The Gist

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Russia's Lab Rat Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

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

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

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The Many Theories of Malcolm Gladwell Aug 21, 2017

Show notes

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

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

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The Year MTV Took Over the Charts Aug 18, 2017

Show notes

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

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

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

Show notes

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

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

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The Overreaction Doctrine Aug 16, 2017

Show notes

Political scientist Moshe Maor says Donald Trump's policy ideas are very, very over-the-top. But that's exactly the point. On issues like immigration and transgender service members, bold overreactions are the only kind of policies that speak to cynical voters. "People want immediate action," says Maor. "Morality aside, Trump is playing his cards right." Maor is a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In the Spiel, is Donal Trump a smart racist or a stupid racist?

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Why Are Police Unions So Aggressive? Aug 15, 2017

Show notes

Guest host Leon Neyfakh speaks with retired Boston cop Tom Nolan about the politics of police unions. While unions in other industries put on a progressive face to the world, police unions tend to be defensive of everything from disrespecting the mayor of New York to rough treatment of prisoners. But Nolan says he's encouraged by their recent condemnation of President Trump's comments about police violence. "I think they know the speaker of those words does not know what the hell he was talking about," says Nolan, who now teaches at Merrimack College.

In the Spiel, Google is a massive company. It's also an increasingly bad search engine.

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There Is No Order in Congress Aug 14, 2017

Show notes

Typically Congress has an order to follow when creating bills and passing them into law. There's committee writing, revisions, and a bipartisan back-and-forth. In recent years that order has broken down and caused major divides inside both parties. Georgetown senior fellow Joshua Huder details this process and how it went wrong. Huder's writing can be found on the blog Rule 22.

In the Spiel, Mike heads to the Bobby Fischer museum in Iceland and explores the tricky balance of memorializing the controversial star.

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Brandt Tobler Has a Problem With Authority Aug 11, 2017

Show notes

Brandt Tobler has had a crazy life. His stand-up comedy is the sum of his stories as a small-town wayward kid busting out of Wyoming. He was the don of a criminal syndicate he called the "mallfia," he ran the Las Vegas strip placing bets for gambling titans, and he plotted to kill his estranged father. He's also kind of a sweetheart. Tobler's book is Free Roll.

In the Spiel, how cynicism breeds fake news.

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About the Google Memo Aug 11, 2017

Show notes

Google's reputation for openness took a tumble when its CEO fired James Damore, the author of a memo questioning the company's efforts to achieve gender parity. Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, blames the internet. She says easy access to data is allowing us to make dumb arguments.

In the Spiel, Mike has more thoughts on the Google memo. Guess what? He dislikes it.

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Muhammad Ali's Biggest Fight Aug 10, 2017

Show notes

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, but he didn't spend his entire life in the ring. During the Vietnam War, he spent his time trying to avoid the draft as a conscientious objector. Journalist Leigh Montville says the struggle changed Ali's life—and the country. Montville's new book is Sting Like a Bee.

In the Spiel, a closer look at the CV of the most important soil-health civil servant in the news.

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