The Gist

On The Gist, the hosts of the podcast that has made the best use yet of the jazz drummer's brush technique: Politically Re-Active with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu. The show picks up where the comedians left off when they stopped working in the same TV writers room. Bell hosts CNN's United Shades of America, and returning guest Kondabolu is on tour with a new comedy album, Mainstream American Comic.  For the Spiel, grilling Jill Stein.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are the nation's most dangerous warheads secure if a rag-tag troika of peaceniks can break through the storage facility's back door? On The Gist, Washington Post reporterDan Zak considers the good and not-so-good arguments for nuclear weapons. His book is Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age.  For the Spiel, Jill Stein's unforgivable comments on debt forgiveness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Megan Abbott discusses her latest book, You Will Know Me, a psychological thriller set in the high-pressure world of elite women's gymnastics. In the Spiel, a send-off for John McLaughlin.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Things are bleak in Brazil. Prices are high, governments are broke, and gangs are tightening their control over the country's slums. But on The Gist, Slate contributing editor Franklin Foer has hope for a national renewal. The reason? A prominent federal judge is dead set on rooting out political corruption, though it may rival soccer as the national pastime.  For the Spiel, hands across the ages.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Gist has been bedeviled by one question: Do the clothes really make the man? On today's show, regular guest Maria Konnikova joins us to investigate the link between clothing and performance. Konnikova writes for the New Yorker and is the author of The Confidence Game. For the Spiel, Trump, truth, and fact-checking.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On every great improv team there's an undertow of angst. Who will get snatched up by a TV show? Who will toil in relative obscurity? Who will quit after the big break doesn't come? On Ep. 560, comedian Mike Birbiglia and This American Life creator Ira Glass talk about their film Don't Think Twice, an ode to improvisational comedy and recalibrating what it means to be a success. Find it in a theater near you.  For the Spiel, our Lobstar of the Antentwig.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Republican "merchant of mud" Mike Murphy ponders Donald Trump's effect on down-ballot GOP candidates. Murphy is known for putting the "!" in "Jeb!" as an adviser to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign. His podcast is called Radio Free GOP. For the Spiel, Mike tries to get to the bottom of an Olympian canard about the happiness of bronze medalists.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are voters in 2016 better compared to an angry customer at a drive-thru window? Or are the two major parties on completely different planets, unable to agree on a shared reality? On The Gist, Slate columnist and Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson discusses elections past and present. He is the author of Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories From Presidential Campaign History. For the Spiel, when it comes to Donald Trump's Second Amendment comment, it's hard for the media to acknowledge what everyone knows they heard.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Trump critic and longtime Republican consultant Stuart Stevens shares his bleak take on his party's chances at winning the White House anytime soon. Stevens was a top strategist for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and is the author of The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear.  The Spiel is taking a brief hiatus.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, who cares that Tim Kaine speaks Spanish? Nelson Flores says white liberals might be more excited about it than Latino voters are. Flores is an assistant professor in educational linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Plus, Foreign Policy's Michela Wrong describes some of the more curious memorials popping up in Rwanda. Wrong recently published her first novel, Borderlines.  For the Spiel, why the news should be fair, but not balanced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Brad Meltzer from Lost History explains why he thinks of himself as one part of a "literary peanut butter cup." Meltzer teamed up with Tod Goldberg to write The House of Secrets, a spy novel that imagines the final moments between Benedict Arnold and George Washington.  For the Spiel, the kiddie press corps takes over.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Facebook has become one of the world's biggest disseminators of journalism, but it doesn't care about journalism. Is that a problem? Farhad Manjoo ticks off a few reasons to be wary. Manjoo writes the State of the Art technology column in the New York Times. His podcast is called the Jay & Farhad Show. For the Spiel, the RINOs among us.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, should you swear off summer cookouts? Our regular guest Maria Konnikova joins us for a round of "Is That Bulls---?" Konnikova writes for the New Yorker and is the author of The Confidence Game. For the Spiel, the parade of worries ahead of the Olympic Games.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Jessi Klein explains her theory that women can be sorted into two categories: poodles and wolves. It's an idea she explores in her new book, You'll Grow Out of It. Klein is the head writer on the Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer.  For the Spiel, Trump is giving voice to an element we've known about—but he's still losing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, we bring you this never-before-aired interview with writer and human rights advocate Larry Siems, who edited the writings of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Slahi for the 2015 book Guantánamo Diary. Slahi has been approved for release. For the Spiel, a quick game of "Have You Even Read the Constitution?"  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

100 years ago, a man named Michael Kristoff strolled onto an island in the New York harbor armed with explosives cooked by German chemists. He was there to blow up a stockpile of munitions pledged to the Allied Powers.  On The Gist, Chad Millman tells the story of the first major act of foreign terrorism on the United States. His 2006 book, The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice, has just been released in e-book form to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the attack.  The regular Spiel will be back next week -- get your fix by checking out out the past two weeks of a.m. Spiels on the Republican and Democratic conventions.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hillary Clinton's remarks to the Democratic National Convention didn't match those of the exceptional orators who preceded her, but she'll have significant advantages in the presidential debates this fall.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Mike confesses his nerdy fascinations to Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen, hosts of WBEZ's Nerdette podcast.  Check back Friday for another a.m. Spiel, complete with a Quick and Dirty Dissection of the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Quick & Dirty Dissection of Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention, where heavy hitters lined up to vaunt the nominee President Obama called "the woman in the arena." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Mike realizes he's not the liberal he thought he was, and the film Tallulah shows you what a sympathetic child-snatcher looks like. The movie's writer and director, Sian Heder, (who also writes for Orange Is The New Black) and starring actress Tammy Blanchard stop by to discuss (fictional) women with abandonment issues. Check back for another a.m. Spiel offering a Quick and Dirty Dissection of Day 3 of the DNC.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices