David Sax

Real Things and Why They Matter

The Revenge of Analog

An award-winning business writer dismantles the myths of entrepreneurship, replacing them with an essential story about the experience of real business owners in the modern economy We're often told that we're living amidst a startup boom. Typically, we think of apps built by college kids and funded by venture capital firms, which remake fortunes and economies overnight. But in reality, most new businesses are things like restaurants or hair salons. Entrepreneurs aren't all millennials--more often, it's their parents. And those small companies are the fabric of our economy. The Soul of an Entrepreneur is a business book of a different kind, exploring our work but also our passions and hopes. David Sax reports on the deeply personal questions of entrepreneurship: why an immigrant family risks everything to build a bakery; how a small farmer fights to manage his debt; and what it feels like to rise and fall with a business you built for yourself. This book is the real story of entrepreneurship. It confronts both success and failure, and shows how they can change a human life. It captures the inherent freedom that entrepreneurship brings, and why it matters.

Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth

The Soul of an Entrepreneur

Tastemaker, n. Anyone with the power to make you eat quinoa. Kale. Spicy sriracha sauce. Honeycrisp apples. Cupcakes. These days, it seems we are constantly discovering a new food that will make us healthier, happier, or even somehow cooler. Chia seeds, after a brief life as a novelty houseplant and I Love the ’80s punchline, are suddenly a superfood. Not long ago, that same distinction was held by pomegranate seeds, açai berries, and the fermented drink known as kombucha. So what happened? Did these foods suddenly cease to be healthy a few years ago? And by the way, what exactly is a “superfood” again? In this eye-opening, witty work of reportage, David Sax uncovers the world of food trends: Where they come from, how they grow, and where they end up. Traveling from the South Carolina rice plot of America’s premier grain guru to Chicago’s gluttonous Baconfest, Sax reveals a world of influence, money, and activism that helps decide what goes on your plate. On his journey, he meets entrepreneurs, chefs, and even data analysts who have made food trends a mission and a business. The Tastemakers is full of entertaining stories and surprising truths about what we eat, how we eat it, and why.

Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue

The Tastemakers

How to Create a More Human World

Future Is Analog

Bestselling culture writer David Sax lays out the case against a false digital utopia—and for a more human future In The Future Is Analog, David Sax points out that the onset of the pandemic instantly gave us the digital universe we’d spent so long anticipating. Instant communication, online shopping, virtual everything. It didn’t take long to realize how awful it was to live in this promised future. We craved real experiences, relationships, and spaces and got back to real life as quickly and often as we could. In chapters exploring work, school, religion, and more, this book asks pointed questions: Is our future inevitably digital? Can we reject the downsides of digital technology without rejecting change? Can we innovate not for the sake of productivity but for the good of our social and cultural lives? Can we build a future that serves us as humans, first and foremost? This is a manifesto for a different kind of change. We can spend our creativity and money on building new gadgets—or we can spend them on new ways to be together and experience the world, to bake bread, and climb mountains. All we need is the clarity to choose which future we want.

The Future Is Analog

Eleito um dos 10 melhores livros de 2016 pela crítica Michiko Kakutani, do New York Times Em meio a nossa trajetória rumo à utopia digital, algo de engraçado aconteceu – voltamos a nos interessar pelos bons e velhos objetos analógicos, aqueles que os gurus da tecnologia insistiam em dizer que estavam obsoletos. Nichos de mercado que pareciam ultrapassados, como o filme em película ou as vitrolas, ressurgiram com novo fôlego. Escrever em cadernos de papel, escutar discos de vinil e receber os amigos em torno de um jogo de tabuleiro voltaram a ser atividades bacanas. Eis a Vingança dos Analógicos! O jornalista canadense David Sax percorreu o mundo atrás de histórias de empreendedores, desde pequenos negócios até grandes corporações, que conquistaram uma nova fatia de mercado vendendo não aplicativos ou soluções virtuais, mas coisas reais, palpáveis. Enquanto os e-books estavam supostamente mudando nossa forma de ler, livrarias independentes se espalhavam pelos Estados Unidos. Quando a música parecia ter migrado definitivamente para a “nuvem”, as vendas de discos de vinil cresceram mais de dez vezes. E até mesmo gigantes da tecnologia, como Google e Facebook, confiam cada vez mais no papel-e-caneta para desenvolver as melhores ideias. Este livro se debruça sobre o que está por trás de nossos hábitos de consumo e interação com as coisas reais. Com um olhar sensível e um texto bem-humorado, Sax nos mostra a limitação dos apelos da vida exclusivamente digital – e quão promissor é o futuro dos objetos de verdade que estão lá fora.

