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Hope Hicks is out, Jared Kushner is in trouble, Jeff Sessions is beleaguered, and Donald Trump is so angry he just might…implement tariffs on steel and support gun control measures? Then the Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand talks to Tommy about the latest in the Mueller investigation.
Quick, who’s the Federal Reserve chairman? If you can’t remember, take heart: Our minds are filled to capacity with the flotsam and jetsam of the Trump White House.
On The Gist, are you as virtuous as you think? Likely not. Christian Miller delved into social science research to find out if we tend to misjudge the strength of our own moral fiber. Miller’s book is The Character Gap: How Good Are We?
In the Spiel, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch has a hard time living up to her own media criticism.
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Hang onto your skirts: Clueless co-star Stacey Dash is running for Congress.
On The Gist, returning champion Maria Konnikova is back to sum up the social science on poker tells: Are they BS? Konnikova writes for the New Yorker and is the author of The Confidence Game.
In the Spiel, we should acknowledge our progress.
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On The Gist, President Trump’s latest poetry reading.
Last week on the show, we talked about the manifold reasons for optimism in the world. This week, Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker builds on that argument, adding that we’ve had a roughly 300-year run of steady improvements in technology, health, and civility. It just so happens that the only thing as constant as human progress is our tendency to focus on human shortcomings. Pinker’s latest book is Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
In the Spiel, why it should be worrying that the California Democratic Party snubbed Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
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The Stoneman Douglas students start to move the needle on gun control, the Schiff memo obliterates the Nunes memo, Trump’s lawyers are worried he’ll lie to Mueller, and Democrats have a few primary problems. Then Ana Marie Cox joins Jon, Jon, and Tommy to talk about what she saw and heard at CPAC.
Brain damage can radically change a person's character - but does that mean they are no longer themselves?
Consultant neurologist Jules Montague works with people suffering dementia and brain injuries. She tells Tom Sutcliffe what happens when the brain misbehaves. Memories may fade and names disappear - but does that mean a person no longer has the same identity?
Behavioural scientist Nick Chater is sceptical about whether we have an inner self at all. His book The Mind is Flat exposes what he calls the 'shocking shallowness' of our psychology, and argues that we have no mental depths to plumb. Only by understanding this can we hope to understand ourselves.
The problem of self-awareness challenges psychiatrists hoping to diagnose depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David explores self-reflection and the stigma of mental illness in a series of lectures at King's College, London.
And fear of the mind runs through Ingmar Bergman's classic film Fanny and Alexander, now staged as a play at the Old Vic, London. Stephen Beresford has adapted it, and explains how the clash between a stern stepfather and his imaginative stepson reveals our unease at the power of the mind.
Producer: Hannah Sander.
Brain damage can radically change a person's character - but does that mean they are no longer themselves?
Consultant neurologist Jules Montague works with people suffering dementia and brain injuries. She tells Tom Sutcliffe what happens when the brain misbehaves. Memories may fade and names disappear - but does that mean a person no longer has the same identity?
Behavioural scientist Nick Chater is sceptical about whether we have an inner self at all. His book The Mind is Flat exposes what he calls the 'shocking shallowness' of our psychology, and argues that we have no mental depths to plumb. Only by understanding this can we hope to understand ourselves.
The problem of self-awareness challenges psychiatrists hoping to diagnose depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Neuropsychiatrist Anthony David explores self-reflection and the stigma of mental illness in a series of lectures at King's College, London.
And fear of the mind runs through Ingmar Bergman's classic film Fanny and Alexander, now staged as a play at the Old Vic, London. Stephen Beresford has adapted it, and explains how the clash between a stern stepfather and his imaginative stepson reveals our unease at the power of the mind.
Producer: Hannah Sander.
On The Gist, Trump boosted an empty idea at CPAC: arming teachers to stop mass shooters.
In the interview, Derek DelGaudio is the magician of our time. His one-man show, In & of Itself, questions identity in a political atmosphere that’s consumed by it.
In the Spiel, “unsubstantiated” stories about Trump’s lecherous behavior on the set of The Apprentice are obviously, completely, and sadly believable.
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On The Gist, NBC’s coverage of Olympic athletes’ backstories is a little too obvious.
Slate tech writers April Glaser and Will Oremus examine the most plausible methods for reining in our tech overlords. Glaser and Oremus are the hosts of Slate’s If Then.
In the Spiel, NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference was downright loony.
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In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, a new student movement is born, the Republican/NRA conspiracy nuts go crazy, and Republican politicians start feeling the pressure. Then Jon and Tommy talk to comedian Billy Eichner about Glam Up the Midterms, his new effort to register young voters.