The Gist

On the Gist, don't worry about things you can't control. In the interview, Alaska Public Media's Nat Herz joins Mike to talk about the races above the lower 48. Herz details the dramatic Alaskan Senate race between Al Gross and Daniel Sullivan, how the Pebble Mine scandal and the salmon fishing industry are important points of discussion, and how the presidential campaigns have been able to pound the pavement in Alaska. Cue Sarah Palin appearing as a surrogate for the Trump campaign in a Cabela's parking lot. In the spiel, clinging to hope. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, Trump and Armenians. In the interview, Georgia Public Broadcasting's Bill Nigut is here to talk with Mike about Georgia. He fills Mike in on the details of the fight between Kelly Loeffler, Doug Collins, and Raphael Warnock, and shares how impressed he's been with Jon Ossoff's debate performance against incumbent David Perdue. They also discuss how Biden is trying to reach voters in the state, and if there's any chance it could go blue. Nigut is the host of Political Rewind. In the spiel, Trump watched 60 Minutes. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, red-string theories and conspiratorial last-ditch efforts. In the interview, Mike and Slate's national correspondent Will Saletan recap the final presidential debate. They discuss the Trump camp's thwarted strategy of practicing restraint to expose Biden, the self-congratulatory and attacking exchanges between the two candidates, and why this debate might only make a difference for Trump in his attempts to score points with low-information and eleventh hour-voters. In the spiel, Trump's misconceptions about the race. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, our civic obligations in 2020. In the interview, Mike talks with journalist and veteran broadcast anchor Dan Rather about his decades-long career in covering elections, highlighting a few cautionary tales learned from the 2000 race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Rather explains that for some major networks, making the right call in 2000 was marred by corporate interference in the control rooms, plus he stresses that unexpected delays could fuel conspiracy theories. Patience will be a virtue come "voting night," he explains. Rather is the author of What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism, the host of The Big Interview on AXS TV, and the host of a documentary called Human Nature, which is now streaming on Netflix. In the spiel, Michael Moore's political predictions in 2020. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastcho

On the Gist, Mike checks in with this Lawfare piece, and the U.S. Elections Project. In the interview, Mike talks with Brian Rosenwald, a media historian and fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, about how election night might play out. They discuss the idea of a red mirage, how Republican governors can bring order to things, and how far-right talk radio is going to digest the results. Rosenwald is the author of Talk Radio's America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States. In the spiel, Trump's bad surrogates. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, network news election branding.  In the interview, Mike talks with Julie Pace, Washington Bureau Chief for the Associated Press, about the AP's history in counting the vote since 1848, how they've traditionally declared winners, and an explanation on how they will be going above and beyond in 2020 in sharing the race calls that they are and aren't making. In the spiel, local political television ads. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, we're launching a week-long focus on election night and how different news organizations handle making the winning calls. In the interviews, Mike talks with NBC News' national political correspondent Steve Kornacki about his network's decision desk, their processes in tabulation, and how they will be closely monitoring the votes coming in days after Tuesday, November 3. Kornacki is the author of The Red and the Blue. Then, Mike speaks with CNN's Brian Stelter about CNN's plan for coverage, and the outsized role that Fox News represents and his predictions for their election day narrative. Stelter is the author of Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, the price of corn. In the interview, former senior strategist for the NRA Joshua L. Powell is back for the second half of his conversation with Mike. They run down a series of NRA opinions and he and Mike go back and forth about how much NRA members believe things like "the only solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," and whether we should own AR-15s. Powell's book is Inside the NRA: A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia within the Most Powerful Political Group in America. In the spiel, dueling town halls. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, David Ruffin. In the interview, former senior strategist for the NRA Joshua L. Powell is here to discuss his new book, Inside the NRA: A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia within the Most Powerful Political Group in America. During the first half of this two-part conversation, he and Mike talk about the nefarious ways Wayne LaPierre used the NRA to push forward polarizing but niche interests, and the case New York State Attorney General Letitia James is bringing against them. In the spiel, Amy Coney Barrett's personal life is judicial.  Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, an Alaskan drama. In the interview, Mike talks with Robert Cahaly, head pollster of the Atlanta-based Trafalgar Group. Cahaly explains their polling methodology in gathering accurate opinion data, why social desirability bias comes into play, and how his team was able to predict Trump's win in 2016. Now he posits that in 2020 Trump has more support than the polls could be showing.  In the spiel, Kabuki-style hearings continue for Amy Coney Barrett. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, uniting with your would-be kidnappers? In the interview, Mike talks to former Obama staffer Elliot Williams about his new podcast Made to Fail, a show where he explores the different ways governmental institutions across have been made intentionally dysfunctional, like the Florida unemployment system, and the impact it has on people in need of such infrastructure. All episodes of Made to Fail are available wherever you get your podcasts. In the spiel, processing Amy Coney Barrett. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, mishegoss in Michigan. In the interview, Mike talks with Stephen Dubner, host and co-author of Freakonomics, and Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and best-selling author of Grit. Dubner and Duckworth are the hosts of the new podcast No Stupid Questions, where in each episode they take turns posing a question, and give each other the chance to puzzle out their responses. The questions Mike poses for them include how to separate art from artist and how to navigate microaggressions. No Stupid Questions releases new episodes every Sunday at 5am ET from Stitcher. In the spiel, Trump on talk radio. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, the vice presidential debate and expanding SCOTUS. In the interview, Mike is joined by author, comedian, podcast host, and actor Michael Ian Black to talk about his latest book, A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son. Black was persuaded to write the book after publishing a New York Times op-ed on school shootings and gun control in 2018. Part advice and part memoir, A Better Man poses the question: why is it always boys and young men who are pulling the trigger? Black challenges readers to expand their definition of masculinity while refraining from denigrating qualities traditionally seen as feminine. In the spiel, how the Hasidic community in New York City is handling COVID-19. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, a vice presidential debate starring plexiglass. In the interview, Mike hosts a roundtable discussion with journalist Richard Kreitner and Vox's Matthew Yglesias to talk about how each of their new books address the problem of an ever-increasing American population. They debate if the U.S. should split into more manageable nations, or if the country should keep pushing population growth. Yglesias' book is One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Big, and Kreitner's latest is Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. In the spiel, Delco, South Philly, and NY tri-state area Italian Americans for Joe Biden. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, a buffet of bad takes from Joe Piscopo. In the interview, CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is here to discuss a topic the Gist can't seem to get enough of recently, the Mueller investigation. Toobin's new book, True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump, explores the investigation and analyzes its failures, and he talks with Mike about Mueller's misplaced trust in institutions, and how sympathetic we should find him in light of that. In the spiel, how do you feel about Trump's diagnosis? Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, Trump's doctor has reasons. In the interview, former FBI agent Peter Strzok is here to discuss his new book Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump. He and Mike discuss the investigation into Trump and Russia, the ways kompromat could push Trump to make decisions based on Russian interests, and how Trump vilified two federal agents over personal text messages that were leaked to the press by the Justice Department. In the spiel, even the president can catch COVID, but what does that even mean? Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, Trump's mask strategy. In the interview, Mike is joined by David Priess, COO of the Lawfare Institute, an organization and online magazine which focuses on national security issues. Priess posits some worst case scenarios in light of President Trump contracting Covid-19, the unexpected vulnerabilities and uncertainties that lay ahead, historical norms of disclosure for a president, and the ultimate Continuity of Government Plan - the election. Priess is a former CIA officer, and author of The President's Book of Secrets and How to Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives. In the spiel, Trump has no one to blame but himself. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Margaret Kelley and Jamila Bey. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, Trump's falsehoods. In the interview, Mikes talks with neuroscientist, Stanford University professor and best-selling author, David Eagleman, about his latest book Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain. Eagleman says that the way the brain is able to change and adapt to adversity is still inspiring new developments and new questions.  In the spiel, making a political comeback. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Margaret Kelley and Jamila Bey. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, there were a great many missteps last night on the presidential debate stage, but despite the rhetorical slips, Biden stayed on his feet to glide past Trump. In the interview, Mike and Slate's national correspondent, Will Saletan, recap the first presidential debate. They dissect the prep and implemented strategies of both the Trump and Biden camps, the gratuitous exchanges between the two candidates, Chris Wallace's performance as moderator, and how to curb the electoral nightmare scenarios looming on the horizon. In the spiel, Donald Trump did not say, "Yes!" when asked if he repudiated white supremacy. But was it because he wouldn't do it, or was it because he has the inability to articulate? Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Margaret Kelley and Jamila Bey. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the Gist, using poker logic to analogize the upcoming presidential debates with Annie Duke. She is a former professional poker player, cognitive scientist and author of the forthcoming How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices. In the interview, Mike passes the baton to Annie Duke once more to dig into gerrymandering. Duke talks with Moon Duchin, a mathematician and professor at Tufts University, about her research into understanding how voting districts work. Through redistricting analysis at the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group, an organization Duchin co-founded, she describes how in this democracy, fairness isn't always as easy to find when you're considering where people live and vote. In the spiel, messing up several thousand absentee ballots was inevitable. Email us at [email protected] Podcast production by Margaret Kelley and Jamila Bey. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch