Jon, Jon and Tommy pierce their liberal bubble by traveling to Brooklyn for a live podcast. They're joined by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Alex Wagner of CBS News.
The Gist - Oh, How This Feels Like Moscow
On The Gist, guest host Julia Ioffe of the Atlantic talks about the similarities and surprising differences between President Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin with Miriam Elder, world editor at BuzzFeed. Elder shares her idea of how the two leaders fit into a global story unfolding right now. Plus, Ioffe and Elder explain “whataboutism” and other vocabulary lessons from their time reporting in Moscow.
In the Spiel: The Trump presidency is quickly putting the lie to an old Russian saw.
Today’s sponsors:
Dunkin’ Donuts. Upgrade your day with DD Perks. Earn a free Dunkin’ Donuts beverage when you enroll by using promo code DDPODCAST, and speed past the line in store with on-the-go ordering. Download the Dunkin’ app and enroll today.
Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is passionate about making a smoother tasting cup. Try it today with code TRYGMC.
Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Gist - Elvis Costello’s High-Fidelity Life
Elvis Costello is one of the most accomplished songwriters of his generation. In his memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, he details his songwriting process, his encounters with everyone from Paul McCartney to Joe Strummer, and his place in a rapidly changing music industry. Costello is up for a Grammy this week for the audiobook version of Unfaithful. For the Spiel, a fairly pointless history lesson from Ted Cruz.
Today’s sponsors:
Dunkin’ Donuts. Upgrade your day with DD Perks. Earn a free Dunkin’ Donuts beverage when you enroll by using promo code DDPODCAST, and speed past the line in store with on-the-go ordering. Download the Dunkin’ app and enroll today.
And Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is passionate about making a smoother-tasting cup. And now, as a special listener promotion, get $4 off when you buy two boxes of most Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup pods at keurig.com with the code TRYGMC.
Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pod Save America - “Can I call you Easy D?”
The threat posed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump's battle against the judiciary, and the travails of Sean Spicer. Then, New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait joins Jon and Dan to talk about Obama's legacy and Trump's first few weeks.
The Gist - Plus Jamais Le Fake News
With elections coming up in France and Germany, Facebook is working with media organizations across Europe to avoid the fake news pox that struck the United States last year. Slate’s senior technology writer Will Ormeus joins us to discuss the strides being made against political hoaxes online. Also, we answer the question: Does office coffee make us more productive? What does it accomplish as a work perk? Does it taste any better because it’s free? The Sporkful’s Dan Pashman investigates as his employer, WNYC, looks for a new workplace brew.
For the Spiel, on the silencing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Today’s sponsors:
Policy Genius. Shop and compare all the top-rated life insurance companies in one place. Go to PolicyGenius.com today to save over 70 percent off other prices for life insurance.
And Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is passionate about making a smoother-tasting cup. And now, as a special listener promotion, get $4 off when you buy two boxes of most Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup pods at keurig.com with the code TRYGMC.
Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Gist - An Obamacare Architect Speaks Out
Before she was the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius ran the state’s high-risk health care pool, where citizens with serious health problems could get coverage despite their pre-existing conditions. High-risk pools are a favorite idea of the GOP, including many in Congress trying to cook up a replacement for Obamacare. Sebelius says the high-risk plan doesn’t work: “Every day we heard stories of people who couldn’t afford coverage.” Sebelius helped create the Affordable Care Act while she was in President Obama’s Cabinet from 2009 to 2014.
For the Spiel, legislative antics at home and abroad!
Today’s sponsors:
The Great Courses Plus, a video learning service that offers lectures on all kinds of topics. Get a free trial when you sign up by going toTheGreatCoursesPlus.com/gist.
And Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is passionate about making a smoother-tasting cup. And now, as a special listener promotion, get $4 off when you buy two boxes of most Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup pods at keurig.com with the code TRYGMC.
Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Gist - The Business of Corporate Protest
After intense protest toward companies such as Uber, CEOs across America are finding it more and more difficult to stay neutral when it comes to the Trump administration. Adi Ignatius is the editor of the Harvard Business Review, whose most recent issue looks at how business leaders are approaching the Trump White House. He says more CEOs are likely to follow the lead of Disney chief Bob Iger, who double-booked himself last week instead of attending a meeting with the new White House strategic council. For the Spiel, why niceties matter in Washington. Today’s sponsors: Tripping.com gives you access to millions of vacation properties all in one place. Visit Tripping.com/gist to find your perfect vacation rental today.
And Stamps.com. Buy and print official U.S. postage using your own computer and printer. Sign up for Stamps.com and get a four-week trial when you use promo code[MW1] Gist.Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pod Save America - “A moment of silence for Bowling Green.”
Behind the scenes of Trump's first weeks, his attacks on the judiciary, and his not-so-populist revolution. Then Neera Tanden joins Jon, Jon and Tommy to discuss the fight to save ACA.
Start the Week - Paul Abbott: finding comedy in the tragic
On Start the Week Andrew Marr explores how childhood experiences affect later life.
The screenwriter Paul Abbott famously put his early life into the television series Shameless. Although his later work, including his latest police drama No Offence, moves far beyond his own experiences, he excels at finding the comedy in the tragic.
In France the writer Édouard Louis has caused a storm with his brutal autobiographical novel about class, violence and sexuality. The book is his attempt to bury his childhood.
The psychiatrist Gwen Adshead spent years working at Broadmoor Hospital studying the nature of human violence and looks at the moral choices people make.
The poet Paul Farley is interested not in the early life of poets but in their dying. From Shelley's drowning to Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide their deaths have become the stuff of myth casting a backward shadow on their work, creating a skewed image of the poet's life as doomed and self-destructive.
The Gist - He Left the Hold Steady for Mongolia
Franz Nicolay made his bones playing with big bands, in size and in popularity (The Dresden Dolls, Against Me, the Hold Steady). But Nicolay longed to strike out on his own and master the “practical craft of the old vaudevillian.” So he packed his banjo (and accordion and guitar) for a string of tours across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Nicolay’s consequent book is The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground From Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar.
For the Spiel, the many types of liars employed by Donald Trump. Today’s sponsor:
The Showtime original series Billions, starring Emmy winners Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. Billions returns Feb. 19 with new episodes every Sunday at 10 ET/9 CT. Download the Showtime app now to start your free trial.
Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices