On the Gist, the how the senators are occupying themselves.

In the interview, writer Will Self is here to talk with Mike about his new memoir Will. They discuss addiction, how Will accesses memory, and the difficulty of his name.

In the spiel, Mitch’s monotone.

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On the Gist, revisiting the travel ban.

In the interview, we talk with Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes, the editors of Lawfare, about their new book, Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office. They discuss the precedents that Trump has broken as POTUS and paint a stark picture of the future of the executive office if he is re-elected.

In the spiel, “a bunch of dopes and babies.”

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On the Gist, the New York Times endorsement.

In the interview, senior fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Matthew Levitt is here to talk about the killing of Qasem Soleimani. What calculus went into the decision, whether it was worth it, and what this means for the future of the US and Iran.

In the spiel, the beginning of the Senate impeachment trial.

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On the Gist, Joe Biden and the New York Times.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another episode of “Is That Bullshit?” This time she and Mike tackle whether or not we’re currently experiencing the latest mass extinction event. We may not have noticed, but the insects certainly have.

In the spiel, the difference between journalism and activism.

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On the Gist, Donald Trump and Devin Nunes know Lev Parnas.

In the interview, Mike talks with author Dave Eggers about his new book, The Captain and the Glory, a story about the clownish captain of a great ship. Eggers discusses how satire can help us admit the absurdities of our times and how writing the book helped him process our current political climate.

In the spiel, bunging a bob for a big ben bong.

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On the Gist, cats will eat you.

In the interview, economist Daniel Susskind is here to discuss his new book A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond. They talk about the future of work, how technology is shifting, and the effectiveness of Andrew Yang’s proposal of universal basic income.

In the spiel, the debate was lackluster.

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On the Gist, the latest debate and Corey Booker.

In the interview, John Tierney is here to talk about his and Roy F. Baumeister’s new book The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It. They discuss why the bad is always more memorable than the good, and the real uses of such negativity.

In the spiel, Elizabeth Warren’s plan to forgive student debt by executive order.

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On the Gist, Trump lying about embassies and Iran.

In the interview, New America’s Lee Drutman is here to discuss his new book Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America. He and Mike talk about why we need more than two parties in the US, how the two-party system came about, and what the way forward could be like.

In the spiel, the Oscars need affirmative action.

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On the Gist, Marianne Williamson is out.

In the interview, Adam Davidson is back, this time talking to Mike about his new book The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century. They discuss the case studies Adam used to illustrate this positive aspect of the economy in recent years, and how people have turned their passions into professions.

In the spiel, Elizabeth Wurtzel and Don Imus.

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On the Gist, accusing people of writing eulogies.

In the interview, Slate’s Lizzie O’Leary and Justin Peters talk with Mike about Jeopardy!’s “Greatest of All Time” tournament. With Justin as a previous Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestant, and Mike and Lizzie both as Jeopardy! alums, the three discuss how this tournament stacks up to the standard fare, who they think will win, and what their own experiences were like on TV.

In the spiel, the governmental vacancies thanks to Trump.

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On the Gist, the Iran story isn’t over yet.

In the interview, Slate’s Jim Newell is here to talk with Mike about John Bolton. They discuss why Bolton has announced he’s available to be subpoenaed by Congress, how this might play out, and where the Senate and the House stand.

In the spiel, Jim Acosta’s commentary.

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On the Gist, Trump’s letters to Iraq.

In the interview, journalist Lauren Chooljian is here to talk about her podcast series Stranglehold. It focuses on the New Hampshire primary, how it continues to be first primary in the nation, and what long-running New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner has to do with it.

In the spiel, trying to get paid to leave Iraq.

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On the Gist, Kellyanne Conway and unnecessary clarifications.

In the interview, New Yorker writer Adam Davidson is here to talk about Trump’s business dealings in Iran. Based on his past reporting, Davidson discusses with Mike how Trump became financially involved with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, a military force in Iran, and what impact that has had on recent events.

In the spiel, movies and TV.

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On the Gist, the Quds force.

In the interview, Slate’s Fred Kaplan is here to talk with Mike about the recent action the Trump administration has taken against Iran. They discuss what impact the death of Qasem Soleimani will have on the Middle East, the United State’s relationship with Iran and Iraq, and why this appears to be an act of war. Kaplan writes the War Stories column for Slate.

In the spiel, Soleimani and war.

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On the Gist, guns in Louisiana and New York.

In the interview, the second part of our Zero Blog Thirty interview where Mike talks to Chaps and Kate about Chaps being a dog handler in the Marines and all the ways it’s different than we think it is.

In the spiel, Castro is out.

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On the Gist, Mike makes predictions about what happened the week of Christmas.

In the spiel, Mike reflects on 2019. He shares a rundown of what he didn’t cover, and a few particular standout moments from this year’s episodes.

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On the Gist, John Bolton.

In the interview, Mike talks to the hosts of Zero Blog Thirty, a podcast about the military from those who've lived it. They discuss the recent news about the Afghanistan papers, how Trump handled all the recent war criminals, and finding a space to talk about the inside baseball of the armed forces. Zero Blog Thirty is a podcast from Barstool, which you can listen to here.

In the spiel, ‘tis the political season.

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On the Gist, Pete Buttigieg and wine bars.

In the interview, Mike talks to actor Rhea Seehorn and creator Mike Sacks about their new Audible original Passable in Pink, a satire of John Hughes films. They discuss their shared love of Hughes’ movies, how films like 16 Candles have held up in 2019, and the behind-the-scenes audio wizardry that made Passable in Pink come to life.

In the spiel, Julian Castro’s attempt to revive his campaign.

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On The Gist, impartial jurors for impeachment.

In the interview, Pat Garofalo, managing editor of TalkPoverty.org is here to discuss his new book The Billionaire Boondoggle: How Our Politicians Let Corporations and Bigwigs Steal Our Money and Jobs. He and Mike the actual economic impact of things like the Super Bowl, and why cities might want to reconsider offering so many subsidies to companies.

In the spiel, Jeff Van Drew.

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On the Gist, the third impeachment in U.S. history.

In the interview, Mike talks to reporter Dan Weissmann about the cost of healthcare, the horror stories of people navigating the complicated system, and what at all can be done to fix it. Dan’s healthcare podcast is An Arm and a Leg.

In the spiel, Jesus and Trump.

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On the Gist, how government should work.

In the interview, Mike talks to economist Branko Milanovic about the various forms of capitalism that exist in the world today, the role of higher education signaling in American society, and the ways to reduce the negative effects of inequality. His new book is Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World.

In the spiel, the case for Mike Bloomberg.

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On the Gist, impeachment and partisanship.

In the interview, Mike talks to Jonathan Metzl, Vanderbilt University professor and the research director of The Safe Tennessee Project. They discuss the latest Supreme Court case that examined a person’s right to bear arms in New York City, how the justices ruled, and what this case means for the second amendment in the future. Jonathan’s latest book is Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland.

In the spiel, Greta Thunberg is older than she looks.

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On the Gist, birds and Debird.

In the interview, Mike talks to journalist and CNN correspondent Peter Bergen about Trump’s national security team, the internal feuds, and why the key players of this team have all left, three years later. His new book is Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.

In the spiel, the Republicans need all the noise to continue.

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On the Gist, trade symbols.

In the interview, Mike talks to Dannagal Goldthwaite Young about satire, irony, and humor in a politically divided world. They discuss successful and not-so-successful examples of conservative political satire, how humor differs on the right and left, and the psychology behind comedy. Her new book is Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States.

In the spiel, the pace of impeachment.

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On the Gist, the problem with democracies.

In the interview, Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution and Lawfare is on the phone with Mike today to talk about Devin Nunes’ memo from 2017 in light of the recent Inspector General’s report. What did Nunes get right and wrong? And was it enough to let us stop calling him a nincompoop?

In the spiel, McKinsey and Pete Buttigieg.

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On the Gist, William Barr and malfeasance.

In the interview, comedians Drennon Davis and Mike Phirman are here to talk about their podcast Bandtastic, a sci-fi musical for the family. They talk with Mike about how the project came about, adult and child humor, and DJ Yeah.

In the spiel, impeachment and history.

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On the Gist, fighting Biden.

In the interview, Mike talks to sports journalist and author Joe Posnanski about the elusive Houdini. They talk about how Erik Weisz became the great Harry Houdini, how the man transformed himself from failing magician to famous escape artist, and the myths shrouding his mysterious death. Joe’s book is The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini.

In the spiel, points of order.

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On The Gist, Chuck Todd.

In the Interview, former The Wall Street Journal reporter and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson is here to talk with Mike about the Steele dossier, the infamous pee tape, and his regrets and hopes around the dossier’s coverage. His new book with co-author Peter Fritsch is Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.

In the Spiel, Cory Booker’s theory on why Kamala Harris dropped out.

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On The Gist, UNESCO.

In the Interview, Mike talks to Bina Venkataraman, The Boston Globe editorial page editor. They talk about the best ways to tackle climate change, how to encourage people to think long-term, and whether or not humanity will make it past the year 2200. Her new book is The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age.

In the Spiel, Joe Biden confronting an 83-year-old farmer in Iowa.

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On The Gist, unpopular opinions.

In the Interview, Mike talks to actor Kal Penn about his sitcom Sunnyside. They discuss how he came up with the idea for the show, his time working for the Obama administration, and the Easter eggs hidden throughout the season. You can watch Sunnyside on Hulu, Amazon, and other streaming platforms.

In the Spiel, the rebuttal to impeachment.

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On The Gist, Kamala Harris.

In the Interview, Mike talks to Slate writer Julia Craven about Kamala Harris’ decision to end her White House bid, the internal crises that broke out within her campaign, and why, after a promising start, she struggled to stand out in the crowded Democratic race.

In the Spiel, a sperm whale and straws.

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On The Gist, Chuck Todd did good.

In the interview, documentarian Alex Gibney is here to discuss his newest film, Citizen K, about former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Putin’s Russia. They discuss what led to Khodorkovsky’s exile, and the way his story reveals the current state of Russian affairs.

In the Spiel, Mike’s Thanksgiving weekend.

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On The Gist, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Maria Konnikova is back for another “Is That Bullshit?” In the Interview, she talks to Mike about DOGTV, a cable network made for dogs. Maria breaks down whether or not DOGTV helps dogs feel a little less lonely while their owners are away and if DOGTV programming is truly relaxing for dogs. Maria’s latest book is The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, Rep. Jim Jordan and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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On The Gist, beavers.

In the interview, Mike talks to The Sporkful host Dan Pashman about Washington State University’s latest creation—the Cosmic Crisp apple. Pashman explains the birth of this new apple, how it compares to other varieties, and quizzes Mike in a game called "Apple Variety or New England Town." Listen to The Sporkful episode, “A New Apple Is Born,” wherever you get your podcasts.

In the Spiel, Prince Andrew.

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On The Gist, Nikki Haley.

In the interview, Mike talks to Senator Sherrod Brown about his new book Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America. They talk about these forgotten figures, what people can learn from them, and the power and limits of bi-partisanship.

In the Spiel, South Carolina.

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On The Gist, Joe Biden again.

Then Mike speaks with Slate blogger Ben Mathis-Lilley about impeachment.

And we end with an interview with Chris Molanphy, who is back to run through the nominees for this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He and Mike talk about the new nominees, those who’ve appeared time and again, and the game theory of it all. Chris is the host of Hit Parade and writes the column “Why Is This Song Number One?”

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On The Gist, is Pete Buttigieg ready?

In the interview, Mike talks to former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin about his time in office, how he drastically reduced wait times at VA medical centers, and the infamous tweet that got him fired. His new book is It Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country: Our Broken Government and the Plight of Veterans.

In the Spiel, Fiona Hill.

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On The Gist, Representative John Ratcliffe.

In the interview, Mike talks to CIA whistleblower Jeffery Sterling about his CIA career, how he blew the whistle on a bungled covert operation in Iran in 2015, and his life after serving time. His new book is Unwanted Spy: The Persecution of an American Whistleblower.

In the Spiel, Gordon Sondland.

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On The Gist, the MSNBC and The Washington Post Democratic debate.

In the interview, Mike talks to actor June Diane Raphael of Grace and Frankie about her call to activism after the 2016 election, working with Emily’s List, and encouraging more women to run for office. Her new book is Represent: The Woman’s Guide to Running for Office and Changing the World.

In the Spiel, the impeachment saga.

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On The Gist, Pete Buttigieg.

In the interview, Mike talks to Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter, about the company’s origins, the challenges of developing creator guidelines, and what he thinks about wealth in the tech industry. His new book is This Could Be Our Future.

In the Spiel, Mayor Bloomberg and stop-and-frisk.

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On The Gist, Elizabeth Warren’s new plan.

In the interview, Jamil Zaki is here to discuss his new book The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. He and Mike debate the merits of sympathy versus empathy, and discuss the ways we view empathy may not be the way we live with it.

In the Spiel, Devin Nunes, disgraced nincompoop.

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On The Gist, Nancy Pelosi.

In the interview, Mike talks to filmmaker Mark Landsman and former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Steve Coz about their new documentary Scandalous: The True Story of the National Enquirer. They discuss ethics, Trump, and how the publication’s tactics have changed over the years.

In the Spiel, need a dose of pizzazz?

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On The Gist, Purple: Project for Democracy.

In the interview, Mike talks to writer and National Review editor Rich Lowry about the tradition of American nationalism, how to reclaim the term, and why we need it more than ever. His new book is The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and Free.

In the Spiel, the impeachment hearing, Giuliani, and corruption.

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On The Gist, treason and bribery.

In the interview, Irish writer and critic Fintan O’Toole talks to Mike about Brexit, the nationalist wave sweeping England, and country’s future without the European Union. His book The Politics of Pain: Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalismis out now.

In the Spiel, scandals and apologies.

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On The Gist, partisanship.

In the interview, Brian T. Brown is here to talk about his new book, Someone Is Out to Get Us: A Not So Brief History of Cold War Paranoia and Madness. He and Mike discuss the ways the US and the USSR felt about each other, how those feelings persist today, and the different intelligence structures in the US and Russia.

In the Spiel, Republicans and impeachment.

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On The Gist, the new book by the anonymous member of the White House.

In the interview, Mike talks to actor Edward Norton about his new film Motherless Brooklyn. They discuss Robert Moses’s complicated legacy in New York, his early beginnings volunteering as a public housing advocate, and working with Alec Baldwin to make this movie come alive. Motherless Brooklynis in theaters now.

In the Spiel, Pete Buttigieg and Black voters.

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On The Gist, taxing Bill Gates.

In the interview, Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana is here to talk with Mike about his run for the Democratic nomination. They discuss how Bullock’s work on campaign finance reform in Montana, how he alters his message for local and national audiences, and what he thinks of the penny.

In the Spiel, Pete Buttigieg’s lack of experience.

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On The Gist, political correctness?

In the interview, Mike talks to political scientist James A. Robinson about why some nations have more liberty than others and what nations can do to uphold freedom in the face of political threats. His new book, co-written with Daron Acemoglu, is The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.

In the Spiel, popular policies.

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On The Gist, it’s not good to agree with Donald Trump, Jr.

In the interview, race car driver Michael Waltrip and filmmaker Paul Taublieb are here to talk with Mike about the new documentary Blink of an Eye based on the book of the same name about racing, Waltrip’s his relationship with Dale Earnhardt, Sr., and the fateful day of Earnhardt’s crash. The film is currently available to stream digitally.

In the Spiel, Elizbeth Warren’s healthcare plan.

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On The Gist, socialism and taxes.

In the interview, Thomas Chatterton Williams talks to Mike about why it’s important to reject social constructs like race, how he has reckoned with these categories, and what he has learned about identity as a parent. His new book is Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race.

In the Spiel, Kellyanne Conway.

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On The Gist, Mike went to Politicon this past weekend and moderated the panel What Now Democrats, featuring James Carville, Joe Lockhart, Zerlina Maxwell, Kyle Kulinski and Jess McIntosh. They debate the future of the party, what kinds of issues will matter in 2020, and what they should stop fighting over.

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On The Gist, presidential incompetency at its finest.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for “Is That Bullshit?” She and Mike figure out what are really in Impossible and Beyond burgers and if they’re healthier than red meat burgers. Maria’s latest book is The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, the ridiculous world of taxonomy.

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On The Gist, ghosts aren’t real.

In the interview, Mike talks to Slate writer and Slow Burn host Joel Anderson about the new season, the hidden facts he learned about Tupac and Biggie, and the latest revelations he uncovered documenting the biggest hip-hop legends ever. Listen to Slow Burn here.

In the Spiel, guessing what Trump says.

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On The Gist, Melinda Gates and empowering women.

In the final part of Mike’s two-part interview with U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, they talk about the right and wrong ways to handle human rights atrocities across the world and their love of baseball. To learn more, read her new book The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir.

In the Spiel, the Katie Hill scandal continues.

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On The Gist, socialism and millennials.

In the first part of a two-part interview, Mike talks to Samantha Power, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, about the early beginnings of the Syrian crisis, her role in trying to stop the Assad regime, and what she has learned from her mistakes during that critical time. Her new book is The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir.

In the Spiel, Katie Hill’s resignation.

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On The Gist, understanding the differences between Hispanic and Latinx.

In the interview, Mike talks to journalist Joel Stein about elitism in 2019, how Trump is really part of the elite, and what the future holds for populism across the world. His new book is In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You're Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book.

In the Spiel, Trump and pies.

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On The Gist, Katie Hill’s throuple.

In the interview, Mike talks to writer Coleman Hughes about how his childhood shaped his views on race in America, his case against reparations, and what he’s working on next in the world of philosophy.

In the Spiel, how much is Mark Zuckerberg’s time worth?

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On The Gist, storming the SCIF.

In the interview, podcast producer and Canadian Chris Berube is here to talk with Mike about the recent Canadian election, how much shorter their elections are, and the government Trudeau has had to cobble together. Berube is a producer for 99% Invisible.

In the Spiel, Facebook and fact-checking.

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On The Gist, racial slurs and context.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of “Is That Bullshit?” This time, she and Mike figure out if sunscreen is good for us, what we should be wary of, and why many of us need more sunlight. Maria’s latest book is The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, the Canadian election.

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On The Gist, Trump is no George Washington.

