Suggestions from a nerd 7: change your perspective edition

By Wisley Lau

TV shows for the discerning nerd

Adam Ruins Everything

What misconceptions do you have right now? That love and friendships can last forever? That forensic science is infallible and 100% correct? That buying a Tesla by ditching your good old car can save the environment? Sorry not sorry, but Adam Conover is here to ruin everything. Leading a knowledge dissection with an unsuspecting “victim”, Adam ruins three sub-topics in one episode. Ranging from the big social trends like Science and The Economy to the more personal subjects like A Plate Of Nachos or Hygiene. Corporations and ignorances beware! As Adam peels back the layers, you will learn how diamond corporations made the most successful marketing campaign in history, how wine snobs cannot tell the difference between good wines with cheap wines, and why you should donate your body when you die. If you feel depressed or dismayed in the end, don’t worry because Adam brings a positive takeaway to cheer you up and give you hope. If you are an intellectually curious person, brazen citations and episodes dedicated to analyzing the flaws present in Adam Ruins Everything are perfect for the intellectual honesty crowd.

Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj

Call this show John Oliver Lite all you want, but Netflix’s popular yet somehow canceled show Patriot Act is its own tour de force. Topics range from Fentanyl to the 1MDB Scandal, Cricket Corruption to Supreme and to the NRA. Many subjects brought up in the show are not your typical mainstream discussions. Hasan also focuses a lot of firepower to discuss Asian American issues, from how certain Asian Americans are bringing down affirmative action, to how Asians affect the 2020 election. With the witty humor and shining graphics behind him, this monologue based show is going to grab your attention.

Books for the discerning nerd

The 1619 Project by Nicole Hannah Jones and others

A fierce debate from the beginning, the 1619 project has drawn controversy by many conservatives in the US over its portrayal of American history and the interconnectedness of slavery in American institutions and operation systems like the economy and government. Its biggest controversy centres on the project’s claim that “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery." With that in mind, the 1619 project gives readers a new perspective on what it is like to be black in America with multiple contexts, from major subjects like democracy, justice, and race to a broader range of issues like sugar, capitalism, and church. With fiction and poetry connecting the historical context and topical writing from the main chapters, it is a refreshing read and a great starting point for debate.

Everything Trump Touches Dies by Rick Wilson

The book’s title was meant as a joke, but as the author later admitted, he did not expect literal deaths caused by the former president’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic to make his book title true. Written by a Republican strategist who worked in past presidential campaigns and a famous negative political advertisement creator, the author paints a picture of how Trump has firmly grasped the Republican party, and tries to give a dose of truth serum to the GOP and Trump voters on what the hell they have gotten themselves into. Full of witty humor and deep jabs, this is an anti-Trump book like none other.