Author: Peach Fish Productions

On today’s Gist, don’t all these senators know the depths of CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s patriotism?

Plus, why are chemical weapons useful to Bashar al-Assad? “They’re really weapons of terror,” explains Aaron Stein, co-host of the Arms Control Wonk podcast. Stein is the author of Turkey’s New Foreign Policy.

And filmmakers Tony Gilroy and Brad Anderson tell us what it was like filming their latest movie, Beirut, during a particularly long and hot Ramadan. 

In the Spiel, a few more words about the late Barbara Bush. 

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On Tuesday’s Gist, that old Watergate maxim, “the cover-up is worse than the crime,” should be revised to recognize the Michael Cohen effect.

Plus, we take a closer look at the vertical merger of AT&T and Time Warner, and why the Justice Department has sued to stop it. Wall Street Journal reporter Brent Kendall walks us through the case so far. 

And in the Spiel, who is the “famous Houston sketch artist” drawn into the Stormy Daniels affair?

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On Monday’s Gist, we’re counting Pulitzers and powering up.

Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms sort power into two categories: old and new. Old power is like Congress: top-down, official. New power is like Facebook: decentralized, crowd-sourced. What is the best way to meld both kinds of influence to improve our lives? Heimans and Timms have the beginnings of an answer. They’re the authors of New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World – and How to Make It Work for You.

In the Spiel, James Comey does seem ego-driven. That’s not always a bad thing. 

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On The Gist, have you heard? Chemistry has been debunked. Thank Russia.

Ed Helms is best known for comedic roles—see Andy Bernard on The Office. But in the drama Chappaquiddick, Helms plays Joseph Gargan, the cousin and lawyer of Sen. Ted Kennedy. Gargan found himself in Kennedy’s inner circle as the young senator came under scrutiny for his role in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

In the Spiel, pervs are making news again. Plus: say hello to a new Lobstar of the Antentwig.

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On The Gist, Zuckerberg’s hearings got crowded out by bigger news. Too bad.

Facts are facts, even in the greatly polarized year that is 2018. Holmes Lybrand writes the Weekly Standard’s “Fact Check” series, and even though it isn’t all about Trump’s latest tweets and utterances, it sometimes gets readers angry.

In the Spiel, the president’s saber rattling over Syria is classic Trump: The man lies about his past statements.

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On The Gist, Paul Ryan cared about just one thing: cutting taxes.

Word choice is not always the most stimulating place to start an interview with an author, but it works when you’re talking to Sloane Crosley. The essayist defends metaphors like “Holocaust bunk bed” and the related analogy, “as if the Brady Bunch were filmed in Nazi Germany.” Crosley’s latest book—a collection of essays—is Look Alive Out There.

In the Spiel, Congress failed to pin Mark Zuckerberg down.

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On The Gist, beware the rise of the despot’s son-in-law.

In the interview, media scrutinizer Brooke Gladstone wrote a graphic novel about the “Influencing Machines” that we often blame modernity’s problems on. Facebook is the latest of these, but this time, it’s less scapegoat and more actual problem to be reckoned with. Brooke’s book, illustrated by Josh Neufeld, is The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media.

In the Spiel—attorney-client privilege, dead? No it taint!     

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On The Gist, president Trump just doesn’t have the ambition to tackle a problem like Syria.

It’s a critical week for Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has two dates with Congress, where he’ll be answering questions on the company’s loss of millions of its users’ data to Cambridge Analytica. Slate writer April Glaser tells us what to expect ahead of the hearings.

In the Spiel, the least the Trump circus can do is give us some decent TV.

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On today’s show, we don’t need a whole shadow Cabinet—we just need a shadow Trump.

Comedian Hari Kondabolu is back—and this time, he brought his brother. Hari came to comedy after working as a community activist, but his younger brother, Ashok, was a bit more wayward. On The Gist, Ashok recounts his life as a subway vagabond in New York City. Hari and Ashok’s new podcast is called Kondabolu Brothers. 

In the Spiel, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s alarming lack of pun-sense. 

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On today’s Gist, London’s enviable crime wave.

Plus, what will we think of the Obama presidency in 50 years? Julian Zelizer set out to get really smart people to “take a first cut” at the Obama legacy on an array of issues. One person from his brain trust is Peniel Joseph, who surveys the Obama administration’s work on criminal justice. Their book is The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment.

In the Spiel, why Mike rejects both tribes’ arguments on the Atlantic’s firing of conservative writer Kevin Williamson.

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