as laboratory for war tech</li><li>The JSOC era is over</li><li>In defense of the majestic American turkey</li><li>The great America vs China speculation</li><li>War, cheaper</li><li>On the actual frontline</li><li>Wheat fields of fiber optic line</li><li>The buzz of the drone</li><li>Life in the bloodlands</li><li>The human suffering of living in Ukraine</li><li>FPV-made propaganda</li><li>“Never underestimate human innovation when it comes to killing other humans.”</li><li>What’s Erik Prince doing in Ukraine?</li></ul> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/08/opinion/us-china-taiwan-military.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times on Military Reform</a> <a href="https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-medieval-and-highly-effective-tactics-of-the-ukrainian-protests-a292fc7a40c2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Medieval—and Highly Effective—Tactics of the Ukrainian Protests</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/who-is-st-javelin-and-why-is-she-a-symbol-of-the-war-in-ukraine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Who Is St. Javelin and Why Is She a Symbol of the War in Ukraine?</a> <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/cope-cages-on-busted-tanks-are-a-symbol-of-russias-military-failures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">‘Cope Cages’ on Busted Tanks Are a Symbol of Russia’s Military Failures</a> <a href="https://www.404media.co/unauthorized-edit-to-ukraines-frontline-maps-point-to-polymarkets-war-betting/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">‘Unauthorized’ Edit to Ukraine’s Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket’s War Betting</a>Support this show <a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege">http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege</a>.<hr> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Google’s Former CEO Is Dancing in Ukraine

Clare MackIntosh, author of LET ME LIE, joins Amy to talk about detective-work, post-it notes, and mental health. 

Learn about the book here: https://bit.ly/2GFiuTL

#187: Clare Mackintosh

On Beaks & Geeks, we have candid conversations with authors. We seek to learn more about the people behind great books.

#187: Clare Mackintosh

Beaks & Geeks

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