Welcome to a special episode of Startup Dad! It’s the holiday time again when the list of responsibilities, performances, potlucks and gifts goes through the roof for already busy parents. To help you navigate the chaos I’ve asked many of my past guests to share with me their favorite books from the past year – those they’d gift to another person and those they’d tell parents to get for their kids. I’ve also highlighted parent’s favorite meals to make with and for their kids.
I'm joined by Alex Cohen, Andrew Capland, Brian Balfour, Adam Nash, Adam Grenier, Will Rocklin, Rob Schutz, Casey Handmer, Tye DeGrange, Josh Herzig-Marx, Carla Naumburg, and Michael Perry.
In this episode we discuss:
- Top book recommendations from 2024 for adults
- Their top book recommendations for kids of all ages
- A favorite recipe to make with your kids
Where to find Adam Fishman
- Newsletter: FishmanAFNewsletter.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/
- X: https://twitter.com/fishmanaf
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/
Timestamps:
[00:41] Favorite book to gift this holiday season?
[14:27] Favorite book that you’d recommend to another parent for their kids?
[28:52] What recipe do you like to get your kids involved in at the holiday time?
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Show References
A full list of ALL references in this show can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17eDnhGaRWvCqBl0RmM746Je7Ovpt7qL-14TNzQS4DUg/edit?tab=t.0
Nick Soman’s Episode: https://startupdadpod.substack.com/p/building-a-company-and-family-nick-soman-decent
Founding Sales, The Founder Led Sales & Early Stage Go-to-Market Handbook by Pete Kazanjy: https://www.foundingsales.com/
Decent: https://www.decent.com/
Casey Handmer’s Episode: https://startupdadpod.substack.com/p/astrophysics-saving-the-planet-and-three-kids
Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
by Charles T. Munger: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/poor-charlies-almanack-charles-t-munger/1142619102
Eric Bahn’s Episode: https://startupdadpod.substack.com/p/integration-over-balance-and-hustling-with-kids
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-audiobook/dp/B01COR1GM2/
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/demon-copperhead-barbara-kingsolver/1140860121
Eric Mauskopf Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOkHqWbJI1c
Will Rocklin Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnPwKjSosyM
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-george-saunders/1137150630
Michael Perry’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP6JJhiFfK4
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/four-thousand-weeks-oliver-burkeman/1137427241
Tye DeGrange Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVs8FnMNIQI
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lonesome-dove-larry-mcmurtry/1001920809
Adam Nash’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaOCL5WSzhc
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
by Ashlee Vance: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-the-heavens-went-on-sale-ashlee-vance/1142161472
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX by Eric Berger: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liftoff-eric-berger/1137428010
Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age
by Eric Berger: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reentry-eric-berger/1144620800
Brian Balfour’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiQ_wAwfv5s
100% Unofficial AB to Jay-Z by Jessica Chiha: https://www.amazon.com/100-Unofficial-Jay-Z-Jessica-Chiha/dp/0648073912/
Andrew Capland’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-4ir53gZc
The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-big-leap-gay-hendricks/1102667522
Rob Schutz’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g611gCs4g0A
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ferryman-justin-cronin/1141941765
Carla Naumburg’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrzFhbeIVs
Case Histories (Jackson Brodie Series #1) by Kate Atkinson: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/case-histories-kate-atkinson/1100163888
Josh Herzig-Marx’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaE6ZmaOIQ
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway: https://www.amazon.com/Gnomon-Nick-Harkaway/dp/0525432930
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway: https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Away-World-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B001EL6R9W/
Adam Grenier’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoOXR_3dnLU
Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD Brain by Peter Shankman:https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/faster-than-normal-peter-shankman/1125456961
Alex Cohen’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOa9mS-CIuQ
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia: https://www.amazon.com/Outlive-Longevity-Peter-Attia-MD/dp/0593236599
Lloyed Lobo’s Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRuVbAHaUb0
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296
Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs by Reid Hoffman: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/masters-of-scale-reid-hoffman/1138865531
Penguin Problems by Jory John: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/penguin-problems-jory-john/1123199367Red Mars (Book #1) by Kim Stanley Robinson: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-mars-kim-stanley-robinson/1100623050
The Cat Kid Comic Club Collection: From the Creator of Dog Man (Cat Kid Comic Club #1-3 Boxed Set) by Dav Pilkey: https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Kid-Comic-Club-Collection/dp/1338864394/
Pig the Pug (Pig the Pug Series) by Aaron Blabey: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pig-the-pug-aaron-blabey/1123894006?
Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/du-iz-tak-carson-ellis/1123161884
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Full Color Edition by Dr. Seuss: https://www.amazon.com/How-Grinch-Stole-Christmas-Jacketed/dp/0593434382
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-polar-express-chris-van-allsburg/1100303321
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pout-pout-fish-deborah-diesen/1100935993
Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tickle-monster-josie-bissett/1009267028
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games Series #1) by Suzanne Collins: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hunger-games-suzanne-collins/1100171585
Teach Your Giraffe to Ski by Viviane Elbee: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/teach-your-giraffe-to-ski-viviane-elbee/1128007314
Little Blue Truck Makes a Friend: A Friendship Book for Kids by Alice Schertle: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-blue-truck-makes-a-friend-alice-schertle/1142263535
The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-with-no-pictures-b-j-novak/1118663264
How to Stop Freaking Out: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Cool When Life Feels Chaotic
by Carla Naumburg: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-stop-freaking-out-carla-naumburg/1145065982
Someday a Bird Will Poop on You: A Life Lesson by Sue Salvi: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/someday-a-bird-will-poop-on-you-sue-salvi/1128829321
The Spooky Wheels on the Bus: (A Holiday Wheels on the Bus Book) by J. Elizabeth Mills: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-spooky-wheels-on-the-bus-j-elizabeth-mills/1019165966
From Grassroots to Greatness: 13 Rules to Build Iconic Brands with Community Led Growth
by Lloyed Lobo: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from-grassroots-to-greatness-lloyed-lobo/1143861087
Ninja Life Hacks Mindsets 8 Book Box Set (Books 65-72: Accountable, Respectful, Flexible Thinking, Consent, Entrepreneur, Healthy, Negative, Adaptable) by Mary Nhin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637316976
Improvise. Scene from the Inside Out by Mick Napier: https://www.amazon.com/Improvise-Scene-Inside-Mick-Napier/dp/156608198X
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[00:00:00] Adam Fishman: Welcome to a special episode of Startup Dad. It's the holiday time again, when the list of responsibilities, performances, and gifts goes through the roof for already busy parents. To help you navigate the chaos, I've asked many of my past guests to share with me their favorite books from the past year, those that they'd gift to another person, and those they'd tell parents to get for their kids.
I've also highlighted parents favorite meals to make with. And for their families, my hope is that these spark a few gifting ideas, along with some new traditions that you can establish in your house.
What is your favorite book from this past year that you'd give someone as a gift this holiday season?
[00:00:48] Nick Soman: So this is actually an easy one. And I'm plugging my friend's book. Cause it's great. Not because he's my friend. He's actually kind of a pain in the butt. Pete Kazanji is my friend and he wrote a book called founding sales.
And I do love me some Pete, but. I have needed this book because I went into a founding sales motion for decent that has really helped us start to, to move. I think we've kind of just entered hyper growth for the first time. And I would actually give a ton of credit to reading this book. It's called founding sales.
It is written by a non sales person that decided he needed to understand how sales work. And now he's sharing his insights with people, extremely practical, extremely blunt, definitely the best book I've read this year.
[00:01:30] Casey Handmer: Just last night, I finished poor Charlie's almanac, which had been recommended to me many times.
It's be familiar to many of your listeners. I'm sure it did not disappoint. I thought it was really quite exquisite and many of the ideas were already familiar to me, but the way they were explained was extremely accessible. So I recommend it heartily.
[00:01:47] Eric Bahn: I have the perfect book recommendation for adults, but also especially for parents.
It's called Never Split the Difference. By Chris Voss. So Chris was a former FBI hostage negotiator. And this is a book about persuasion negotiation and things that are as high stakes as making sure that, you know, the terrorists lets the, the hijacked parties go, it's kind of the same as like talking to your kid about stopping to use their iPad.
So I, I love this books and I love the techniques.
[00:02:18] Eric Mauskopf: Yeah, one book that's really top of mind is called Demon Copperhead. It's by an author named Barbara Kingsolver. And it's something that is a retelling of Charles Dickens David Copperfield, but it's set in like contemporary rural Appalachia, which was interesting to me just from the standpoint of wanting to learn more about that area of the country.
built to understand the rest of the country better and like what's going on in politics. Yeah. And it's something that just gave me an appreciation for what our family has because this book delves into the opioid epidemic. Whoa. And so just had some interesting learnings for me, both on family structure, as well as that particular problem in our society.
[00:03:10] Will Rocklin: I would like to recommend this, George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. This book came out, I think a year or two ago, and it's really, really, really cool. Saunders is a wonderful writer. You get to read interspersed with his writing is a series of short stories from Russian masters. So like Chekhov and Tolstoy.
And if you're like, that sounds like a snooze fest, this is like really exciting. These are really amazing short stories. you get to tell people that you're reading Tolstoy, which is huge virtue signaling. And after the story, then you read Saunders analysis of what you just read. So it makes you a stronger reader.
If you are curious about writing, it will help you be a better writer. And it's really actually accessible. and enjoyable. So it's not a tome. It's not dense. It's actually really, really lovely. And the stories that you were reading are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful things. And then the analysis itself, also exciting and really engaging.
You know, I read a book earlier this year. I actually pulled it so people can visually see it. And that's okay. But, um, it's time management for mortals by Oliver Buckerman. I thought that this was an insanely good book. And I think it's like a great book to read. At the end of the year, the start of a new, because I think it gives so much perspective and focus on what matters and how to manage your time better.
So I read this in January through February of 2024, and I still think about it pretty often. So that would be the book of 2024 that I would recommend.
[00:04:49] Tye DeGrange: So I've been in Austin, Texas now for four years, trying to kind of, you know, bone up on my Texas knowledge, pop culture, history, you name it. I highly recommend Lonesome Dove.
It, I know it's a miniseries from the late eighties, people probably like associate with Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones. The book is so well written. It's long, but it's like the whole like spectrum of human emotion and life, death, love, the way he brings it to life is really fascinating. It's just a very well written book.
It won the Pulitzer prize for a reason. Been around for quite a while. It's well, probably 40 years old at this point. Highly recommend it. Just entertaining. And it's not just for cowboys and Texans. It's an entertaining book. It definitely, you know, not for the faint of heart a little bit, but. You know, it's a great book, highly recommend it.
[00:05:48] Adam Nash: This has been a good year for space books. There's a book by Ashley Vance that came out last year called When the Heavens Went on Sale. And it's a really nice book that runs through the ups and downs of four different startups in the space. That are building kind of next generation capabilities for going to space.
So if you do have someone in your family that likes technology or space, the final frontier, any of that, when the heavens went on sale, I've probably bought four or five versions of that book for, for people. And Eric Berger has a couple books to lift off in his new book re entry. Which are about kind of a lot of people saw the excitement of seeing Starship get caught, but that story actually doesn't start just a couple of years ago.
That story starts more than a decade ago and Eric does a fabulous job walking through it. So those would probably be the three books I would recommend this year.
[00:06:41] Brian Balfour: Well, first I'm going to cheat and answer with the book for both the parents and the kids. Whoa. But. Also, I would like to know about these parents out there that have both the time and the mental capacity to read a book.
Yeah. Because that is not my life right now as a parent. So. Yeah, good for you there. You'll get there for you. If you're out there The only books I read are the books of my kids that being said Adam. Are you a 90s hip hop fan? Of course Should we all be 90s hip hop fans? That's my answer to so the book my book recommendation it's called from a to jay z, which is Technically a kid's book, but it's an alphabet book that goes through ABCD, but for every letter of the alphabet You It's basically like a 90s hip hop artist, so like, S is like Snoop Dogg, right?
Yes. And so, this book, as I read it, of course, I'm, you know, bringing up lines from songs as I'm reading this to My kid highly recommend though, very hard to find because I don't believe it's in print anymore due to some IP issues, but I recommend it's a fun blast of the past as part of it. Sing a little Biggie, you know, as you read it, you know, a little, a little Snoop, a little Tupac.
Like it's, it's, it's a good one.
[00:08:08] Andrew Capland: In this past year, I read. The Big Leap. It's by Gay Hendrix. I don't know if you've read that book, but it's all about finding your zone of genius. Finding the intersection of things that you are uniquely skilled at, that you enjoy, that other people may pay you for. And the general idea is to stop doing things that you might be good at.
That you don't love, that you're not passionate about. So you can optimize your life for maximum fulfillment and financial gain. Uh, and it was very interesting for me to kind of reevaluate what I'm doing and maybe not doing in the solopreneur world. And that's one that I would recommend to everybody.
[00:08:42] Rob Schutz: I read a really great book this year that I have been recommending to folks.
It's called Ferryman by Justin Cronin. Justin Cronin's the author who wrote the trilogy called The Passage, which is kind of like a low key vampire trilogy, but it's kind of about the survivors. Anyways, Ferryman was awesome. It's a single book, which I love because you don't have to get involved with like, you know, a 10 part, you know, fiction series, but it's basically about It's like a dystopian group of survivors on this island that has a very privileged life.
But when they retire, they go to this area called the nursery to be reborn, and they have no memories of the past. Wow. Let's just say a lot of things happen. So, The Ferryman, high recommendation.
[00:09:28] Carla Naumburg: My book is awesome on many, many levels. So, this year I discovered the fabulous British writer Kate Atkinson, and she's written a number of fantastic standalone books, mostly, I believe, mysteries, and there's one that's really great with time travel, so there's like a lot of awesomeness there.
But I discovered her Jackson Brody series, which is about a private investigator from, I think he lives in London in the first one, and the book is phenomenal. It's got great character development, amazing plot, good twists, and it's got three extra bonus awesomenesses. That's not a word, it is now. One is that It's an older book so you can get it out of the library if that's your jam.
You don't have to like, wait forever to get your copy. The other is that the audiobook is fabulous. The narration is amazing. And the third bonus is it's the start of a series that she's still writing. So if you love it, You get to keep reading. So it's the Jackson Brody series by author Kate Atkinson is my recommendation for a fabulous escapist really fun British detective series.
[00:10:36] Josh Herzig-Marx: I've been reading a lot of Nick Harkaway and he is this British writer. He's kind of like Tom Robbins in that kind of bonker balls, wild, plot, social commentary sort of thing, but he's writing about these kind of very realistic, very possible near future situations. This year I read The Gnomon by him, which is a book that equates sharks with sundials.
