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Republicans have no idea what health care bill they’re voting on, the Mooch lets Trump be Trump, and the Democrats unveil a new slogan and agenda. Then CBS News' Margaret Brennan joins Jon, Jon, and Tommy to talk about the Administration’s foreign policy challenges.
If things had gone well, America would still be in the Paris Agreement on climate change, green energy would be spreading across the country and Al Gore wouldn’t have needed to make a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth. But it didn’t work out that way. With his new movie hitting theaters next week, Gore remains hopeful during these depressing times. “If somebody told me five years ago, marriage equality would be the law in all 50 states, I would have asked what they were smoking,” says the former vice president. “But it did happen, because it became a choice between right and wrong. That’s where the climate movement is now.”
For the Spiel, why persuading doubters is so hard when it comes to climate change science.
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Mike Sacks is not just a comedian; he’s also a comedy historian. This summer, he’s unearthed a rare artifact, the cult classic, Dixie-fried action movie Stinker Lets Loose. “Some famous people have cited this movie as a big influence on them,” says Sacks, citing Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. “You can hear it in some of his lyrics, for sure.” A 40th-anniversary novelization of Stinker is available now, with an intro by Sacks.
For the Spiel, why does Donald Trump keep saying stupid things to the New York Times, a newspaper he purports to hate?
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Trumpcare is dead and alive and dead and alive again, and we discover from a terrifying New York Times interview that the President doesn’t actually know what health insurance is. Then Jon and Dan talk to Montana Governor Steve Bullock about his vision for the party and the country, and Ana Marie Cox joins to talk about Trump’s elimination of teen pregnancy prevention programs.
Maria Konnikova returns to look at a tool prosecutors have used for decades: handwriting analysis, or graphology. Older versions of the practice have used handwriting to predict everything from a person’s mental state to their capacity for murder. “People have been convicted based on it,” says Konnikova. “We’re not talking about phrenology. Graphology is still something that exists in the United States. There are societies of graphologists.” Konnikova is the author of The Confidence Game and host of the Panoply podcast The Grift.
For the Spiel, Trump’s voting commission may be hobbled, but it can still do some real harm.
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Economist Tyler Cowen is disdainful of social media, heartened by recent immigrants, and wary of pot. He thinks that, in our collective desire for comfort, we are postponing big and necessary changes that will sow instability in the years ahead. “Right now Americans are failing to regenerate sources of future progress,” Cowen writes, “and thus they are borrowing against the future rather than paying their bills.” Cowen’s latest book is The Complacent Class.
In the Spiel, are things going any better abroad?
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Our friend Dan Pashman from the Sporkful podcast returns to explain the new field of study known as gastrophysics and why our brains have a big influence over how we taste food. For example, research shows we like the taste of food served with heavy cutlery and ice cream presented with brighter colors. “It could be something evolutionary,” says Pashman. “With brighter colors, ice cream tastes sweeter.” Check out Pashman’s interview with gastrophysicist Charles Spence.
For the Spiel: Ann Coulter versus Delta, Day 3.
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As the health care vote is delayed due to a medical emergency, Andy Slavitt, who ran Medicare, Medicaid & ACA for President Obama, lays out the strategy for this final push. Then Jon, Jon, and Tommy get into all the lies and revelations around the Trump Tower/Russia confab. And Tommy talks with Jeff Mason who leads the White House Correspondence Association to debate press access and freedom.
Director David Lowery has made one of the most remarkable films of 2017 so far, and he’s built it around a ridiculous image: a white sheet with two eye-holes cut out. So what makes “A Ghost Story” feel so epic? And what’s with that 10-minute pie scene? Spoilers abound. For the Spiel: so, who was in the room with Don Jr. and the Russians? Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
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Retired Admiral James Stavridis wants to remind us: Despite headlines about the rise of ISIS, there are bigger existential threats to America. “Terrorism is not apocalyptic, it’s a tool,” says Stavridis. He warns that conflicts with Russia and China are much more worrisome and likely to include a maritime component. “Again and again when there’s a crisis, the first question from the president is, where are the [aircraft] carriers? They are flexible and they can strike.” His new book is Sea Power.
In the Spiel, making a supergroup of the musicians in Trump’s White House.
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