If Books Could Kill

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The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds
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Episodes

Published 2026-04-30

Grit

79 min Transcript
Open

In 2013, education reformers tried to help poor students the using the best tool at their disposal: The 16th most popular Ted Talk.

Special thanks to Marcus Credé! 

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Published 2026-04-16

CROSSOVER EVENT: Tim Ferriss’s "The 4-Hour Body"

68 min Transcript
Open

Peter went on Mike's other show, Maintenance Phase, to revisit a biohacking diet book for the boys.

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Published 2026-03-05

Bullshit Jobs

60 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss "Bullshit Jobs" by anarchist anthropologist David Graeber. The result: two professional podcasters debating which jobs are real and which jobs are fake.

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Published 2026-02-05

The Millionaire Next Door

71 min Transcript
Open

It turns out that the key to wealth is buying the right kind of watch, marrying the right kind of wife and being the right kind of white.

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Published 2025-12-29

The Worst Takes of 2025 [TEASER]

50 min Transcript
Open

The boys catalog the definitive worst takes of the year, from the pundits who misunderstood our political moment to a guy who wants to have sex with a computer.

To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

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Published 2025-12-18

Elon Musk Part 2

91 min Transcript
Open

The boys continue their discussion of Walter Isaacson's "Elon Musk." This is the part where Elon loses his mind. 

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Published 2025-12-09

Elon Musk

88 min Transcript
Open

A biography that dares to ask: Is a lifetime of worker abuse and narcissism worth it to experience robot butlers?

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Published 2025-11-20

Sapiens

98 min Transcript
Open

How do you tell the entire history of humanity in a single book? Whatever you do, do not open a browser window. 

Thanks to Dorsa Amir, Duncan Stibbard Hawkes and David Perry for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2025-10-02

How To Win Friends And Influence People

70 min Transcript
Open

Live like Dale Carnegie, neg like Calvin Coolidge.

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Published 2025-09-11

Thomas Chatterton Williams' "Summer of Our Discontent"

91 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss a book that's light on facts and long on sentences.

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Published 2025-07-31

He's Just Not That Into You

60 min Transcript
Open

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

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Published 2025-07-17

Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink"

57 min Transcript
Open

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.

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Published 2025-06-19

"In Covid's Wake" Part 2: Wrong About The Right

70 min Transcript
Open

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

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Published 2025-06-17

"In Covid's Wake" Part 1: Lying About Lockdowns

57 min Transcript
Open

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

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Published 2025-04-23

The Let Them Theory

53 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss The Let Them Theory, a self-help guide to seeking bliss through unmitigated complacency.

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Published 2025-03-06

Of Boys And Men

82 min Transcript
Open

Who's to blame for the crisis of American masculinity? On the right, politicians tell men that they being oppressed by feminists and must reassert their manhood by supporting an authoritarian regime. And on the left, users of social media are often very irritating to people who write airport books.  

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Published 2024-12-06

What's The Matter With Kansas?

65 min Transcript
Open

In 2004, historian Thomas Frank proposed a theory about the rightward drift of the white working class. Was he a prescient king whose work presaged the rise of Trump — or a bumbling fool with a broken thesis?  Unfortunately it turns out he is a secret third thing that takes one hour and six minutes to explain.

Special thanks to Julia Valdés for her help with this episode!

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Published 2024-11-04

Sam Harris's "The End of Faith"

69 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss the book that launched the phenomenon of New Atheism and asked the question: What if we hated Muslims, but in a secular way?

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Published 2024-10-10

Who Moved My Cheese?

69 min Transcript
Open

What should workers do when they get laid off? In 1998 a bleak, asinine bestseller told them to find another whey. 

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Published 2024-09-24

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

55 min Transcript
Open

A memoir about parenting very badly and then getting weirdly defensive when anyone asks you about it.

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Published 2024-08-08

The Anxious Generation

120 min Transcript
Open

Is social media to blame for the teen mental health crisis? It's complicated!

Thanks to Emily Weinstein, Amy Orben, Andrew Przybylski, Dean Burnett, Michael Mullarkey and Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2024-07-11

Richard Hanania's "The Origins of Woke"

61 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss "The Origins of Woke," a glimpse into the dark aspirations of the Republican Party and the mind of a very unusual man.

