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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
  • He's Just Not That Into You
    Jul 31 2025

    How one comedian's offhand advice launched a decent TV episode, a mediocre book and a terrible movie.

    Where to find us:

    • Our Patreon
    • Our merch!
    • Peter's newsletter
    • Peter's other podcast, 5-4
    • Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

    Sources:

    • Susan Faludi's "Backlash"
    • For Women Who Count on Men to Be Jerks
    • Bridget Jones’s Legacy
    • Single Women in Popular Culture
    • A Decade of Advice for Women and Men in the Best-Selling Self-Help Literature
    • The gendered nature of self-help
    • Single Women in Popular Culture

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    1 hr
  • Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink"
    Jul 17 2025

    Did you know that in the split-second it took you to read the title of this episode, your subconscious already figured out that it was going to be extremely good?

    Peter and Michael talk about Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink," a book that is mostly cute scientific anecdotes but also indirectly resulted in millions of taxpayer dollars being wasted on fraudulent science.

    Where to find us:

    • Our Patreon
    • Our merch!
    • Peter's newsletter
    • Peter's other podcast, 5-4
    • Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

    Sources:

    • Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review
    • Half a Minute: Predicting Teacher Evaluations From Thin Slices of Nonverbal Behavior and Physical Attractiveness
    • 'Thin slices' of life
    • Conditions for Intuitive Expertise: A Failure to Disagree
    • Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes
    • Magic at the marketplace: Choice blindness for the taste of jam and the smell of tea
    • False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant
    • Reading Lies: Nonverbal Communication and Deception
    • Behavioral Science and Security
    • TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities
    • TSA Does Not Have Valid Evidence Supporting Most of the Revised Behavioral Indicators Used in Its Behavior Detection Activities
    • Telling Lies: Fact, Fiction, and Nonsense
    • TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists
    • A Review of 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    58 mins
  • 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
All stars
Most relevant  
I listen to this while I'm bored or distracted. It's a total stress remover, just amazing.

I love this podcast.

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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.

Want some political analysis with your breakfast?

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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.

great coverage

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

An entertaining deep-dive into the dangerous agendas hiding inside non-fiction bestsellers

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

My favourite podcast

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