Recommended Reading: 2025 Book List

December 19, 2025
Explore Other Articles
Image

By Dana Penrice

Annually, we publish a reading list that reflects books, podcasts, films, and other resources recommended by Human Venture Associates over the past year. These resources emerged from our ongoing study of the Human Learning Ecology, a discipline concerned with how humans learn, adapt, and make meaning in complex and changing conditions. The selections span a broad range of fields that can be drawn upon to further understand the existential threats facing the human species and the capacities required for course correction, and the flourishing of humanity. Taken together, these works offer multiple entry points, from personal narratives to structural analysis, into understanding how communities and societies respond to opportunities and threats. These resources help us assess what is happening in our world, what we think should be done, and how we might prepare ourselves to effectively respond. 

The process of curating these books is a collective effort to identify areas of progress and friction in human and social development. It is a snapshot of significant cultural capacity development or lack thereof. This list is not simply a collection of recommendations, but a reflection of what we believe is worth noticing, understanding, and warrants continued inquiry.

How to use this list:

Readers are encouraged to follow their curiosity, explore challenging ideas, and use these books as trailheads rather than conclusions. This list is not definitive. It represents ongoing inquiry and explorations, and is offered as an invitation into shared learning. We welcome recommendations from our community at any time, email info@humanventure.com.

Thoughtscape Fallibility & Limits
  • “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” edited by Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky; Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Breakdown Path - Current Civilization
  • “Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update” by Donella H. Meadows et al.; Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004.
Breakdown - Society & Culture

  • “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson; Currency, 2013.

  • “End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration” by Peter Turchin; Penguin Press, 2023.

  • “The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy from Within” by Erica Frantz; Oxford University Press, 2024.

  • “Nature, Culture, and Inequality: A Comparative and Historical Perspective” by Thomas Piketty; Other Press, 2024.

  • “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World” by Anne Applebaum; Doubleday, 2024.

  • A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy by Ann Benjamin; PBS, 2024.

Disaster Planning Prevention Mitigation & Recovery
  • “The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters” by Juliette Kayyem; PublicAffairs, 2022.
Adaptive Positioning Capacities - Ethics

  • “On Freedom” by Timothy Snyder; Crown, 2024.

  • “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls; Belknap Press, 1999 (revised edition).

  • “Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference” by Rutger Bregman; Little, Brown and Company, 2025.

  • “Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation” by Jonathan Lear; Harvard University Press, 2008.

Responsibility & Horizons of Caring
Strategy: Strategic Planning & Thinking General
  • “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds” by Adrienne Maree Brown; AK Press, 2017.
Systems Thinking & Modelling
  • “Redesigning Value: A Practical Manifesto for Designers and Organizations” by David Dunne; Rotman-UTP Publishing, 2025.
Technology & Adaptive Learning
Technology & Economic Development

  • “Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us” by Gary F. Marcus; MIT Press, 2024.

Digital & Knowledge Revolution
Institutional Systems

  • “Abundance: How We Build a Better Future” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson; Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2025.

  • “Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service” edited by Michael Lewis; Riverhead Books, 2025.

Climate Change
  • “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet” by Kate Marvel; Ecco, 2025.
Experiencing Nature

  • “The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief” by Francis Weller; North Atlantic Books, 2015.

  • Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall by Ivan Dudynsky and Brad Falchuk; Netflix, 2025

Human Venture Path Development
  • “The Book. The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding a Civilization” by Hungry Minds; Bad Idea Company, 2022.
Education, Training & Development

  • “Human Nature and Conduct” by John Dewey; Dover Publications, 2011.

Health & Justice

  • “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot; Broadway Books, 2011.

Media Informationscape & Thoughtscape Battleground
Songlines - Traditional Wisdom

  • “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” by Tyson Yunkaporta; HarperOne, 2021.

Development of Economics - History Ideology

  • “In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work” by Kyla Scanlon; Crown Currency, 2024.

Economics Empire & Exploitation
  • “Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace” by Matthew C. Klein; Yale University Press, 2020.

  • “Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare” by Edward Fishman; Portfolio, 2025.
Corporations & Power

  • “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” by Sarah Wynn-Williams; Macmillan Audio, 2025.

Canada’s Essential Story
  • “Elbows Up!: Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance” by Various Authors; McClelland & Stewart, 2025.
Politics and Government - Germany
Political Leaders
  • “A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir” by Jacinda Ardern; Crown, 2025.
Technology & Imperialism
  • “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI” by Karen Hao; Penguin Press, 2025.
Geopolitics & Empire - Israel-Palestine

  • “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad; Knopf, 2025.

  • “Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal” by Mohammed El-Kurd; Haymarket Books, 2025.

  • “On Palestine” by Noam Chomsky; Haymarket Books, 2015.

Resistance

  • “Resistance: Memoirs of Occupied France” by Agnes Humbert (translated by Barbara Mellor); Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009.

  • “Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship” by Ken McGoogan; Douglas & McIntyre, 2024.

Genocide - Americas

  • “The Knowing” by Tanya Talaga; HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.

  • “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America” by Kathleen DuVal; Random House, 2024.

    Share: