"In Covid's Wake": Lying About Lockdowns
Tue, 17 Jun 2025
Two political scientists look back at a deadly pandemic and ask, "could we have done even less?...
Bonus: The Lab Leak Goes Mainstream
Thu, 05 Jun 2025
By popular demand we are releasing last month's Patreon bonus episode on the main feed! We char...
The Let Them Theory
Wed, 23 Apr 2025
Peter and Michael discuss The Let Them Theory, a self-help guide to seeking bliss through unmitigate...
Josh Hawley's "Manhood" [TEASER]
Mon, 31 Mar 2025
To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod
Steve Harvey's "Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man"
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
Are you a single lady struggling to find love with a man? Don't fret! A twice-divorced game sho...
Of Boys And Men
Thu, 06 Mar 2025
Who's to blame for the crisis of American masculinity? On the right, politicians tell men that ...
You Are A Badass
Thu, 23 Jan 2025
Peter and Michael dissect Jen Sincero's "You are a Badass," a book that answers the q...
What's The Matter With Kansas?
Fri, 06 Dec 2024
In 2004, historian Thomas Frank proposed a theory about the rightward drift of the white working cla...
Sam Harris's "The End of Faith"
Mon, 04 Nov 2024
Peter and Michael discuss the book that launched the phenomenon of New Atheism and asked the questio...
Who Moved My Cheese?
Thu, 10 Oct 2024
What should workers do when they get laid off? In 1998 a bleak, asinine bestseller told them to find...
UNLOCKED: Eric Adams
Thu, 26 Sep 2024
New York’s favorite criminal is in the news, so here is our episode about his ridiculous life.To h...
Glenn Kessler Retire B*tch [TEASER]
Thu, 26 Sep 2024
Is fact-checking a legitimate enterprise? Is America's most famous fact-checker nothing more th...
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Tue, 24 Sep 2024
A memoir about parenting very badly and then getting weirdly defensive when anyone asks you about it...
The Anxious Generation
Thu, 08 Aug 2024
Is social media to blame for the teen mental health crisis? It's complicated!Thanks to Emily We...
Breaking News Re-Release: "Hillbilly Elegy"
Tue, 16 Jul 2024
To celebrate ("celebrate") Donald Trump choosing JD Vance as his running mate we are re-re...
Richard Hanania's "The Origins of Woke"
Thu, 11 Jul 2024
Peter and Michael discuss "The Origins of Woke," a glimpse into the dark aspirations of th...
The Columbia Protests [TEASER]
Thu, 16 May 2024
Peter and Michael discuss the media coverage of the protests at Columbia — from the crazed, bloodt...
"Going Infinite": Michael Lewis Takes On Sam Bankman-Fried
Thu, 02 May 2024
Peter and Michael discuss Michael Lewis’s bestselling book about the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-...
"The Better Angels of Our Nature" Part 2: Campus Lies, I.Q. Rise & Epstein Ties
Thu, 11 Apr 2024
2 Better 2 AngelsSupport us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPodWhere to find us: Peter&ap...
Who's Afraid of Naomi Wolf? [TEASER]
Thu, 28 Mar 2024
We're finally discussing a good book! Naomi Klein's "Doppelgänger" chronicles t...
Lean In
Thu, 14 Mar 2024
In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg became an icon for women who wanted to move from middle management at a tec...
"The Better Angels of Our Nature" Part 1: You're Not Wrong, Pinker. You're Just An *sshole
Thu, 22 Feb 2024
This week we're tackling Steven Pinker's 900 page dissection of the reasons why violence, ...
The Art of the Deal
Thu, 11 Jan 2024
Before Donald Trump became America's most prominent politician and birth certificate inspector,...
The Worst Takes of 2023 [TEASER]
Thu, 21 Dec 2023
To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod
The Identity Trap
Thu, 14 Dec 2023
"There are two kinds of political scientists: The types who deal with noisy data and post on Tw...
Pundit Portraits: Kathleen Parker and Chris Cillizza [TEASER]
Tue, 28 Nov 2023
To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Tue, 21 Nov 2023
You stare, mouth agape, at the bookstore display. It’s a self-help book, but with curse words in t...
The 48 Laws of Power
Thu, 02 Nov 2023
In 1996, a frustrated screenwriter got a fellowship in Italy. Twenty years later, Beyoncé released ...
The "Organized Retail Crime" Panic [TEASER]
Thu, 26 Oct 2023
Retailers have been sounding the alarm about a shoplifting epidemic driven by organized criminal syn...
San Fransicko
Thu, 19 Oct 2023
This week we're tackling "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities," a book that d...