So if that piques your interest and some kind of like eldritch You know, horror lurking in our primeval earth history. That's kind of awesome. And I think maybe my favorite one of his was the gone away world, which talks about what would happen if we develop some sort of weapon that allowed us to erase just chunks of the earth and what we would do with that as human beings.
They're crazy social commentary
[00:11:26] Adam Grenier: and I've been enjoying them a lot. The most meaningful book that I read this year, it's called faster than normal. Peter Shankman is the author, and it's specifically about focus on unleashing and leveraging the benefits of having ADHD. And so making it a superpower. And for me, that was something that I was diagnosed with in this last year, learning from my kid's diagnosis, like and hearing things and understanding things and being like, Oh man, that's my brain.
And. As any good ADHD person does is they go really deep on topics that they get interested in. And so I read maybe four or five different like books that were recommended. And most of them are like very much the, like kind of academically driven or like, here's what ADHD, here's maybe what your experience and things like that.
Peter's entire approach is, let me tell you how to be really, really successful, how to be a successful entrepreneur, how to be a successful executive. And then he's got a podcast as well. It's just like interviewing, like, People that are very successful in the world who have ADHD and like how they've tapped into that and things like that.
And so I would say like most of us have ADHD people in our life or have ADHD. And it's a book that like, he's even got like a writeup for spouses for he's like, I wish I I'd known. And I would have written this guide for my spouse when we originally met and things like that. And so I think it's. A great read.
He's a really good interviewer. He's a couple of times over entrepreneur. And so, yeah, it's a great book.
[00:12:52] Alex Cohen: It's the science and art of longevity outlet, the science and art of longevity by Peter. It's he, I just forgot the, the name's very lengthy, Peter. If you're listening short in the name, drop, drop the drop origin.
[00:13:05] Lloyed Lobo: For me, it's all about giving somebody a gift that enables them to create leverage with their time. Everyone has finite time. And so you should leverage that time to create exponential gain, not linear gain, right? And so if I give somebody a book, that book, the time they spend in that should give them the learnings that leads to exponential gain and not just linear gain.
And so from that perspective, I would give them three books. One is Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Phenomenal book. It's about entrepreneurship and how to think about it. The second is Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman. I also love that. And, and let me paraphrase this by saying I don't read that many books, so my bar is very high.
I love reading stories. And both these books are structured as stories. And the third thing is Outlive by Peter Adia, right? And, and the benefit of these three books is two of them will enable you to leverage your time to create exponential gain on the business side, and the other one will enable you to leverage your time to create exponential gain on the health and fitness side, and you need both, right?
Cause life in business is a marathon. It's not a sprint and longevity matters.
[00:14:25] Adam Fishman: What is your family's favorite book that you'd recommend to another parent for their kids?
[00:14:33] Nick Soman: Everyone should have this book called Penguin Problems that we've been reading. It was recommended to me by Decent Fractional CMO Rachel Kim.
She's a great CMO and an equally good parent. And I was talking about how my kids sometimes complain about Or lose perspective on things that are important because they're kids. And you could sit there and try to explain to them, don't do that. Think about the things that matter in this world. You're probably going to get your ass handed to you if you do that.
And they'll say things like, well, you work all the time. Does work matter that much? So be careful with that. But instead you could read them this book. And this book tells the story of a young penguin who is having some of those small problems that we all have and talks to his mom. And it just. Reading it kind of illuminated for my kids.
And, you know, that there are things that we complain about and then there are things that maybe aren't worth complaining about, but it does it in a way that allows them to be listened to. And I think that's what they like about the book. And I think the message is good. So Penguin Problems.
[00:15:34] Casey Handmer: Kind of as a joke, I started reading the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson to my kids at 12.
bedtime. Initially it had the desired effect of putting them into a comatose state almost instantly. But as they got older and kind of got their head around what was going on, it became extremely interesting and just a great chopping off point to talk about literature and math and physics and astronomy and a whole bunch of other stuff.
It evolved into a series of blog posts and just recently we wrapped up Green Mars, which is the second in the series before moving on to lighter fare like Jules Verne, 20, 000 leagues under the sea. But we'll come back to Blue Mars pretty soon, I think.
[00:16:07] Eric Bahn: I'm a big fan of the Cat Kid series by Dave Pilkey.
So he's known for Captain Underpants and Dog Man. Those are great books too, but Cat Kid in particular, that little mini series that he puts together is especially special. Basically, this little kitten's superpower is kindness. And you can see over the course of the series how his kindness actually makes his entire environment better and even heals his very traumatized dad in a really funny way too.
So, heavy topics, but treated in such a way that teaches such good empathy for kids as well as the adults. Lots of
[00:16:40] Will Rocklin: great options out there. I like a story when I read to him and I like to be able to make voices. I pretend that I have this voice acting career with several of them, including this pig, the pug.
