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 refused. It was warm and safe inside. On his way home, the man saw a heron and whispered what had happened. The heron told him to squat and strain to eject the snake. When the snake stuck its head out, the heron caught it, pulled it out and killed it.

The farmer was worried that the snake’s poison might still be inside him and the heron told him that the cure for snake poison was to cook and eat six white fowl. You’re a white fowl, said the farmer. He grabbed the heron, put it in a bag and carried it home, where he hung it up while he told his wife what had happened. “I’m surprised at you,” said the wife. The bird does you a kindness, rids you of the evil in your belly, saves your life, yet you catch it and talk of killing it. She immediately released the heron and it flew away. But on its way, it gouged out her eyes.

Whaaaa?

I laughed so hard I almost fell off my bike.

I have a horrible feeling that the other 47 laws aren’t nearly so entertaining.