If Books Could Kill

Peter and Michael discuss a book that's light on facts and long on sentences. Where to find us:  * Our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod] * Our merch! [https://ifbookspod.dashery.com/] * 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: * Book Review: ‘Summer of Our Discontent,’ by Thomas Chatterton Williams [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/books/review/summer-of-our-discontent-thomas-chatterton-williams.html] * Police shootings database 2015-2024 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/] * From the archive, 22 March 1991: President Bush sickened by Rodney King case [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/mar/22/archive-1991-president-bush-sickened-rodney-king] * Barack Obama Public Approval [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/barack-obama-public-approval] * Letter To Christopher L. Eisgruber, President Princeton University [https://www.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2020/09/Princeton-Letter-9-16-20-Signed.pdf] * Police give additional details in beating of machete-wielding man amid Dallas protest [https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/06/09/police-give-additional-details-in-beating-of-machete-wielding-man-amid-dallas-protest/] * In City After City, Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/protests-policing-george-floyd.html] * RIOTS IN LOS ANGELES: Challenger; Nation Needs Healing, Clinton Says [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/04/us/riots-in-los-angeles-challenger-nation-needs-healing-clinton-says.html] * Median household income by race and ethnicity U.S. 1967-2023 [https://www.statista.com/statistics/1086359/median-household-income-race-us/] * Majority of college students support Israel/Gaza campus protests, 1 in 10 actually participate in them [https://www.thefire.org/news/majority-college-students-support-israelgaza-campus-protests-1-10-actually-participate-them] * Thomas Chatterton Williams on Race, Identity, and “Cancel Culture” [https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/thomas-chatterton-williams-on-race-identity-and-cancel-culture] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

How one comedian's offhand advice launched a decent TV episode, a mediocre book and a terrible movie. Where to find us:  * Our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod] * Our merch! [https://ifbookspod.dashery.com/] * 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: * Susan Faludi's "Backlash" [https://susanfaludi.com/backlash.html] * For Women Who Count on Men to Be Jerks [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/fashion/for-women-who-count-on-men-to-be-jerks.html?searchResultPosition=17] * Bridget Jones’s Legacy [https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64175/1/2016BrossMPhD.pdf] * Single Women in Popular Culture [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230358607] * A Decade of Advice for Women and Men in the Best-Selling Self-Help Literature [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2001.00122.x] * The gendered nature of self-help [https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/22471173/Binder3.pdf] * Single Women in Popular Culture  [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230358607] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

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. Where to find us:  * Our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod] * Our merch! [https://ifbookspod.dashery.com/] * 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: * Unconscious influences on decision making: A critical review [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/unconscious-influences-on-decision-making-a-critical-review/86885344F7E8A44457C3FC63CFA3F3AF] * Half a Minute: Predicting Teacher Evaluations From Thin Slices of Nonverbal Behavior and Physical Attractiveness [https://kevin.burke.dev/pdf/30_seconds_teacher_quality.pdf] * 'Thin slices' of life [https://www.apa.org/monitor/mar05/slices] * Conditions for Intuitive Expertise: A Failure to Disagree [https://www.agileleanhouse.com/lib/lib/People/DanielKahneman/DanielKahneman2009_ConditionsForIntuitiveExpertise_AFailureToDisagree.pdf] * Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes [https://home.csulb.edu/~cwallis/382/readings/482/nisbett%20saying%20more.pdf] * Magic at the marketplace: Choice blindness for the taste of jam and the smell of tea [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027710001381] * False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611417632] * Reading Lies: Nonverbal Communication and Deception  [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30609913/] * Behavioral Science and Security [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-112hhrg65053/html/CHRG-112hhrg65053.htm] * TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities [https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-159.pdf] * TSA Does Not Have Valid Evidence Supporting Most of the Revised Behavioral Indicators Used in Its Behavior Detection Activities  [https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-17-608r] * Telling Lies: Fact, Fiction, and Nonsense [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-single/201411/telling-lies-fact-fiction-and-nonsense-maria-hartwig] * TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists [https://theintercept.com/2015/03/27/revealed-tsas-closely-held-behavior-checklist-spot-terrorists] * A Review of 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell [https://newrepublic.com/article/68000/blinkered] Thanks to Mindseye [https://mindseye-music.bandcamp.com/track/the-place-beyond-the-clouds-2] for our theme song!

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!