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The Gist — Daily News
The Gist

For thirty minutes each day, Pesca challenges himself and his audience, in a responsibly provocative style, and gets beyond the rigidity and dogma. The Gist is surprising, reasonable, and willing to critique the left, the right, either party, or any idea.

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Latest Episodes:

Shake It Off, Taylor Aug 30, 2017

Show notes

Question: What's the best way to take a vacation in a Communist society? Answer: With utmost utilitarian seriousness, and possibly without your family. On this last week before Labor Day, guest host and Slate writer Leon Neyfakh talks to historian Diane Koenker about how the Soviet Union came to embrace personal holidays and reconcile them with the Communist doctrine. Koenker is the author of Club Red: Vacation Travel and the Soviet Dream.

In the Spiel, the cautionary tale of Taylor Swift's latest single.

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The Flood Trap That Houston Built Aug 29, 2017

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Slate's Henry Grabar explains how rampant building in the Houston suburbs have made the area worse for wear during Tropical Storm Harvey. And in the Spiel, guest-host Osita Nwanevu breaks his self-imposed moratorium against criticizing columnist David Brooks.

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Al Letson Became A Human Shield Aug 29, 2017

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Al Letson was just trying to cover a demonstration – an anti-hate rally in Berkeley. When he saw a group of balaclava-clad men descend on an apparent right-wing agitator, he jumped into the fray, using his body to defend the man from kicks and punches. Letson is the host of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.

And for the Spiel, is "#whaboom" the worst of our culture today?

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Mismatch Aug 26, 2017

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The hype surrounding the Saturday night fight between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and MMA fighter Conor McGregor is overtly racially charged. Why? Because people are eating it up, says Wesley Morris, critic-at-large for the New York Times. Morris and Mike talk about the role of race in the NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick, Dana Schutz's Open Casket painting of Emmett Till, the closing of the Broadway show The Great Comet, and more. Morris is the co-host of the Still Processing podcast.

In the Spiel: We live in interesting times.

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America Is Weird About Sex Aug 25, 2017

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Understanding sexual consent is complicated. Colleges are working to clarify this issue while also policing sexual assault. But when does this cross over into legislating feelings versus facts? Vanessa Grigoriadis helps us understand the current iteration of the sexual consent debate happening on campuses today. Grigoriadis is the author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus.

In the Spiel: Should we tear down statues?

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Sure, Punching Nazis Feels Good… Aug 23, 2017

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The antifa movement is resurging. It started in 1920s Europe to fight Hitler and Mussolini and has returned to oppose the current wave of xenophobia in the United States. Author Mark Bray walks us through the history of the antifa movement. Bray is the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.

In the Spiel: Trump's campaign speech in Phoenix.

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Russia's Lab Rat Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

Filmmaker Bryan Fogel had a simple hypothesis: The worldwide anti-doping system is a joke. To test his theory, Fogel wanted to dope himself and evade detection. A Russian anti-doping lab director agreed to help. Months later, Fogel's personal doping coach was blowing the whistle on Russia's piss-swapping scam to get around anti-doping rules. Fogel's documentary, Icarus, is available on Netflix.

In the Spiel: The Instagram drama of Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

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The Many Theories of Malcolm Gladwell Aug 21, 2017

Show notes

Malcolm Gladwell's hit podcast Revisionist History spits out neat, distilled theories in every episode. Some of them are careful, others are reductive. But Gladwell says his theories aren't all meant to be airtight: They just help him organize his stories, or merely spruce them up. "In some of them I'm trying to make a very, very serious, moral point. Sometimes I'm just—I'm making intellectual mischief."

In the Spiel: the parallels between the Obama administration and the Trump administration on race relations.

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The Year MTV Took Over the Charts Aug 18, 2017

Show notes

In 1982, MTV started guiding Billboard's taste in music. The year was filled with elaborate videos and cheesy ballads. Chris Molanphy takes us through all the hand claps and synth vibes of that year's Billboard hits. Molanphy writes Slate's Why Is This Song No. 1 column and hosts the podcast Hit Parade.

In the Spiel: The last time anything good happened to Donald Trump.

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Is This the End of Steve Bannon? Aug 17, 2017

Show notes

Did Steve Bannon really misunderstand the meaning of off the record during his now-infamous "interview" with the American Prospect? "Yup," says Joshua Green, author of Devil's Bargain, a book about Bannon's influence on the Trump presidency. Green addresses the latest rumors of Bannon's political demise, and tries to sort out why, exactly, Trump's chief strategist always wears three shirts at once.

In the Spiel, a nuclear war with North Korea no longer feels inevitable. So what now?

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