About this podcast
You may think you know Anthony Scaramucci: a Harvard Law School graduate who cut his teeth at Goldman Sachs, went on to build two successful businesses and had an 11-day stint in the White House. What people don’t know is he’s an avid reader, endlessly curious, history buff with a restless mind.
On Open Book, listeners will hear and get to know the real Anthony: the proud son of immigrant parents, a long-suffering New York Mets fan, and a father of five. Each week, he’ll invite you into an intimate and open conversation with some of the brightest minds out there, from business, politics, entertainment, and more. Together, they’ll go deep into a piece of work - whether it's a highly anticipated book, an in-depth feature story, or an opinion piece – to dig into why it matters to you, what we can learn from the past, and how their work is shaping our future.
Along the way, you’ll learn more about The Mooch – beyond the headlines – where he came from and how he got here. He’ll turn the pages on his own life lessons from his blue-collar upbringing and career on Wall Street to getting his teeth kicked in the White House and then, coming back stronger. He’ll offer his perspective as a self-made entrepreneur and “open book” with a lot of experience, both good and bad.
Tune in every week to hear fascinating conversations you won’t get anywhere else.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 287 episodes
- Bestselling Author: AI Is Going to DESTROY Human Creativity - Bonnie Garmus · 33 minCan artificial intelligence destroy human creativity, and are the billionaires behind it putting profits ahead of our future? This week on Open Book, I'm joined by Lessons in…
- The Terrifying Similarities Between 1937 and America Today — Catherine Grace Katz · 34 minAre we repeating the mistakes of the 1930s without realizing it, and are the warning signs of history unfolding right before our eyes? This week on Open Book, I'm joined by…
- CNN's Dana Bash Reveals Why Trump Is Unlike ANY President in History · 26 minWhat can Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela teach us about today's political chaos? This week on Open Book, I'm joined by CNN's Dana Bash to explore the elections…
- How to Turn Life's Greatest Challenges Into Your Greatest Strengths - Domenic Ionta · 26 minConnect with top talent ready to help your business grow: https://www.upwork.com/ What does it take to overcome extraordinary odds and turn a fight for survival into a life…
- The Dangerous Mistake Western Leaders Keep Making - Dickie Shearer · 24 minConnect with top talent ready to help your business grow: https://www.upwork.com/ For more than a century, America and the West have dominated the global order, but as new…
- Baseball Icon Dusty Baker: The Life Lessons Baseball Taught Me · 32 minJohnnie B. “Dusty” Baker Jr. is the former manager of the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals, and Houston Astros. Baker was drafted by the…
- Why Trump Survives Scandals That Destroy Other Politicians – Stephen Sackur · 33 minConnect with top talent ready to help your business grow: https://www.upwork.com/ What happens to democracy when the truth no longer matters, politicians are rewarded for lying…
- How Hollywood Sold Out to China — Chris Fenton · 29 minHollywood thought China represented the biggest growth opportunity in the world, but somewhere along the way, we started changing our movies, compromising our values, and…
- The Decisions That Changed the Middle East Forever - Akbar Shahid Ahmed · 34 minMy guest today is Akbar Shahid Ahmed, an award-winning foreign affairs journalist whose new book Crossing the Red Line takes us inside the Biden administration’s handling of…
- Billionaire David Rubenstein: Owning a Sports Team Is Harder Than Anything I've Done Before · 35 minI am honored to be joined by my friend and repeat guest on Open Book, David Rubenstein. He has built one of the most successful careers in private equity, but he’ll be the first…
- The Historian Who Explains Why the Middle East Is Messed Up - Simon Sebag Montefiore · 34 minThe Middle East didn’t become a cauldron overnight, and to understand what’s happening there today, you have to understand the history that brought us here. Simon Sebag…
- How Wall Street’s Billionaires Became Untouchable - William D. Cohan · 40 minWhat happens when you accumulate so much money and power that the normal rules no longer seem to apply? William Cohan joins me to unpack the extraordinary rise of Leon Black and…
- Harlan Coben Sold 100 Million Books. Here’s His Advice for Aspiring Writers. · 36 minHe has sold more than 100 million books, but what I love most about Harlan Coben is that he’ll be the first to tell you he still wrestles with self-doubt, and that fear can…
- The KGB Spy Who Exposed Russia’s Secret Plan to Attack The West - Richard Kerbaj · 33 minThis is an unbelievable true story of a KGB defector who helped MI5 blow apart the Soviet spy network in Britain, and why British intelligence decided it couldn’t trust the CIA…
- How Politics Destroyed American Universities - Neil Gross · 34 minNeil Gross joins me for a conversation about what happened to the American college experience, how politics, polarization, and fear of speaking your mind have damaged one of the…
- Chicago Is at a Breaking Point (But She Says She Can Fix It) - Susana A. Mendoza · 29 minToday on Open Book, we're not joined by an author, but by a woman fighting to become the next mayor of Chicago. Susana Mendoza grew up in Chicago learning how to stand up to…
- The Secretive Family Behind a $13 Trillion Financial Empire · 35 minFidelity is one of the most powerful financial institutions in America, but the story of the family behind it has largely remained hidden. Justin Baer joins me to reveal how the…
- Ex-CIA Officer: America Has a 20% Chance of Splitting Apart - James Telfer · 30 minA former CIA officer sat down to write a "fun airport novel" and ended up putting a 20% probability on America actually splitting apart. James Telfer joins me to talk about what…
- America is Deeply Broken (Here's How We Can Fix It) - Rye Barcott · 35 minWhat does real courage look like when the cameras stop rolling, and the tribe wants you to fall in line? On this episode of Open Book, I sit down with Rye Barcott, Marine…
- He Repaired My Marriage And Then We Lost Him Forever - Mike Maimone · 31 minI got fired from the White House, my marriage was falling apart, and the guy who talked me off the ledge was my publicist, Howard Bragman, a man so full of life he'd call you…
- July 2026 Q&A: Will I Run For Office? How I Read So Much? How To Fix The American Education System? · 31 minYou send me the questions, I give you the answers, no filter, no spin, straight from the gut. This month: would I actually run for office, how I manage to read a book a week, why…
- The Heartbreaking Atrocity of The Ukraine War (And Why You Should Care) - James Verini · 32 minAfter reading his book on the war in Ukraine, you will understand the significance of this conflict as you never have before. Putin thought he could topple Kyiv in days and…
- The Truth About Guns In America They Don't Want You To Know! - Mike McIntire · 31 minThree-time Pulitzer winner Mike McIntire joins me to talk about his new book Ricochet (out today), and this one hit me hard. We've got more guns than people in this country, and…
- The Real Reason Politics & Society Is Broken (And Fixing It) - Susan MacKenty Brady & Stuart Kliman · 31 minWe're all walking around convinced we're right and everyone else is the problem, and it's tearing apart our politics, our workplaces, our families. Stu Kliman and Susan McKenty…
- The Billionaire Class Has No Idea What's Coming - Daniel Silva · 45 minDaniel Silva is back for the 4th appearance on Open Book, with a new must-read book, Ransom, and once again, he's writing tomorrow's headlines before they even happen, from…
- Russia Expert: Putin Destroyed Democracy And Trump's Doing It Too - Jamison Firestone · 28 minPutin weaponized the justice system; he went after the media, the universities, and even pulled a comedy show off the air because it made fun of him. On this episode of Open…
- He Invented Online Betting...Then Went To Prison For It - Jay Cohen · 26 minHe built a betting exchange three decades ahead of its time, got prosecuted for it while John Roberts almost took his case, and served time for something states are now making…
- "They Should've Been Dead": How 3 Men Survived 28 Hours Surrounded by Sharks - Michael J. Tougias · 26 minThey made a vow to survive together, no blame, no panic, just 28 hours of pure will against sharks, jellyfish, and the open ocean. My guest, Michael Tougias, lived inside this…
- Jun 2026 Q&A: Breaking From Trump, Reforming American Democracy & Book Recs · 27 minIt's the June Q&A on Open Book, and you came at me with everything this month: aliens, whether there's a reckoning coming when Trump's term ends, and the honest reason it took me…
- The Coach Everyone Called a Failure (He Proved Them Wrong) - Monte Burke · 29 minPete Carroll was written off as a flake, a fraud, and a two-time NFL failure, but then he built one of the greatest dynasties in college football history. This week on Open Book…
- America Repeats the Same Crisis Every 80 Years. Here's How We Overcome It - Bob Crawford · 34 minDoes America face a defining crisis every 80 years? In this episode, I sit down with musician and author Bob Crawford to explore the remarkable life of John Quincy Adams, why…
- Historian: The Untold Story of WWII's Most Fascinating Person - Geoffrey Roberts · 27 minKathleen Harriman was there at the center of it all, at Churchill's side in the Blitz, in Stalin's Moscow, at Yalta, and somehow history almost forgot her. My guest today…
