In 1997, Robert Kiyosaki revealed the secret to lifelong success: Deliver grifty seminars and hire child slaves. Support us on Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Exposed Stupid Investment of the Week Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Education on Real Estate Investing Review The Ticket t...
Apr 06, 2023•1 hr 14 min
Get in loser, we're going to Oberlin. To hear the rest of the show, support us on Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod
Mar 30, 2023•20 min
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 : https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: Appal...
Mar 23, 2023•48 min
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 :...
Mar 09, 2023•1 hr 1 min
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 suppor...
Feb 28, 2023•28 min
"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! Support us on Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Links! Huntington’s 1993 article Statistics on deaths in state-based conflicts The Clash of Civilizations: An Islamicist’s Critique Paul Musgrave’s Roundtable on Clas...
Feb 23, 2023•58 min
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. Support us on Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: Reflections on the End of History, Five Years Later ( https://www.jstor.org/stable/2505433 ) More Proof Th...
Feb 09, 2023•47 min
In December 2019, the coronavirus pandemic began in Wuhan, China. In May 2021, America experienced one of the most cursed weeks of punditry we've ever seen. This is a condensed version of the full episode. To hear the rest go to patreon.com/IfBooksPod . See you next week!
Jan 31, 2023•15 min
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?" Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: The Myth of Mars and Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages? A critical response to John Gray's Mars and Venus portrayals of men and women The Gender Similarities Hypothesis The Rebuttal fr...
Jan 26, 2023•1 hr 9 min
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. Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: Power Lines Oprah's Ugly Secret The Staggering Bullshit of The Secret Death by “alternative” medicine: Who’s to blame? For Some Seeking Rebirth, Sweat Lodge Was End A...
Jan 12, 2023•43 min
How a Stanford lepidopterist convinced the world to fear the breeding habits of the poor. Again. Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: Sonia Shah’s “The Next Great Migration” Barbarian Hordes: The overpopulation scapegoat in international development discourse Optimism and Overpopulation The Population Bomb Revisited The Strange History of Birth Control Birth Control for Others How the World Survived the Popula...
Dec 15, 2022•49 min
Our first premium episode is a deep dive into the blog of the infamously (and dubiously) "canceled" Bari Weiss. To hear the full episode, subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod More free episodes are on their way!
Dec 08, 2022•10 min
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. Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: He's Simply Resistable Pickup Artists Are Still A Thing. And They Want You To Know They’ve Evolved. Misogynist Incels and Male Supremacism Would the Pickup Artist Stand a Chance in the #MeToo Er...
Dec 01, 2022•56 min
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? Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: A Reasonable Man David Brooks: Boo-Boos in Paradise A Cartoon Elite David Brooks’s Conversion Story David Brooks and the Endless Grift of the Conservative Commentariat How The Bobos Broke America Death Of A Yuppie D...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr
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. Support us on Patreon Links: Malcolm Gladwell talks about responding to critics, and the perils of ‘Talking to Strangers’ Gladwell for Dummies Malcolm Gladwell interview The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance The Dangers of Delegating Education To Journalists ...
Nov 10, 2022•50 min
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! Support us on Patreon Where to find us: Twitter Peter's other podcast, 5-4 Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase Sources: The 2003 NYT article Freakonomics: What Went Wrong? A Review of Freakonomics Dismal Science Freak-Freakonomics The Impac...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 13 min