Por que os objetos de verdade ainda são importantes

A vingança dos analógicos

in search of perfect pastrami, crusty rye, and the heart of the Jewish delicatessen

Save the deli

Ein leidenschaftliches Plädoyer für die realen Dinge des Lebens Auf dem Weg zur digitalen Utopie geschieht etwas Eigenartiges: Wir entwickeln wieder eine Schwäche für analoge Produkte und Ideen, deren Überfl üssigkeit die TechGurus beschworen hatten. Branchen, die vor Kurzem noch altmodisch anmuteten – von der Schallplattenproduktion bis hin zum Buchladen um die Ecke –, sind nun gefragter denn je. Die Rache des Analogen ist da. Unternehmern, Inhabern von kleinen Geschäften und großen Konzernen, gesprochen, die einen Markt abseits von Apps oder virtuellen Lösungen bedienen: Sie verkaufen echte Produkte zum Anfassen. Sax' Buch offenbart, dass eine durch und durch digitale Existenz wenig erstrebenswert und eine Zukunft in der wirklichen Welt für uns alle attraktiv ist.

Warum wir uns nach realen Dingen sehnen

Die Rache des Analogen

The story of the Jewish deli follows the story of the Jewish diaspora. But delis and their food have fallen dramatically in number and quality over the past few decades. David Sax set out on a mission to find out why--and whether there is any hope to SAVE THE DELI.

In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen

Save the Deli

James Beard Award Winner: A cultural history and culinary travelogue from “the M.F.K. Fisher of pickled meats” (A. J. Jacobs). These days there are very few places you can get authentic hot pastrami sandwiches, delicious matzo ball soup, and chewy, crusty rye. In this travelogue, die-hard delicatessen lover David Sax searches out the best Jewish delis around the United States—and the world—and digs deep into the history of the deli: its characters, greatest triumphs, spectacular failures, and uncertain future. Going far beyond New York landmarks, past and present, like Katz’s, the Carnegie Deli, and the Second Avenue Deli, to Chicago, Florida, LA, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, and beyond, Save the Deli is the story of diaspora, and of one man’s quest to save a defining element of the culture—and the food—he loves. It even includes a glossary of food and Yiddish terms, for the goyim or the woefully assimilated. Just don’t read it on an empty stomach. “An epic journey, akin to The Odyssey but with Rolaids.” —Roger Bennett, author of Bar Mitzvah Disco

Part culinary travelogue, part cultural history, Save the Deli is a must-read for anyone whose idea of perfect happiness is tucking into a pastrami on rye with a pickle on the side Corned beef. Pastrami. Brisket. Matzo balls. Knishes. Mustard and rye. In this book about Jewish delicatessens, about deli’s history and characters, its greatest triumphs, spectacular failures, and ultimately the very future of its existence, David Sax goes deep into the world of the Jewish deli. He explores the histories and experiences of the immigrant counterman and kvetching customer; examines the pressures that many delis face; and enjoys the food that is deli’s signature. In New York and Chicago, Florida, L.A., Montreal, Toronto, Paris, and beyond, Sax strives to answer the question, Can Jewish deli thrive, and if so, how? Funny, poignant, and impeccably written, Save the Deli is the story of one man’s search to save a defining element of a culture — and the sandwiches — he loves.

David Sax

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