In the interview, Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks are here to discuss their new book Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why. They talk about why the expert isn’t always the best vessel for information, the power dynamics involved, and why famous people often end up with that job.

In the Spiel, the indirect language of Trump.

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On The Gist, Gordon Sondland testified before Congress.

In the interview, Meghan Daum is here to talk with Mike Pesca about her new book The Problem with Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars. They discuss toughness versus sensitivity, age differences, and how we should appreciate the confusion of this time more.

In the Spiel, a dodeca-antentwig.

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On The Gist, what does quid pro quo even mean?

In the interview, Mike talks to Ash Carter about his time as the 25th Secretary of Defense, what he would have down if he were Jim Mattis, and what he thinks about Trump’s military strategy in Syria.

In the Spiel, Trump and Erdogan are back at it again.

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On The Gist, the October CNN democratic debate.

In the interview, Mike talks to director and executive producer Nicole Kassell about directing the Watchmen pilot, the show’s many Easter eggs, and how they honor the real-life 1921 riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In the Spiel, why no one supports Trump’s strategy with the Kurds.

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On The Gist, too many candidates?

In the interview, Shea Serrano is back to talk with Mike about his newest book Movies (And Other Things). They talk about Armageddon, why Booksmart will have such longevity and importance, and watching movies with your children.

In the Spiel, George and Kellyanne Conway.

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On The Gist, Trump’s trade war with China.

In the interview, Mike talks to writer Elaina Plott about her reporting on Rudy Giuliani, new White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and the future of the impeachment hearings. Plott is a staff writer at the Atlantic. Read her work here.

In the Spiel, the CNN LGBTQ+ Equality Town Hall.

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On The Gist, how should we feel about Ellen and George W. Bush?

In the interview, Desmond Meade of the Florida Restorative Rights Coalition is here to talk with Mike about the recent movement in Florida to give voting rights back to individuals who have previous committed felonies. They talk about how quickly the measure passed, what regaining voting rights really means, and who is actually most affected by these laws.

In the Spiel, should plans for the LGBTQ community really have been the second ever CNN town hall this year?

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On The Gist, what Trump is doing to the Kurds is everybody’s fault but Trump’s.

In the interview, Mike talks to Ozy's national politics reporter Nick Fouriezos about U.S. voter apathy, where its most prevalent, and its ramifications for future elections. You can read Fouriezos’ piece, “Who Cares: Inside America's Apathy Belt,” in Ozy.

In the Spiel, the fight between China and the NBA isn’t complicated.

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On The Gist, Trump and the Kurds.

In the interview, Mike talks to Aaron Mehta, deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News. They talk about why Ukraine wants javelin missiles, the internal conflicts in the Pentagon, and China’s rising military dominance.

In the Spiel, the American sports media's reactions to Daryl Morey.

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On The Gist, Daryl Morey versus NBA China.

In the interview, Comedy Bang Bang host Scott Aukerman is here to talk about Between Two Ferns: The Movie, the early beginnings of the Between Two Ferns show, and how he writes and directs great cringe comedy. You can watch the movie on Netflix.

In the Spiel, the cost of too little or too much deference.

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On The Gist, dishonesty and the media.

In the interview, Norbert Leo Butz is a Broadway powerhouse who’s been in all sorts of projects like Wicked and Catch Me If You Can, but he’s also a talented musician out with a new album, The Long Haul. He’s here to talk with Mike about his new music, how he fit writing it into his life, and the business of Broadway.

In the Spiel, is Donald Trump’s presidency more dangerous than Andrew Johnson’s?

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On The Gist, getting pronunciations right and extremely wrong.

In the interview, comedian Gary Gulman talks to Mike about his new HBO comedy special The Great Depresh, how he talks about mental health on stage, and the magic of vision boards.

In the Spiel, the Ukraine saga.

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On The Gist, suing the swamp.

In the interview, Marc Randolph is here to talk with Mike about the early beginnings of Netflix, his relationship with co-founder Reed Hastings, and what he’s doing now post-Netflix. Randolph’s new book is That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea.

In the Spiel, accusing somebody of treason might be a reason to impeach.

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On The Gist, the Zuckerberg audio leaks.

In the interview, Martha Minow is here to talk with Mike about forgiveness, who should be forgiven, and how to incorporate more forgiveness in the U.S. legal system. Minow’s new book is When Should Law Forgive?

In the Spiel, class resentment.

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On The Gist, what’s going on at Café Altura?

In the interview, journalist Amanda Aronczyk is here to talk with Mike about her recent series for WNYC’s The Stakes podcast, “A History of Persuasion.” Through the lens of Ted Kaczynski she explores the way behavioral psychology has been used to shape the way we think, and how the manipulation has only ramped up thanks to the tech industry.

In the Spiel, Giuliani, Stephen Miller, and self-impeachment.

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On The Gist, Trump and Ukraine-gate?

In the interview, journalist and author Mary Lane is here to talk with Mike about Hitler’s art, how he seized “degenerate” art in Germany, and the people who finally recovered these lost works in 2013. Lane’s new book is Hitler's Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich.

In the Spiel, the whistleblower complaint.

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On The Gist, MSNBC cutting Trump’s speech short.

In the interview, writer Katy Lederer is here to talk with Mike about Greta Thunberg, why she’s such a force, and if she will bring about any change. Lederer’s latest piece on Thunberg is “Can They Read,” in n+1.

In the Spiel, whistleblowing and the Maguire hearing.

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On The Gist, the beginning of the Trump and Ukraine analysis.

In the interview, CIA alum and head of Lawfare David Priess is here to talk with Mike about impeachment, the Ukraine phone call, and this time things are different. Priess’ latest book is How to Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.

In the Spiel, Trump’s press conference and meeting with the Ukraine president.

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On The Gist, journalist Lauren Duca is here to talk with Mike about her new book, inspiring young people to get more involved in politics, how activism and journalism might intersect, and the problems with our binary political system. Duca’s new book is How to Start a Revolution: Young People and the Future of Politics.

In the Spiel, impeachment?

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On The Gist, the news we missed during Comedy Week.

In the interview, Rachel Monroe is here to talk with Mike about why people, and women in particular, are so interested in true crime. Is it a new thing or just newly popular? Does being an at-home sleuth help in any way? Monroe’s new book is Savage Appetites: Four Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession.

In the Spiel, Trump and the hostless Emmy Awards.

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On The Gist, late-night writers Steve Waltien, Bryan Tucker, and Alison Leiby sit down with Mike to discuss what it’s like to write on a late-night show. How do they deal with the constant churn of topical humor? Why is it so difficult to continue laughing through Trump? And what is the Sean Penn test?

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On The Gist, screenwriters Dana Fox and John August, and film critic K. Austin Collins are here to talk all about the comedy film. What makes a funny movie? how has that changed over the years? And has humor just creeped its way into all the other genres without us realizing?

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On The Gist, our third part of comedy week is all about comedy podcasts. Podcast hosts Jesse Thorn and Ron Funches join Mike to talk about the wide variety of comedy podcasts, how they both got started, and why they are such a freeing avenue for comedians.

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On The Gist, our second installment in this week of comedy focuses on the world of improv. Improvisers Amber Nash, TJ Jagodowski, and Zach Cherry join Mike to talk about what the improv scene is like in their respective cities, how the form has grown so quickly in the last 30 years, and why collaboration is such an exciting way to get a laugh.

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On The Gist, we’re kicking off our week on the world of comedy by talking to three comedians about the state of stand-up comedy. Adam Ferrara, Aparna Nancherla, and Hari Kondabolu talk with Mike about the way they perform, how they interact with their audience and fans, and pushing boundaries in the art form.

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On The Gist, questions the debate needed.

In the interview, director Lorene Scafaria is here to talk with Mike about the new film Hustlers. They discuss recruiting Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, and Cardi B, the importance of Chopin, and filming at a strip club.

In the Spiel, the crazy things said during the debate.

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On The Gist, what should we care about?

In the interview, Jon Lovett is here to talk with Mike about Joe Biden, debate in liberal roundtables, the Overton window, and the live Lovett or Leave It show at Radio City Music Hall on September 13, 2019.

In the Spiel, Joe Biden is fading.

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On The Gist, Fort Campbell middle schoolers and the border wall.

In the interview, journalist Ramona Shelburne is here to talk about her new five-part 30 for 30 series on Donald Sterling and the Clippers. She and Mike discuss how she started covering the Clippers, reporting out the Sterling story at the time, and the subsequent fallout. Her new series is The Sterling Affairs.

In the Spiel, Donald Sterling, Donald Trump, and the for-profit presidency.

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On The Gist, Bolton is out.

In the interview, New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik is here to talk about his new book about Trump and television. He and Mike discuss how the increasing variety of television networks and the boom of reality TV led to Trump, and his similarities to the classic anti-hero trope. Poniewozik’s new book is Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America.

In the Spiel, mass shootings and mental health.

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On The Gist, Trump and Scotland.

In the interview, creator of xkcd Randall Munroe is here to talk about his new book How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems. He and Mike talk about puzzling out the chicken and the egg, testing nuclear weapons on beverages, and how Serena Williams fits into his scientific exploration.

In the Spiel, the Taliban and Camp David.

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On The Gist, Trump’s lightbulbs.

In the interview, economists weren’t always at the levers of public policy in America. The New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum tracked the profession’s post-war movement into power, and how the laissez-faire philosophy economists (by and large) brought with them has failed us. Appelbaum is the author of The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society.

In the Spiel, hurricanes and global warming.

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On The Gist, Mike Pence and Boris Johnson.

In the interview, it’s internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch on how the language we use has been shaped by the information superhighway—and for starters, people never say “information superhighway” anymore. They also write more (everyone’s a writer on the internet) and less formally, though without shedding whatever regional dialect they may have. McCulloch is the author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.

In the Spiel, the climate change debate.

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On The Gist, it’s Boris Johnson’s show now.

In the interview, Thomas Sheridan isn’t your mother’s lobbyist—or wait, maybe he is? His firm, the Sheridan Group, fights for social change. He tells Mike about why lobbyists aren’t all bad, how he got his start, and the tough battles he’s faced over the years. Sheridan’s new book is Helping the Good Do Better: How a White Hat Lobbyist Advocates for Social Change.

In the Spiel, there’s a solution to higher rates of maternal mortality among black women, and it involves putting the problem in perspective.

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On The Gist, how hurricanes are like racism.

In the interview, talk radio has shaped so much of our political discourse, often in ways we don’t even realize. Brian Rosenwald sought to figure out just how much influence it’s had and condensed it all into his new book Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States. He’s here to talk with Mike about Rush Limbaugh’s early years, the outsized importance of Roger Ailes, and where this leaves us today.

In the Spiel, president Trump’s pre-hurricane golfing is the last thing we should be worrying about.

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On The Gist, this week in the news, truth is stranger than science fiction.

In the interview, guest host Seth Stevenson talks to the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. And it turns out that when you’re a citizen for responsibility and ethics, as Noah Bookbinder is, you see plenty going wrong in Washington.

In the Spiel, Greta Thunberg’s cross-Atlantic trip was an exercise in inconvenience.

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On The Gist, journalist and podcast host Lauren Ober was shocked to realize Chelsea Manning is back in jail.

In the interview, Ober talks with journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis about the new podcast Tabloid: The Making of Ivanka Trump. What’s it like to go from aspiring socialite to familial lackey? Is there any room for pity? And when is she headed for Burning Man?

In the Spiel, female political fashion.

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On The Gist, journalist Katie Herzog fills in for Mike Pesca and focuses on cancel culture.

In the interview, Herzog interviews filmmaker Rhys Ernst about his new film Adam, and the queer backlash against the film. What’s it like for your own community to try and cancel you? Is all the extra publicity a good thing? And how does attempted cancellation age?

In the Spiel, unproductive Antifa protests.

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On The Gist, Trump is a bad negotiator.

In the interview, you’ve probably heard of face blindness. And you possibly wondered whether it was a real thing. Do some people really walk the world, full of other people as it is, without the ability to recognize them from their features? They do. Sadie Dingfelder shared her experience over at the Washington Post, and does so now on The Gist.

In the Spiel, the Everything Is Alive tariff-a-thon.

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On The Gist, if an eleventh Democratic candidate makes the next debate in Houston, we’ll hear more from all of them (because they’ll be split across two nights!).

In the interview, it’s part II of Mike’s discussion with Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley. They talk about the filibuster (this junior senator says “it has to go”) and the daunting task that is healing the upper chamber of Congress. Merkley is the author of America Is Better Than This: Trump's War Against Migrant Families.

In the Spiel, the David Koch obituaries are in. But are they fair?

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On The Gist, the Amazon is on fire.

In the interview, Sen. Jeff Merkley was the first member of Congress to visit the migrant detention centers along the border and view the atrocious ways we were treating the people forced to live there. He’s here to talk with Mike about the crisis, the failure of the Trump administration, and what we can do about it. His new book is America Is Better Than This: Trump’s War Against Migrant Families.

In the Spiel, Trump and Israel.

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On The Gist, Scaramucci was wrong about Trump.

In the interview, journalist David Robson is here to talk about his new book The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes. He and Mike talk the intelligence quotient, the blind spots smart people have, and why it might be a good idea to talk about yourself in the third person.

In the Spiel, Trump as all of America.

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On The Gist, if Peter Navarro wants to criticize the Wall Street Journal, he really ought to read it once in a while.

In the interview, it’s easy to condemn the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation techniques in retrospect. But as agency alumnus Philip Mudd puts it, “boy, back then, people said ‘take out the stops, make sure it doesn’t happen again.’” He talks about the relative effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques, and why that shouldn’t be a factor if ever American forces countenance them again (answer: the issue is a moral one). Mudd is a former deputy director at the Counterterrorism Center and the author of Black Site: The CIA in the Post-9/11 World.

In the Spiel, there isn’t all that much conservative hand-wringing over the New York Times’ special coverage of historical slavery in America… but what’s there is pretty uninspired.

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On The Gist, despite what Peter Navarro says, a yield curve inversion there was indeed (and a recession there may be).

In the interview, in a Democratic field crowded with grand policy promises, Tim Ryan’s more centrist ideas have been crowded out. But should they be? The Ohio congressman tells Mike about increasing manufacturing and focusing education on social and emotional learning.

In the Spiel, the difference between bad politics and bad policy.

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On The Gist, the varying sizes of Trump and Greenland.

In the interview, journalist Steve Rushin is here to talk with Mike about his new memoir Nights at White Castle. They discuss the amorphous nature of nostalgia, why children should go on boring vacations, and the podcast Ball & Chain that he hosts with his wife, basketball great Rebecca Lobo.

In the Spiel, Sha Na Na.

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On The Gist, Slate’s Jordan Weissmann tells guest host Sean McElwee which presidential candidates’ signature ideas are hot (and which are not).

In the interview, the Green New Deal isn’t just a set of climate policies—it’s a chance to break with the uneven benefits afforded by the original New Deal and other progressive policies. Julian Brave NoiseCat (McElwee’s colleague at Data for Progress) and activist Adrien Salazar (of the think tank Demos) are in the studio to share their expertise on the stimulus package.

In the Spiel, McElwee digs into polling results from his own Data for Progress.

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On The Gist, getting a bit willy-nilly with “white supremacy.”

In the interview, John Hickenlooper may be mulling a pivot from presidential to Senate candidate, but he was at the Iowa State Fair to weigh in on issues that affect the entire country—and to strike a moderate tone. In last year’s midterms, he says, “the successful Democrat did not embrace the Green New Deal and did not embrace ‘Medicare for All.’ That’s what we’re going to need to do to beat Donald Trump.”

In the Spiel, there is no greater joy than knowing which kids’ shows—from our own generation or not—are crap.

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On The Gist, Biden’s gaffes.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game, is back for another round of Is That Bullshit? This time she and Mike talk all about attention spans. There always seem to be claims that attention spans are shrinking, but is that true? Should we be worried that we feel distracted more and more or just take a deep breath and embrace it?

In the Spiel, the Ebola cure.

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On The Gist, the opinions of the people at the Iowa State Fair.

In the interview, Jay Inslee was among the 21 Democratic presidential candidates to converge on the Iowa State Fair this past weekend. Washington’s governor grabbed a seat with Mike to talk about applying his state’s environmental victories to the federal level, taxing Amazon, and getting rid of the gridlocking filibuster.

In the Spiel, The Gist went to the Iowa State Fair and got answers from Democratic presidential candidates about filibuster reform.

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On The Gist, the real consequences of immigration laws.

In the interview, Charles Duhigg is who you get when you combine an investigative reporter with an agony aunt. In his new Slate podcast (How To!), he teases out advice on everyday problems, from how to tell a good joke to how to rob a bank (alright, the problems aren’t that common). You can subscribe to How To! on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In the Spiel, Trump, children, and shootings.

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On The Gist, Montana has gone a little berserk.

In the interview, Joshua Cohen is here to discuss his new book Attention: Dispatches From the Land of Distraction, and the many discursions he and Mike go on thanks to it. Like the depth of Bernie’s political policies, Trump’s time in Atlantic City, and why the circus is so important to the history of American culture.

In the Spiel, Trump’s distraction tactics.

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On The Gist, Dayton and El Paso deserve better than the presence of Donald Trump.

In the interview, FiveThirtyEight elections analyst Geoffrey Skelley talks through what Democrats need to do to turn out voters in 2020. Should they focus on the “Obama coalition” that elected him twice? Or is it smarter to turn toward Obama voters that then voted for Trump in 2016? Why not both?

In the Spiel, anyone telling you the decade-long Assault Weapons Ban was ineffective is talking nonsense.

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On The Gist, if you want gun control, you clearly have to just vote Democrat.

In the interview, the tit-for-tat trade war with China is unceasing. Slate’s Jordan Weissmann tells Mike about the latest developments in the fight between presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, whether or not China is really manipulating its currency, and the potential paths ahead.

In the Spiel, Americans are getting angry over all the wrong things. It’s infuriating!

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On The Gist, this weekend’s mass shooters had different motives. It won’t do to draw lessons from just one of them.

In the interview, Amherst College professor Austin Sarat wants to enlist gun owners themselves in the fight for firearm regulation. “48 percent of gun owners favor a ban on assault weapons,” he says, citing the Pew Research Center. The problem is convincing them that gun control advocates aren’t pushing for full-on confiscation. Sarat is the co-editor of The Lives of Guns.

In the Spiel, the one clear factor in America’s growing mass shooting problem? Rifles.

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On The Gist, a theory as to why we still hear dusty old terms like “happy warrior”—at least during election season.

In the interview, Slate writer Christina Cauterucci, who recently wrote about Al Franken, criticizes a recent New Yorker story on the ousted senator. She and Mike break down what they think its author Jane Mayer got wrong and right, the facts of the reporting, and why we shouldn’t think of the #MeToo movement as one with winners and losers.

In the Spiel, John Ratcliffe is thankfully out of consideration for the job of Director of National Intelligence. But it’s a shame that he’s still acceptable as a congressman.

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On The Gist, the Democrats making Republican soundbites.

In the interview, Fantastic Negrito walked a long and winding road to blues stardom. His first album (under his legal name, Xavier) was a bust—“everyone hated it”—and saw him dropped from his label. He’d also gotten into a serious car accident and sold off his instruments before returning to music. That’s when the Grammys started rolling in—he’s won two in the last three years, for best contemporary blues album. His latest record is Please Don't Be Dead.

In the Spiel, Joe Biden at the debate.

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On The Gist, Jeffrey Epstein’s ideas.

In the interview, when Chuck Klosterman writes non-fiction, he worries about missing some grand historical context in a way that would ruin his work. With fiction, that anxiety goes out the window— if someone reads one of his short stories and thinks something “completely unrelated to what I thought, it's still okay.” Klosterman digs into that, the advantages of an education outside the ivory tower, and what the Beatles really did for rock music. His new book of short stories is Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction.

In the Spiel, the first night of the CNN debates and Marianne Williamson.

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On The Gist, billionaire Tom Steyer didn’t qualify for this round of Democratic debates, but he’s bought a lot of CNN ad space to make up for it.

In the interview, political consultants David Axelrod and Mike Murphy have spent years advising politicians on the best ways to run campaigns—Axelrod with Barack Obama and Murphy with candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney. Now they’ve come together on a new podcast, Hacks on Tap, to talk through how the political machine actually runs, the Democratic debates, and what Trump’s prospects look like in 2020.

In the Spiel, among the septuagenarian presidential candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are the only ones with all their marbles.

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On The Gist, Trump and racism.

In the interview, Politico’s Tim Alberta has been covering the Republican Party since 2009, back when it was “totally rudderless and beaten into the ground.” Ten years later, and though in control of the White House, the GOP isn’t in much better shape. Alberta’s new book is American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.

In the Spiel, impeachment.

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A few months ago, Dan Taberski joined us to talk about latest season of his Headlong podcast, Running From Cops, focused on reality television shows about police. One series in particular, Live PD, was billed as a documentary but seemed to fall into the same bad practices as other reality programming. Taberski tried to interview the Dan Abrams, the show’s host, and was never able to get him on mic.

Lucky for us, in 2016 Mike interviewed Abrams for The Gist when Live PD was first airing. So we’re airing a few clips of Mike’s conversation with Taberski, the Running From Cops segment about Live PD, and Mike’s 2016 interview with Abrams. Enjoy the cop-a-thon.

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On The Gist, Robert Mueller was a bit of a broken record in his congressional testimony.

In the interview, David Wolman once happened upon a small Hawaiian museum dedicated to a small crew of cowboys in the state—and that was the first he heard of them. He teamed up with Julian Smith to dig into the fascinating history of these cowpokes and how they dazzled the world at the 1908 World Rodeo Championships. Their new book is Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West.

In the Spiel, we’ve perhaps seen the last of Robert Mueller’s public statements. And the impeachment needle hasn’t moved one bit.

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On The Gist, the governor of Puerto Rico will not seek reelection.

In the interview, Chris Herren’s NBA career ended largely because of drug abuse that started in his teens. Now he speaks to thousands of students about making better choices—not by using the fear tactics often deployed in American schools, but by examining the emotions tied to substance use. Herren’s presentations are the subject of a new ESPN documentary, The First Day.

In the Spiel, Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

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On The Gist, Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony isn’t likely to increase the pressure on president Trump.

In the interview, losing weight is hard, but keeping it off is even harder. What can successful dieters do to maintain their goals, and are reality TV shows like The Biggest Loser painting a rosy picture? Gist regular Maria Konnikova dug into the science, and brings answers on the latest segment of Is That Bullshit? Konnikova is the author of The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, former Sen. Al Franken was hard done by.

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On The Gist, why the moon landing’s 50th anniversary isn’t getting all that much attention.

In the interview, success stories are great, but what about those business ventures that end in spectacular failure? Those tales are often better. Lauren Ober hosts the Spectacular Failures podcast, where beer makers, hotel chains, and (in an upcoming episode) Trump’s casinos meet their end.

In the Spiel, it’s an Antentwig, where Mike responds to feedback from listeners.

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On The Gist, Ivanka Trump is every bit the monster her father is.

In the interview, Senator Michael Bennet is here to talk about his campaign for president and his new book The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics. He and Mike discuss Bennet’s family plan, the importance of the filibuster, and why centrism needs to work on its branding.

In the Spiel, there is no Spiel!

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On The Gist, Chance the snapper.

In the interview, former EPA head Gina McCarthy expected the Trump administration’s backwardness on climate change—but not on no-brainers like limits on power plant mercury emissions and auto industry regulation, both of which were being complied with. “They’re just obsessed with undoing everything Obama did. You can tell this with Trump. He’s still somehow campaigning against Obama.” McCarthy was the EPA’s administrator from 2013 to 2017, and now teaches at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In the Spiel, which mythical being is Trump most like?

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On The Gist, it’s a good day for those who love quarterly fundraising numbers among Democratic presidential candidates!

In the interview, we’re used to the Nate Silver approach to election forecasting, using constantly changing polling data to predict the likelihood of this or that result. But Rachel Bitecofer, assistant director of the Wason Center for Public Policy, has a better way. Her new model, based on negative partisanship and demographics, is more static, and proved spot-on in 2018. So what does it have to say for 2020?

In the Spiel, a theory on what’s really keeping Kellyanne and George Conway together.

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On The Gist, Elizabeth Warren and ICE.

In the interview, Jason Zinoman, who writes about the New York Times, thinks the late-night shows need to return to the playful cruelty they once had. He and Mike talk about the current state of things, David Letterman’s reign, and why even Letterman seems to have lost his teeth on his new show.

In the Spiel, Trump and tweets about the Congress squad.

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On The Gist, they.

In the interview, Emily Bazelon writes for the New York Times magazine, co-hosts Slate’s Political Gabfest, and she’s out with the new book Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, and its companion podcast. She’s here to talk with Mike about her new projects, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Jeffrey Epstein and New York City gun laws.

In the Spiel, Acosta quits.

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On The Gist, the metal straw incident.

In the interview, Vince Houghton is a historian and the curator of the International Spy Museum and he’s here to talk about his new book Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board. Why did we want to drop goat poop on Germans? Can a cat be trained for espionage?

In the Spiel, the citizenship question.

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On The Gist, the Trump cabinet and violence against women.

In the interview, Will Wilkinson from the Niskanen Center is here to talk with Mike about his new paper The Density Divide about the surprising way urbanization affected the rise of populism.

In the Spiel, the good and bad about the pay parity argument in soccer.

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On The Gist, jail time for absurd reasons.

In the interview, journalist Jack Fairweather is out with a new book about the untold story of Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who chose to get sent to Auschwitz so he could report back on atrocities happening there during World War II. Fairweather’s book is The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz.

In the Spiel, why Ross Perot was so important to shaping American politics.

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On The Gist, did Joe Biden’s apology work?

In the interview, Anthony Ray Hinton was wrongfully convicted for the murder of two teenagers in Alabama in 1985. After 30 years on death row his conviction was overturned and he was released. He’s since become an advocate for those facing the death penalty and the abolishment of it in the United States, and he’s here to talk with Mike about his experience in prison and life afterward. Hinton’s new book is The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.

In the Spiel, farewell to Eric Swalwell.

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On The Gist, should we rethink the structure of a week?

In the interview, founding CEO of C-SPAN Brian Lamb and Co-CEO Susan Swain are here to discuss their new book The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America’s Best—and Worst—Chief Executives. They discuss with Mike the creation of the book, visiting presidential burial places, and some Mike’s favorite things about C-SPAN.

In the Spiel, the passion of Mike Francesa.

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On The Gist, the Hong Kong protesters and Chinese conspiracies.

In the interview, Harvard research fellow Thomas Abt is here to discuss his new book Bleeding Out: The Devestating Consequences of Urban Gun Violence—and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets. He talks with Mike about the ways we misunderstand urban gun violence and what concrete steps communities can talk to solve it.

In the Spiel, Tucker Carlson and Trump.

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On The Gist, the South Bend shooting and Pete Buttigieg.

In the interview, Jason Zinoman recently wrote about dad jokes for the New York Times so he’s here to talk with Mike about his grand theories, why we love to hate dad jokes, and if they really are as low-brow as people consider them to be.

In the Spiel, the choice the Democrats face.

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On The Gist, Joe Biden had no good answers at Thursday’s Democratic debate.

In the interview, the Washington Post’s Anna Fifield is out with a new book on Kim Jong-un. She interviewed as many people who have had even a fleeting interaction with the man as possible, in an effort to get the clearest picture yet of what the head of the Kim dynasty is really like. Fifield’s book is The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un.

In the Spiel, Kamala Harris has charisma, but is she a flip-flopper too?

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On The Gist, an absurd criminal charge in Alabama.

In the interview, the Iron Curtain couldn’t block radio waves, or, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a new form of music called rock and roll. András Simonyi, a former Hungarian ambassador to the United States, was electrified by Elvis and the Beatles, and says that “without rock and roll, I don’t think the Soviet Union would have broken up.” Simonyi is the author of Rocking Toward a Free World: When the Stratocaster Beat the Kalashnikov.

In the Spiel, pat them on the back all you want, not every debating Democrat can be a winner.

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On The Gist, the first Democratic primary debate is about to start.

In the interview, Ben Lindbergh is a staff writer at the Ringer, host of the Effectively Wild podcast, and author of the new book The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players. He’s here to talk America’s favorite pastime, what baseball is like in a post-Moneyball era, and if data is making the game less interesting to watch.

In the Spiel, George Will weighs in on the state of baseball.

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On The Gist, Trump and Pence talking nonsense.

In the interview, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, especially when it comes to elections. MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid figures that “the hungriest constituency” often gets its way at the ballot box. Black voters sent Barack Obama to the White House; xenophobes got their guy in Donald Trump; and in 2020, the group that swings the vote could very well be the women who regret their inaction in 2016—especially if Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren gets the nomination. Reid is the host of AM Joy and the author of The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story.

In the Spiel, the messiness of leadership.

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On The Gist, Kamala Harris still has a lot to answer for.

In the interview, media outlets used to employ ombudsmen—public editors who addressed readers’ concerns and weighed in on a newspaper’s reporting. Those roles have disappeared over the years but the Columbia Journalism Review wants to change that. Kyle Pope, the magazine’s editor, recently announced the hiring of four journalists to publicly engage with the work of the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, and CNN.

In the Spiel, voters in Istanbul have just rebuked Turkish president Recep Erdogan.

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On The Gist, how much sanity does it cost to change a lightbulb?

In the interview, babies don’t come with instructional manuals, but the publishing industry is more than ready to bombard new parents with the latest, always evolving wisdom on how to raise a human right. But Emily Oster’s new book is a rare scientific look at child-rearing, grounded in her expertise as a rational economist and her experience as an anxious mother. Oster is the author of Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool.

In the Spiel, president Trump’s directionless foreign policy is on full display against Iran.

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On The Gist, are children growing horns?

In the interview, how does Pandora know what music I want to hear? That’s all thanks to the work of Nolan Gasser, musicologist and the architect of Pandora’s Music Genome Project. He’s here to talk the origins of the project, the classification of music species, and why Sarah McLachlan fans might be in for a surprise. Gasser’s new book is Why You Like It: The Science & Culture of Musical Taste.

In the Spiel, the most ambitious climate deal the world has ever seen.

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On The Gist, presidential candidates say the darndest things.

In the interview, the best profile writer of our day doesn’t focus much on what her subjects are wearing—so we’ll only quickly mention that in the studio with The Gist, Taffy Brodesser-Akner was wearing a fetching leopard-print jumpsuit (“I’m dressed up for a party tonight”). Brodesser-Akner discusses her experience profiling the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and other untouchable celebrities, and how that work is felt in her debut novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble.

In the Spiel, the reparations hearing.

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On The Gist, when science proves George Carlin right.

In the interview, Raphael Bob-Waksberg is the creator of Bojack Horseman, but his so-earnest-it-hurts talent also extends to print. His new collection of short stories is Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, and he’s here to talk with Mike about love, George Saunders, and why everybody is so down on puns.

In the Spiel, the Patrick Shanahan debacle exposes a White House in shambles.

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On The Gist, Trump knows how to produce himself.

In the interview, America’s discovery of oil fields has long been entwined with godly significance—whether these were exploited by oil barons like the Rockefellers or the smaller producers (or “wildcatters”) they contended with. University of Notre Dame historian Darren Dochuk explores the intersection of oil and religion in America in his new book, Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America.

In the Spiel, Iran and attacks on oil tankers.

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On The Gist, Canada declares war on the plastic straw.

In the interview, Emmy Blotnick has written for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and served as head writer on The President Show. But she also does stand-up, including in her new album Party Nights, where she gets into her love of pop music and why she joined a social networking site… for tea-drinkers. Blotnick’s album is streaming now—and her next show is at The Bell House in Brooklyn on July 6.

In the Spiel, there’s no good reason for the news media to cover Jessica Biel’s anti-vaxxer stance.

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On The Gist, who doesn’t get to be at the debates?

In the interview, David Epstein’s new book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World is all about how having a wide base of knowledge is so much better than narrowing your focus. He’s here to talk Roger Federer versus Tiger Woods, how fiction helped him retool his book, and what Malcolm Gladwell got wrong.

In the Spiel, this is stupid.

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On The Gist, curse the gauntlet that is buying an event ticket online.

In the interview, John Urschel played as an offensive lineman in the NFL all while pursuing the PhD that would support an accomplished career as a mathematician. The values he practiced in each field are the same, he says, but there the similarities between pigskin and math end. Alongside sportswriter Louisa Thomas—the two are married—Urschel is the author of Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football.

In the Spiel, “lock him up” (and you know who “him” is) isn’t a great call either.

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On The Gist, Joe Biden curing cancer.

In the interview, senior writer at the National Review Michael Brendan Dougherty is here to discuss his new book My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search For Home. He and Mike talk about Dougherty’s journey into his father’s history, how the immigrant experience shaped his mother, and the ways Ireland has influenced his politics.

In the Spiel, political pithiness.

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On The Gist, Democrats bob and weave around the question of abortion.

In the interview, victims of crimes are often sidelined in the judicial process—the perpetrator is punished, but his or her target isn’t given the opportunity to set up the kind of face-to-face meeting that might help them heal. Restorative justice seeks to change that, and Lara Bazelon is out with a book on how it applies to those who have been exonerated after wrongful convictions. Bazelon is an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, and the author of Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction.

In the Spiel, even with every benefit of the doubt, Elizabeth Warren’s policy ideas just aren’t fundable.

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On The Gist, who’s on the right side of less auto pollution?

In the interview, Adam Gopnik is here to discuss his new book, A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, inspired by a conversation with his daughter. Who gets to make arguments? What about identity politics? And why should the rhinoceros should be the symbol of liberalism?

In the Spiel, what are your go-to references?

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On The Gist, Joe Biden's careful moderation leads him astray on abortion rights.

In the interview, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick is back to talk all about the Supreme Court. How the recent abortion laws passed in the South impact the continued dismantling of Roe v Wade? And why aren’t the Democrats more animated by the outrageous things happening to our courts? Dahlia is the host of Slate’s Amicus podcast.

In the Spiel, where there’s a jingle, there’s a questionable set of business practices…

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On The Gist, holding Scott Peterson accountable after the Parkland shooting.

In the interview, George Will has led conservative thought for decades, in over a dozen books and a Washington Post column he’s penned since 1974. In his latest work, The Conservative Sensibility, he seeks to define just what “conservative” means. While Mike had him on The Gist, he got Will’s opinion on the lost dignity of the GOP, Elizabeth Warren’s policy proposals (“I think she has a firm grip on half a point”), and the fact that no Democratic candidate is all that close to true socialism.

In the Spiel, Biden and Warren’s new environmental plans.

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On The Gist, Trump visits the UK and drags London’s mayor.

In the interview, Larry Lewis doesn’t just analyze civilian casualties in the midst of wars; he’s worked within the State Department to minimize them. His research makes clear that sparing non-combatants isn’t just morally laudable, it can help generals reach their objectives and reduce anti-American sentiment.

In the Spiel, is Caster Semenya running?

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On The Gist, even in defeat, Jeopardy! genius James Holzhauer made one really smart play.

In the interview, Mike Pesca sometimes bikes to work, and—in full adherence to New York City law, mind you—he doesn’t wear a helmet when he does. Should he, or are the benefits of bike helmets overrated? Maria Konnikova gets into it on the latest edition of The Gist’s “Is That Bullshit?”

In the Spiel, the best way to answer a question? Answer the actual question.

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On The Gist, what to make of (alleged) executions in North Korea.

In the interview, Slate’s chief news blogger, Ben Mathis-Lilley, makes the case for impeaching Trump. In his reasoning, impeachment proceedings would give Congress a stronger hand in forcing new information from the White House, which could then boost public support for the president’s removal from office. And even if it fails, it would have an immediate chilling effect on Trump’s abuse of the constitution. David Epstein, the author of Range, also makes a cameo appearance in the interview.

In the Spiel, an Antentwig on mispronunciation.

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On The Gist, using Olympic-sized swimming pools as units of measurements.

In the interview, beyond covering national security as a journalist, CNN’s Jim Sciutto worked a stint in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. In both careers, he’s seen signs of a shrinking power imbalance between America and its Russian and Chinese rivals. His latest book warns of the risks carried by Russian offensives in cyberspace, and potential Chinese aggression in actual space. Sciutto is the author of The Shadow War: Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America.

