Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

Wait, can Donald Trump really give his entire family national security clearance? It’s complicated, says Fred Kaplan, the author of Slate’s War Stories column. Kaplan also discusses the reasons to be wary of putting your family members in the White House. 

Also, David Bowie liked his art to be as haunting as his music—even if the effect, at first, was off-putting. The Gist’s art correspondent Mary Lane tells us what’s intriguing about Bowie’s private collection, which was broken up at auction this week. 

In the Spiel, what is the “new message” Democrats need to send to voters?  

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Dan Abrams is the host of Live PD, a new A&E show that follows police officers, in real time, as they interact with people in cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Abrams says the show is different from Cops—it captures all of the moments in a police officer’s watch, not just the most sensational. But it has also come under fire for questions about privacy and the complicated issues of embedding with a police force.  In the Spiel, we look at President Obama’s claim that the arc of history is progressive.

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New York Times columnist Ross Douthat says the culture has changed drastically in America over the past five years. Daily Show alumni have taken over late night, late night comedy has taken a strongly liberal tinge, and companies like Apple have taken a stand on issues like transgender bathroom bills. He thinks this cultural shift has helped alienate many of the people who supported Donald Trump. Douthat wrote about the liberal hegemony of pop culture in a September column, “Clinton’s Samantha Bee Problem.”In the Spiel, what resistance should look like in the face of President Trump.  

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Trigger warning: Scrutiny of safe spaces ahead. Jonathan Zimmerman discusses the political-correctness fever sweeping the nation’s elite college campuses. Zimmerman is the author of Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. 

In the Spiel, blinded by a baccalaureate. 

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On Start the Week Amol Rajan considers the making of the British landscape and an island mentality. The President of the Royal Geographical Society Nicholas Crane looks back over the last 12 millennia to understand how we have shaped our habitat but also how the landscape has shaped our lives. Madeleine Bunting travels through the Hebrides to see what the furthest reaches of these isles can tell us about the country as a whole. David Olusoga re-tells the story of the relationship between Britain and the people of Africa, which reaches back to the Romans, to demonstrate how black history has shaped our world, and the poet Imtiaz Dharker reflects on displacement and belonging. Producer: Katy Hickman.

Did the polls lead us astray in this election, or did we simply fail to heed everything they were telling us? FiveThirtyEight senior political writer Harry Enten says the lesson of 2016 is familiar to any close observer of politics: “There are no permanent majorities.”

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, puts the 2016 election in historical context. Zelizer hosts the Politics & Polls podcast produced by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.  

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It’s a rare Saturday Gist, as the show’s post-election interview blitz continues:

New York Times columnist Gail Collins explains what we tend to forget about the way women vote, and NPR’s David Folkenflik ponders the media problems exposed by the presidential race and its surprise outcome.

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On The Gist, another double feature.

Evan Osnos explains what Trump’s first term might look like, based on reporting he did before the election for the New Yorker.

Reid Wilson, who covers down-ballot politics for the Hill, surveys the Republican gains in statehouses across the country. 

For the Spiel, some introspection. And keep an eye on this feed for more interviews over the weekend. 

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The Gist isn’t serving up a Spiel today—too many questions, too few answers. Instead, Mike puzzles through the day with a few friends of the show:

Jacob Weisberg reacts to the chants of “not my president.” Weisberg is the chairman and editor-in-chief of The Slate Group and the host of Trumpcast.

The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson expects a poorer country and world under President-elect Donald Trump. He outlines the range of possible economic changes.

John Dickerson, moderator of Face the Nation on CBS, delves into the details of Hillary Clinton’s loss. Dickerson is also a political columnist for Slate and author of Whistlestop: My Favorite Stories from Presidential Campaign History. 

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On The Gist, things are getting dark, but at least the show isn’t going dark, which is more than we can say for our friends at the Radio Free GOP podcast. Host Mike Murphy, a longtime GOP strategist and Trump critic, says the show will go on hiatus in light of the election result.

Plus, the New Yorker’s Adam Davidson explains the link between the presidential election and confusion in the financial markets.

For the Spiel, a clarifying idea from Slate’s Election Night Watch Party featuring author and journalist Virginia Heffernan. 

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