A memoir about parenting very badly and then getting weirdly defensive when anyone asks you about it.

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• Effects of Authoritative Parental Control on Child Behavior, Child Development
• Types of Parenting Styles and Effects On Children
• Does “Tiger Parenting” Exist? Parenting Profiles of Chinese Americans and Adolescent Developmental Outcomes
• Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: An updated meta-analysis
• Do the associations of parenting styles with behavior problems and academic achievement vary by culture? Results from a meta-analysis
• Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept
• Impact of Behavioral Inhibition and Parenting Style on Internalizing and Externalizing Problems from Early Childhood through Adolescence
• The One Weird Trait That Predicts Whether You’re a Trump Supporter
• Investigating Correlates of Self-Regulation in Early Childhood with a Representative Sample of English-Speaking American Families
• Amy Chua thinks identity politics on both sides are to blame.
• How the 'Tiger Mom' Convinced the Author of Hillbilly Elegy to Write His Story

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

Is social media to blame for the teen mental health crisis? It's complicated!

Thanks to Emily Weinstein, Amy Orben, Andrew Przybylski, Dean Burnett, Michael Mullarkey and Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• Emily Weinstein's book, "Behind Their Screens"
• Positive and negative uses of social media among adolescents hospitalized for suicidal behavior
• The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics
• The Relationship Between Online Social Networking and Depression: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies
• Online "predators" and their victims
• The Coddling of the American Parent
• No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression
• How technology is transforming the ways in which children play
• Banning mobile phones in schools in Spain
• No One Knows Exactly What Social Media Is Doing To Teens
• Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media
• Smartphones are bad for some teens, not all
• How Smartphones Affect the Social-Emotional Development of Adolescents
• Social media use and its impact
• Time Spent on Social Network Sites and Psychological Well-Being
• A School-Level Analysis of Adolescent Extracurricular Activity

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

To celebrate ("celebrate") Donald Trump choosing JD Vance as his running mate we are re-releasing our "Hillbilly Elegy" episode. Enjoy!

Peter and Michael discuss "The Origins of Woke," a glimpse into the dark aspirations of the Republican Party and the mind of a very unusual man.

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• What Speech Does "Hostile Work Environment" Harassment Law Restrict? 
• Tunis v. Corning Glass Works, 698 F. Supp. 452 (S.D.N.Y. 1988)
• Pakizegi v. First Nat. Bank of Boston, 831 F. Supp. 901 
• Tesla Settles Discrimination Suit With Former Factory Worker - The New York Times
• Menial Tasks, Slurs and Swastikas: Many Black Workers at Tesla Say They Faced Racism - The New York Times 
• Diaz v. Tesla, Inc.
• Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American
• Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination 
• Meta-analysis of field experiments shows no change in racial discrimination in hiring over time | PNAS
• Systemic Discrimination Among Large U.S. Employers 

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

Peter and Michael discuss the media coverage of the protests at Columbia — from the crazed, bloodthirsty ravings of right-wing media to the more muted, respectful bloodthirst of centrist media.

To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

Peter and Michael discuss Michael Lewis’s bestselling book about the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, a young prodigy whose only flaw was that he dreamed too big.

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• Michael Lewis Is Buying What Sam Bankman-Fried Is Selling 
• Michael Lewis Likens Critics of His New Book on Sam Bankman-Fried to a 'Mob'
• The SBF trial is a reminder that crypto is a rotten business
• Review: Michael Lewis's Going Infinite
• The Curious Case of FTX’s ‘Company Therapist’ (vice.com)
• FTX’s Collapse Was a Crime, Not an Accident
• Going Infinite by Michael Lewis review – falling for the antihero
• The Second FTX Asset Recovery Report Is Packed With Bombshells
• Takeaways From a New Book on Sam Bankman-Fried
• Caroline Ellison Testifies Against Sam Bankman-Fried, Blaming Him for Crimes 

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

2 Better 2 Angels

Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• Jeffrey Epstein’s Science of Sleaze
• Pinker’s response to Epstein allegations
• How Jeffrey Epstein Captivated Harvard
• Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA
• It’s Official — Steven Pinker Is Full of Shit
• Pinker, Epstein, Soldier, Spy
• A century of sexual abuse victimisation: A birth cohort analysis
• The prevalence of child sexual abuse with online sexual abuse added
• Have Sexual Abuse and Physical Abuse Declined Since the 1990s?
• Explanations for the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
• The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
• Why Have Child Maltreatment and Child Victimization Declined?
• Spanking and Other Corporal Punishment of Children by Parents: Undervaluing Children, Overvaluing Pain
• Were There Really More Hate Crimes Last Year?
• Hate Crime Reported by Victims and Police
• The Sexual Victimization of College Women
• The "Discovery" of Child Abuse
• A Short History of Child Protection in America

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

We're finally discussing a good book! Naomi Klein's "Doppelgänger" chronicles the long, steady descent of another Naomi — Wolf (buddy oof) — from feminist icon to crank conspiracist. 

To hear the rest of the episode, support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod

In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg became an icon for women who wanted to move from middle management at a tech company into upper management at a tech company. Today, Peter and Michael examine the contents of her bestselling book, survey the wreckage of corporate feminism and ask whether women will finally find liberation in the Metaverse.

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• Facebook Feminism, Like It or Not
• Feminism's Tipping Point: Who Wins from Leaning in?
• One Cheer for Lean In
• Is there an implicit quota on women in top management? A large‐sample statistical analysis
• Female tokens in high-prestige work groups: Catalysts or inhibitors of group diversification?
• Want Equal Pay? Get a Union.
• The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations
• What Was the Girlboss?
• New Research: Women Who Don’t Negotiate Might Have a Good Reason
• Now, Women Do Ask: A Call to Update Beliefs about the Gender Pay Gap
• What’s It Like Inside the Hive? Managerial Discretion Drives TMT Gender Diversity of Women-Led Firms
• I asked Facebook if I could work part-time from home after I had my baby. They said no—so I quit
• Women in the Workplace 2023
• Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome
• Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

This week we're tackling Steven Pinker's 900 page dissection of the reasons why violence, torture and war have declined over the last 10,000 years. Was it an indeterminate mixture of politics, economics, technology and serendipity?  Or did some European guys write some books that said murder was bad?

Special thanks to Philip Dwyer, Eleanor Janega, David M. Perry and Doug Thompson for help researching and fact-checking this episode!

Where to find us: 

• Peter's other podcast, 5-4
• Mike's other podcast, Maintenance Phase

Sources:

• The Darker Angels of Our Nature
• Getting Medieval On Steven Pinker
• The Decline of Violence in the West: From Cultural to Post-Cultural History
• Pinker’s (Mis)Representation of the Enlightenment and Violence
• Herding and Homicide: An Examination of the Nisbett-Reaves Hypothesis
• Peace in Our Time
• John Gray: Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war
• The business class doesn't understand the Enlightenment
• Delusions Of Peace
• Pinker And Progress
• Norbert Elias and the History of Violence
• Modernization, Self-Control And Lethal Violence
• Explaining Long Term Trends in Violent Crime
• The Enlightenment’s Dark Side

 Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!