I'm not sure if people know about this one. I didn't until I became a parent, but you get to enjoy hilarious images of pugs amassing toys. You get to enjoy hilarious images of pugs amassing toys. And then being deliriously greedy of said toys. And then of course, when you were really greedy, you're going to, you're going to fall out a window.
That's the moral of this book that we can all get behind. And obviously the message is share your toys. So the holiday seasons are coming up. I have only one child, but if you have multiple and you're trying to encourage sharing, I think this leaves a very scary lesson imprinted in the child's mind. But what happens if you don't?
[00:17:38] Eric Mauskopf: I've read to my kids a lot, including the four years that I stayed home full time as a parent. It was one of my, and still is one of my favorite things to do. And one book in particular that has just stood the test of time across all the different ages that my kids have been through is called And this is not English words, do is talk, and it's by a children's author, Carson Ellis.
And it tells the story of this group of insects who discover and interact with this growing plant in their tiny little natural world. And so like what makes this book stand out is that it's written entirely in an invented language. So similar to the title, not written in English or any other known language that these characters that are insects used to communicate with each other.
And it's essentially inviting readers to interpret The meeting through the illustrations and it's just really fun seeing kids ideas for what's being communicated. There's always a lot of discussion and every time we read it, we kind of refine what they're actually communicating and what the message is.
[00:18:49] Will Rocklin: This is so odd to say that. We as a family, me and my sons, we actually really enjoy reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Love that book. It's a fun book to read. Like you can get in character and change your voice. And I feel like when my, like for me, when I was a small child, like around the holiday season, my parents would read the Polar Express.
And that was like a staple book that I still fondly think back of. And I feel like we've built this great habit that like, as October rolls around, we pull the Grinch book back out and we like, we'll start serial reading, you know, how the Grinch stole Christmas and watch the movies that go alongside of it.
And it's just like, it's just like a part of our holiday experience now, which feels really exciting to me.
[00:19:33] Tye DeGrange: There's two that are just so fun, and literally yesterday I was reading it to my son, my younger boy, and he's giggling his, just, belly laugh on a New York Times bestseller by the name of Tup Tup Fish, which you probably have heard of.
It is hilarious. My daughter had the same reaction. It's a great book. And it gets a chuckle and it ages well. The other one that comes to mind, my sister in law got us and it's super interactive and also kind of funny and silly. It's called the tickle monster. And they have these big old giant like cookie monster, like hands.
They come with the book. It's just so cool. It's, it's really great. It's perfect for that toddler, younger
[00:20:19] Adam Nash: kid age. My daughter who's about 12 is predictably going through a lot of series that seemed like old news for me, but are new for her. So, you know, she. She somehow saw on streaming the Hunger Games and then she's going through all of those books.
So I borrowed those sets. Usually my rule of thumb with my children is any book series they want, there's no questions asked. We'll save money elsewhere, not on, on books they want to read. My oldest is 20. He's actually an aerospace engineer. So actually the recommendations I, I just gave, I just bought him Liftoff and Reentry.
Because I think it's not just about space or, or technology. It's a lot about how hard and chaotic it is to build something new. And I just love giving young adults in particular, that realization that almost all of the amazing things in the world were hard to do the first time. And it was just people like you who decided to do it, to put that effort in.
You know, everything we see around us was the creation of. of someone who got the idea that they could do it. And they just went and did it usually with a team of people who also were willing to dive in. So I love books like that.
[00:21:25] Brian Balfour: I will not have it ready for this Christmas, but I am actually working on writing my own book for the kids.
I think this is going to take me a lot of years to finish, but it's kind of the point, which is, I don't know, one of the reasons I wanted to be a parent was to kind of try to pass on everything that I've learned. You know, a lot of the things that I feel like I've learned, like in life, and of course I'm going to do that other ways like raising the kids and stuff, but I also feel like there's something special about solidifying it in writing in a book and something that you can pass on, and I can't remember where I heard this, but I heard this story.
It was like, look, like if you don't tell your kids your story, somebody else will. We'll tell your story like kind of for you whether it's like broader family and all that kind of stuff I don't know that's kind of resonated So I've started you know here and there basically started writing this writing this book and one Christmas or some holiday It will be wrapped in under the tree for both my boys
[00:22:34] Andrew Capland: So I've got a five month old baby girl who we're not reading to yet probably soon and then I've got a almost four year old boy and We're reading this book right now that he loves.
It's actually right in front of me. It's called teacher giraffe to ski. And it's a book about a giraffe that's learning how to ski, but really it's a book about courage and risk taking and trying new things that you might be scared of that you end up liking in the guise of a book about a giraffe skiing.
So it's really enjoyable for parents. I love skiing. We're hoping to get my son out on the slopes this year. He loves that book. So I would recommend that to other parents. I also really love, I mentioned this in our other conversation, the little blue truck series. And specifically there's a little blue truck makes a friend and it's a story about basically all of the animals, including the blue truck, being scared of this new friend, who's the woodchuck and the woodchuck also being scared of all the other animals and how they end up introducing themselves to each other.
