Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

On today’s Gist, what’s this about a Tony Award–winning dry cleaner?

Presidential inexperience does not always lead to failed presidencies. Some traits can temper inexperience—like the depressive realism of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson. Other traits magnify inexperience—like narcissism. Gautam Mukunda takes a close look at presidential inexperience in his 2012 book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter. 

In the Spiel, Rudy Giuliani had a strategy. 

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On today’s Gist, a fond farewell to Ty Cobb.

Gen. Michael Hayden was running the National Security Agency and then the CIA, he couldn’t talk about our national security risks. If he could have, most people would have listened to him. But things are different now. Hayden talks about the decline of fact-based arguments, the Iran nuclear deal, and the future of privacy. His latest book is The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies. 

In the Spiel, Kanye West knows he has flaws. He just can’t learn from them.  

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On today’s Gist, thick-as-bricks Lego thieves come a-tumbling down.

Hurricane recovery has been a disaster in Puerto Rico. NPR’s Laura Sullivan wanted to know why. So she found documents revealing a FEMA in shambles. She traced Puerto Rico’s economic troubles back to a 1996 tax vote. And she explains how the island’s remaining wealth was wiped out by years of shady municipal debt deals. Sullivan’s report for NPR and Frontline is called “Blackout in Puerto Rico.” You should really watch it. 

In the Spiel, is it spring yet?

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On today’s Gist, President Trump’s Nobel in the making.

There is no market quite like the boomers—that was true when they were young, and it remains true as they enter their 60s and 70s. So how do you market to the olds? The answer lies in a few busted bits of conventional wisdom, the millennial lifestyle, and probably your mom’s iPad. Joseph F. Coughlin explains it all in his book The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market. 

In the Spiel, what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?

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The Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli delves into the meaning of time. He tells Andrew Marr how we live in a timeless world but have evolved to perceive time's flow.

The astrophysicist Carole Mundell is interested in the extragalactic. Her studies of the universe beyond our Milky Way help expand knowledge of cosmic black holes and explain powerful explosions in space.

Space travel is the new frontier, but exactly 250 years ago the Endeavour set sail from Plymouth seeking to test the limits of scientific understanding. An exhibition at the British Library, curated by Laura Walker, tells the story of Captain Cook's world-changing voyages and their studies into the skies, seas and lands beyond our shores.

And the marine biologist Helen Scales is more interested in exploring the world beneath the oceans. Her latest book marvels at the wonders of fish, from centuries-old giants to tiny restless travellers moving in shoals across our globe.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

The Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli delves into the meaning of time. He tells Andrew Marr how we live in a timeless world but have evolved to perceive time's flow.

The astrophysicist Carole Mundell is interested in the extragalactic. Her studies of the universe beyond our Milky Way help expand knowledge of cosmic black holes and explain powerful explosions in space.

Space travel is the new frontier, but exactly 250 years ago the Endeavour set sail from Plymouth seeking to test the limits of scientific understanding. An exhibition at the British Library, curated by Laura Walker, tells the story of Captain Cook's world-changing voyages and their studies into the skies, seas and lands beyond our shores.

And the marine biologist Helen Scales is more interested in exploring the world beneath the oceans. Her latest book marvels at the wonders of fish, from centuries-old giants to tiny restless travellers moving in shoals across our globe.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

On The Gist, when your sympathy for the poor goes beyond platitudes, Paul Ryan fires you.

In the interview, the New York Times’ Rukmini Callimachi has a new podcast. Caliphate lays out how she knows what she knows about ISIS. Through her reporting in Iraq, she’s learned how the group endeared itself to locals with services as simple as garbage collection. And though the would-be Islamic State has fallen, the extremists behind it persist as an insurgency.

In the Spiel, there is no Spiel!

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On Thursday’s Gist, EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s behavior is too plainly unethical to sweep under the rug.

What does a Malaysian party boy have to do with President Trump’s potential breach of the Emoluments Clause? Reveal’s Amy Walters and WAMU’s Patrick Madden can explain everything in their story for Reveal, “Check into Trump’s Washington Hotel.”

In the Spiel, how about that batshit crazy rant courtesy of our president on Thursday morning?

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