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Published 2024-05-02

"Going Infinite": Michael Lewis Takes On Sam Bankman-Fried

75 min Transcript
Open

Peter and Michael discuss Michael Lewis’s bestselling book about the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, a young prodigy whose only flaw was that he dreamed too big.

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Published 2024-04-11

"The Better Angels of Our Nature" Part 2: Campus Lies, I.Q. Rise & Epstein Ties

84 min Transcript
Open

2 Better 2 Angels

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Published 2024-03-14

Lean In

57 min Transcript
Open

In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg became an icon for women who wanted to move from middle management at a tech company into upper management at a tech company. Today, Peter and Michael examine the contents of her bestselling book, survey the wreckage of corporate feminism and ask whether women will finally find liberation in the Metaverse.

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Published 2024-02-22

"The Better Angels of Our Nature" Part 1: You're Not Wrong, Pinker. You're Just An *sshole

97 min Transcript
Open

This week we're tackling Steven Pinker's 900 page dissection of the reasons why violence, torture and war have declined over the last 10,000 years. Was it an indeterminate mixture of politics, economics, technology and serendipity?  Or did some European guys write some books that said murder was bad?

Special thanks to Philip Dwyer, Eleanor Janega, David M. Perry and Doug Thompson for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2024-01-11

The Art of the Deal

52 min
Open

Before Donald Trump became America's most prominent politician and birth certificate inspector, he spent his days making everyone in New York City slightly uncomfortable. Michael and Peter discuss "The Art of the Deal," Trump’s 1987 bestseller chronicling his exploits as a celebrity slumlord.

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Published 2023-12-14

The Identity Trap

107 min Transcript
Open

"There are two kinds of political scientists: The types who deal with noisy data and post on Twitter with a bunch of caveats. And then there are the types who write books about identity politics."
 
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Published 2023-11-21

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

45 min Transcript
Open

You stare, mouth agape, at the bookstore display. It’s a self-help book, but with curse words in the title?! This must be a revolutionary new framework, not simply the same dull, reactionary ideas repackaged as hip and new.

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!



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Published 2023-11-02

The 48 Laws of Power

65 min Transcript
Open

In 1996, a frustrated screenwriter got a fellowship in Italy. Twenty years later, Beyoncé released "Lemonade." 

Content warning: This episode includes a mention of suicide.

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-10-26

The "Organized Retail Crime" Panic [TEASER]

31 min Transcript
Open

Retailers have been sounding the alarm about a shoplifting epidemic driven by organized criminal syndicates. In a shocking twist, it turns out that their story is mostly made up. Join us as Peter tries to figure out where this panic originated and as Mike finally comes clean about his criminal past.


To hear the rest of the show, support us on Patreon:
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Published 2023-10-19

San Fransicko

60 min Transcript
Open

This week we're tackling "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities," a book that dares to ask: What if everything that experts think about homelessness is wrong, and everything that one crank on Twitter thinks about homelessness is right?

Thanks to Ned Resnikoff for helping us with the research for this episode!

Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-09-21

The 4-Hour Workweek

56 min Transcript
Open

Have you ever wanted to escape the grind and follow your dreams? This week we're discussing "The 4-Hour Workweek," which reveals that all you need is a plan, a willingness to take risks and a modestly sized fraud operation built on Third World labor.

Support us on Patreon:
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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-09-07

God And Man At Yale

71 min
Open

Oops all grievance.

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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-07-27

Liberal Fascism

64 min Transcript
Open

Who poses the greatest threat to democracy? Is it the movement that openly identifies with the symbols, goals and policies of fascist governments? Or is it the median bureaucrat at the Department of Health and Human Services?

In 2008, a National Review nepo-baby attempted to answer this vexing question.

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Published 2023-06-29

The Rules

69 min Transcript
Open

In 1995 a bestselling book proposed a simple dating strategy for women: Lose weight, wear bright colors and become a completely different person for the rest of your life.

Thanks to Moira Donegan for helping us with this episode!

Support us on Patreon:
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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-06-15

Atomic Habits

61 min Transcript
Open

This week we're discussing "Atomic Habits," a book about how to use science (and also some stuff that’s definitely not science) to train yourself to be a more functional person.

Support us on Patreon:
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 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-06-01

The World is Flat

67 min Transcript
Open

Much has been said about globalization, but perhaps no one has said it worse than Thomas Friedman.

