#234: Literary Lethality – Matterhorn with Michael Jerome Plunkett

About this episode

The episode features a discussion with Michael Jerome Plunkett about the novel Matterhorn and its relevance to leadership and decision making.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we will be doing a deep dive into the Commandant’s Professional Reading List, exploring various titles and talking to different authors about some of the books on the list. Today, Michael Jerome Plunkett was kind enough come on and talk to us about Karl Marlantes’ novel,  Matterhorn .  Matterhorn  is on the CPRL as part of the Leadership category, and Michael, as the creator of the PBA Abbate Book Club and host of the LitWar podcast, discusses the aspects of this novel that speak to leadership and decision making, some good and some bad, in life-or-death situations. We also discuss the origins of the novel, which actually started as a memoir written in the 70s, who the intended audience is, what Marlantes is trying to communicate with the book, and some of the takeaways for today’s service members. And more than anything, why  Matterhorn  deserves to be on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List. Enjoy…

People in this episode

Host: MCA Scuttlebutt

Guest: Michael Jerome Plunkett

Topics covered

• literature
• leadership
• military
• decision making
• Vietnam War

Keywords

• Matterhorn
• Michael Jerome Plunkett
• leadership
• Vietnam War
• Commandant’s Professional Reading List

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Marine Corps Association, PBA Abbate Book Club, LitWar podcast

Books & works: Matterhorn

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