And they become fast friends, which is a great metaphor for life.
[00:23:31] Rob Schutz: So my daughter's almost 10 and my son is seven. They're doing a lot more independent reading at night, which is good. Which we highly encourage. And I think I actually talked about this book in the last podcast. But the one we always come back to is Book Without Pictures.
The B. J. Novak one. And they love the, My only friend in the whole wide world is a hippo named Booboo Butt. That just kills every single time. Really any butt related content grapples with them right now. But they just, they're like, They just like wait for that page and then just start laughing. It's definitely a, it's family favorite.
[00:24:06] Josh Herzig-Marx: The best thing that we do for books for our kids It's two things. One is a library card with Libby. And the second thing is whatever Amazon, Kindle, Unlimited, because the number of cheesy romances that our kids read is astounding. Like, which is great! Like, they're reading, and, you know, like they're reading for school all day long.
Right? They're in school until like 4 or 5 o'clock every day. They got tons of homework. They got really challenged. They're reading Antigone right now. My younger one is reading Antigone. In high school. Like this is like heavy duty stuff.
[00:24:35] Rob Schutz: Yeah.
[00:24:36] Josh Herzig-Marx: So if they want to like relax at the end of the day by reading some stupid self published Kindle unlimited romance, I love that for them.
[00:24:43] Carla Naumburg: I have a book I'd like to push out to parents and it's not my book, which is right there behind me. Oh, isn't that handy? It's this book. Someday, a bird will poop on you. It's really for adults and kids alike. It is fantastic. It's like adorably illustrated. The illustrations are so cute. It's a quick read.
It's like, so amazing. And it's just a good life lesson because someday a bird's going to poop on you. And this will tell you what to do. It also may or may not be a metaphor for when other challenging things happen in life. So this is a book that for reasons It's not clear to me has not gotten nearly as much attention as it should.
You can just give this to anyone. You can give it to an adult as a gift. You can give it to a kid. It'll work as a picture book. You can read it to your kids. Your kids can read on their own. It's really an all ages guide to life. Someday a bird will poop on you by Sue Salvy and illustrated by Megan Kelly.
[00:25:37] Alex Cohen: This year we read the spooky wheels on the bus a whole lot, which was the Halloween book where it's like, you know, the wheels on the bus go round and round, except it's spooky.
[00:25:46] Lloyed Lobo: You know, what's really funny is I'm going to selfishly promote my book, and I don't mean to seriously because you can buy the ebook for a dollar, but it's a Wall Street Journal bestseller.
It's colorful. It's called From Grassroots to Greatness. And I normally wouldn't recommend a book like this for parents, but I'm only doing it for one reason. This book is about people and community. It's about creating unlimited leverage for yourself by leveraging the power of community. It's built on the philosophy that if you treat people with love and help them grow, they'll treat you with love and help you grow.
It's built on the philosophy that yesterday's innovation always becomes tomorrow's commodity. If you build a community, you won't become a commodity. And communities are so important in your personal life, in your professional life. Everything I have today is as a function of community. And I think parents should teach their kids about building and creating communities.
Because as we head into a world that's getting eaten by tectonic shifts in AI, the only thing ultimately that'll matter when your hard skills are being codified by AI, right? AI agents, co pilots, your soft skills will matter. And the core of that is your ability to create and build community. And community is about giving and helping others.
And as a function of doing that, you'll gain in ways that you can't even
[00:27:21] Adam Grenier: imagine. Two recommendations. So one is, For reading to your kids, a series of books that we keep coming back to are the ninja books. So it's like the, you know, sad ninja and happy ninja and frustrated ninja. Like our favorite in the house that we use a lot of references from is flexible ninja.
So it's like, you know, how we have three kids. And so there's a lot of like changing of schedules, which for anybody that has any kids, let alone nerdiverse kids knows that schedules are important. And so those books, like I. Don't know the author's name off the top of my head, but there's, I don't know, like 30 of them at this point, but they're great.
They're fun. They've got good exercises. They're not too dense. And we're still reading those. Even we'll go back to them, even with like our nine year old at this point. Then the other one is I would actually recommend Improvise by McNabier. It's a, you know, just like a fundamental book about improvisation.
It was something that I had a chance to, you know, To learn from earlier in my life and because actually I don't read very many books to my kids. My kids read a lot of books, but we make up stories. So we actually do a lot more improv than we do like reading. And I think that's like really special because like they contribute to the story.
So we'll make up characters along the way we adapt along the way. And it's all using just the fundamentals of improv and I get to do. Character voices and like be ridiculous. And I make them mad because I make the story go away as they didn't want to go and then, you know, bring it back. And so I think that's been even more rewarding than any like standard books.
So like, just maybe picking up improvise is the one I know well, but there's probably like a dozen, there's probably once four kids out there, like something like that, I think would be great as well.
[00:28:52] Adam Fishman: What recipe do you like to get your kids involved in at the holiday time?
[00:28:57] Nick Soman: Bourbon laced. Apple cider. And I do involve the kids, but in the following way.
