The Gist

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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? Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! 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, 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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Learn more

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. 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 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. Want to see a special episode of The Gist live in New York? Get your tickets here! Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices