Author: Peach Fish Productions

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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On today’s Gist, why the YouTube shooter’s use of a handgun doesn’t take anything away from arguments to outlaw the AR-15.

Plus, Radley Balko tells the story of two men who put innocent Mississippians behind bars using junk science and pseudo-expert testimony. Balko is the co-author, along with Tucker Carrington, of The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South.

In the Spiel, why the Roseanne reboot isn’t harmful pop culture.

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On Tuesday’s Gist, an ode to the end of March Madness.

Plus, Maria Konnikova returns to play our favorite game. Are parabens really bad for you? Konnikova is a contributing writer to the New Yorker and author of The Confidence Game. 

In the Spiel, why David Shulkin got the boot. 

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On Monday’s Gist, the White House press corps needs a break. And guest host Mary Wilson knows who should take their place in the interim.

Plus, NationalReview.com editor Charles C. W. Cooke explains why he thinks repealing the Second Amendment would be such a losing proposition for gun control advocates.

And in the Spiel, Slate’s Osita Nwanevu says the media doesn’t have a liberal bias problem. 

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On The Gist, Good Friday is actually pretty great, from a cosmic perspective.

In the interview, Aparna Nancherla tells us how to go from introverted kid (“my mom was very afraid of how unassertive I was”) to making it in comedy.

In the Spiel, a deep dive into the world of acronyms.

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On The Gist, the Department of Energy has a chief creative officer? Let’s roll with it.

In the interview, upstanding Pennsylvanian Amanda Holt updates us on the state’s new congressional district lines.

In the Spiel, some hyperlinks are all hype, especially when it comes to censoring conservative opinion writers.

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On The Gist, Sean Hannity doesn’t like this podcast.

In the interview, Korea expert Bruce Bechtol tells us what might be going on in Kim Jong-un’s mind and how to set it on denuclearization.

In the Spiel, president Trump might be acting tough on Russia, but he doesn’t get what the big deal is. 

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On The Gist, forget Stormy Daniels. The Kushners’ massive loan deals are where the real dirt is at.

In the interview, the world’s growing complexity can be measured in dusty cables, useless features, and lines of code. Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik talk about the problems that snowball when even the smallest thing goes wrong. Clearfield and Tilcsik are the authors of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It.

In the Spiel, any census that asks people about their citizenship status will be pricey and inaccurate. 

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