If Books Could Kill

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 [https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod]

Last episode we met two Princeton political scientists who are bad at virology. Today we learn that they are also bad at political science. Where to find us:  * Peter's newsletter [https://stringinamaze.net/] * Peter's other podcast, 5-4 [https://www.fivefourpod.com/] * Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase [https://www.maintenancephase.com/] Sources: * Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year” [https://www.lawrencewright.com/books/the-plague-year-america-in-the-time-of-covid] * Jonathan Howard’s “We Want Them Infected” [https://redhawkpublications.com/We-Want-Them-Infected-p547021769] * How the Pandemic Defeated America [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/] * COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions [https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/impact-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-on-covid-19-transmission/covid-19-examining-the-effectiveness-of-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-executive-summary.pdf] * US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11282449/] * Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions [https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-024-19799-7] * Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7833753/pdf/main.pdf] * The Impact of Vaccines and Behavior on US Cumulative Deaths [https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/16937-BPEA-BPEA-SP24_WEB-Atkeson-Kissler.pdf] * Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate] * Report for the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry [https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/sites/default/files/ev-documents/sci-dcrxxx-000001.pdf] * The Effectiveness Of Government Masking Mandates  [https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01072] * School closures during COVID-19 [https://ebm.bmj.com/content/28/3/164] * COVID-19–Related School Closures [https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/1/23-1215_article] * The Effects of School Closures on COVID‑19 [https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40258-021-00702-z.pdf] * Higher COVID-19 Deaths with Later School Closure in the United States [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10275350/pdf/nihms-1854274.pdf] * Reopening America’s Schools [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15582159.2020.1822731] * Reading literacy decline in Europe [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095947522500074X?dgcid=rss_sd_all] * DeSantis vs. Newsom [https://archive.ph/X9pCG#selection-1431.0-1431.19] * Red States Have Seen Less Learning Loss [https://www.educationnext.org/red-states-have-seen-less-learning-loss-post-pandemic-scores-nations-report-card-naep/] * Political partisanship and mobility restriction  [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7437478/] * Republicans Aren’t New To The Anti-Vaxx Movement [https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-arent-new-to-the-anti-vaxx-movement/] * KFF poll on anti-vaxx beliefs [https://www.kff.org/health-information-and-trust/poll-finding/kff-tracking-poll-on-health-information-and-trust-january-2025/] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

Two political scientists look back at a deadly pandemic and ask, "could we have done even less?" Where to find us:  * Peter's newsletter [https://stringinamaze.net/] * Peter's other podcast, 5-4 [https://www.fivefourpod.com/] * Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase [https://www.maintenancephase.com/] Sources: * Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year” [https://www.lawrencewright.com/books/the-plague-year-america-in-the-time-of-covid] * The 2019 WHO report [https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/329438/9789241516839-eng.pdf?sequence=1]                 * 30‐day mortality following COVID‐19 [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9115089/] * COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions [https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/impact-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-on-covid-19-transmission/covid-19-examining-the-effectiveness-of-non-pharmaceutical-interventions-executive-summary.pdf] * Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the United States [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7833753/pdf/main.pdf] * What we can learn from Sweden [https://science.orf.at/stories/3229029] * A review of the Swedish policy response to COVID-19 [https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/62153886C92EE99336895AFA16D71B48/S1744133121000256a.pdf/soft-law-and-individual-responsibility-a-review-of-the-swedish-policy-response-to-covid-19.pdf] * How Sweden approached the COVID‐19 pandemic [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9538368/] * The first eight months of Sweden’s COVID‐19 strategy [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7537539/] * The Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster [https://time.com/5899432/sweden-coronovirus-disaster/] * Excess mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic  [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11293825/] * Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020 [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7687454/] * How Sweden approached the COVID-19 pandemic [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.16535] * Comparisons of all-cause mortality between European countries and regions [https://www.ons.gov.uk/Peoplepopulationandcommunity/Birthsdeathsandmarriages/Deaths/Articles/Comparisonsofallcausemortalitybetweeneuropeancountriesandregions/Datauptoweekending3september2021] * Jonathan Howard’s “We Want Them Infected.” [https://redhawkpublications.com/We-Want-Them-Infected-p547021769] * Deaths: Leading Causes for 2021 [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr73/nvsr73-04.pdf] * Stay-at-home orders associate with subsequent decreases in COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34111123/]  * Did the Timing of State Mandated Lockdown Affect the Spread of COVID-19?  [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8357543/pdf/jpmph-21-071.pdf] * US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11282449/] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

By popular demand we are releasing last month's Patreon bonus episode on the main feed! We chart the transformation of the lab leak from an unfounded theory promoted by right-wing cranks to an unfounded theory promoted by liberal journalists. Where to find us:  * Peter's newsletter [https://stringinamaze.net/] * Peter's other podcast, 5-4 [https://www.fivefourpod.com/] * Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase [https://www.maintenancephase.com/] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

Peter and Michael discuss The Let Them Theory, a self-help guide to seeking bliss through unmitigated complacency. Where to find us:  * Peter's newsletter [https://stringinamaze.net/] * Peter's other podcast, 5-4 [https://www.fivefourpod.com/] * Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase [https://www.maintenancephase.com/] Sources: * How to stop screwing yourself over [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7E973zozc] * Mel Robbins and Plagiarism [https://sagejustice.substack.com/p/mel-robbins-and-plagiarism] * Let her? Army wife claims Mel Robbins stole her idea for blockbuster self-help book [https://nypost.com/2025/03/12/lifestyle/army-wife-claims-mel-robbins-stole-her-idea-let-them-book/]  * Mel Robbins’s “Let Them” theory: really that simple? [https://www.vox.com/culture/402666/mel-robbins-let-them-theory-self-help-guru-tik-tok] * Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Conceptual Framework of Implementation Guidelines Based on a Systematic Review of the Published Literature [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10741869/]  * Polarization in America [https://goodauthority.org/news/what-is-polarization-good-to-know/] * The 5 Resets [https://www.draditi.com/the-five-resets-book]  * Impact of health warning labels on selection and consumption of food and alcohol products: systematic review with meta-analysis [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8635708/] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!