Content Note: Discussions of xenophobic and racist content, especially toward the end of the episode.

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Published 2023-05-19

"Nudge" Part 2: Mr. Nudge Goes to Washington

61 min Transcript
Open

The Nudgening.

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Published 2023-05-04

"Nudge" Part 1: A Simple Solution For Littering, Organ Donations and Climate Change

70 min Transcript
Open

In 2008, an economist and a law professor proposed a radical new approach to politics: Telling people not to do bad stuff.

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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-04-20

The 5 Love Languages

54 min Transcript
Open

What’s your love language? Is it gifts? Words of affirmation? Or is it podcasts about books with extremely weird, reactionary gender dynamics?

Support us on Patreon:
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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-04-06

Rich Dad Poor Dad

73 min Transcript
Open

In 1997, Robert Kiyosaki revealed the secret to lifelong success: Deliver grifty seminars and hire child slaves.

Support us on Patreon:
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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-03-23

Hillbilly Elegy

48 min Transcript
Open

In 2016, J.D. Vance informally launched his political career with "Hillbilly Elegy," a memoir that blames the relative poverty of Appalachian and Rust Belt populations on their own culture. Despite its reactionary premise, mainstream and liberal press outlets were so enamored by the book that they accidentally made Vance a senator.

Support us on Patreon:
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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-03-09

The Coddling Of The American Mind

61 min Transcript
Open

TRIGGER WARNING: if you're a SNOWFLAKE college professor afraid of how your students are expressing themselves, you might need a SAFE SPACE, because Michael and Peter are discussing "The Coddling of The American Mind," a book about campus culture that's light on facts and heavy on cherry-picked anecdotes.

CORRECTION: The Socrates quote mentioned at the end of this episode is apocryphal. We thank the listeners who pointed this out for refusing to coddle our American minds.

Support us on Patreon:
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Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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Published 2023-02-28

The New York Times's War On Trans Kids [TEASER]

27 min Transcript
Open

The nation's most prestigious newspaper insists on asking a very stupid question. So for this month's bonus episode, we decided to answer it.

To hear the rest of the show, support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

As we mentioned at the top of the episode, we're donating this month's support to three of our trans journo-friends! They've been unbelievably patient with Mike as he's navigated the science and politics of this issue over the last year. Here's where to find and support their work:




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Published 2023-02-23

The Clash of Civilizations

58 min Transcript
Open

"If your thesis doesn't hold up to obvious criticisms, there's a chance that your thesis sucks."

Thanks to Paul Musgrave and Alex Cruikshanks for helping us fact-check this episode!

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Links!

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Published 2023-02-09

The End of History

47 min Transcript
Open

Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" changed political discourse forever. Peter and Michael peel back his muddled history and fluffy rhetoric, revealing several more layers of muddled history and fluffy rhetoric.

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Published 2023-01-26

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

69 min Transcript
Open

In 1992 a yoga instructor with a distance-learning PhD had the courage to ask: "Are women not getting help around the house because they're using the wrong modal verb?"

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Published 2023-01-12

The Secret

42 min Transcript
Open

Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" sold millions of copies based on a simple premise: All of science is fake and the only reason anything ever happens is because people manifest it by communicating with the universe.

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Published 2022-12-15

The Population Bomb

49 min Transcript
Open

How a Stanford lepidopterist convinced the world to fear the breeding habits of the poor. Again.

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Published 2022-12-01

The Game

55 min Transcript
Open

Neil Strauss's "The Game" aimed to teach any man how to hook up with beautiful women. All he needed was a little bit of sociopathy, a lot of misogyny and a fanny pack full of props.

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Published 2022-11-17

David Brooks's "Bobos in Paradise"

59 min Transcript
Open

David Brooks became liberals' famous conservative by telling them what they wanted to hear. But ... why did they want to hear something that was lazy and wrong?

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Published 2022-11-10

Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers"

50 min Transcript
Open

In "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell posited that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in something. Mike and Peter prove him wrong by mastering his dumb book over the span of about 50 minutes.

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Published 2022-11-01

Freakonomics

73 min Transcript
Open

In 2005, two men named Steven and Stephen published the quintessential airport book. In 2022, two men named Mike and Peter started a whole podcast just to make fun of it.

Thanks to Ted Joyce and Ames Grawert for helping with the research for this episode!

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