In the Spiel, the spirituality of the lost hiker in Hawaii.

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On The Gist, it’s a shoe! It’s a phone! It’s… both?

In the interview, Darrick Hamilton’s ideas and research have the attention of more than one Democratic candidate for president. The Ohio State University professor—and head of the Kirwan Institute—studies income inequality and the policies that might help close it. He joins The Gist to talk baby bonds, inherited wealth, and the potential in a federal job guarantee.

In the Spiel, special Robert Mueller’s statement at the DOJ contained nothing new, and yet still it still moved the needle on impeachment.

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On The Gist, calculating whether or not impeachment is the right move.

In the interview, Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached so Congress had to basically figure out how it worked as they did it. Brenda Wineapple is here to discuss the reasons for that impeachment, why the conviction failed, and what it can teach us about our current situation. Wineapple’s new book is The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation.

In the Spiel, the 1994 crime bill.

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President Trump may yet face impeachment proceedings, so we’re bringing you a roundup of two previous Gist interviews on the topic. The first is with the youngest woman ever elected to the House, Liz Holtzman—who participated in the Nixon impeachment hearings—and CIA alumnus David Priess, who worked at the agency under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Both have recently published books on impeachment. Holtzman is the author of The Case For Impeaching Trump; Priess is the author of How to Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.

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On The Gist, Theresa May’s resignation.

In the interview, Dan Taberski’s latest podcast series Running From Cops digs into the long-running reality series Cops to understand what’s actually going on in those arrests on screen and how accurate the stories that we see are. He’s here to talk about why the show is so watchable, how the cops work with cameramen to exploit those being arrested, and how the nature of reality television has made us slow to notice such exploitation.

In the Spiel, learning from history when it’s always changing.

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On The Gist, a look at the worst arguments in the debate over abortion.

In the interview, After Parkland follows the lives of those affected by the Parkland shooting. That includes Tori Gonzalez, who lost her boyfriend, Joaquin Oliver, to the tragedy. Gonzalez is on The Gist alongside documentary filmmakers Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman to discuss the making of the film, useful ways to talk about the event, and how she continues to cope with her loss.

In the Spiel, why the idea of impeaching president Trump is just like riding a motorcycle.

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On The Gist, Biden’s electability.

In the interview, eight states have passed bills to limit abortion access so far this year. And while these may not end up surviving challenges in court (whether Supreme or lower), getting an abortion is already difficult for women in many parts of the country. Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen reminds us that abortion providers can be vanishingly rare in some states, and that hundreds of laws have been passed in the last few years to restrict access to the procedure: "Forced waiting periods, medically unnecessary ultrasounds…things that we would never consider happening to any other aspect of medicine.”

In the Spiel, Michael Cohen and the pre-pardon pardon.

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On The Gist, oh, Ben Carson.

In the interview, Felipe Lopez was once billed the Dominican Michael Jordan. His star power even in high school led the team to play in bigger New York City venues—the better to fit the legions of fans who cheered as he carried Harlem’s Rice High School to a championship victory. But his court domination dwindled in college, and in the NBA. Lopez joins The Gist to talk about the joys brought to him by basketball, not least of which is one that college athletes and recruiters rarely think much of: a degree. ESPN’s The Dominican Dream, a documentary on Lopez by Jonathan Hock, is streaming now on ESPN Plus.

In the Spiel, M&M’s, cannibalism, and the Game of Thrones finale.

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On The Gist, the gift to the Morehouse graduates is great, but should it be celebrated or just the standard?

In the interview, Linda Taylor committed many crimes, but only one of them—welfare fraud—really mattered to politicians, the press, and the public. Anecdotes about kidnapping and possible murder would only get in the way of the portrait Ronald Reagan presented to American voters in 1976, of a woman whose defrauding of taxpayer money was typical among those dependent on social programs. Slate national editor Josh Levin wrote Slate’s most read story ever, and has expanded it into a book—The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth—and a Slate podcast: The Queen, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

In the Spiel, Anand Giridharadas fact checking Jared Diamond.

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On The Gist, Grumpy Cat is dead. So are Bill de Blasio’s chances at winning the White House.

In the interview, 1999 might be the greatest year in film—think The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and Fight Club. But does Magnolia belong in the great movie pantheon, and should we really have been as impressed with American Beauty as we were? Brian Raftery, author of Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen, takes us through the last year of the ’90s and explains why there hasn’t been one like it since.

In the Spiel, there’s no place for centrism as far as abortion rights go.

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On The Gist, what correlates with anti-abortion views (and votes) more than being a man? Being a Republican.

In the interview, Jared Diamond brings new meaning to the old slogan that the personal is political. The author of Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that just as individuals go through crises to which they may either adapt or flounder, nation states face moments that define their strength domestically and on the world stage. Diamond’s latest book—Upheaval—takes Finland, Australia, and Chile (among other countries) as his case studies.

In the Spiel, whatever you think of Joe Biden, don’t let the dream of bipartisanship die just yet.

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On The Gist, anti-abortion state legislatures know full well that the Supreme Court could one day turn on Roe v. Wade.

In the interview, Chuck Rosenberg is a former U.S. attorney who also once worked for Robert Mueller. He’s here to talk about his new podcast The Oath, where he sits down with other former government officials like Preet Bharara and James Comey and discusses the ins and outs of public service. Mike gets Chuck to dive into the Mueller report with him.

In the Spiel, is low unemployment a sign of good federal governance? No. Just look at the U.K.

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On The Gist, the NBA draft lottery.

In the interview, Richard Clarke doesn’t have security clearance anymore, so on his podcast he talks to a lot of people who still do. His 10 years as a White House official gave him the bug for asking questions to sharp experts on matters of life or death—otherwise known as national security. Clarke joins us to talk about the need to make a “frenemy” out of China, the vulnerability of America’s power grid, and how president Trump could yet leave the title of “worst president ever” to George W. Bush. Clarke is the host of Future State and the author of the forthcoming The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Country, Our Companies, and Ourselves in the Age of Cyber Threats.

In the Spiel, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Palestine and the Holocaust.

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On The Gist, groans over Game of Thrones.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of “Is That Bullshit?” Because Mike experiences less anxiety than most, he has often wondered if he has higher levels of anandamide—a neurotransmitter associated with regulating anxiety and stress—caused by a specific genetic variation. Maria walks him through the complicated biology, the research, and explains why even if it might be real, Mike’s self-diagnosis is unreliable.

In the Spiel, Joe Biden's "gaffes."

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On The Gist, Instagram and FOMO.

In the interview, they say president Trump has killed comedy. But in Larry Wilmore’s book, comedy isn’t responsible for leading us to the “right” kind of outrage or political enlightenment. Its role—get this—is to make us laugh. “Activists should engage in activism, and I always feel like that’s why we have these words that are different,” Wilmore says. “Comedy exists to be comic.” Wilmore is the host of the Ringer podcast Black on the Air and the co-creator of HBO’s Insecure.

In the Spiel, Uber’s IPO and Trump’s tariffs.

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On The Gist, magic mushrooms afoot!

In the interview, every Avengers movie has an argument at its core. In the Marvel franchise’s finale—Avengers: Endgame—director Anthony Russo says it’s “that you can change destiny, but at the same time, you can’t always change it on your terms.” He and his co-director (and brother) Joe Russo weigh in on that, the term “fan service,” and the fact that in the comics, Captain America is a dud.

In the Spiel, Mike answers questions from fellow Slate staffers—some serious, some not—in rapid succession.

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On The Gist, maybe Trump wants to be impeached?

Then it’s a change of format as all the former and current producers of The Gist gather together for a roundtable. Founding producer Andrea Silenzi discusses the origins of The Gist, past producers Chris Berube and Mary Wilson talk about the thrills of covering the presidential debates, and current producers Pierre Bienaimé and Daniel Schroeder join in to dish on what it's like working with Mike.

In the Spiel, Mike reevaluates his mistakes from the past five years.

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On The Gist, president Trump’s mixes and matches idioms all the time, but his rhetoric doesn’t really suffer from it.

In the interview, 2014 was full of retro vibes and repeats, with hits like “Happy,” “All About That Bass,” and “Blank Space” echoing older styles and Eminem’s “Monster” recreating his past chart-topping collaboration with Rihanna. Chris Molanphy is on the show yet again to walk us through the big tracks from the year The Gist was born. Molanphy is the host of Hit Parade and the writer of Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” column.

In the Spiel, it’s a second interview with evolutionary biologist Patricia Brennan. The topic? Turkey genitals, of course.

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On The Gist, do we need primary debates?

We're starting our fifth anniversary celebration week with a look back at the past. Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad was a guest on the first episode of The Gist so he’s back to reflect on the last five years, how podcasting has changed, and the impact of the medium.

In the Spiel, podcasts aren’t perfect, but they are progress.

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On The Gist, is it unusual that Attorney General William Barr didn’t look at the underlying evidence covered in the Mueller report?

In the interview, Tuca & Bertie is the new series from Lisa Hanawalt, best know for her art direction on Bojack Horseman. She’s here to discuss the origins of her new series, all the jokes she fits into the background, and how she figured out if China exists in her show’s universe. Tuca & Bertie is available on Netflix.

In the Spiel, Stephen Moore on the Federal Reserve Board.

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On The Gist, how many people have declared they’re running for president?

In the interview, breaking a record doesn’t always mean going home a winner. Adam Levin learned that in his recent run on Jeopardy!, where he banked more money than any runner-up in the history of the game show (thus walking away with just $2,000). He tells Mike, a fellow Jeopardy! alumnus, about his tactics—and the fact that he has no regrets. Levin is sports information director of Brandeis University’s athletics program.

In the Spiel, is Barr a chicken?

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On The Gist, the latest in the Mueller report saga.

In the interview, the Kentucky Derby is this Saturday, but this year, the horse racing event is overshadowed by high fatality rates among equines in California's Santa Anita Park: 23 have died in just three months. Peter Fornatale follows the races closely, and sees mismanagement on both the park’s track and in the appeasement measures that followed: “[It] sort of reminded me of the classic politician’s trick of ‘you don’t like the conversation, okay, let’s change the conversation.’”

In the Spiel, Bill Barr, hair-splitter general.

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On The Gist, the New Yorker’s profile of John Bolton.

In the interview, coders have gone from a band of misfits to rulers of Silicon Valley. Clive Thompson is out with a book about that evolution, which examines the reckless product design stoked by the pursuit of hockey-stick revenue growth and a lack of workplace diversity—whether across gender, socio-economic class, or even age. “The ageism is where some of the trouble begins because you don't have people around that can tell you 'oh, we went through this rodeo 15 years ago,’” Thompson says. He is the author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World.

In the Spiel, Stacey Abrams isn’t running for Senate in Georgia.

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On The Gist, the news media is getting better at demoting the names of America’s mass shooters. That’s a good thing, even as the internet’s darker corners do the opposite.

In the interview, comedian Josh Gondelman is from Boston, but he often comes across as Minnesota nice. Can a comedian get laughs without being a bit of an asshole? Gondelman discusses that, his latest comedy album—Dancing on a Weeknight—and why writing for Showtime’s Desus & Mero involves shedding fewer tears than does scripting Last Week Tonight.

In the Spiel, if you’re going to enjoy this Avengers: Endgame parody, you’ll have to contend with a spoiler or two. Cool?

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On The Gist, the 2020 candidates’ proposals shouldn’t be compared to some progressive ideal, but to some of the stuff we spend taxpayer dollars on now.

In the interview, the pace of technological change means we might only be catching onto malicious disinformation techniques after it’s too late to counter them. Still, scientific inquiry is useful in telling us how manipulation works. In The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread, authors Cailin O'Connor and James Owen Weatherall argue that social dynamics often trump intellectual ones in determining what we fall for, including bogus information peddled by anti-vaxxers. “You, in the right social context, would hold a lot of false beliefs too,” says O’Connor.

In the Spiel, putting the Anita Hill hearings in context.

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On The Gist, the difference between one million and one billion.

In the interview, Nathaniel Rich is here to discuss his new book Losing Earth about the decade of 1979-1989 and why they are so important to understanding America’s political history of climate change and the current state of denialism we find ourselves in.

In the Spiel, is impeachment worth it? If we don’t will Trump get reelected?

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On The Gist, whether he’s on the most electable part of the political spectrum or not, Joe Biden is about to go through the wringer.

In the interview, winning a major sports championship is a thrill few ever get to know. But what happens when you keep stacking trophies, like the NBA’s Golden State Warriors have done in recent years? The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss covers the team, and wonders “if the Warriors suffer from, shall we call it, winner’s ennui.” Strauss is the host of the House of Strauss podcast and wrote a chapter on the Warriors in Mike Pesca’s book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.

In the Spiel, it’s one from the vault on HBO’s The Jinx, which, it’s now come to light, included some misleading editing.

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On The Gist, Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.”

In the interview, comedian and filmmaker Lake Bell is here to discuss her new tv series Bless This Mess. About a newlywed couple who move from New York City to Nebraska, it’s a play on the fish-out-of-water trope, but packed with more jokes than you know what to do with. Bless This Mess airs on Tuesdays at 9:30pm on ABC.

In the Spiel, the questions at the CNN town halls weren’t all that great.

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On The Gist, Rudy Giuliani was a big, loud, and busy distraction this past Sunday.

In the interview, it’s a round of “Is That Bullshit?” with Maria Konnikova. In the hot seat: the humble egg. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that eggs can increase your chances of heart disease. But is this study all it’s cracked up to be? The nutritional science has gone back and forth on the health benefits and risks of this breakfast food. Maria boils it down.

In the Spiel, dragons roast their victims—and we roast Elizabeth Warren’s Game of Thrones critique.

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On The Gist, sick children and dead ducks are pretty convincing.

In the interview, South African comedian Loyiso Gola is here to talk about his stand up special on Netflix, what it’s like performing in different countries, and why talking about the economy is so difficult for everyday people. Gola is performing at the Soho Playhouse until April 21, 2019.

In the Spiel, time for an early Antentwig.

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On The Gist, Trump’s fundamental misreading of politics.

In the interview, Garrett Graff’s afternoon was as busy as any journalist’s, picking through the redacted Mueller report released by the Department of Justice. There’s something new on every page, Graff says, including the Trump campaign’s awareness of Russian efforts against Hillary Clinton—and its expectation to benefit from them politically. Graff wrote a biography of Robert Mueller. His latest ebook is Mueller’s War.

In the Spiel, Mueller did a great job, and if this report came out in a different climate it’d actually lead to real consequences.

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On The Gist, the redacted Mueller report as an exercise in Zen.

In the interview, economist Tyler Cowen is just about the smartest person in Mike Pesca’s podcast feed. He’s on the Gist to answer rapid fire questions on the college admissions scandal, what the likes of Herman Cain would mean for the Fed, and the virtues of big American enterprises. That last topic is the subject of Cowen’s new book, Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero. His podcast is Conversations with Tyler.

In the Spiel, oh how we forget the gulf that lies between lived experience and public recollection.

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On The Gist, sparing a thought for Notre Dame… and how Americans pronounce it.

In the interview, Politico’s Anna Palmer on what Trump is doing to America as he navigates a government he doesn’t understand. Her book, co-written with Jake Sherman, is The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America.

In the Spiel, moms are not off limits for quotes—about their children—published by the New York Times.

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On The Gist, wait, what did I miss?

In the interview, Democratic candidates for the presidency recently flew to Iowa for a forum on agriculture to answer some questions. And asking them was Storm Lake Times editor Art Cullen, who knows a thing or two about corporate agribusiness and its impact on Iowans, the food Americans everywhere eat, and Chinese pork companies. Cullen is the author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper, and was previously on The Gist to discuss that book as well.

In the Spiel, Rep. Ilan Omar and our selfish president.

This episode is brought to you by Simplisafe. Start protecting your home today at SimpliSafe.com/gist.

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On The Gist, two popes is one pope too many.

In the interview, songs like “The Sign” and “I’ll Make Love to You” dominated the charts in 1994, but they weren’t all that emblematic of what was happening in music that year. Chris Molanphy has ideas as to why, and also opines on why there were so few number one singles that year—and why was Lisa Loeb considered alternative rock? Molanphy has answers, and is the host of the Hit Parade podcast. He also writes Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” column.

In the Spiel, Rep. Katie Porter’s viral moment—taking Jamie Dimon to task for his huge salary—is a little dishonest.

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On The Gist, the political parties of Israel.

In the interview, Jean McConville’s murder in 1972—when The Troubles were at their bloodiest—sparked what few deaths did in Northern Ireland: a reckoning. The New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe joins us to give context to McConville’s death, from the various factions at war back then to the country’s incomplete reconciliation process and oddly rehabilitated politicians. Keefe is the author of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.

In the Spiel, Medicare for all isn’t as cheap as Bernie wants us to believe.

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On The Gist, Candance Owens isn't digging herself out of this ahistorical, Hitler-relativizing hole.

In the interview, Ian Chillag is back with another season of Everything Is Alive, a podcast where he interviews the everyday objects around us that we don’t think of. Chioke I’Anson is here too because he played a grain of sand with a surprising amount of philosophy packed in (he’s a philosopher himself). Is sand more Kantian or Heideggerian? And what’s it like to think as a collective?

In the Spiel, president Trump’s public insult of Sen. Mazie Hirono rumbles on.

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On The Gist, Trump’s latest campaign video is wild.

In the interview, Scotland’s Daniel Sloss churns out comedy specials at an almost alarming rate, completing his tenth at age 28. He’s here to talk about circumcision, Brexit, and why the left is doomed to eternally shoot itself in the foot. Sloss will be back in the United States in June of 2019, and his specials "Dark" & "Jigsaw” are on Netflix.

In the Spiel, instant replay is a contentious part of refereeing, particularly at a championship.

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The worst part about the Trump administration’s high turnover? Every cabinet member is worse than the last.

In the interview, Grigori Rasputin bent the ear of the last Russian tsar, manipulating affairs of state behind the scenes as he saw fit. But how did a man like him rise to such power? And what about his spiritual successors like Phil Spector or Tom Brady’s trainer? Amos Barshad, author of No One Man Should Have All That Power: How Rasputins Manipulate the World, has our ear.

In the Spiel, what does Joe Biden stand to gain from apologizing—and shouldn’t a (likely) contender for president think in those terms?

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On The Gist, like every week in Trump’s America, this has been a wasted one.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of “Is That Bullshit?” She talks chiropractors, whether or not cracking your back and neck is helpful, and what strokes have to do with it. Then, Mike’s own chiropractor, Jason Fidler, steps in to offer some adjustments to the conversation.

In the Spiel, Mike offers up a Lobstar challenge.

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On The Gist, Mueller’s report (or much of it) is bound to go public.

In the interview, Wright Thompson has his place on the Mount Rushmore of sports writers, and his signature form is the profile. Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Michael Jordan and the like are fascinating in their relationship to fame, but also in their ordinary flaws. “On some level these stories are all about exploring whether or not there is even such a thing as free will,” Thompson says. “I’m fascinated by the way things in our past continue to exert gravitational pull on us now.” Wright’s new book, a collection of his past work, is The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and Other Serious Business.

In the Spiel, a list of all the non-scandals hitting the Democratic 2020 candidates so far. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more.

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On The Gist, Trump should avoid healthcare.

In the interview, Lori Gottlieb is a journalist and a therapist, and she’s here to discuss her new book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed, why she became a therapist, how to deal with patients who’ve Googled you, and why therapists need therapy too.

In the Spiel, the Joe Biden crisis isn’t a crisis.

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On The Gist, calming down about Trump’s bombast.

In the interview, Nicholas Christakis is here to discuss his new book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, how he studied the progression of goodness throughout human history, the way healthy communities evolve, and why shipwrecks were so important to his research.

In the Spiel, the problem with microaggressions.

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On The Gist, Joe Biden’s nose nuzzle.

In the interview, Don Winslow’s new book The Border is the final part of his trilogy on drug cartels. He’s here today to discuss the work, how it’s been twenty years in the making, and the difficulty of trying to get things right.

In the Spiel, Betsy DeVos’ indefensible Special Olympics funding cuts.

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On The Gist, the next wave of start-ups should be like the tech companies we have now, but with a conscience.

In the interview, filmmaker Anthony Maras is more wedded to a theme—people in extremis—than a form, and his latest is a thriller based on true events. Hotel Mumbai follows a band of diverse survivors holed up in the Taj, one of the targets in India's 2008 terrorist attacks. “Something kind of magical happened, which is all these barriers that usually divide people evaporated.”

In the Spiel, Donald Trump: bullshitter or shitposter?

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On The Gist, Mike Pesca, in true hipster fashion, laments the end of Wow Air.

In the interview, much of the news media was guilty of hyping up the knockout blow that Mueller’s report would deliver president Trump. But a few journalists on the left were always skeptical of the investigation’s origins and potential. Among them is Nation contributor Aaron Maté, who saw in the Mueller probe a distraction from the Democratic Party’s failure in 2016—and from the stories that really matter.

In the Spiel, Rep. Adam Schiff comes out swinging.

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On The Gist, Boeing is in a tight spot.

In the interview, the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas was one for the ages. Everyone so expected Tyson to win that people weren’t even placing bets until the odds were 42 to 1. In the new 30 for 30 film 42 to 1, Gist guest Jeremy Schaap (and Ben Houser) explore this shocking upset and how the fight changed boxing and these fighters’ lives.

In the Spiel, if we’re going to build a wall, how about the one between church and state? Looking at you, Pennsylvania.

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On The Gist, the latest gridlock facing the Green New Deal should clue in its backers in Congress.

In the interview, Huwe Burton was 16 years old when detectives browbeat him into a false confession of murder. He spent about 20 years in prison as a result, and found an outlet in the quarter-mile track that he and other inmates built their endurance on. Since his release and exoneration, he hasn’t stopped running. Burton’s story is told in a Lope Magazine article—"Innocent People Don’t Run”—by Liam Boylan-Pett, who also joins us in the studio.

In the Spiel, the Trump reelection campaign’s bizarre memo to all “Television Producers” leans on cherry-picked quotes.

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On The Gist, we should be willing to accept that the Barr letter and Mueller report won’t lead to any indictments.

In the interview, David Priess, former CIA staffer and daily intelligence briefer for Robert Mueller, is here to talk about the Mueller report. What do we know? What questions are still unanswered? And where do we go from here? Priess’ latest book is How to Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.

In the Spiel, the Mueller report does not exonerate Trump, even if Trump thinks it does.

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On The Gist, ISIS may be defeated, but the people who made up its forces aren’t gone.

In the interview, novelist John Lanchester is here to discuss his new novel The Wall, the symbolic and practical use of walls, and how closely we should pay attention to our dreams.

In the Spiel, Jim Nantz shouldn’t be in those Capital One commercials for March Madness.

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On The Gist, who paid for those two Chinese-born tech magnates to take photos with Trump?

In the interview, Vanderbilt professor Jonathan Metzl is here to discuss his new book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland.

In the Spiel, litigating Biden’s past.

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On The Gist, have you heard about the mob hit that took place a few weeks ago?

In the interview, journalist Sarah Kliff joins us to discuss maternal mortality rates in the United States, what California has done to fix it, and what the rest of the country should learn from them. Kliff is the host of Vox’s The Impact.

In the Spiel, Donald Trump on John McCain’s funeral.

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On The Gist, it wouldn’t just be morally right for Trump to finally denounce white nationalism. It would be politically smart.

In the interview, Jill Abramson’s Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts was released to glowing reviews—but valid accusations of plagiarism and factual errors took some of that shine off. As Mike asks Abramson (a former executive editor of the New York Times), were the negative headlines so grabby that they’ve damned the book’s valuable insights? And would that in itself prove many of her worries about journalism in the 21st century?

In the Spiel, the New York Times, biased? You don’t say.

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On The Gist, Beto O’Rourke, the countertop candidate.

In the interview, historian Rutger Bregman got in a spat with Fox host Tucker Carlson, but you wouldn’t know it if it weren’t for his own video of the incident. Fox never aired it, as Bregman accused Carlson of carrying water for billionaires and Carlson responded with profane insults. Bregman joins the Gist to give us the backstory on that, but not before laying out some of the progressive economic policies—with basis in American history—that he favors, Carlson’s disapproval notwithstanding. Bregman is the author of Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal Worldand writes for the Correspondent.

In the Spiel, New Zealand’s unity on gun control is admirable. In the big, diverse country that is the United States, things are a little more complicated.

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On The Gist, Senator Thom Tillis’ op-ed, now with moral fiber!

In the interview, no one’s ever had to wonder what was on tech journalist Kara Swisher’s mind (she’ll just tell you) and that includes the litany of Silicon Valley oligarchs she’s interviewed. Swisher tells us how the modern world is very much shaped by company founders’ personality quirks and blind spots, what government regulation of Google and Facebook should look like, and what women can do to get what they want in the workplace. Swisher is the co-founder of Recode and the host of its Recode Decode podcast.

In the Spiel, if you want to measure the ills that come with an increasingly connected world, look no farther than the shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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On The Gist, Beto O’Rourke is running for president. But should he?

In the interview, Tim Alberta, chief political correspondent for Politico, recently wrote a piece about Reps. Ilhan Omar and Dean Phillips and the current divide in the Democratic party, “The Democrat’s Dilemma.” Alberta is here today to discuss the difficulty facing the Democratic party as some new members of Congress seem to be pushing the party further left and whether or not that’s a good thing. His upcoming book is American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.

In the Spiel, Paul Manafort goes to Ostrich Court.

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On The Gist, three stray thoughts on the college admissions scandal.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back to talk about those naïve millennials. Last year many of them were duped into paying thousands for tickets to Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival, a glamorous event that existed in name only. That begs the question: Are millennials more susceptible to being scammed than other generations, or is that bullshit?

In the Spiel, the rich and powerful often get off easy in the court of law (case in point: Paul Manafort). But instead of throwing the book at them, maybe we should sentence everyone else a little more kindly, too.

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On The Gist, Bill de Blasio flapping his arms to R. Kelly.

In the interview, Sal Gentile writes for late night television, but he lives in president Trump’s mind around the clock. Every day he writes insights and jokes about Trump’s latest ramblings for “A Closer Look,” a segment on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. Gentile talks about his writing process—lots of jokes go into a first draft, but only a few make the cut—and how the instinct to laugh is itself a reliable bullshit detector.

In the Spiel, the college admissions scandal involving Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin.

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On The Gist, much ado about a toothpick ban. In the interview, Wikipedia is famously edited by its own readers. And no one has made more contributions than Steven Pruitt. A third of English language pages on the site bear his mark! What goes into editing a Wikipedia page, and is it as toxic as other democratic spaces on the internet? In the Spiel, which Democratic candidate gets The Gist’s vote? The one to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

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On The Gist, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Israel.

In the interview, the Guardian’s Chris McGreal covered the deadly toll opiates take on poor American communities "long before it became fashionable because of Trump." He speaks to Purdue Pharma’s zealous campaign to push OxyContin (“a chemical cousin of heroin”, in the words of the New Yorker) onto doctors and patients—and the federal government’s failure to stop it. McGreal is the author of American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts.

In the Spiel, another Lobstar of the Antentwig.

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On The Gist, Stormy is in the news (but not that Stormy).

In the interview, Donald Trump speaks many untruths every day, and someone has to track them all. Somehow that task has fallen to a Canadian. The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale is here to tell us what counts as a lie, why details matter, and how neither the left nor the right seem satisfied with his work.

In the Spiel, theology isn’t all that interesting… unless there’s drama involved, of course.

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On The Gist, distracting Congress from H.R. 1.

In the interview, sexual promiscuity is judged differently among men compared to women, and that goes double for sex addiction. Franco-Moroccan novelist Leïla Slimani’s latest protagonist, Adèle, knows that firsthand. Slimani joins us to talk about her relationship with her translator—and her own characters—and the French sex scandal that inspired her initial research.

In the Spiel, bad arguments are hard to believe, like those used to defend Michael Jackson.

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On The Gist, Fox News isn’t distributing Trump’s talking points. Worse, it’s defining them.

In the interview, reality TV typically thrives on drama and negativity. Top Chef isn’t necessarily an exception, but season 16 competitor David Viana says morale was high on set—and that that’s a good sign for the culinary world overall. “Better, healthier kitchens are popping up,” Viana says. “It isn’t the Gordon Ramsay style.” David Viana is the executive chef of New Jersey’s Heirloom Kitchen.

The finale of Top Chef: Kentucky airs March 14, 2019 on Bravo. In the Spiel, more from Trump’s nonsensical CPAC speech.

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On The Gist, the White House PR machine.

In the interview, John Carlin is a former Asst. Attorney General for the Dept. of Justice and former Chief of Staff to Robert Mueller, and his new book Dawn of the Code War tracks the rise of global cyber threats from Russia and China, and how our country is working to respond.

In the Spiel, the CPAC lets Trump get away with anything he wants.

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On The Gist, John Hickenlooper might be running for president.

In the interview, Dan Reed reached out to Wade Robson and James Safechuck before #MeToo exploded, but its influence is clear. In the director’s documentary for HBO, Leaving Neverland, we hear again how the effects of sexual abuse—in this case, at the hands of Michael Jackson—can manifest in counterintuitive ways; Robson and Safechuck once shielded Jackson. Now they’re coming forward with their truth.

In the Spiel, the House Oversight Committee and racism.

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On The Gist, the empty political rhetoric that is “everyday people.”

In the interview, fact-checking is big business in the age of Trump. But one politician diametrically opposed to the president—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—is playing fast and loose with statistics too, and journalists have noticed. Should she be called out? NY Magazine’s Eric Levitz says it’s complicated.

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On the Gist, Michael Cohen is not a smart guy, and that makes his testimony all the more trustworthy.

In the interview, Casey Burgat of R Street is here to talk about Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s staff turnover data. Does she seem to churn through staff more than most, or are a few big exits skewing the numbers? And is it so bad to have high turnover anyway?

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On The Gist, corn syrup and beer.

In the interview, what’s the difference between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old? In terms of maturity, not so much. But only one of them has the right to vote. In Oregon, state Sen. Shemia Fagan is hoping to change that, and she’s letting young activists take the lead.

In the Spiel, who wants to talk about reparations?

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On The Gist, asymmetric warfare means America’s got some pretty lame enemies.

In the interview, women aren’t the only demographic group making the 2020 race especially diverse. Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is considering a run for office; he’s a millennial, a veteran, and openly gay. We get his thoughts on the size of the Supreme Court and Congress, and his feelings about the humble penny. Buttigieg’s new book is Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future.

In the Spiel, what the Oscars, the Virginia governorship, and Amazon HQ2 have in common.

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On The Gist, even with a genuinely good story, president Trump just can’t get his facts right.

In the interview, his name is Mo Rocca, and he’s out with a new podcast of obituaries. So it’s only natural, of course, that it be called Mobituaries. His audio tributes can be for both people and things, including JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader and the humble station wagon.

In the Spiel, America’s billionaires do some good, and they don’t make the rest of us any poorer.

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On The Gist, the deep state or a shallow president?

In the interview, director Leslye Headland has been on The Gist before, and is back for more. But unlike the protagonist of Russian Doll, her new Netflix show, he isn’t likely to find herself stuck in a time loop, reliving the same moments over and over again. Headland joins alongside Rebecca Henderson, who stars in the show. And, fun fact: the two are married!

In the Spiel, Disney World’s Hall of Presidents.

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On The Gist, news should be new.

In the interview, our resident vexillologist Ted Kaye is back to talk about San Francisco’s flag. Where does its design come from, and is it really the best modern representation of the city?

Kaye’s book is Good Flag, Bad Flag. In the Spiel, Bernie Sanders and the viability of policy ideas.

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On The Gist, Bernie is in. Are billionaires out?

In the interview, president Trump may be the chief saber-rattler when it comes to China, but acting tough against the world’s second biggest economy is a bipartisan pastime. With challenges like global warming and nuclear armament on the line, Kaiser Kuo says, the U.S. might do better with cooperation instead of rivalry. Kuo is a co-founder of the Sinica podcast and the editor-at-large of SupChina.

In the Spiel, algorithms aren’t just for Facebook—they’re also used in criminal justice. Here’s why they shouldn’t be.

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On The Gist, racy names for missiles.

In the interview, Chris Molanphy is here to talk about the Billboard hits of 1979, disco’s last hurrah, and how the year prepares for the coming wave of pop. Molanphy is the host of Hit Parade and writes the column Why Is This Song No. 1?

In the Spiel, Amazon leaving New York City is a big loss but people don’t seem to realize it.

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On The Gist, sometimes Howard Stern can be helpful.

In the interview, stand-up comedian and podcaster Matt Braunger is here to discuss his new special Finally Live in Portland, his podcast Advice From a Dipshit, and whether or not he would eat racist fudge.

In the Spiel, the human tragedy of losing animals.

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On The Gist, Democratic leaders should slow down the next time a Virginia-sized fiasco comes along.

In the interview, podcasters can storm off a set too—even if it’s their own. Words Matter host Adam Levine pressed his colleague Steve Schmidt on details about his advising gig for 2020 hopeful Howard Schultz. And it wasn’t just because that posed a possible conflict of interest for the political podcast; Levine says his regular listeners wanted answers on the guy who, in their eyes, could get enough votes to cause another Trump victory.

In the Spiel, and in El Paso on Monday: presidential logorrhea.

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On The Gist, if president Trump wanted to denounce bullying, he could have done better than inviting a boy named Trump (no relation) to the State of the Union address.

In 2001, Congress gave president Bush a nearly blank check for command of an American military bent on punishing the terrorist groups directly (and not so directly) responsible for 9/11. The Authorization for Use of Military Force still benefits U.S. presidents, and few in Congress today seek to curb it. Our guest, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, is among them.

In the Spiel, Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in for 2020, and reports of her being too tough a boss should be taken in stride.

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On The Gist, wise words from the mouth of Jeff Bezos… by way of Amazon’s Alexa.

In the interview, green energy may be clean, but that doesn’t mean its infrastructure is any less garish. Energy reporter Amy Harder reminds us that one of the lesser-discussed obstacles to a Green New Deal is good old-fashioned nimbyism: “A lot of people don’t like power lines being constructed right in their backyards.” Harder covers energy for Axios, and writes its Harder Line column.

In the Spiel, it may feel right to ask that we believe women making accusations of sexual assault. But a better corrective would be simply to not discredit them out of hand.

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On The Gist, don’t lick people you work with.

In the interview, reading a whole book is great, but sometimes all you need is the introduction. Author Elisa Gabbert thinks so, and joins us to talk about intros and other “front matter”; a novel that unfolds over the course of an escalator ride; and how sitcoms have thrown our beauty barometers out of whack. Gabbert is the author of The Word Pretty.

In the Spiel, the Green New Deal needs more scrutiny before it moves forward.

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On The Gist, who oh who will govern the state of Virginia?

In the interview, when Roger McNamee jumped in as an early investor in Facebook, he might not have figured he’d end up testifying about the company in front of Congress. McNamee charts Facebook’s worrying evolution in his new book: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.

In the Spiel, the State of the Union address is like baseball’s All-Star Game. Flashy, but without consequence.

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On The Gist, Gov. Andrew Cuomo still doesn’t understand puns.

In the interview, Lauren Greenfield has been documenting the wealthy for the past 25 years and has finally turned that into her new film Generation Wealth, an exploration of the rise of wealth culture and the implications it has on those immersed in it. Can money really make you happy? Is there any way for the rest of us to ascend to wealthy status? Would we even want to? Generation Wealth is currently available on Amazon.

In the Spiel, who are the guests at the State of the Union?

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On The Gist, parsing president Trump’s one-on-one press interviews may be a fool’s errand, but at least it’s a fun one.

In the interview, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller has reported from the murkiest depths of the Trump swamp. He’s on The Gist to talk about Russia’s connections to the Trump campaign, the challenges of covering a hostile White House, and what he suspects Putin really has on Trump. Miller is the author of The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy.

In the Spiel, Virginia governor Ralph Northam has to go, but we should still question the warp-speed guillotine that is the internet.

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On The Gist, throwback to Mike Pesca's unnecessarily censored yearbook quote.

In the interview, Seth Crossno, also known by his online persona William Needham Finley IV, thought it would be fun to go to the Fyre Festival with his buddies. And while the festival might have been a mess, being a part of two competing documentaries about the experience and winning a lawsuit about it was quite the trip. Crossno is here to discuss what it was like, and why he doesn’t understand how people found Fyre Festival scammer Billy McFarland so charming.

In the Spiel, who can advertise during the Super Bowl.

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On The Gist, get off of your phone and out of my way when it’s snowing.

In the interview, there’s no one right way to raise a child, but a few hacks sure help. Podcaster, author, and mother Hillary Frank gives you permission to do what it takes to make your kid’s childhood easier on you, including turning tasks into games and telling white lies (call pork “chicken” if that’s all they’ll eat). Hillary Frank is the creator of The Longest Shortest Time and the author of Weird Parenting Wins.

In the Spiel, centrism sucks.

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On The Gist, this one is brought to you by the letter T.

In the interview, does using a stool really help your stool? Can the Squatty Potty offer any actual health benefits or is that smooth dookie all in your mind? Maybe the contraption’s popular just because it rhymes… Anyway, Maria Konnikova is here to judge, appropriately, whether that is bullshit.

In the Spiel, Medicare is only a minefield if Democrats make it one.

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On The Gist, “the big game” is a dumb way to refer to the Super Bowl.

If you were to pick a moment in U.S. history that put it on the path to polarization, you could do worse than Watergate. What followed were the blue and red bubbles staked out by CNN in the '80s, Fox News in the '90s, and social media in the 2000s. Princeton professors Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer lived through that history, created a course on it, and cover it in their new book,Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.

In the Spiel, Chris Christie’s new book.

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On The Gist, Nancy Pelosi is a skilled politician, sure… but she’s scoring her wins against an incompetent one in president Trump.

In the interview, we obsess about the lives of stars, but what about their not-so-famous siblings? Comedy Central’s The Other Two focuses on the brother and sister of a pre-teen who rocketed to pop stardom. Drew Tarver plays one of those siblings, and discusses what it’s like living in the shadow of a more famous family member (not just in this role, but in real life). The Other Two airs on Thursdays on Comedy Central. In the Spiel, on the eccentricities of Roger Stone and Randy Credico.

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On The Gist, pairing 2020 candidates with this or that Oscar-nominated film.

In the interview, don’t take a shot every time Donna Brazile calls herself one of the Democratic Party’s “original gangsters.” But it’s true: she’s been at the heart of its workings for decades. In 2020, she plans on keeping out of the Democratic primaries, all while keeping up with the many rule changes they’ve adopted since 2016. Brazile is the co-author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics.

In the Spiel, an analysis of Trump’s shutdown backdown.

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On The Gist, Necco Wafers are out this Valentine’s Day, but don’t shed a tear.

In the interview, some movies live for the twist. Steven Knight’s latest film, Serenity, is ostensibly about a sea captain’s Melvillian obsessions. Knight joins us to talk about how Matthew McConaughey gets it right, Saint Lucia, and writing screenplays in a detached state of mind (“It’s almost like accessing whatever the hell it is that creates dreams”).

In the Spiel, journalists are losing their jobs. And there’s some BS out there about why that is.

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On The Gist, you can’t give Ann Coulter a win.

Rick Pitino is a former American basketball coach who experienced a number of scandals in the past few years, leading him to leave America for the Greek Basket League. But how did a renowned basketball coach find himself coaching in Greece? Journalist Michael Sokolove is here with the story. Sokolove’s new book is The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino: A Story of Corruption, Scandal, and the Big Business of College Basketball.

In the Spiel, dismissing Kamala Harris.

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On The Gist, Joni Ernst’s divorce filing.

When Jessica Hopper started out writing about music, trolls and affronted fans didn’t tweet at you; they wrote you a letter. The world’s move to digital has changed that, and helped bring about the #MeToo movement (notice the hashtag?). But despite R. Kelly’s fall, Hopper says the rest of the music industry may prove resistant to change. Hopper is the author of a new memoir, Night Moves.

In the Spiel, the Covington Catholic teens aren't the disease, they’re a symptom.

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On The Gist, BuzzFeed’s new report on Trump.

Earlier this week Rep. Steve King was denounced by much of his party because of remarks he gave to the New York Times about white supremacy. He may have misspoken or chosen to change his wording if given the chance, but according to the Storm Lake Times’ Art Cullen, who has been covering King for years in Iowa and recently wrote about King in the Guardian, that’s just not his style. But his straight talk won’t work in Iowa if it’s riddled with dishonesty. Art Cullen is here to discuss.

In the Spiel, feeding the anger machine.

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On the Gist, the knife-wielding skills of Nancy Pelosi.

In the interview, An Xiao Mina has tracked the meme from its goofy origins to its use in anti-authoritarian protest and (more recently) disinformation. What’s next, and how can we minimize the harm caused by the internet’s worst actors? An Xiao Mina is the author of Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power.

In the Spiel, Pelosi can’t go to Afghanistan because Trump is one impetuous manbaby.

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On The Gist, Kirsten Gillibrand running for president.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently floated the idea of a 70 percent marginal tax rate on America’s highest earners. That’s bad for millionaires, but is it even that good for everyone else? The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson argues it isn’t: High taxes wouldn’t rake in that much cash, and they might even scare taxpayers out of the country. Still, he’s clear-eyed about the dangers of concentrated money and thinks a wealth tax (on the value of what you own, not what you make) is where it’s really at.

In the Spiel, you should have thought of that.

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On The Gist, ’twas an eventful news day (William Barr, opioid fatality statistics, Brexit … ), but Mike’s got a big Spiel to fry.

In the interview, Greg Jaczko served as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission under Obama—and soon grew disillusioned with nuclear energy technology itself. He joins us to explain what changed his thinking and where to turn for tomorrow’s energy. Jaczko’s new book is Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.

In the Spiel, a thought experiment in which Trump is given the benefit of the doubt regarding Russia … and still comes out looking like a scoundrel.

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On The Gist, president Trump is far from tough on Russia, and too many news talk shows let his allies make that claim.

In the interview, Jennifer Traig thought she knew what she was getting into when she became a parent, until “washing diarrhea out of neckfolds” came along. In her latest book, she turns to history to sort the parenting techniques and philosophies that are worth keeping from those that aren’t. Traig is the author of Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting.

In the Spiel, Republicans are speaking out against congressman Steve King for his racist comments. But how about some action?

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On The Gist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s star power isn’t something to fear. Especially if you’re a Democrat.

“The world is a very dangerous place!” as a statement from President Donald Trump’s desk once put it. Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer gets that, which is why his firm writes a list of top geopolitical risks at the start of every year. In 2019, these include America’s response to growing tech and A.I. dominance from China, presidential elections in Ukraine and Nigeria, and cyberwar. Bremmer is also the founder of GZero Media and hosts its podcast, GZero World With Ian Bremmer.

In the Spiel, ringing in the year’s first Lobstar of the Antentwig.

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On The Gist, costs and benefits in the government.

In the interview, Matthew Heineman is here to discuss his new film A Private War. Though usually a documentary filmmaker, this time around he tried his hand at a feature. Focused on the life of journalist Marie Colvin, it’s surprising how many documentary techniques Heineman employed when making the film, which uniquely fits the story being told. A Private War will be available on Feb. 5.

In the Spiel, the rhyming Kellyanne Conway.

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On The Gist, the days are getting longer, the brand names shorter.

In the interview, millennial whisperer (or, you know, just plain millennial) Anne Helen Petersen recently diagnosed “the burnout generation” in a viral feature for BuzzFeed. Student debt, the 2008 financial crisis, relatively low levels of family wealth—all have contributed to their dire straits. But could their biggest burden be a mental one?

In the Spiel, President Trump’s unsurprisingly empty Oval Office address.

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On The Gist, do presidential addresses change anything?

In the interview, NPR’s David Folkenflik joins us to talk about Donald Trump’s Oval Office address. Should the networks give airtime to someone so averse to facts, even if he is the president? Is there any precedent for this? And what repercussions for lying will Trump face, if any?

In the Spiel, 5G networks.

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On The Gist, news networks should do us a favor and not air Trump’s prime-time speech on Tuesday night.

In the interview, Greg Sargent is an indispensable voice for anyone looking to grasp the inner workings of American democracy. In his new book, he argues that compromise is possible even on issues as stark as voter suppression (the implementers are all Republican on this one, folks). Sargent’s book is An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics.

In the Spiel, likability in 2020? It’s overrated.

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On The Gist, works produced 75 years ago are now entering the public domain. And some are what 2019 would call “problematic.”

David Bowie once sang that we can all be heroes … but villainy is where it’s really at. In the Ringer podcast Villains, host Shea Serrano and his guests analyze film’s best baddies to figure out their true motives and chances at redemption. What makes The Silence of the Lambs’Hannibal Lecter the most memorable villain of all? How justified is Amy Dunne in Gone Girl? And are there any villains they won’t even touch?

In the Spiel, Rep. Rashida Tlaib used a bad word. But boy, it’s also such a great word.

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On The Gist, what do Kim Jong-un’s letters and Shaquille O’Neal sneakers have in common?

In the interview, you’ve likely heard of microplastics, but are they something to worry about? Maria Konnikova is here with answers in another round of “Is That Bullshit?”. Konnikova is the author of The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time.

In the Spiel, and in New York City, even shutting down a subway train comes with delays.

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On The Gist, the government shutdown continues.

In the interview, impeachment proceedings have never removed a president from office (in Bill Clinton’s case, they even offered a bump in approval ratings). So is it really the best route for those who see nothing but rot in Trump’s presidency? Lawfare Institute COO David Priess surveys the options in his latest book, How to Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.

In the Spiel, Louis C.K. and punching down.

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On The Gist, Mike Pesca is leaving Facebook, mostly.

In the interview, Andy Serkis is here to discuss his newest movie, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, along with the film’s star Rohan Chand. They talk about the magic of working in motion capture, how it really isn’t all that different from other types of acting, and what it was like jumping on Christian Bale’s back. Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is available on Netflix.

In the Spiel, finding the appropriate punishments for things like drones at the airport.

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On The Gist, why do daily news podcasts think they can take off for the holidays?

In the interview, journalist Priska Neely has been writing about the rates of black infant mortality and why they’re so much higher than American infant mortality rates overall. She joins us today to discuss the possible reasons, including community support systems, health care–related problems, and how racism factors into it all.

In the Spiel, Donald Trump visits Iraq and says a lot.

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On The Gist, Donald Trump is to "wall" as zombies are to "braaaains."

In his Broadway show (The New One) Mike Birbiglia tells you why procreation is a terrible idea, before waxing lyrical on the joys of raising a daughter—it’s complicated; he’s complicated. On The Gist, he spares a thought for how to tip at an Olive Garden, the future of email leaks, and Fox News’ underwhelming Christmas tree.

In the Spiel, abandoning arguments of good (or bad) faith.

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On The Gist, Amazon or marijuana?

In the interview, Andrew Yang has declared his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election, and his platform is universal basic income. But how does that work? Is there room for that and other progressive platforms like free college tuition or universal health care? Yang’s new book is The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future.

In the Spiel, thought experiments and the extinction of the human race.

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On The Gist, the government shutdown and Santa.

In the interview, Adam Conover joins us to discuss the latest season of Adam Ruins Everything, how they ruin things like guns and mattresses, the mistakes they’ve made along the way, and if there are any topics they aren’t allowed to cover. Adam Ruins Everything airs on Tuesday nights on truTV.

In the Spiel, Alice Walker, the New York Times, and narratives.

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On The Gist, why Mick Mulvaney’s trash talk didn’t cost him a job under Trump.

In the interview, is the alt-right waning? An expert on the movement, George Hawley, says that de-platforming worked to counter hateful figures like Milo Yiannopoulos and Alex Jones and that the news media may have overestimated their cunning—throwing memes at the wall until some of them stick—to begin with. Hawley is a professor of politics at the University of Alabama and the author of The Alt-Right: What Everyone Needs to Know.

In the Spiel, some Pesca family lore on befriending Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon.

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On The Gist, maybe Rudy Giuliani isn’t deteriorating. Rather, his job now (defending Trump’s shenanigans) is tougher than any he’s had.

Maria Konnikova is back to call bullshit on astrology. She walks us through its origins in ancient Chaldea, its popularity among history’s scientists and philosophers, and the present day—where real experiments have been run. Is there any truth to it? And what about just enjoying the fun of it all?

In the Spiel, goodbye Ryan Zinke. We knew ye well enough.

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On The Gist, the demise of the Weekly Standard.

Then, going with your gut isn’t always best (despite what President Donald Trump may tell you). Writer Steven Johnson says making better decisions can be as simple as considering multiple options instead of focusing on the “should I” or “shouldn’t I.” He’s also got anecdotes about Darwin’s marital deliberations, machine learning, and the call to storm the fortress in which Osama Bin Laden (“probably,” Americans figured) was ensconced. Johnson is the author of Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most.

In the Spiel, pronouncing people’s names correctly.

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On The Gist, Jeff Bezos is one rich man. That doesn’t make him (and Amazon) bad for New York City.

In the interview, First Man is as much about Neil Armstrong the man as it is about Neil Armstrong the astronaut. Instead of depicting him planting a U.S. flag on the moon, screenwriter Josh Singer had him pay tribute to his deceased daughter. That ruffled some feathers, and Singer tells us why he stands by it.

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On The Gist, President Trump interrupted Nancy Pelosi because he interrupts everyone.

In the interview, the deputy executive director of U.N. Women, Åsa Regnér, knows how to bring more women into politics. Countries like Bolivia, Rwanda, and those in Scandinavia have achieved more equal representation. So how useful are quotas? Does religion play a role? How can gender parity be seen not just as a rights issue but something smarter for policymaking, the economy, and the health of the country?

In the Spiel, putting a dollar value on the election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.

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On The Gist, it’s tough to find a host for the Oscars.

In the interview, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame can quickly become incestuous, since past winners get to vote on future inductees. But this year’s 15 nominees break the mold of guitar-slinging dudes with long hair. Sure, Def Leppard is in the running, but so are LL Cool J, Janet Jackson, and Kraftwerk. Music critic Chris Molanphy himself has a vote, and tells us what his ballot looks like. Molanphy is the host of the Slate podcast Hit Parade and writes Slate’s “Why Is This Song No. 1?” column.

In the Spiel, Andrew Sullivan’s new religions.

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On The Gist, the bottomless Pinocchio.

Americans are filled with anxiety in the pursuit of happiness, and social media isn’t making it any better. But how do we even define happy, and will changing our online habits actually change anything? Author Ruth Whippman, who wrote about the phenomenon in the recent New York Times piece, “Everything Is for Sale Now. Even Us.,” joins us to discuss.

In the Spiel, the Brexit vote.

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On The Gist, the GOP isn’t overtly racist. But it once was.

In the interview, Liz Holtzman was the youngest woman to be elected to the House of Representatives, and she did it in 1973. She also served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee as they held impeachment hearings for Richard Nixon. In her new book, The Case For Impeaching Trump, she explains what exactly is required to impeach a president and why Trump’s actions might have already justified those proceedings.

In the Spiel, it’s time to award the last Lobstar of 2018.

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On The Gist, is Sherrod Brown annoying?

In the interview, Matt Green is on a yearslong mission to walk all the streets of New York City—and Jeremy Workman filmed him doing many of them for a documentary, The World Before Your Feet. Alongside Workman and executive producer Jesse Eisenberg, Green talks about Staten Island’s ordinary charm, the odd street-naming conventions of Queens, and how a life of perpetual walking makes dating pretty hard.

In the Spiel, PETA.

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On The Gist, stop wishing Jews happy holidays if Hanukkah has already passed.

How do you explain wit? James Geary attempted to answer that question with his new book, Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It, but quickly found that the only way to write about comedy is to write comedy. He joins us to discuss the difficulties of examining this subject, the various types of wit, and why Buster Keaton is a master of the form.

In the Spiel, eulogies are the best part of any funeral, particularly a president’s.

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On The Gist, a “tariff man” sing-along!

Then, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of “Is That Bullshit?” She and Mike discuss the cigar-shaped space object (known as ‘Oumuamua) picked up by astronomers last year. Was it an alien vehicle, or just another flying rock?

In the Spiel, Mike proudly backs the Slate stance: George H.W. Bush’s service dog probably wasn’t mourning him.

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On The Gist, in doing less than his son did in the Middle East, George H.W. Bush did better.

In the interview, Wild Wild Country was one of the year’s most riveting documentaries. But one of its sources, journalist Les Zaitz, argues that it pulls punches on the cult that overtook a small town in Oregon, committed the biggest bioterror attack in American history, and had designs to assassinate its critics.

In the Spiel, taking stock of George H.W. Bush’s legacy.

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On The Gist, should people be let go for one bad idea?

30 for 30 has been a hugely successful documentary series in both video and audio form for ESPN. Jody Avirgan sits at its podcast helm with a new season covering stories like Jose Canseco’s steroid use, the 2003 World Series of Poker, and Japanese baseball player Hideo Nomo trying to join the Major League. He also hosts FiveThirtyEight’s political podcast, offering fresh and smart insight wherever he can. Avirgan joins us today to talk the difference of the audio documentary medium, how soon after events documentaries can be made, and what stories they almost told this season.

In the Spiel, the very legal and very cool Donald Trump.

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On The Gist, cows are beef, even if they’ve reached internet fame.

In the interview, Steven Caple Jr. watched everything from Jean-Claude Van Damme movies to street-fight videos before directing Creed II, the latest film in the Rocky franchise. He joins The Gist to talk about how to shoot a fight scene, his favorite Rocky villains, and Michael B. Jordan’s rising star.

In the Spiel, Michael Cohen squeals, and we all learn once again that President Trump does not, sadly, tell it like it is.

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On The Gist, the Nancy Pelosi nonstory (spoiler alert: she’s going to win the speakership) is distracting us from the Trump administration’s latest misdeeds.

In the interview, Kim Brooks received 100 hours of community service in 2011 for leaving her son alone in a car during a quick errand. Then she connected with other parents who’d been policed by their community in harmful ways. Do Americans worry so much about the safety of children that they’re blind to common sense? Brooks explores this, and the dangers of involving the police too quickly, in her new book, Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear.

In the Spiel, no, the missionary to North Sentinel Island did not deserve to die, and it’s appalling to suggest he did.

