Month: June 2014

Forces for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have taken control of significant parts of Iraq. Mike speaks with Slate’s Fred Kaplan about who’s to blame (hint: not Obama). We’ll explore how unlikely political coalitions could unite to avoid pure chaos in the Middle East. For the Spiel, Mike shows that poll results are in the eye of the beholder.

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For the first two weeks of June 1964, Jimmy Nicol replaced Ringo Starr as the Beatles’ drummer. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times explains how you move on from an experience like that. Plus, Sanjay Basu explains the arguments for excluding soda and other sugary beverages from the food stamp program, and Slate’s John Dickerson answers one question, one question only, about Eric Cantor. And for today’s Spiel, we need to talk about sex with dolphins.

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Today on The Gist, criminologist and homicide researcher Adam Lankford explains why some mass shooters seem so drawn to extreme ideologies. Then we speak with 11-year-old author Audrey Hinsdale about how her debut novel The Trigger is a metaphor for growing up. For the Spiel, Mike weighs the cultural impact of driverless cars.

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Today on The Gist, reporter and former Afghan Taliban captive David Rohde shares his insights into the Bowe Bergdahl transfer. Then Mike and author Colson Whitehead discuss how to find Zen and excellent jerky at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He represents the “Republic of Anhedonia” in his new book The Noble Hustle. For the Spiel, Mike’s dispatch from the barbecue queue.

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Tom Sutcliffe discusses whether Western states have anything to learn from countries like China and Singapore. Adrian Wooldridge argues that many governments have become bloated and there's a global race to reinvent the state. In the past Britain was at the forefront of exporting ideas on how to run a country, as the Labour MP Tristram Hunt explains in his book on the legacy of empire. Charu Lata Hogg from Chatham House looks at the challenges to democracy in Thailand where the country is in political turmoil, and the journalist Anjan Sundaram spent a year in The Congo during the violent 2006 elections, and looks at day-to-day life in a failing state. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses whether Western states have anything to learn from countries like China and Singapore. Adrian Wooldridge argues that many governments have become bloated and there's a global race to reinvent the state. In the past Britain was at the forefront of exporting ideas on how to run a country, as the Labour MP Tristram Hunt explains in his book on the legacy of empire. Charu Lata Hogg from Chatham House looks at the challenges to democracy in Thailand where the country is in political turmoil, and the journalist Anjan Sundaram spent a year in The Congo during the violent 2006 elections, and looks at day-to-day life in a failing state. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Today on the Gist, Politico magazine editor Susan Glasser talks with Mike about “politicization,” and why politicians, of all people, like to demonize it. Mike also asks Stephen Dubner about the secret sauce that helped the Freakonomics empire take hold in book and podcast form. For the Spiel, let’s partake of national doughnut day.

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May’s unemployment numbers aren’t out until Friday, but today’s Gist explores what these monthly numbers actually tell us with Adam Davidson of Planet Money. Then Emily Yoffe of Slate’s Dear Prudence column joins us for a post-Prudie impact statement with a conflicted mother weighing the price of sending her son to his dream school vs. a good, cheaper state school. In today’s Spiel, Mike discusses eulogies and his new state of being uncle-less.

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