On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe asks if one day we might know everything. The mathematician Marcus du Sautoy and the physicist Roger Penrose explore the far reaches of knowledge, questioning whether certain fields of research will always lie beyond human comprehension. They ask how much fashion and faith shape scientific theories. The experimental physicist Suzie Sheehy attempts to build machines to test the latest theories, while Joanna Kavenna plays with a philosophical Theory of Everything in her latest novel A Field Guide to Reality. Producer: Katy Hickman.
The Gist - Charmed and Disgusted With Dave Hill
On The Gist, performer, musician, and comedian Dave Hill reflects on his contribution to the Donald Trump empire: ringtones. His new book is Dave Hill Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.
For the Spiel, all dogs go to heaven—copycats, however, take the “Stairway to Heaven.”
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The Gist - We Are Never Ever Joining Quail Forever
On The Gist, Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins talks about being more than the guy from the band. His latest movie is The Last Heist. Jesse Armstrong explains satirical string-pulling in his book, Love, Sex, and Other Foreign Policy Goals.
For the Spiel, lovers of quail, unite!
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The Gist - Against All Owls
On The Gist, New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova takes a gimlet eye to explanations for sleepy eyes: Are owls and larks bulls--t? Konnikova is the author of The Confidence Game.
For the Spiel, Donald Trump’s sanest line is crazier than Mitt Romney’s biggest gaffe.
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The Gist - You’re Not the Real Trump
On The Gist, impressionist John Di Domenico discusses embodying The Donald. Plus, another installment of our “postcard” series: Devin Leonard talks about the U.S. postal service and how early visionaries thought it might topple slavery. Leonard is the author of Neither Snow Nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service. For the Spiel, have you noticed something different at Mets games?
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The Gist - Shut Your Lie Hole
On The Gist, former military interrogator Lena Sisco on deception detection. Her book is called You’re Lying: Secrets From an Expert Military Interrogator to Spot the Lies and Get to the Truth.
For the Spiel, a few thoughts on the shooting in Orlando.
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Start the Week - New Artistic Director of the ENO, Daniel Kramer
On Start the Week Andrew Marr explores the state of the arts. The English National Opera has lost £5 million of funding and its chorus recently went on strike, but the newly appointed Artistic Director Daniel Kramer, hopes to turn it around. He's directing a new production of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, and the philosopher Roger Scruton celebrates the mastery of Wagner to express truths about the human condition. The biographer Franny Moyle looks at the life and career of Britain's most famous landscape painter, JMW Turner. Born as the Royal Academy was founded and British art was deemed inferior to its Continental counterpart, his work pushed the boundaries of what was accepted as art at the time. Julia Peyton-Jones looks back at a quarter of a century at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and makes a case for London as the centre of the art world. Producer: Katy Hickman.
The Gist - The Good, the Bad, and the Ali
On The Gist, Dave Zirin calls in from Muhammad Ali’s funeral procession in Louisville. Zirin is sports editor at The Nation, host of the Edge of Sports podcast, and author of the Muhammad Ali Handbook. For the Spiel, questioning the assumptions in the Stanford rape case.
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The Gist - Hoping Tevye Gets a Cold
On The Gist, actor Michael C. Bernardi is Mordcha the Innkeeper in Fiddler On The Roof, now on Broadway. His father, Herschel Bernardi, was the third man to play Tevye in the musical. For the Spiel, who will be remembered with as much veneration as Muhammad Ali?
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The Gist - The Gangbanger Who Switched Sides
On The Gist, former Corey Pegues wanted to stop being a drug runner in his Queens neighborhood. So he enlisted in the military and joined the top brass of the NYPD. His new book is Once a Cop: The Street, the Law, Two Worlds, One Man. For the Spiel, pretty much a direct appeal for angry emails from Bernie Sanders supporters.
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