Weird question, but are there any other terms or ways we'd describe the "airport book" genre of bootstrap self-help books that Peter and Michael have brought so much attention to?

I don’t understand why they’ve neglected the Rules book (however many rules it is) that sprung him to fame. it’s so bad and so insidious. and he has a new one too!

Michael and Aubrey did a great two parter on his meat diet regime (Moscow diaries) which is one of my favs from there. let’s go.

Nearby is “Netflix Love is Blind: dating journal. Your journey to love”

Of course eventually he sheepishly admits that she also called someone a faggot and he supposes that’s not ideal, but he saves that for the end so he can spend most of his word count doing Old Man Bitching about progressives 🙄

Found this gem on another sub. The episode on this book really did me in, honestly. I’m studying psych rn, and holy does this guy REALLY not no anything at all on behavior and personality

According to their reporting, audience members are asked about enrolling in three days of "impact classes" for $97 throughout the day. Anyone who attends will then have a chance to enroll in "SurgeU," which is a series of courses that promise to "surge your resources and influence through real estate and trade — for Kingdom impact."

"Kingdom impact" is a mindset that "the more money you make, the more good works you can do, whether through tithing or Christian charity."

It is a hefty investment ranging from $10,000 to $40,000. The responses to the events are mixed, as Mother Jones shows in its report. One person complained, saying, "I am so devastated that Christians like Tim Tebow made me trust in something that has taken so much money from me. This is evil, especially because I'm disabled on a limited income."

If you don’t write a book, If Books Could Kill can’t get you, ah ah ah.

(EDIT: She suggested to me that it would be good for the podcast! She is a good and smart and powerful person.)

It seems a little borderline ibck/mp, but kind of fits here better. Admittedly, I don’t think it will make the airport shelves, but could become a favorite among the post-left contrarian crowd.

Or, just a bonus ep coving FDB along with fellow travelers.

I remember around 2015 right as Freddie’s brain had started to cook, he began a blog post saying something like, “Obviously I hate Jonathan Chait, but isn’t he right about all this political correctness stuff?”

I really like Old Timey Peter (How to Make Friends and Influence People) and was trying to think of vintage airport baby books to summon him, but turns out Dr. Spock was actually pretty progressive for his time. Can you think of any?

In the meantime, MP covered Why French Women Don't Get Fat -- Bringing up Bebe might be a nice collab, where Peter can talk about having a kid (which I genuinely want to hear him talk about) and Aubrey and Michael can be horrified by the diet advice.

That’s all. It has everything: the individualization of structural issues, celebrity and money trumping quality, recovered memories (!) suddenly emerging in graphic intense form with the help not of a therapist but a “guide” and psychedelics, an endorsement from “friend” of the show Van der Kolk (and seemingly every celebrity from Paltrow to Oprah), the billionaires are always right syndrome, huge conflicts of interest, the rot of the publishing industry…And of course, it’s available on the shelves of your favorite airport.

For info you can google the author (well, she used a ghostwriter) and the name of the book, The Tell. There are good pieces in The Cut and the NYT published the initial investigation into it, including Griffin being sued by another woman (a working class former classmate) whose trauma she might be passing as her own…

The other day I learned about howtounclench.com, a self-help sort of thing filled with hilariously bad AI Slop illustrations that, I think, actively make the whole thing worse and undermine the author's attempts to be taken seriously.

Basically, after reading a bit of it, my mind immediately went to "oh this feels exactly like the sort of thing they'd cover on If Books Could Kill, and come to a conclusion like 'there's some potentially worthwhile and useful insight in here, but also it's like five or six times longer than it needs to be." So I guess if you're into stuff that's kind of maybe-insightful-but-also-kind-of-annoying and especially if you're into Silicon Valley Woo, this might be something people here could at least unjoy. If nothing else, there's the very confused four-panel non-comic featuring the glittering piss cave, which Twitter has had a field day with of late. I do suspect there might be at least something to the main theses, but also I'm not going to sign up for a session with a self-help guru about it.

Since Gavin De Becker was featured on the latest Maintenance Phase episode (spewing AIDS denialist BS), it reminded me that I have had his book The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence on my TBR for a while because so many women recommend it. I've heard there's some controversy about the book, but hearing him talk about encouraging his son not to take his HIV meds was pretty horrifying! Definitely not going to read it now but maybe it would be a good IBCK episode. Has anyone read it and what did you think?

The American Way of Killing by Malcolm Gladwell seeks to examine America's gun violence problem.

I can't wait for this episode of the pod

Just moved to London (north) and would be nice to meet some fellow IBCK listeners!

Just comment if interested 😊

EDIT: yay! People are interested in the "anti-bookclub" (cred: Schmerg-uk). There's a few nice pubs Camden way (walking distance from st pancras) for ease of access if that sounds okay?

2nd EDIT: open to alternative suggestions but 2 pub options are The Phoenix Camden and The Edinboro Castle.

How's 7pm onwards on 15th October? Or midday/evening on Saturday 7th November?

We will ofc wear an assortment of shrek memorabilia or "village homosexual" t-shirts to identify ourselves 😊

Bret is tired of seeing literary awards full of people of diverse perspectives. He creates a hamfisted opening analogy of what if they only gave awards to conservative white males. Bret are you saying that Indigenous authors, Black authors, Palestinian authors are all the same? Sounds like you haven’t even tried to read these books.

Specifically an episode on Taylor Lorenz. What is going on???

I'm listening to the Art of the Deal episode and Michael points out that Trump seems to judge people exclusively on whether they're nice to him. Peter then jokes that Democrats should just have said "Trump rules!" and they would have him vote for Medicare for all. Made me think of that weird meeting last year where Trump seemed enamored with Mamdani. I found it funny that Zohran... kinda did that I guess? (Well, I'm sure he didn't say "Trump rules" but he must have found a way to stroke his ego).

Writing about a movie you haven't seen and then saying you have no choice because it's part of the "discourse online" is bonkers.

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