So Ben knows that I love to make apple cider around the holidays. And he knows that I like the smell as it warms up in the kitchen. You can leave a pot on all day and you can throw some full whole cinnamon sticks and some cloves in there and just feel like Martha Stewart. It's, it's really excellent.
The smell is good. The vibe is good. He doesn't know that I then will, you know, sneak in and pour a half bottle of choose your weapon. And, you know, separate a batch for myself. And that is definitely part of what gets me through the, the fraught holiday times, but, you know, good for the kids, good for the family, it's the best.
[00:29:38] Casey Handmer: Well, my kids are very discriminating. As long as the meal is 98 plus percent carbohydrates, they're good to go. So it would normally be like lasagna or pizza or something like that is usually quite fun as a family.
[00:29:49] Eric Bahn: All right. So this one is a super easy one that all of you can do because you will have all the ingredients in your house.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I do love eating turkey. And then at the end of your turkey meal, you generally have a whole mess of a little bit of meat hanging off the bones and the carcass and so forth. The mistake that most people make is to throw that carcass into the garbage. Don't do that.
Instead, put it into a giant pot, boil it, and then let it simmer for about an hour or two or a couple more hours, actually, even than that, and just let it be. And then the next day, what happens? You're going to have Fantastic turkey broth. Now, what you can do is before you boil it to you, sometimes you can put some garlic cloves or other kinds of accoutrements if you want to just have something boil into that delicious stew, but you have a great meal for the next few days where you can just scoop up that broth.
I like to put it over rice to put a little bit of porridge. Generally the turkeys are even seasoned. So it's salty and peppery enough. It is fantastic. So please use that turkey carcass and make some amazing. Turkey soup afterwards. I am the sous chef
[00:30:58] Will Rocklin: around here, but one thing that I am determined to cook this year for both my son and his grandfather are pop overs.
So we're going to use my mom's recipe and I'm told these are quite easy to do. And my son loves bread. He's like, whoa. More, more, more. Every time he comes home, he's just, his little mouth, more. So then I'm going to, we're, we have a, um, a way for him to kind of climb up near the counter so he can see the action.
I think it might be fun for him to see the mixing going on, the pouring into the tins. Yeah. Well, he can kind of understand end to end how these, how these delicious things get made and then crack the whip for more when he's ready for that.
[00:31:39] Eric Mauskopf: When I was spending all that time as a stay at home dad, I got really into baking.
And, you know, with dough in particular. And so celebrating Hanukkah, I like to make challah with the kids. Not only on Hanukkah, but even more often than that, because we do it for Shabbat sometimes. And so the kids just love the sensory element to it. Also the creativeness and being able to shape the dough, braid it, stuff it Things like sprinkles in particular.
And my six year old just came home from school and she had to share with her class, like what she wants to be when she grows up. And I think she said a mom and a baker, which kind of reinforced like, Oh, like this exposure to making challah was meaningful to her.
[00:32:31] Will Rocklin: So for my kids, I love making soup for my family.
Sunday night is my night to cook. Cause you know, my family cooking is definitely an expression of love. So I love cooking my family dinner on Sunday nights and it's really hard to do soup when it's a hundred degrees outside and it's July.
[00:32:48] Nick Soman: This is true.
[00:32:50] Will Rocklin: Right. So like soon as the air turns cold and it's like fall, I mean, we started doing soups pretty heavy in our house.
We're a big soup and chili kind of household. So I love. Making my boys soup and soup in a bread bowl and putting a fire on. And it just kind of feels in spirit, but making together, I've gotten a really weird, this is going to sound like such like a grandpa, grandma statement to say, but I've gotten really into making banana bread with my kids.
[00:33:21] Brian Balfour: Oh, we just
[00:33:21] Will Rocklin: made a batch here at my house. Yes. You kind of want to make believe in your head that it's not totally unhealthy for your kids.
[00:33:31] Tye DeGrange: But it's sweet. You know what I mean? We love a good prime rib recipe. It's just a classic and my dad found this one. I don't know where he found it. I want to say it was like Sunset Magazine or something ridiculous.
He called it like the bulletproof recipe because the perception was prime rib was always hard to figure out and you'd mess it up and yada, yada, yada. But he had this like system he raved about. It took a while, but it was in the oven and it came out. Just phenomenally, so every once in a while that is a really predictable, solid, somewhat fail proof recipe in the oven if you're doing it right, and it's just really good, so it kind of brings back fond family memories for me of like, we would always have that on Christmas, Christmas, uh, Day, dinner, that was always a big deal.
And so every once in a while, bringing that back to the family, I also want to share, my mom got to spend some time in Switzerland and she brought back the tradition and it was kind of like for cold nights, but also holiday was like a raclette. So kind of taking the fondue thing and making it more, I don't know, rustic, robust, like kind of little raclette burner.
