Month: April 2017

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The Gist - Improv is Hard, Writing is Harder

Joe Swanberg and Jake Johnson have made a couple of can’t-miss indie films in the last few years, including Drinking Buddies, Digging for Fire, and the new poker comedy Win It All. The collaborators talk about improv, making a believable world on-screen, and Jake’s unusual leading man role on the Fox sitcom New Girl. 

In the Spiel, Mike rounds up some news that fell through the cracks this week. 

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Containers - Episode 7: The Lost Docks

It’s 1979 and containerization is sweeping through the San Francisco waterfront, leaving the old docks in ruins. As global trade explodes, a group of longshoremen band together to try to preserve the culture of work that they knew. They take pictures, create a slide show, and make sound recordings. Those recordings languished in a basement for 40 years. In this episode, we hear those archival tapes as a way of exploring the human effects of automation.

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The Gist - Why David Letterman Still Matters

David Letterman was full of contradictions. He hated celebrity, but he hosted a talk show. He was playful, but he never seemed to be enjoying himself. In The Last Giant of Late Night, reporter Jason Zinoman explores the many facets of Letterman’s art, and how the TV landscape has suffered without him. 

In the Spiel, the real stories behind the fall of Alabama’s governor, the Wells Fargo clawback, and one teenager’s quest for free chicken nuggets. 

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Opening Arguments - OA59: Make America Great Again! OA Defends Trump

In this highly unlikely episode of Opening Arguments, the guys run through three segments in which they defend President Donald J. Trump.  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction First, listener T.Sp. asks about the just-invoked "nuclear option," and whether that vote itself could have been filibustered, thus triggering an endless loop of filibusters...  Obviously the answer is no -- but why?  We learn about some arcane Senate procedures and the guys conclude that the Democrats probably would have done the same thing if the situation were reversed. In the main segment, Andrew and Thomas break down the recent use of force by President Trump in Syria.  Does it violate the Constitution?  The War Powers Act of 1973?  Some other law?  (No.)  Yet again, the guys defend President Trump. In the "C" segment, our beloved Yodelin' Trump returns and the guys break down a popular video by Robert Reich that lays out five grounds for impeaching Trump.  How good are they?  Hint: check out the title of this show. Finally, we end with the answer to Thomas Takes the Bar Exam Question #18 about a crazily unconstitutional law regarding clothing.  Remember that TTTBE issues a new question every Friday, followed by the answer on next Tuesday's show.  Don't forget to play along by following our Twitter feed (@Openargs) and/or our Facebook Page and quoting the Tweet or Facebook Post that announces this episode along with your guess and reason(s)! Recent Appearances: Andrew was recently a guest on both the Embrace the Void podcast and The Phil Ferguson Show; links will go up when those shows release. Show Notes & Links
  1. The War Powers Act of 1973 is 50 U.S.C. § 1541 et seq.
  2. ...and the 60-day provision is found in section 1544.
  3. This is the document prepared by President Clinton's lawyers defending the 1994 invasion of Haiti.
  4. Here is the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force post-9/11.
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The Gist - When Protesters Pull the Fire Alarm

Slate’s Osita Nwanevu defended the actions of Middlebury College students to silence visiting speaker Charles Murray last month. If we consider some opinions to be beyond the pale of acceptability, who’s to say that the students were wrong in putting Murray’s past writings in that category? Nwanevu is an editorial assistant at Slate. 

In the Spiel: If you really think about it, Bill O’Reilly is a lot like Bashar al-Assad.

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