American Gambler Book Club

This week we travel to 69 Atlantic in Brooklyn to watch a magic show and then discuss The Magician and the Cardsharp - the story of the world’s greatest magician in search of the world’s greatest card cheat during the Great Depression - with none other than the author of the book himself, Karl Johnson. We discuss the intersection of magic and gambling, the history of wide-open gambling towns in th...

Eclipse Award-winning journalist and author Ryan Goldberg joins me for a day of racing at Aqueduct to bet on some horses and discuss former union organizer-turned-horserace handicapper Len Ragozin’s memoir The Odds Must Be Crazy: Beating the Races With the Man Who Revolutionized Handicapping . Presented by InGame.com. Buy Bird City by Ryan Goldberg Read “The Fanatics Difference? It Doesn’t Need Sp...

America’s foremost gambling journalist Michael Kaplan joins me to talk about the 1975 book Fast Company: How Six Master Gamblers Defy the Odds and Always Win , a collection of work by the man once dubbed “the Indiana Jones of magazine journalism”: Jon Bradshaw. Presented by InGame.com. Read “Why Fantasy Sports Ruling Could Cost Democrats Young Male Voters” at InGame.com Buy The Ocean is Closed by...

Scrabble player, NYT crossword constructor, puzzle maker, backgammon hustler, economics PhD, Harvard fellow and all-around brilliant writer Oliver Roeder from the Financial Times joins me this week to discuss AJ Liebling’s 1942 collection The Telephone Booth Indian , which includes profiles of carnies, cutmen and con artists - as well as some of the country’s biggest bookies and gamblers. Presente...

The New Yorker’s Jay Kang joins me to discuss Larry Merchant’s 1973 book National Football Lottery, a work of stunt journalism where Merchant gambles his book advance each week on the NFL. Presented by InGame.com . Buy The Loneliest Americans by Jay Kang by clicking here Buy The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Kang by clicking here Follow Jay Kang on twitter Listen to Jay’s podcast Time to Say Goodbye...