And you kind of sit around the campfire with your little pot and you got your cheese and you got your. They'll take old stuff and you got your potato, just super simple melted cheese over potatoes. You're like, what, why is this a dinner? But it's, it was always really
[00:34:57] Adam Nash: great and very cool and different. My wife started making this wonderful spice cider, like just, just apple cider, hot, but kind of a really big batch, cinnamon, like a lot of these kind of flavors served with real cinnamon sticks, which is just perfect and great for the kids and the kids all love it.
And then of course, you know, if a little fireball makes it in for the grownups, that's, that's okay too.
[00:35:21] Andrew Capland: We don't cook much with my four year old for obvious reasons, but he will help us make muffins. And so sometimes we'll make banana muffins with chocolate chips or even just plain muffins with chocolate chips.
If it's got chocolate chips, he loves it. Sometimes we'll sneak in a little muffin mix that's got some protein in there just to kind of mix it up, but Muffins, he loves, and being from a Jewish family, any excuse for a brisket is worthwhile. So we do a Jewish style brisket, which is baked in the oven. My family recipe, which has been handed down from my great grandmother has got some ketchup in it.
It's almost more of like a casserole type thing. It's very, very tender, not barbecue style. It's delicious.
[00:36:01] Rob Schutz: We have a lot of different dietary restrictions in the house. My wife is vegan with a nut allergy. I love you, my son. Has been vegetarian since he's seven. Wow. And then my daughter and I just eat everything, but we have a couple things.
We always do like a gingerbread house decoration situation. Usually we're after Thanksgiving. They love that. And then they basically eat. whole gingerbread house after. And then it actually started as a holiday tradition and now has become like an every weekend tradition, but I make them what I call trash pancakes.
It's just pancakes with chocolate chips, sprinkles, and marshmallows. All just complete garbage for breakfast. But they love it so much because Danny's such a good cook that they ask for it every weekend. So if they've been good, I'll try and give them a trash pancake here.
[00:36:51] Lloyed Lobo: My favorite recipe for the holidays is a turkey and a brisket, two of those things.
And the way I like to make a turkey is it's brine and salt water, and I like to douse it in South Asian spices. And I like to have it marinated and you can go to sort of any Asian, South Asian food store and get whatever the spices are like tandoori or chicken tikka masala. And I marinate it with yogurt and marinate the turkey with it, like 12, 18 hours, like overnight kind of thing.
And then I slow cook it. And it's tender, it's juicy, it falls off the bone. But most other things, man, even like medium rare steaks, even like chicken thighs, even like a brisket, I'll make it in a, in a big air fryer. I love the fusion of spices where you mix a little bit of flavor, you marinate for a long time.
Well,
[00:37:54] Alex Cohen: I think we're making a few dishes this year to bring to my brother's girlfriend, parent's house. It's a mouthful for, for Thanksgiving. Oh, and fun fact. My wife's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year. So that's fun. Oh wow. Don't tell her, but we're gonna bring a cake to Thanksgiving. But we're gonna make a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows.
It's like one of my favorite dishes. I love sweet potatoes and I love sugar. So like you combine the two of them and you get to eat sugar for dinner.
[00:38:22] Josh Herzig-Marx: So, for Sonica? Every year, I've been making donuts for, I don't know, 10 years now. It's been a really long time. It's great. It's like the best ratio of easy to prepare and, you know,
[00:38:33] Adam Grenier: everybody thinks they are delicious.
So we have a really like probably the most basic peanut butter cookie recipe, which is one cup of peanut butter, one cup of sugar and one egg. And it makes, honestly, just really awesome peanut butter cookies. It's something that my mom learned from her mom and it's probably not a family recipe, like it's something that's simple.
I'm sure 50 people have got ranked on Google for, but it's the kind of recipe that the kids can make really young. And then my oldest who's 13, like constantly, whenever she's in the mood, she's like, I'm going to make some peanut butter cookies. Like she'll go bake them herself, like make some herself, measures it, puts them in the oven, like does it all herself.
So it's an easy recipe. It's something that my wife who's. A food writer, a pastry chef in the past, things like that. She's added like cayenne to a version of it that my mom loved and things like that. And like, yeah, so that, that recipe is the one that kind of seems to stick around. And my mom passed away last year.
And so it's also like, I don't know, that's extra special now.
[00:39:29] Brian Balfour: Maybe there's a little controversial is like, I don't like Thanksgiving food that much. Wow. That is a hot take. Really? Yeah. I would rather, I'd prefer to abandon all the Thanksgiving food and just like grill a nice steak or something like that.
Okay. That would be my preference. Though, at Christmas, my mom, uh, Even as kids, like, we would make cookies with my grandma and stuff, and one of the types of cookies, I, they have different names, but in our family, it's called a peanut butter blossom, which is like this little peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss on top.
Oh, yeah. I know that. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I will mow those down, like, cause, cause you could almost eat them all just in one bite. It's just like, I will pop them in my, in my mouth like pills, man. It's, it
is, it is unbelievable.
[00:40:22] Adam Fishman: Thank you for listening to today's special holiday episode of Startup Dad.
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