If Books Could Kill podcast

As we’ve discussed, the If Books Could Kill podcast has its issues, notably that sometimes they’re too soft on their own premises, and sometimes they seem to be working too hard to contort things into a certain political context. But when they hit it, they hit it. The hosts have a great rapport and move pretty fast, which is all the more impressive given that they don’t have the production values or the scripts of a show like This American Life; they’re just winging it. I can wing it too in a live presentation; I think I’d find it harder to sustain it in regular hour-long podcasts. In any case, it was all worth it for this story, from their episode on “The 48 Laws of Power”: African proverb or something. I don’t know where he’s pulling this from. . . . a snake chased by hunters asked a farmer to save its life. To hide it from its pursuers, the farmer squatted and let the snake crawl into his belly. But when the danger had passed and the farmer asked the snake to come out, the snake…