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If Books Could Kill

If Books Could Kill

By: Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri
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The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds© 2025 If Books Could Kill Art Literary History & Criticism Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • The Supreme Court Goes Full TERF [TEASER]
    Jul 1 2025

    This is most of the episode but if you want to hear the last 20 minutes, support us on Patreon!

    https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • "In Covid's Wake" Part 2: Wrong About The Right
    Jun 19 2025

    Last episode we met two Princeton political scientists who are bad at virology. Today we learn that they are also bad at political science.

    Where to find us:

    • Peter's newsletter
    • Peter's other podcast, 5-4
    • Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

    Sources:

    • Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year”
    • Jonathan Howard’s “We Want Them Infected”
    • How the Pandemic Defeated America
    • COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions
    • US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths
    • Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions
    • Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission
    • The Impact of Vaccines and Behavior on US Cumulative Deaths
    • Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates
    • Report for the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry
    • The Effectiveness Of Government Masking Mandates
    • School closures during COVID-19
    • COVID-19–Related School Closures
    • The Effects of School Closures on COVID‑19
    • Higher COVID-19 Deaths with Later School Closure in the United States
    • Reopening America’s Schools
    • Reading literacy decline in Europe
    • DeSantis vs. Newsom
    • Red States Have Seen Less Learning Loss
    • Political partisanship and mobility restriction
    • Republicans Aren’t New To The Anti-Vaxx Movement
    • KFF poll on anti-vaxx beliefs

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • "In Covid's Wake" Part 1: Lying About Lockdowns
    Jun 17 2025

    Two political scientists look back at a deadly pandemic and ask, "could we have done even less?"

    Where to find us:

    • Peter's newsletter
    • Peter's other podcast, 5-4
    • Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

    Sources:

    • Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year”
    • The 2019 WHO report
    • 30‐day mortality following COVID‐19
    • COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions
    • Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the United States
    • What we can learn from Sweden
    • A review of the Swedish policy response to COVID-19
    • How Sweden approached the COVID‐19 pandemic
    • The first eight months of Sweden’s COVID‐19 strategy
    • The Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster
    • Excess mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic
    • Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020
    • How Sweden approached the COVID-19 pandemic
    • Comparisons of all-cause mortality between European countries and regions
    • Jonathan Howard’s “We Want Them Infected.”
    • Deaths: Leading Causes for 2021
    • Stay-at-home orders associate with subsequent decreases in COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States
    • Did the Timing of State Mandated Lockdown Affect the Spread of COVID-19?
    • US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

    Show More Show Less
    58 mins

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I love this podcast.

I listen to this while I'm bored or distracted. It's a total stress remover, just amazing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Want some political analysis with your breakfast?

accessible but smart critique of culture, politics and sociology. Well worth the listen. Essentially a cut-through of books of misinformation that never got corrected in the public consciousness.

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great coverage

get rich quick, use child slave labor, run a scam. start of with a large fortune, don't pay tax, don't save but save everything.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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An entertaining deep-dive into the dangerous agendas hiding inside non-fiction bestsellers

I mean, I knew already men weren't from Mars, but I had no idea the author was only pretending to be a doctor!

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My favourite podcast

funny and informative. I have read some of the books they critique and found their discussions about them very interesting and amusing

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