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The President potentially incriminates his son on Twitter, Republicans try to rush the Kavanaugh confirmation, and more Democratic incumbents face progressive challengers. Then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks to Jon Lovett about her big upset and the future of the Democratic Party.
On The Gist, Turkey and Trump.
We’ve got another round of Is That Bullshit? Drugs treating cognitive malfunctions like narcolepsy, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s disease, are useful for people with those conditions—but what about the rest of us? Can ADHD medication make us smarter? Can narcolepsy drugs really keep us awake longer? Resident debunker Maria Konnikova explains.
In the Spiel, Jay Sekulow and lawyers on television.
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On The Gist, guest host Jeffrey Lewis fills in for Mike and talks about trying to solve big problems.
Regulating space is tough because it surrounds the whole world, and people can’t even agree where the Earth’s atmosphere stops and space begins. Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, thinks he has the definitive answer to where that line is. McDowell recently published “The Edge of Space: Revisiting the Karman Line” in Acta Astronautica.
In the Spiel, North Korea and nuclear weapons.
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On The Gist, QAnon and sound design.
Comedian Guy Branum is a hilarious intellect with an intimidating amount of pop culture knowledge. In his new book, My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir Through (Un)Popular Culture, Branum explores things like his love of civics, his Northern California childhood, and his experiences writing jokes for other people.
In the Spiel, we’ve got another Lobstar of the Antentwig.
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Trump obstructs justice via Twitter, Manafort faces a jury, and the Koch brothers pick a fight with Trump Republicans on trade. Then Dan talks to Nick Thompson of Wired about the fantastic job Facebook has been doing lately. And Jason Kander joins Lovett and Dan to talk about protecting the vote and his new book, “Outside the Wire.”
On The Gist, who makes the CNN Sucks onesie?
Jimmy Carter’s reputation is that of an ineffective president. But his chief domestic policy adviser, Stuart Eizenstat, argues that Carter fought for America’s energy independence, doubled the size of the national park system, and appointed “more minorities and women to judgeships and senior positions than all 38 presidents before him put together.” Eizenstat’s book is President Carter: The White House Years.
In the Spiel, the local radio scandal of Joe Benigno.
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On The Gist, let’s face it: A.I. and robots are going to take jobs from us humans.
Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has restarted the debate on how we vet candidates and whether the Supreme Court is too easy to game. Lori Ringhand, a professor of law at the University of Georgia and an expert on the Supreme Court, explains how much the court has actually changed, or not, in our lifetime.
In the Spiel, three theories on how this whole Mueller investigation thing is going to end.
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Trump’s lawyer argues that collusion with a hostile government isn’t a crime after reports that Michael Cohen might implicate the president, and both parties fight to define the stakes of the 2018 midterms. Then Vox’s Dara Lind joins Jon and Jon to talk about the latest developments in the family separation crisis.
On The Gist, sorry, not every product gets to be a lifestyle brand.
A few decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for voters to support the presidential candidate from one party and the senator from another. “Ticket-splitting” is pretty rare now, and as Alan Abramowitz argues, just one of the many signs of an America divided. Abramowitz’s book is The Great Alignment Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump.
In the Spiel, there may well be discrimination in college admissions offices. But let’s face it: Top-notch schooling is available way beyond the Ivy League.
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On The Gist, do we really have to give up plastic straws?
Then, and more seriously: a look back on a recent episode.
On Wednesday, The Gist ran an interview with Allison Yarrow about 90s Bitch, her book about sexism in the age of 24-7 news coverage. And in the Spiel, Mike offered a rebuttal of sorts with statistics on the plight of women in the ’80s versus the ’90s. It improved, didn’t it? A shrinking gender wage gap! Less domestic violence! Greater representation in the Senate! But some listeners said that wasn’t the point, and took issue with the episode. Christina Cauterucci, June Thomas, and Veralyn Williams of the Waves (Slate’s podcast on gender and feminism) join Mike to discuss the episode, the reactions, and the lessons learned.
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