If you’re subscribed to this newsletter you probably know that I’m fascinated by bad ideas. Where they start, how they spread and, most importantly, why we believe them.
About six months ago, I started talking with my friend Peter Shamshiri (of the excellent 5-4 podcast) about how to do a show on the worst ideas of the last 50 years. We immediately thought of “airport books,” the pop nonfiction that has become one of America’s primary vectors for oversimplified history, misrepresented statistics and “contrarian” reinforcement of the status quo.
I only know one way to record and edit a podcast, so we decided to do this one like the other two: For each episode, one of us will read a terrible airport book and describe its contents and impacts to the other.
Our first episode is about “Freakonomics” and it’s currently available on Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts. We’ll also be on Twitter posting episode updates and brain-melting excerpts from the books we’re covering.
Like my other shows, we will unfortunately never run out of material. If you want to get a preview of our next few episodes, check out the replies to this tweet from last month (yes I was blatantly trawling for episode ideas; thanks everyone!).
Last thing before I go: Just like Aubrey and I did with Maintenance Phase, we’re releasing our first batch of episodes as a kind of experiment: We’ll put out one a week for the next six weeks (give or take) to see if people are as interested in this topic as we are. If so, we’ll come back in 2023 with a website and a Patreon and the rest of the Podcast Stuff to make a run at turning this into an ongoing show.
So: If you like it, tell your friends. And if we suck, tell us why!