The Gist

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See You in Court! Mar 13, 2017

Show notes

President Donald Trump's management style has created lots of big, messy legal questions. With his new executive order on immigration, and his calls for a congressional investigation into wiretapping, Trump is plunging the government into uncharted territory. Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution is here to explain. Wittes is the editor in chief of the Lawfare blog.

In the Spiel, the fight for Tom Price's old House seat has already become deeply silly.

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Survey Says … Mar 11, 2017

Show notes

Anthony Salvanto, CBS News' elections director, explains the CBS Nation Tracker poll and why it's different from the surveys that tell you if you're a Jessa.

In the Spiel, can you trust the job numbers?

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Trump's Azerbaijan Problem Mar 09, 2017

Show notes

President Donald Trump has overseen many shady deals, but New Yorker staff writer Adam Davidson thinks he may have found the most questionable one. Davidson says a Trump Organization hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, links the president to some shady oligarchs as well as Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a shadow-government ideological group. Read Davidson's piece, "Donald Trump's Worst Deal."

Maria Konnikova has today's Spiel on the theory of trickle-down hate-speech.

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A Beautiful Health Care Plan, Just Terrific Mar 08, 2017

Show notes

Donald Trump has promised lower costs, broader coverage, and better premiums in his health care plan. Well, the new bill is out, and it's uniting liberals and conservatives in outright disdain. "I've only heard from two outside groups who like this bill," says Vox health care correspondent Sarah Kliff. Everybody else hates it. Kliff walks us through the implications of "Trumpcare" and whether it has any chance of passing through Congress.

For the Spiel, how your smart TV became a sleeper agent for the intelligence community.

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Moneyball for the Israeli Military Mar 07, 2017

Show notes

In books like Moneyball and The Big Short, Michael Lewis has written about people who think in a completely different way from their colleagues. For his latest, The Undoing Project, Lewis profiles the patron saints of different thinking, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. The two men completely upended the study of decision-making in the early 1950s.

For the Spiel, the artist formerly known as the Affordable Care Act.

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The Fonz Talks About Fonts Mar 07, 2017

Show notes

Henry Winkler is an icon of American comedy. Between roles in Happy Days, Arrested Development, and Parks and Recreation, Winkler has been writing children's books starring the character Hank Zipzer. Winkler says the stories have helped him come to terms with his own dyslexia, which he only discovered as an adult. His newest book is Always Watch Out for the Flying Potato Salad.

For the Spiel, you might want to learn to spell "wiretap" because you accuse someone of ordering a wiretap.

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The Year "Gangnam" Was Robbed Mar 03, 2017

Show notes

The Gist's Billboard charts Sherpa Chris Molanphy returns to hearken back to more recent musical history: the hits of 2012. We learn why Psy's ubiquitous "Gangnam Style" isn't technically on the list and how a Swedish stable of songwriters dominated the charts with "turbo pop." Molanphy writes the Why Is This Song No. 1? column for Slate.

In the Spiel, chasing down a lesser-known lie.

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The Bard of Florida Mar 02, 2017

Show notes

The inexplicable oddness of Florida takes on a sort of logic after you listen long enough to Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize–winning humorist and longtime denizen of the state. On The Gist, Barry provides a mental atlas for the various regions of weird within Florida, its incompetent government (but what a bargain), and its unrivaled weirdos. His book is Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland.

In the Spiel, Attorney General Jeff Sessions stands confused and, now, recused.

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Coming to America With Maeve Higgins Mar 01, 2017

Show notes

Three years ago, Maeve Higgins left a successful career as an author comedian in Ireland to try her hand at New York City. Since then, she's been obsessed with fellow immigrants, people who have chosen to make their life in the USA, often against formidable odds. In her podcast, Maeve in America, Higgins tells these stories, from Syrian refugees to Korean academics to English comedians.

For the Spiel, a fable that explains everything you know about Trump's speech to Congress.

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A World Disorder Doctrine Mar 01, 2017

Show notes

China isn't a boogeyman, North Korea is genuinely frightening, and we could stand to be more diplomatic with Russia. Those ideas come from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who says the U.S. can be a stabilizing force in the world, so long as it does a better job of discerning when to speak softly and when to use the big stick. Haass is the author of A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order.

For the Spiel, you're nobody until you're somebody that President Trump considers—and then you're everybody.

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