If Books Could Kill

By: Michael Hobbes & Peter Shamshiri
  • Summary

  • The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds
    © 2025 If Books Could Kill
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Episodes
  • You Are A Badass
    Jan 23 2025

    Peter and Michael dissect Jen Sincero's "You are a Badass," a book that answers the question: What if "The Secret" was written in the painful, try-hard style of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck"? Featuring a surprise digression about Sincero's other, even worse books.

    Where to find us:

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

    Sources:

    • Savy Writes Books

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    59 mins
  • What's The Matter With Kansas?
    Dec 6 2024

    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!

    Where to find us:

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

    Sources:

    • The Thesis That Drove American Politics Crazy: The Emerging Democratic Majority
    • What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter with Kansas?
    • Class is Dismissed
    • The White Working Class and the Democratic Party
    • It’s time to bust the myth: Most Trump voters were not working class.
    • How the diploma divide came to dominate American politics
    • The 'Diploma Divide': Does It Exist for Racial and Ethnic Minorities?
    • Blind Retrospection: Why Shark Attacks Are Bad For Democracy
    • Nationally poor, locally rich: Income and local context in the 2016 presidential election
    • Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government
    • Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America
    • Political Landscapes of Donald Trump
    • The White Working Class and the 2016 Election
    • Partisanship by family income, home ownership, union membership and veteran status
    • The Elites Had It Coming
    • What Explains Educational Realignment Among White Americans?

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Sam Harris's "The End of Faith"
    Nov 4 2024

    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?

    Where to find us:

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

    Sources:

    • Views of Violence
    • Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System
    • The same motive for anti-US 'terrorism' is cited over and over
    • Does intuitive mindset influence belief in God?
    • Terrorism science: 5 insights into jihad in Europe
    • Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief
    • What Is "Islamophobia"?
    • Essays In Defense of Profiling
    • To Profile or Not to Profile
    • Chapter 2 The Making of Jihadist Social Actors in Europe in
    • Who are the new jihadis?
    • Disbelief - Prometheus Books
    • God and the Ivory Tower
    • Religion’s evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion
    • The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-Products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate
    • Talking to the Enemy

    Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

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    1 hr and 10 mins

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I laughed, I seethed, I learned, I was in awe…

I don’t normally listen to podcasts but saw a friend recommend this so I gave it a listen and I’m so glad I did! It’s so entertaining and both hosts are hilarious, engaging and very knowledgeable. I just genuinely enjoyed listening to them and learned so much about these books that really shocked and fascinated me. Please keep this series going!

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cutting, funny but really insightful

writing words so I can submit my review without having to think anymore about this

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