- High Performance Psychologist: The #1 Fear Holding You Back From Your Full Potential · 34 minWhat if the biggest thing standing between you and your best life isn't failure, it's what other people think of you? Today, I sit down with world-renowned high-performance…
- The Rise and Fall of a Tech Titan - Katie Prescott · 30 minMike Lynch was a working-class kid from East London who built one of Britain's greatest tech companies, and then watched it all collapse in a fraud scandal that stretched across…
- You Can't Understand America Without Understanding New York - Russell Shorto · 31 minBefore New York was New York, it was New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony built on pluralism, capitalism, and a radical idea that tolerance could be a competitive advantage. Russell…
- The AI Expert Who Will Change Your Mind About AI - Josh Tyrangiel · 32 minI've been saying it for years, AI is the most important conversation we're having right now. Josh Tyrangiel spent a year hunting for the people actually using it to save lives…
- The Dark Side of FDR Nobody Talks About - David T. Beito · 35 minMost of us grew up believing FDR saved America — my grandparents certainly did. But historian David Beito just changed everything I thought I knew about one of the most…
- The Ancient Secret to Finally Breaking Free From Your Past - Steven Pressfield · 30 minBack for a second time on Open Books is a living legend: Steven Pressfield!!! He's spent his entire career writing about warriors, and what he told me in this conversation…
- Bestselling Historian: The Revolution That Shouldn't Have Happened - Douglas Brunt · 31 minBefore the Soviet Union, before Stalin, before communism swallowed half the world — there was one man who almost stopped all of it, and history buried him on purpose. Douglas…
- WWII Historian: 3 Decisions That Built The West and How We're Destroying It - James Holland · 40 minJames Holland is one of the greatest WWII historians alive, and his new book should be on the desk of every world leader. We get into the three decisions that built the entire…
- Why People Feel Empty, Lonely, and Like Nothing They Do Matters - Jennifer Breheny Wallace · 28 minJenny Wallace has written the book for our moment, a masterclass on why so many of us feel empty, disconnected, and like nothing we do actually matters. This isn't just…
- May 2026 Q&A: Rebuilding After Trump, 3 Books That Changed My Life, Young Men in Crisis · 25 minThis month's Q&A, we're getting into everything: the three books that changed how I think about money, how I went from Goldman Sachs to sick in bed on day one of my own company…
- The One Thing That Will Bring China Down - Simon Elegant · 32 minI've spent time in Hong Kong, I've watched this city transform firsthand, and I can tell you what Beijing has done there is the blueprint for everything that comes next. Today…
- NYT Bestselling Historian: Why George Washington Was the Greatest Leader Who Ever Lived — H. W. Brands · 32 minGeorge Washington didn't just win the American Revolution; he invented what it means to lead with honor, and my guest today, award-winning historian H.W. Brands, is going to tell…
- Peter Diamandis: AI Will Cure All Disease, Reverse Aging, and You Have to Prepare · 31 minPeter Diamandis is one of the most extraordinary minds I've ever had the privilege of calling a friend, a man who doesn't just predict the future, he builds it. Today on Open…
- The Tiny Daily Habits That Rewire Your Brain - Jake Humphrey & Damian Hughes · 25 minI sat down with Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes — the guys behind one of the biggest podcasts on the planet — and what they told me completely reframed how I think about success…
- How 3 Gamblers Stole Millions From Casinos - Kit Chellel · 30 minImagine you're smart enough to go to Wall Street, but instead you move into a Vegas apartment with six other guys and spend the next decade quietly robbing casinos blind — that's…
- Historian: This Event Created Trump, Giuliani & Rupert Murdoch - Heather Ann Thompson · 34 minToday's guest has done something I didn't think was possible: she made me understand the world I grew up in better than I understood it when I was living it. Heather Ann Thompson…
- Fmr Goldman Sachs CEO: What Surviving The 2008 Financial Crisis Taught Me — Lloyd Blankfein · 54 minLloyd Blankfein is one of the most consequential figures in the history of American finance — a kid from the Brooklyn projects who climbed to the top of Goldman Sachs and steered…
- Historian: America's Origin Story Is A Lie - Craig Fehrman - Craig Fehrman · 28 minToday's guest spent five years digging through archives to uncover the real story of Lewis and Clark — and what he found will completely change the way you think about America's…







