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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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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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Today on the show, a look at a Tea Party resurgence in Mississippi’s GOP Senate primary with Slate’s David Weigel. Then, in our regular segment “Is This BS?,” Maria Konnikova explains why psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow study has come to loom so large in child-rearing theories, and what its limitations might be. In the Spiel, Mike asks you to guess which words are used more by Democrats, and which by Republicans.
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President Obama’s speech to West Point graduates drew criticism for its restrained foreign policy prescriptions and less-than-lofty oratory. Today on the Gist, a look at Obama’s turn toward more restrained rhetoric with former Carter speechwriter and New Yorker staff writer Hendrik Hertzberg. Then, Joe McGinty from The Loser’s Lounge explains how his band performs tributes to our guiltiest of guilty musical pleasures. In the Spiel, we sniff through Mike’s browser cookies until we uncover a truffle.
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Today on the Gist, a look at the release over the weekend of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Jonah Blank of the RAND Corporation explains whether the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture matter. Then Mitchell Reiss, author of Negotiating with Evil, suggests that the question is not whether to negotiate with terrorists, but how to get the best deal. For the Spiel, Mike brings you news from places you might not have known existed.
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Today on the show, Adam Davidson from NPR’s Planet Money discusses why income inequality matters to most Americans. Then comedian Gary Gulman drops in to discuss how even the smallest word choice matters when crafting jokes. And as New York considers reversing its ferret ban, Mike’s spiel recalls the greatest moment of Ferret-related media.
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Today on the Gist, the case for integrating math into everyday conversation. Mike talks with Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong. Then, a look at a hostile takeover attempt that harkens back to days of Barbarians at the Gate. Jeffrey McCracken from Bloomberg explains how the drug company Valeant is attempting to buy Botox-maker Allergan with the help of an activist investor. Plus, Mike's Spiel honors Massimo Vignelli, the late graphic designer best known for laying out the NYC subway map.
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How much do Donald Sterling’s attitudes toward race have to do with being an octogenarian? Today on The Gist, we examine the correlation between racial attitudes and age with Paul Taylor from the Pew Research Center. Then, TV critics Willa Paskin and Emily Nussbaum discuss the Mad Men midseason finale and how HBO’s Silicon Valley has taken a turn for the worse. For the Spiel, Mike observes how the media have pulled us into the mind of a madman, again.
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On today’s episode of The Gist, Mike talks with Ari Schulman of the New Atlantis about how it may be even more dangerous than we think to give so much media coverage to mass killers like Elliot Rodger, perpetrator of Friday night’s shootings at UC–Santa Barbara. Then, he talks with Scottish school teacher and blogger Craig McAllister about the big choice facing Scotland in September: Whether to declare independence from the United Kingdom. In his Spiel, Mike uses his holiday weekend to make the hard choices about un-assigning himself assigned reading.
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