The Gist - Republicans Are Using Leeches to Cure Cancer

On The Gist, Trump critic and longtime Republican consultant Stuart Stevens shares his bleak take on his party’s chances at winning the White House anytime soon. Stevens was a top strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and is the author of The Innocent Have Nothing to Fear

The Spiel is taking a brief hiatus. 

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The Gist - Playing the Spanish Card

On The Gist, who cares that Tim Kaine speaks Spanish? Nelson Flores says white liberals might be more excited about it than Latino voters are. Flores is an assistant professor in educational linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Plus, Foreign Policy’s Michela Wrong describes some of the more curious memorials popping up in Rwanda. Wrong recently published her first novel, Borderlines

For the Spiel, why the news should be fair, but not balanced.

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The Gist - History’s First Benedict Arnold

On The Gist, Brad Meltzer from Lost History explains why he thinks of himself as one part of a “literary peanut butter cup.” Meltzer teamed up with Tod Goldberg to write The House of Secrets, a spy novel that imagines the final moments between Benedict Arnold and George Washington. 

For the Spiel, the kiddie press corps takes over. 

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The Gist - If It Feeds, It Leads

On The Gist, Facebook has become one of the world’s biggest disseminators of journalism, but it doesn’t care about journalism. Is that a problem? Farhad Manjoo ticks off a few reasons to be wary. Manjoo writes the State of the Art technology column in the New York Times. His podcast is called the Jay & Farhad Show.

For the Spiel, the RINOs among us.  

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The Gist - Jessi Klein Says Women Are Dogs

On The Gist, Jessi Klein explains her theory that women can be sorted into two categories: poodles and wolves. It’s an idea she explores in her new book, You’ll Grow Out of It. Klein is the head writer on the Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer

For the Spiel, Trump is giving voice to an element we’ve known about—but he’s still losing.

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The Gist - Diary of a Soon-to-Be-Freed Detainee

On The Gist, we bring you this never-before-aired interview with writer and human rights advocate Larry Siems, who edited the writings of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohamedou Slahi for the 2015 book Guantánamo Diary. Slahi has been approved for release.

For the Spiel, a quick game of “Have You Even Read the Constitution?” 

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The Gist - The Little-Known Story of Sabotage in the New York Harbor

100 years ago, a man named Michael Kristoff strolled onto an island in the New York harbor armed with explosives cooked by German chemists. He was there to blow up a stockpile of munitions pledged to the Allied Powers. 

On The Gist, Chad Millman tells the story of the first major act of foreign terrorism on the United States. His 2006 book, The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justicehas just been released in e-book form to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the attack. 

The regular Spiel will be back next week -- get your fix by checking out out the past two weeks of a.m. Spiels on the Republican and Democratic conventions. 

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