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On The Gist, Cindy Hyde-Smith is on the MAGA wagon.

In the interview, the U.S. has long been the global leader in military spending. But is that enough to guarantee victory in a war against Russia, China, or both? Aaron Mehta covers the Pentagon for Defense News and has written about a bipartisan commission’s new report on America’s readiness for big conflicts.

In the Spiel, terrible arguments obscuring bad ideas.

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On The Gist, Danielle Pletka’s thoughts on climate change and Saudi Arabia.

In the interview, the Republican Party’s voter suppression isn’t the result of philosophy or values—it just helps them win. In making the fight over voting rights public, Democrats have two advantages: It’s obviously the right thing to do, and it would help them compete up and down the ballot. Our guest Dave Weigel writes The Trailer, a newsletter on electoral politics for the Washington Post.

In the Spiel, the crisis of credible conservative commentators.

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On The Gist, the state of the runoff Senate election down in Mississippi.

Fat shaming is inexcusable. But so is denying some of the health problems that come with being obese. Maria Konnikova gives us a pre-Thanksgiving report on the latest science and reminds us that obesity in the U.S. is driven by social “superforces” more than by personal choices. Konnikova writes for the New Yorker and is the author of The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, yes, it’s absolutely OK to laugh (or shake one’s head in disbelief) at President Trump’s buffoonery.

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On The Gist, a historian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Why not?

When a young Peter Sagal was labeled “not great at sports,” it didn’t sit well with him. But if that drove him to running in the first place, he now has plenty of reasons to keep up the pace—not the least of which is that it’s a good thing to think, talk, and write about. Sagal is the host of NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! and the author of The Incomplete Book of Running.

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On The Gist, violent, vicious, and terrible. These are a few of Trump’s favorite words.

In the interview: Verne Lundquist announced sports games for decades. But in retirement, he has more time for classical music than whatever game is on TV. “I’m not a passionate sports fan,” he says. “I’ve got X number of years to live in this life—let’s experience as much of it as we can.” Lundquist is the author of Play by Play: Calling the Wildest Games in Sports—From SEC Football to College Basketball, the Masters, and More.

In the Spiel, there are four kinds of presidents. Trump’s the worst kind.

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On The Gist, President Donald Trump has finally made a nomination for ambassador to South Africa. And it is a terrible one.

It’s hard to make comedy when your story, like Ben Stiller’s latest direction, is based on a state inspector general’s report. Escape at Dannemora is drama through and through, based on the prison break of two men, aided by a female employee (and lover), from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility. Stiller talks filming bad sex, turning villains into heroes, and what makes Patricia Arquette a great actress. Escape at Dannemora premieres Sunday on Showtime.

In the Spiel, get this: a podcast where the interviews never get past “hello!” and “can you hear me all right?”

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On The Gist, Nancy Pelosi and new House leadership.

Then, the self-help organization known as NXIVM had thousands of paying customers, but only some were involved in the cultish operations that, once exposed, brought it crashing down. In Uncover: Escaping NXIVM, host Josh Bloch follows one of the company’s unknowing recruiters, who disavowed the group and became central to the ongoing FBI charges against its founder, Keith Raniere. We also hear from Susan Dones, another former member of NXIVM.

In the Spiel, Brexit is back.

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On The Gist, who’s running in 2020? Should we even speculate yet?

Time for another segment of Mike debates Slate. Staff writer Henry Grabar is here to discuss Amazon’s choice of New York City, why people seem to keep misunderstanding what subsidies are, and how the benefits of Amazon moving to Long Island City outweigh the costs to the city.

In the Spiel, Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials and asking multipart questions at press conferences.

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On The Gist, when will everyone stop walking and chewing gum at the same time?

In the interview, it may have been a political stunt ahead of the midterms, but president Trump’s deployment of U.S. service members to the border continues. What are they even up to? Veteran and writer Jack Murphy fills in the details, including how the mission is being received in the military community at large. Murphy is the editor in chief of NEWSREP.

In the Spiel, Amazon’s news and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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On The Gist, what kind of sped-up sports replays is Kellyanne Conway watching?

The simplicity of basketball is also its genius, allowing players to exercise skill, heart, genius and passion in endlessly creative ways. Dan Klores embraces just that in his ESPN documentary Basketball: A Love Story and talks about specific players, the NBA’s leaders, and why short players deserve more credit.

In the Spiel, the DCCC may smack of establishment power, but it was damn effective at flipping House seats for Democrats.

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On The Gist, by any previous standard, we’d be saying that President Donald Trump lost the midterms, plain and simple.

In the interview, Tuesday’s midterms saw red states get redder and blue ones bluer. If results like those keep repeating themselves, Slate panelists—Dahlia Lithwick, Jamelle Bouie, and Jim Newell, hosted live in New York by Mike Pesca—say America could soon feel like two distinct legal worlds.

In the Spiel, Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was a tight end at the University of Iowa! And uh, that tells us nothing about his character.

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On The Gist, the Democrats’ big win.

Bradley Tusk has been in the background everywhere. His hand guided the rise of big political and tech brands, from advising Rod Blagojevich not to extort Rahm Emanuel to facilitating Uber’s explosive growth. He joins us to discuss his political savvy saving campaigns and startups and why he’s so passionate about voting with your smartphone. Tusk’s new book is The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups From Death by Politics.

In the Spiel, misunderstanding democracy and trying to correct someone else’s tweet.

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On The Gist, was last night a wave or not?

If congresswoman Jackie Speier still kept a gratitude journal (“I don’t have time to do it!”), it would include an entry about the Democratic Party reclaiming the House in Tuesday’s midterms. Instead she’s out with a new memoir—Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back—and brings details on how her party’s majority will put the squeeze on President Donald Trump.

In the Spiel, Donald Trump’s latest press conference.

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On The Gist, who gets to vote?

Mimi Sheraton, the first female food critic at the New York Times, has had a prolific career sharing her opinion on everything like ladyfinger sellers, hope chests and china patterns, and why we’re all eating kale wrong. She joins us today to talk her career as a food critic, why smelt isn’t a crowd pleaser, and the importance of eating as a family. She’s a delight on the Ask Mimi episodes of the Sporkful, and her most recent book is 1,000 Food to Eat Before You Die.

In the Spiel, voting mistakes.

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On The Gist, live, from Slate, it’s a post-apocalyptic skit that just might come to pass if you don’t vote on Tuesday.

In the interview, for decades, there was no need to hope for (or fear) a blue wave; until 1994, the Democratic Party enjoyed a 40-year monopoly on the House of Representatives. Then came Newt Gingrich, who engineered the Republican sweep of the lower chamber, and who looms large in our guest Steve Kornacki’s latest book, The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism.

In the Spiel, more about (what else) the midterms. Also: Go vote.

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On The Gist, the Republican tax bill and insurance premiums.

In the interview: a third-century monk, Paul Revere’s horse, and Death himself … all are characters in humorist Simon Rich’s latest book, Hits and Misses: Stories—and none are in on the joke. “I always related to the characters like Homer Simpson that knew less than they should,” Rich says. “As a child those are the ones that I found more sympathetic and more rootable.”

In the Spiel, the unemployment numbers, and the lies we’ve told ourselves about the economy.

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On The Gist, Pew’s analysis of European opinion surveys is out. Let’s look at Greece!

In the interview, the American electorate has come to sort itself not just on political issues, but by worldview. Life is either a gauntlet of hazards (say Republicans) or an array of sights to see (as the Dems think). In their latest book, Prius or Pickup?, political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler warn that these philosophical differences are sharper than what separated the voting blocs of previous generations.

In the Spiel, Trump is out with a racist political ad, surprising precisely no one.

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On The Gist, Trump’s xenophobic campaign, with a Spooktacular twist!

In the interview, hate is hard to measure, but the Southern Poverty Law Center paints a picture of growing prejudice in America. Heidi Beirich and the organization’s Intelligence Project go beyond FBI and Department of Justice statistics to include press reports and even tips from the public.

In the Spiel, swing, baby, swing (we’re talking about congressional districts).

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On The Gist, Mike’s bottom five causes.

In the interview, we rewind to the story of the mail bomber, which was quickly eclipsed by a massacre in Pittsburgh and one loud president. Steve Johnson, who directs Cranfield University’s Forensic Explosive and Explosion Investigation program in the U.K., provides details about Cesar Sayoc’s homemade devices.

In the Spiel, Trump’s desire to end birthright citizenship.

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On The Gist, surprise surprise, right-wing commentators aren’t apologizing for getting the mail bomber story totally wrong.

In the interview, brands don’t make it big by mistake. Behind the success of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte and Jell-O are stories worth hearing. Dan Bobkoff’s podcast for Business Insider, Household Name, explores the odd origins of TGI Fridays, the reason there’s a Mattress Firm on every corner, and how a Donald Trump ad may have saved Pizza Hut (it’s all about the stuffed crust).

In the Spiel, the Pittsburgh shooter was fueled by hate. But just as importantly, he was armed with an AR-15. It’s time to ban it.

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On The Gist, the man in the van is a sad man indeed.

Harry Enten is a senior writer and analyst for CNN Politics and steeped in the polling data for the election. Will Beto O’Rourke beat Ted Cruz? Is the blue wave cresting early? And why do Democrats care about Hamilton? Enten joins us to discuss, and his more detailed forecast can be found online here.

In the Spiel, time for another antentwig.

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On The Gist, Georgia’s exact match law is an extra hurdle for those with hyphenated last names, which, let us speculate, may be more common among black Americans.

In the interview, CNBC contributor Ron Insana on Dow drops, market swings, and the uncertain rise of the job-stealing robots.

In the Spiel, Megyn Kelly’s reportedly been fired for her latest faux pas. What did NBC expect when they hired her?

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On The Gist, Megyn Kelly’s take on blackface was obviously wrong … and wrong for NBC’s messaging.

Sleep isn’t for the weak; it’s for those who want their brains flushed of misfolded proteins and fatigue-inducing adenosine. If that sounds like mumbo-jumbo, Maria Konnikova is here to explain it all and answer one question: Is the prescription for precisely eight hours of sleep bullshit?

In the Spiel, President Trump riles up his base in all kinds of ways, but we can’t honestly blame the recent spate of mail bombs on him and him alone.

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On The Gist, first we’ve got misleading statistics.

In 2016, Art Cullen wrote a series of editorials for the Storm Lake Times, a small newspaper in Iowa, uncovering the murky depths of a fight between local and state governments about water pollution. They followed the money, and discovered a fight funded by agricultural corporations, and ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Cullen’s new book is Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope From a Heartland Newspaper.

In the Spiel, gubernatorial races.

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On The Gist, ’tis the season (elections!) for baseless political analysis, courtesy of big network news.

Americans spend countless hours watching football, but what do they know about the owners of their favorite teams? In Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times, Mark Leibovich covers the exclusive billionaire boys’ club and the “very unimpressive group of inherited misfits” that fills its ranks.

In the Spiel, CNN’s Van Jones was way too chummy with interview guest Jared Kushner on Monday morning.

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On The Gist, Europeans are fighting over daylight saving time, which is way better than having a World War.

Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer has been on both sides of a prison’s bars. After spending two years as a political prisoner in Iran, he returned to the U.S. and got a job as a private prison guard. His real aim, of course, was to report on why the American prison system—private and public—is broken. Bauer’s new book is American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment.

In the Spiel, a debate roundup ahead of the midterms.

This episode is brought to you by Exchanges, a podcast from Goldman Sachs. Listen today wherever you get your podcasts.

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On The Gist, Democrats might actually be winning.

Supporters of open immigration policy—and immigrants themselves—often have a rosy view of what awaits them in the United States. National Review executive editor (and Slate alumnus) Reihan Salam says high costs of living can put immigrants in debt rather than on a path to the middle class. “When we’re totally sentimental about this, we miss some of those struggles, and those struggles are inconvenient. People don’t want to hear about them.” Salam’s book is Melting Pot or Civil War?: A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders.

In the Spiel, Omarosa again.

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On The Gist, bone saws and Jamal Khashoggi.

When Joe Hagan began working on the story of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone, Wenner was on board. But as Wenner slowly realized Hagan was writing the true story rather than Wenner’s story, things got a bit rough. Hagan joins us to discuss Wenner, reactions since publication, and the tricks of writing about a narcissist. Hagan’s book is Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine.

In the Spiel, the civility of debates.

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On The Gist, Saudi Arabia, Trump, and Jamal Khashoggi.

Comedy Cellar owner Noam Dworman has had a post-scandal Louis C.K. take to his stage six times now. Why does he welcome him, and if he doesn’t draw the line at Louis, is it somewhere else?

In the Spiel, the death of Nevada Republican candidate Dennis Hof.

This episode is brought to you by Merrill Lynch. Get started today at ML.com/you.

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On The Gist, unpacking CNN’s list of top Democratic challengers ahead of 2020.

Katmai National Park and Preserve’s publicity stunt worked: For one week (that’s Fat Bear Week), the internet delighted in the tournament bracket that would crown the plumpest predator of them all. Carnivore ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant tells us about the brown bear’s diet, the unknown mechanics of hibernation, and why fattest really means fittest for the competition’s chunky winner (Beadnose!).

In the Spiel, what to make of Elizabeth Warren’s DNA-testing gambit.

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On The Gist, how coverage of bisexuality has changed (for the better).

Thanksgiving approaches, and with it all the tension that comes with mixing family and politics in the age of Trump. In that setting, Ike Barinholtz saw grist for a political comedy. He directs and stars in The Oath, in which a family reunion is cleaved by the federal government’s push for Americans to sign a “loyalty waiver to the president.”

In the Spiel, what Arizona Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema did as congresswoman is much more important than what she did … in a tutu?

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On The Gist, Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz.

At first The Good Place on NBC appears to be a light and easy sitcom about a bad apple accidentally dropped into heaven, but look at little deeper and you’ll find a smart and dense comedy about moral philosophy. Creator Mike Schur joins us to discuss this show’s moral compass, baseball, and the Kant of it all. The Good Place airs on Thursdays on NBC.

In the Spiel, Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

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On The Gist, should we continue to trust Facebook with our data?

Saudi Arabia’s disastrous war with rebel tribes in Yemen is 3½ years deep, as is America’s support for it. Michael Knights, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, details the kingdom’s goals: stopping the missile attacks sailing in from Yemen, restoring the country’s ousted leaders, and countering the rebels’ biggest ally, Iran.

In the Spiel, the disappearance of abortion providers, the rise of crisis pregnancy centers, and what Google can do about it.

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On The Gist, it would be cynical to view the Supreme Court as illegitimate.

Brett Kavanaugh has done it. But how will the other members of the Supreme Court treat him? And does his promotion affect the American people’s faith in the nation’s highest court? Slate’s courts correspondent Dahlia Lithwick joins us to discuss.

In the Spiel, back in the private sector, Nikki Haley can look forward to making Hope Hicks–level money (which, incredibly, is a lot of money).

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On The Gist, after all of that, not a single senator changed his or her vote to back (or stop) Kavanaugh.

In the interview, Jill Lepore’s new book focuses in part on the marginalized groups forgotten by other American histories. It also denounces the polling industry born in the ’30s, which turned politics into business even as it ignored black Americans, slowing their march for civil rights. Lepore’s book is These Truths: A History of the United States.

In the Spiel, don’t forget that the political pendulum always swings back.

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On The Gist, the hippocampus has its moment.

Tom Arnold believes incriminating tapes of Donald Trump are out there, and he wants to find them. In his new series for Viceland, The Hunt for the Trump Tapes, he’s looking for anything from more Access Hollywood obscenities to the infamous pee tape. But would publishing any of these actually change anything about politics today?

In the Spiel, the rhetoric of “sitting Trump” versus “standing Trump.”

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On The Gist, Brett Kavanaugh’s high school and college buddies had some weird nicknames, and it’s not helping his case.

Rebecca Traister is angry, and she knows other women are too. Events from Trump’s election through the #MeToo movement inspired her new book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.

In the Spiel, Mike read the New York Times’ expose on how Donald Trump got rich—so you don’t have to.

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On The Gist, Beto O’Rourke has the momentum but also a mountain to climb.

In the interview, Neal Katyal has argued 37 cases before the Supreme Court, and (better yet!) joined Mike Pesca on stage at Slate Day in Austin, Texas. Our condensed version of the interview covers the implications of a confirmed Brett Kavanaugh, why Robert Mueller “will have the last laugh” when it comes to taking on Trump, and what the indictment of a sitting U.S. president would look like.

In the Spiel, what mothers of sons have to say about Kavanaugh.

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On The Gist, guest host John McWhorter considers campus safe spaces.

In the past few years, college campuses have been shifting away from havens for free speech to safe spaces that bar divisive speakers from campus. But is this the right move, or are we damaging the growth of college students by creating these spaces rather than offering intellectual challenges. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explore this in their new book The Coddling of the American Mind. Lukianoff joins us on the Gist to discuss.

In the Spiel, are the new models of protest a useful continuation of the civil rights movement?

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On The Gist, guest host Isaac Butler talks about all the news we forgot about thanks to the Kavanaugh hearing.

The Constitution is a sacred text in America, but should it be? Heidi Schreck’s play What the Constitution Means to Me tackles that question through her high school experience of giving speeches about the Constitution to put herself through college. Today, she and her director, Oliver Butler, join us to discuss the fresh importance of the play, what sort of impact the Constitution has on women, and what can be drawn from a theatrical analysis of the Kavanaugh hearing. What the Constitution Means to Me is running at the New York Theatre Workshop through Oct. 28.

In the Spiel, Butler considers the nature of conspiracy theories in America and what Kavanaugh has made us forget.

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On The Gist, the Kavanaugh hearing.

By all accounts, Derek Black was supposed to become the next David Duke. He was the man’s godson, after all, and his father, Don Black, had founded Stormfront, the world’s first and biggest white nationalist website. But then Derek went to New College of Florida, where—as told by the Washington Post’s Eli Saslow—he was shunned by many of his peers for his racist views, and embraced by a few despite them. Saslow’s book is Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist.

In the Spiel, more on the Kavanaugh hearing, and Trump’s continuing belief that 52 percent of women voted for him.

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On The Gist, the GOP hired a woman!

Nicole Holofcener’s films have centered women for more than two decades, but her latest one, The Land of Steady Habits,focuses on a man’s tumultuous story arc. She joins us to talk about adaptations (it was a novel before Holofcener made it into a movie), the slow and deliberate process of directing, and why she hates hearing people chew. The Land of Steady Habits is now on Netflix.

In the Spiel, Kavanaugh’s three accusers tell different stories, but many Republican senators are somehow dismissing them all.

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On The Gist, Trump gets laughs at the United Nations.

After a few eccentric comedy specials, Bo Burnham next turned to his sympathy for the anxieties of middle school girls, and made a movie. If Eighth Grade (starring Elsie Fisher) seems to imitate life so well, it’s because Burnham watched hundreds of vlogs made by today’s junior high generation.

In the Spiel, standards of proof in the Kavanaugh case.

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On The Gist, how the breaking news machine bungled the Rod Rosenstein story.

In the interview, California is set to ban certain restaurants from serving straws unless customers ask for one. But given that straws represent a tiny fraction of the plastics choking our oceans, can initiatives like these really make a difference? Ban-the-straw advocate Dune Ives says targeting the straw is, in part, a way to move on to blocking other plastics from the world’s waste stream.

In the Spiel, the air is thick with terrible arguments both for and against Brett Kavanaugh.

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On The Gist, National Review has one good take on the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation story … and a lot of bad ones.

In the interview, we’re used to thinking of societies along the “liberal/conservative” spectrum, but cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand has her own axis to consider: tight versus loose. They aren’t quite the same: Abu Dhabi, for instance, may be conservative, but its role as the crossroads of the Middle East lends it looser norms. In Scandinavia, we’ve got the opposite. Gelfand’s book is Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World.

In the Spiel, you wrote in, and Mike read up: It’s time for the Lobstar of the Antentwig.

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On The Gist, Christine Blasey Ford deserves a hearing on her own terms, and that’s all we can say for now.

Bert Kreischer is a comic who started out as just the biggest college partier in America according to Rolling Stone magazine in 1997. Since then he’s been grappling with fame, how much of his own life to use for comedy, and the way his father shamed him into doing stand-up comedy. Kreischer’s new special on Netflix is Secret Time.

In the Spiel, Jeopardy finally notices podcasts.

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On The Gist, the latest in inane Trump statements.

Climate change is bigger than any one of us, including the president of the United States. Given his backward policies and denials of scientific fact, he deserves his share of criticism in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Climate scientist Andrea Schumacher explains which aspects of hurricane season can be expected to get worse as the planet warms. Schumacher is a research associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University.

In the Spiel, ­­more on John Hockenberry.

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On The Gist, taking issue with the sloppy headlines about the support (or lack thereof) for Brett Kavanaugh.

In the interview, Stacey Abrams’ run for governor in Georgia has been criticized because of her huge outstanding debt. That got Ozy.com reporter Nick Fouriezos wondering how much political candidates typically owe as they run for office. He dug into the finances of 396 political candidates to see how much they owed, and to whom.

In the Spiel, a presidential penis prognostic. You’re welcome.

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On The Gist, Hurricane Florence.

Ethan Hawke has stunned us with his earnest, moving performances on-screen, but he’s also a talent behind the camera. His new directorial feature Blaze explores the life and love of the largely forgotten musician Blaze Foley. He joins us to talk filmmaking, the difficulty of music, comic book movies, and why we should appreciate criticism from our elders. Blaze premieres nationwide on Sept. 21.

In the Spiel, the allegations of Kavanaugh’s sexual assault.

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On The Gist, Vladimir Putin, RT, and the Salisbury poisoning.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might have scary values to conservatives. But to the national director of the Democratic Socialists of America, she’s a moderate. Maria Svart calls the DSA a “big tent organization,” meaning it makes room for everything from AOC’s Scandinavian-style social policies to the more radical workforce ownership of businesses.

In the Spiel, the end of primary season.

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On The Gist, John Hockenberry’s piece in Harper’s.

Donald Trump is no stranger to settlements, and the latest of these come between his administration and hundreds of asylum-seekers. They were rejected after making their cases under the duress of being separated from their children … or their parents. “How are the kids supposed to say why they fear persecution? Try having that conversation with a 4-year-old,” says Margo Schlanger, who headed the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties under Obama. If approved by the court, the settlement would give the migrants a second chance to apply for asylum.

In the Spiel, impeachment.

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On The Gist, Vladimir Putin’s “private citizen” excuse doesn’t hold water.

In the interview, philanthropic billionaires are better than villainous ones, but Anand Giridharadas argues they could do better. Instead of insisting on the superiority of private efforts, they ought to pay more taxes and leave some things to the government. Giridharadas’ book is Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.

In the Spiel, FiveThirtyEight currently says Republicans have a 1-in-6 chance of keeping the House. What else has that kind of odds?

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On The Gist, Mike is thinking he’ll vote Andrew Cuomo—but he’s open to you changing his mind.

The 2014 shooting of Michael Brown upheaved many things in the U.S., including the career of DeRay Mckesson, who quit his job as an educator to become a full-time activist. Now he uses his podcast Pod Save the Peopleas a national platform to speak out against police violence and highlight news that flies under the radar. Mckesson’s new memoir is On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope.

In the Spiel, want to feel less anxious? Put the phone down.

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On The Gist, are we having a national crisis?

The New York Times’ publication of an anonymous op-ed has sparked rounds of speculation as to who’s behind it—and the deep-state trappings it describes. Some see the word “lodestar” as signature Mike Pence, but as Sadia Afroz explains, stylometry—the analysis of prose to uncover its author’s identity—is a little more complicated than looking at individual words. Afroz is a senior research scientist at the International Computer Science Institute.

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On The Gist, Lincoln, Kennedy, and Lincoln Kennedy could all speak better than President Trump.

If you’re old enough to remember November 2016, you know that telling a good story—even an untrue one—wins elections. Author Yuval Noah Harari worries that populism has liberalism beat on this front, especially given an uncertain future looming with AI, biotechnology, and the possible obsolescence of the human worker. Harari’s new book is 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

In the Spiel, a lawmaker’s voting record is the only thing we should judge them on.

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On The Gist, Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.

The Pentagon’s third-in-command is reportedly losing his job, and it’s hardly making news. As the Defense Department’s first-ever chief management officer, John Gibson is in charge of saving billions of dollars for reinvestment. He’s to be fired because of a reported “lack of performance,” but Defense News’ Aaron Mehta says the task was nearly impossible in the first place.

In the Spiel, who really wrote that New York Times op-ed?

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On The Gist, Bob Woodward’s good intentions.

Wealth and road trips are two of America’s favorite obsessions. In his new novel, Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart explores these themes through the story of a hedge fund manager who, after a crisis, takes a trip across the country by bus. Shteyngart joins us today to discuss his research on Wall Street, the concept of privilege, and his trips on Greyhound busses.

In the Spiel, Gwyneth Paltrow and jade eggs.

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On The Gist, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation is all but certain.

A recent Donald Trump tweet gave credence to a bogus (and dangerous) claim: that South Africa’s white farmers are the first targets in a looming genocide. Quartz reporter Lynsey Chutel has the actual statistics, as well as the political context—land reform—that pushed white nationalists into embracing victimhood in the first place.

In the Spiel, a roundup of the minor scandals that broke over Labor Day weekend.

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On The Gist, Democrats, Republicans, and the N-word.

Facebook now has television shows. While it might be surprising for viewers, for creators it’s an exciting new avenue to find an audience for shows not necessarily meant for the mainstream. Strangers is precisely one of those shows, about two queer women trying to make it in New York City. Creator Mia Lidofsky joins us to discuss her show, how wonderfully queer it is, and what it’s like making a show for Facebook. The new season of Strangers is all available to stream on Facebook Watch.

In the Spiel, funerals.

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On The Gist, there’s no use sugarcoating Starbucks’ Frappuccino.

And in the interview… unprecedented! Preposterous! Unimaginable! Trump’s presidency and the GOP’s machinations actually do have antecedents, says historian Heather Cox Richardson. They’re in the 1890s, when robber barons partnered with the Republican Party to pack the courts. Richardson is the author of To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party.

In the Spiel, what do we make of the Catholic Church?

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On The Gist, war games are back.

Hoaxes have fooled us at least since the era of P.T. Barnum, but they’re especially prevalent in our era of political disinformation. Kevin Young is the author of Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News and tells us about the racist roots of the hoax and how hoaxes often lead us to believe what we wanted to in the first place.

In the Spiel, Trump shouldn’t try to critique an algorithm.

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On The Gist, Louis C.K. isn’t as despised as Twitter makes it seem, which is why an eventual comeback is likely.

In the interview, Maria Konnikova breaks down the science of fasting, and why it’s currently associated with cancer treatments. Can it really help reduce cancer growth? And is it a useful practice for healthy individuals? Konnikova is a New Yorker contributor and the author of The Confidence Game.

In the Spiel, gerrymandering is bad for democracy and great for the GOP.

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On The Gist, the news media reveres John McCain because he failed with grace—and wasn’t too conservative.

Chances are you’ve heard #AbolishICE before. Journalist and activist Sean McElwee kick-started it and argues it’s not just the agency that needs to go down, but the criminalization of undocumented residence within American borders.

In the Spiel, stupid stuff comes in threes.

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On The Gist, guest host Stephanie Foo dives into Crazy Rich Asians, speaking with friend and fellow producer Kat Chow about Asian representation in media, the inspiration to create, and a hope that this film will lead to more Asian-centered media.

Then she speaks with producer and former film professor B.A. Parker about seeing your own culture depicted on screen, and how exciting it is to see stories and jokes not meant for you.

In the Spiel, Stephanie considers whether America has failed her, and why she is so proud of being an immigrant.

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On The Gist, nobody move or the economy gets it, Trump says.

The guys behind the left’s most irreverent podcast (Chapo Trap House) want the Democratic Party to forget about Robert Mueller and set their sights on 2020. But in the short term? They’re rooting for a blue wave. Alongside Felix Biederman and Brendan James, Thursday’s guests Matt Christman, Will Menaker, and Virgil Texas are co-authors of The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason.

In the Spiel, when you hear “everyone does it” down in Washington, you know something’s amiss.

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On The Gist, guest host Alex Roarty thinks Sen. Elizabeth Warren has a way better message than simply “impeach Trump.”

#NeverTrump Republicans are a vanishing breed. Crooked Media’s Tim Miller is one of them, and he tells Alex that the news media’s biases favor president Trump more than they weigh him down.

In the Spiel, history suggests Democrats will sweep the House in November. But don’t forget that we’re dealing with the poll-defying Donald Trump here.

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On The Gist, guest host Max Kerman considers why politicians are getting duped by Sacha Baron Cohen.

Trump has lied so many times since he took office that it’s difficult for the normal person to focus on them. Luckily we’ve got Daniel Dale at the Toronto Star keeping track. Dale joins us to talk about what it’s like reporting on American politics as a Canadian, including the similarities of covering former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

In the Spiel, how to engage with trolls.

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On The Gist, how will Rudy Giuliani go down in history, and in public memory?

The midterm elections are looming, and the big question is how far the Democrats will go. Are they really likely to retake the House of Representatives? And how would that affect Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020? Gist guest host Steve Kornacki talks to another political statistics wiz, Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics, about why we should be wary of using probabilities to predict elections.

In the Spiel, a tale of clear state borders and unclear rules.

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On The Gist, if Trump weren’t so repulsive, would we judge his murky dealings a little more kindly?

And we don’t much think about the inanimate objects in our lives, never considering the rich inner life of the lamppost, the can of Coke, or the humble pillow. But Ian Chillag knows they have stories to tell, and he gets them to speak out in his new podcast Everything Is Alive.

In the Spiel, Mike talks to the guest hosts who will rule The Gist all next week.

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On The Gist, the free press.

Aretha Franklin has died at 76, and she was much more than a golden voice. Slate’s Chris Molanphy recalls her talents at the piano and in the composition room, where she wrote timeless music and, with her covers, transformed songs from her own genre and beyond. (See “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Let It Be,” and, of course, “Respect.”) Molanphy is the host of the Slate podcast Hit Parade.

In the Spiel, the straw ban and balloons.

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On The Gist, autocracy isn’t always bad for an economy. But as Turkey shows, idiocy definitely is.

Reality television has a reputation for uninhibited narcissism, ruthless competition, and terrible business pitches. But when Jon Murray created The Real World in 1992, he worked to make something complex and innovative, not a circus of humanity’s basest instincts. And in A&E’s Born This Way, Murray follows the lives of individuals with Down syndrome in Los Angeles, sharing their laughter and tears, their beautiful community, and how they strive to be just like everyone else.

In the Spiel, Christine Hallquist makes history. Can she do it again in November?

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On The Gist, should news outlets halt election coverage on Election Day?

“Usually, if you look at American history, we’ve kind of taken a relook at our democracy every 50 years.” And now we’re overdue, according to Jason Kander, an Army veteran and Democratic candidate for mayor of Kansas City. The big things to shake up: how we draw district lines, run primaries, and finance electoral campaigns. Kander’s book is Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage.

In the Spiel, the president and nondisclosure agreements.

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On The Gist, Trump is a racist? That’s not much of a scoop, Omarosa.

There were plenty of Republicans standing against Donald Trump—before he won the White House. After the 2016 election, many of them traded in their values for a seat on the bandwagon. Rick Wilson isn’t among them, and he explains why in his new book Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever.

In the Spiel, America’s worst kind of racism lies between microaggression and all-out white supremacy.

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Mike Pesca talks with Leon Neyfakh, host of the Slate podcast Slow Burn, about season two of the hit show. Subscribe to Slow Burn here.

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On The Gist, “the so-called chairman of the Intelligence Committee,” Devin Nunes.

Superheroes and comic books may seem ripe for parody nowadays with the constant onslaught of nerd media, but The Venture Bros. has been doing it for years. Part Jonny Quest parody, part exercise in the esoteric, this show really leans into its own quirks. Jackson Publick, one of the show’s creators, helps us understand the wonderful absurdity of The Venture Bros., with its seventh season currently airing on Adult Swim.

In the Spiel, Omarosa.

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On The Gist, Trump’s lack of income disclosures.

Colin Kaepernick took a stand in 2016 by taking a knee during the national anthem at a football game, sparking a debate about racial injustice that continues to roil. But he’s just the latest in a long line of black activist athletes that have used their status to raise awareness and protest. Howard Bryant uncovers the history of these athletes in his book The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism.

In the Spiel, the “unfreakingbelievable” New York Times.

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On The Gist, Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani.

The financial crisis of 2008 wasn’t just an American phenomenon. It was felt all across the globe, with other Western countries suffering the same pain, but enough hasn’t been done about our banks to ensure long-term stability. Will we ever be able to recover fully without a complete overhaul of the current system? Adam Tooze explores this in his new book, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World.

In the Spiel, Ohio’s special election.

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On The Gist, Trump’s lies and steel mills.

The Arab Spring caused a major shift in Egypt in 2011, and the politics only got murkier during the military coup in 2013. But are autocrats really the best allies for the United States, or just for our current president? David Kirkpatrick explores what happened to Egypt during the Arab Spring and the military coup in his new book, Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.

In the Spiel, who Trump calls stupid.

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On The Gist, Turkey and Trump.

We’ve got another round of Is That Bullshit? Drugs treating cognitive malfunctions like narcolepsy, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s disease, are useful for people with those conditions—but what about the rest of us? Can ADHD medication make us smarter? Can narcolepsy drugs really keep us awake longer? Resident debunker Maria Konnikova explains.

In the Spiel, Jay Sekulow and lawyers on television.

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On The Gist, guest host Jeffrey Lewis fills in for Mike and talks about trying to solve big problems.

Regulating space is tough because it surrounds the whole world, and people can’t even agree where the Earth’s atmosphere stops and space begins. Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, thinks he has the definitive answer to where that line is. McDowell recently published “The Edge of Space: Revisiting the Karman Line” in Acta Astronautica.

In the Spiel, North Korea and nuclear weapons.

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On The Gist, QAnon and sound design.

Comedian Guy Branum is a hilarious intellect with an intimidating amount of pop culture knowledge. In his new book, My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture, Branum explores things like his love of civics, his Northern California childhood, and his experiences writing jokes for other people.

In the Spiel, we’ve got another Lobstar of the Antentwig.

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On The Gist, who makes the CNN Sucks onesie?

Jimmy Carter’s reputation is that of an ineffective president. But his chief domestic policy adviser, Stuart Eizenstat, argues that Carter fought for America’s energy independence, doubled the size of the national park system, and appointed “more minorities and women to judgeships and senior positions than all 38 presidents before him put together.” Eizenstat’s book is President Carter: The White House Years.

In the Spiel, the local radio scandal of Joe Benigno.

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On The Gist, let’s face it: A.I. and robots are going to take jobs from us humans.

Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has restarted the debate on how we vet candidates and whether the Supreme Court is too easy to game. Lori Ringhand, a professor of law at the University of Georgia and an expert on the Supreme Court, explains how much the court has actually changed, or not, in our lifetime.

In the Spiel, three theories on how this whole Mueller investigation thing is going to end.

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On The Gist, sorry, not every product gets to be a lifestyle brand.

A few decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for voters to support the presidential candidate from one party and the senator from another. “Ticket-splitting” is pretty rare now, and as Alan Abramowitz argues, just one of the many signs of an America divided. Abramowitz’s book is The Great Alignment Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump.

In the Spiel, there may well be discrimination in college admissions offices. But let’s face it: Top-notch schooling is available way beyond the Ivy League.

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On The Gist, do we really have to give up plastic straws?

Then, and more seriously: a look back on a recent episode.

On Wednesday, The Gist ran an interview with Allison Yarrow about 90s Bitch, her book about sexism in the age of 24-7 news coverage. And in the Spiel, Mike offered a rebuttal of sorts with statistics on the plight of women in the ’80s versus the ’90s. It improved, didn’t it? A shrinking gender wage gap! Less domestic violence! Greater representation in the Senate! But some listeners said that wasn’t the point, and took issue with the episode. Christina Cauterucci, June Thomas, and Veralyn Williams of the Waves (Slate’s podcast on gender and feminism) join Mike to discuss the episode, the reactions, and the lessons learned.