The 4-Hour Workweek
Thu, 21 Sep 2023
Have you ever wanted to escape the grind and follow your dreams? This week we're discussing &qu...
The Clinton E-Mail Scandal [TEASER]
Thu, 14 Sep 2023
But her e-mails! Michael explains the non-scandal that captivated the mainstream media in 2016 while...
God And Man At Yale
Thu, 07 Sep 2023
Oops all grievance.Support us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPodWhere to find us: Twitte...
'On Bullsh*t' and the Pundit Industrial Complex [TEASER]
Thu, 10 Aug 2023
For this month's bonus episode we dissected Harry Frankfurt's gloriously brief bestseller ...
Liberal Fascism
Thu, 27 Jul 2023
Who poses the greatest threat to democracy? Is it the movement that openly identifies with the symbo...
Are The Straights OK [TEASER]
Thu, 13 Jul 2023
In our "Rules" and "Game" episodes we didn't get a chance to dissect the ph...
BONUS: Conservatives vs. Pride Month
Thu, 06 Jul 2023
Lots of subscribers asked us to release last month's bonus episode in full so here it is! Share...
The Rules
Thu, 29 Jun 2023
In 1995 a bestselling book proposed a simple dating strategy for women: Lose weight, wear bright col...
Atomic Habits
Thu, 15 Jun 2023
This week we're discussing "Atomic Habits," a book about how to use science (and also...
The World is Flat
Thu, 01 Jun 2023
Much has been said about globalization, but perhaps no one has said it worse than Thomas Friedman.Co...
"Nudge" Part 2: Mr. Nudge Goes to Washington
Fri, 19 May 2023
The Nudgening.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPodWhere to find us: TwitterPet...
The Meme Stock Cult [TEASER]
Mon, 15 May 2023
In 2021, scrappy young investors from across the world joined forces to buy GameStop stock, aiming t...
"Nudge" Part 1: A Simple Solution For Littering, Organ Donations and Climate Change
Thu, 04 May 2023
In 2008, an economist and a law professor proposed a radical new approach to politics: Telling peopl...
The 5 Love Languages
Thu, 20 Apr 2023
What’s your love language? Is it gifts? Words of affirmation? Or is it podcasts about books with e...
Ben Shapiro's Plan To End Poverty [TEASER]
Thu, 13 Apr 2023
Is it bootstraps? It's bootstraps.To hear the rest of the show, support us on Patreon: https://...
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Thu, 06 Apr 2023
In 1997, Robert Kiyosaki revealed the secret to lifelong success: Deliver grifty seminars and hire c...
The Dumbest Campus Controversies Of The Last Decade [TEASER]
Thu, 30 Mar 2023
Get in loser, we're going to Oberlin.To hear the rest of the show, support us on Patreon: https...
Hillbilly Elegy
Thu, 23 Mar 2023
In 2016, J.D. Vance informally launched his political career with "Hillbilly Elegy," a mem...
The Coddling Of The American Mind
Thu, 09 Mar 2023
TRIGGER WARNING: if you're a SNOWFLAKE college professor afraid of how your students are expres...
The New York Times's War On Trans Kids [TEASER]
Tue, 28 Feb 2023
The nation's most prestigious newspaper insists on asking a very stupid question. So for this m...
The Clash of Civilizations
Thu, 23 Feb 2023
"If your thesis doesn't hold up to obvious criticisms, there's a chance that your the...
The End of History
Thu, 09 Feb 2023
Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" changed political discourse ...
The Lab Leak [TEASER]
Tue, 31 Jan 2023
In December 2019, the coronavirus pandemic began in Wuhan, China. In May 2021, America experienced o...
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Thu, 26 Jan 2023
In 1992 a yoga instructor with a distance-learning PhD had the courage to ask: "Are women not g...
The Secret
Thu, 12 Jan 2023
Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" sold millions of copies based on a simple premise: All of...
The Population Bomb
Thu, 15 Dec 2022
How a Stanford lepidopterist convinced the world to fear the breeding habits of the poor. Again. Sup...
A Bari Special Bonus Episode [TEASER]
Thu, 08 Dec 2022
Our first premium episode is a deep dive into the blog of the infamously (and dubiously) "can...
The Game
Thu, 01 Dec 2022
Neil Strauss's "The Game" aimed to teach any man how to hook up with beautiful women....
David Brooks's "Bobos in Paradise"
Thu, 17 Nov 2022
David Brooks became liberals' famous conservative by telling them what they wanted to hear. But...
Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers"
Thu, 10 Nov 2022
In "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell posited that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a...
Freakonomics
Tue, 01 Nov 2022
In 2005, two men named Steven and Stephen published the quintessential airport book. In 2022, two me...