Episodes HN recommended
Atomic Habits
Jun 15, 2023 • 1 h 01 minDavid Brooks's "Bobos in Paradise"
Nov 17, 2022 • 1 h 00 minMalcolm Gladwell's "Outliers"
Nov 10, 2022 • 50 min
Recent episodes
The Rahm Emanuel Profiles Will Continue Until Morale Improves [TEASER]
Oct 27, 2026 • 42 minWhy Men Love Bitches
Oct 5, 2026 • 1 h 12 minSurrounded By Idiots
Sep 1, 2026 • 1 h 09 minThree Cups of Tea
Aug 5, 2026 • 1 h 52 minThe Body Keeps The Score
Jun 18, 2026 • 1 h 50 minThink And Grow Rich
May 21, 2026 • 1 h 03 minGrit
Apr 30, 2026 • 1 h 19 minCROSSOVER EVENT: Tim Ferriss’s "The 4-Hour Body"
Apr 16, 2026 • 1 h 08 minBullshit Jobs
Mar 5, 2026 • 1 h 00 minThe Millionaire Next Door
Feb 5, 2026 • 1 h 11 minThe Worst Takes of 2025 [TEASER]
Dec 29, 2025 • 50 minElon Musk Part 2
Dec 18, 2025 • 1 h 31 minElon Musk
Dec 9, 2025 • 1 h 28 minSapiens
Nov 20, 2025 • 1 h 38 minHow To Win Friends And Influence People
Oct 2, 2025 • 1 h 10 minThomas Chatterton Williams' "Summer of Our Discontent"
Sep 11, 2025 • 1 h 32 minHe's Just Not That Into You
Jul 31, 2025 • 1 h 00 minMalcolm Gladwell's "Blink"
Jul 17, 2025 • 58 minThe Supreme Court Goes Full TERF [TEASER]
Jul 1, 2025 • 1 h 02 min"In Covid's Wake" Part 2: Wrong About The Right
Jun 19, 2025 • 1 h 10 min"In Covid's Wake" Part 1: Lying About Lockdowns
Jun 17, 2025 • 58 minBonus: The Lab Leak Goes Mainstream
Jun 5, 2025 • 1 h 21 minThe Let Them Theory
Apr 23, 2025 • 54 minJosh Hawley's "Manhood" [TEASER]
Mar 31, 2025 • 53 minSteve Harvey's "Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man"
Mar 28, 2025 • 59 minOf Boys And Men
Mar 6, 2025 • 1 h 23 minYou Are A Badass
Jan 23, 2025 • 59 minWhat's The Matter With Kansas?
Dec 6, 2024 • 1 h 06 minSam Harris's "The End of Faith"
Nov 4, 2024 • 1 h 10 minWho Moved My Cheese?
Oct 10, 2024 • 1 h 09 min
What HN said
- specialistFeb 2023Belated followup: I'm wrong.
Coincidently, If Books Can Kill reviewed The Population Bomb. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id...
I still think the Ehlrichs are moral cripples, and that they should not have made policy prescriptions. Like the '20s era Progressives (and others), early leftist environmentalists advocated terrible policies for "those people" while minimizing their own inconvenience. Eugenics, notably.
However, I was not aware of the zeitgeist about "overpopulation" at the time, nor how that meme came to support the reactionary project. For instance, morphing into today's rabid anti-Muslim organizations.
So my updated position is, on the balance, The Population Bomb did far more wrong and probably very little good.
My issue is that anti-Malthusian rhetoric, just like anti-anti-racism, often serves to concern troll and minimize actual pressing problems. "Ya, ya, ya. Climate crisis. Big deal. Y'all were wrong about overpopulation too. Calm down."
But two wrongs don't make a right. So I now agree with you wrt this book.
- makeitdoubleJan 2023> Books are curated content that has been reviewed by editor
This is a very low bar. Lower than having a podcast fact checked on NPR or a research paper on peer reviewed publication.
Think business books, biographies, testimonies of popular events, self help and diet books. The bar to pass is not if it´s remotely true or helpful, it will be if it sells. Review and edition will be on the style and writing, not on content.
Sometimes the authorś name or the press campaign surrounding the book will be enough for it to sell, with very few people actually engaging with the book in its details.
There is a funny and absolutely _not_ reviewed podcast on this theme, openly biased and not to take too seriously, but going through widely popular books that are garbage under even the minimum scrutiny: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id...
- mturmonDec 2022Bomber mafia: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/when-pop-history-bombs-a...
Roundup of a few (follow links): https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/02/29/the-patern...
If Books Could Kill (worthwhile, as is the Freakonomics episode of the same podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malcolm-gladwells-outl...
- mistersquidDec 2022> Scott A. and the author he reviews seem to thrive a little too well in the world of muddy explanations.
The problem of this causal explanation perhaps lies with the source material Scott Alexander cited without adequate critical analysis, namely David Brooks’ _BoBos in Paradise_.
“If Books Could Kill”, co-hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri, analyzes and humorously takes down book-length transgressions against critical thinking. A recent episode adroitly and conclusively disassembles Brooks’ _BoBos in Paradise_ as quite harmful and comically wrongheaded. [0]
[0] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-books-could-kill/id...
- PuppyTailWagsMar 2023Note that this isn't an unbiased source. This is working with Jon, the co-writer of The Coddling Of The American Mind, which uhhh is not without its critics for inaccuracies and stretching of truth. Check it out:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coddling-of-the-am...
- benzibleAug 2023Highly recommend this "If Books Could Kill" episode on the concept of "nudges": https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nudge-part-1-a-simple-... (critical of the concept but I think quite fair and well-researched)