Two political scientists look back at a deadly pandemic and ask, "could we have done even less?"

Where to find us:

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

Sources:

• Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year”
• The 2019 WHO report
• 30‐day mortality following COVID‐19
• COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions
• Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the United States
• What we can learn from Sweden
• A review of the Swedish policy response to COVID-19
• How Sweden approached the COVID‐19 pandemic
• The first eight months of Sweden’s COVID‐19 strategy
• The Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster
• Excess mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020
• How Sweden approached the COVID-19 pandemic
• Comparisons of all-cause mortality between European countries and regions
• Jonathan Howard’s “We Want Them Infected.”
• Deaths: Leading Causes for 2021
• Stay-at-home orders associate with subsequent decreases in COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States
• Did the Timing of State Mandated Lockdown Affect the Spread of COVID-19?
• US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths

Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

By popular demand we are releasing last month's Patreon bonus episode on the main feed! We chart the transformation of the lab leak from an unfounded theory promoted by right-wing cranks to an unfounded theory promoted by liberal journalists.

Where to find us:

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

Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!

Peter and Michael discuss The Let Them Theory, a self-help guide to seeking bliss through unmitigated complacency.

Where to find us:

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

Sources:

• How to stop screwing yourself over
• Mel Robbins and Plagiarism
• Let her? Army wife claims Mel Robbins stole her idea for blockbuster self-help book
• Mel Robbins’s “Let Them” theory: really that simple?
• Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Conceptual Framework of Implementation Guidelines Based on a Systematic Review of the Published Literature
• Polarization in America
• The 5 Resets
• Impact of health warning labels on selection and consumption of food and alcohol products: systematic review with meta-analysis

Thanks to Mindseye for our theme song!