The Gist

On The Gist, Dayton and El Paso deserve better than the presence of Donald Trump. In the interview, FiveThirtyEight elections analyst Geoffrey Skelley talks through what Democrats need to do to turn out voters in 2020. Should they focus on the "Obama coalition" that elected him twice? Or is it smarter to turn toward Obama voters that then voted for Trump in 2016? Why not both? In the Spiel, anyone...

On The Gist, if you want gun control, you clearly have to just vote Democrat. In the interview, the tit-for-tat trade war with China is unceasing. Slate's Jordan Weissmann tells Mike about the latest developments in the fight between presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, whether or not China is really manipulating its currency, and the potential paths ahead. In the Spiel, Americans are getting angry ov...

On The Gist, this weekend's mass shooters had different motives. It won't do to draw lessons from just one of them. In the interview, Amherst College professor Austin Sarat wants to enlist gun owners themselves in the fight for firearm regulation. "48 percent of gun owners favor a ban on assault weapons," he says, citing the Pew Research Center . The problem is convincing them that gun control adv...

On The Gist, a theory as to why we still hear dusty old terms like "happy warrior"—at least during election season. In the interview, Slate writer Christina Cauterucci, who recently wrote about Al Franken , criticizes a recent New Yorker story on the ousted senator. She and Mike break down what they think its author Jane Mayer got wrong and right, the facts of the reporting, and why we shouldn't t...

On The Gist, the Democrats making Republican soundbites. In the interview, Fantastic Negrito walked a long and winding road to blues stardom. His first album (under his legal name, Xavier) was a bust—"everyone hated it"—and saw him dropped from his label. He'd also gotten into a serious car accident and sold off his instruments before returning to music. That's when the Grammys started rolling in—...

On The Gist, Jeffrey Epstein's ideas. In the interview, when Chuck Klosterman writes non-fiction, he worries about missing some grand historical context in a way that would ruin his work. With fiction, that anxiety goes out the window— if someone reads one of his short stories and thinks something "completely unrelated to what I thought, it's still okay." Klosterman digs into that, the advantages...

On The Gist, billionaire Tom Steyer didn't qualify for this round of Democratic debates, but he's bought a lot of CNN ad space to make up for it. In the interview, political consultants David Axelrod and Mike Murphy have spent years advising politicians on the best ways to run campaigns—Axelrod with Barack Obama and Murphy with candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney. Now they've come together...

On The Gist, Trump and racism. In the interview, Politico's Tim Alberta has been covering the Republican Party since 2009, back when it was "totally rudderless and beaten into the ground." Ten years later, and though in control of the White House, the GOP isn't in much better shape. Alberta's new book is American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Tru...

A few months ago, Dan Taberski joined us to talk about latest season of his Headlong podcast, Running From Cops , focused on reality television shows about police. One series in particular, Live PD , was billed as a documentary but seemed to fall into the same bad practices as other reality programming. Taberski tried to interview the Dan Abrams, the show's host, and was never able to get him on m...

On The Gist, Robert Mueller was a bit of a broken record in his congressional testimony. In the interview, David Wolman once happened upon a small Hawaiian museum dedicated to a small crew of cowboys in the state—and that was the first he heard of them. He teamed up with Julian Smith to dig into the fascinating history of these cowpokes and how they dazzled the world at the 1908 World Rodeo Champi...

On The Gist, the governor of Puerto Rico will not seek reelection. In the interview, Chris Herren's NBA career ended largely because of drug abuse that started in his teens. Now he speaks to thousands of students about making better choices—not by using the fear tactics often deployed in American schools, but by examining the emotions tied to substance use. Herren's presentations are the subject o...

On The Gist, Robert Mueller's congressional testimony isn't likely to increase the pressure on president Trump. In the interview, losing weight is hard, but keeping it off is even harder. What can successful dieters do to maintain their goals, and are reality TV shows like The Biggest Loser painting a rosy picture? Gist regular Maria Konnikova dug into the science, and brings answers on the latest...

On The Gist, why the moon landing's 50th anniversary isn't getting all that much attention. In the interview, success stories are great, but what about those business ventures that end in spectacular failure? Those tales are often better. Lauren Ober hosts the Spectacular Failures podcast, where beer makers, hotel chains, and (in an upcoming episode) Trump's casinos meet their end. In the Spiel, i...

On The Gist, Ivanka Trump is every bit the monster her father is. In the interview, Senator Michael Bennet is here to talk about his campaign for president and his new book The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics . He and Mike discuss Bennet's family plan, the importance of the filibuster, and why centrism needs to work on its branding. In the Spiel, there is...

On The Gist, Chance the snapper. In the interview, former EPA head Gina McCarthy expected the Trump administration's backwardness on climate change—but not on no-brainers like limits on power plant mercury emissions and auto industry regulation, both of which were being complied with. "They're just obsessed with undoing everything Obama did. You can tell this with Trump. He's still somehow campaig...

On The Gist, it's a good day for those who love quarterly fundraising numbers among Democratic presidential candidates! In the interview, we're used to the Nate Silver approach to election forecasting, using constantly changing polling data to predict the likelihood of this or that result. But Rachel Bitecofer, assistant director of the Wason Center for Public Policy, has a better way . Her new mo...

On The Gist, Elizabeth Warren and ICE. In the interview, Jason Zinoman, who writes about the New York Times, thinks the late-night shows need to return to the playful cruelty they once had. He and Mike talk about the current state of things, David Letterman's reign, and why even Letterman seems to have lost his teeth on his new show. In the Spiel, Trump and tweets about the Congress squad. Learn m...

On The Gist, they. In the interview, Emily Bazelon writes for the New York Times magazine, co-hosts Slate's Political Gabfest, and she's out with the new book Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration , and its companion podcast . She's here to talk with Mike about her new projects, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Jeffrey Epstein and New York City gun laws. I...

On The Gist, the metal straw incident. In the interview, Vince Houghton is a historian and the curator of the International Spy Museum and he's here to talk about his new book Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board . Why did we want to drop goat poop on Germans? Can a cat be trained for espionage? In the Spiel, the citizenship question. Learn m...

On The Gist, the Trump cabinet and violence against women. In the interview, Will Wilkinson from the Niskanen Center is here to talk with Mike about his new paper The Density Divide about the surprising way urbanization affected the rise of populism. In the Spiel, the good and bad about the pay parity argument in soccer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted b...

On The Gist, jail time for absurd reasons. In the interview, journalist Jack Fairweather is out with a new book about the untold story of Witold Pilecki, a Polish resistance fighter who chose to get sent to Auschwitz so he could report back on atrocities happening there during World War II. Fairweather's book is The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwi...

On The Gist, did Joe Biden's apology work? In the interview, Anthony Ray Hinton was wrongfully convicted for the murder of two teenagers in Alabama in 1985. After 30 years on death row his conviction was overturned and he was released. He's since become an advocate for those facing the death penalty and the abolishment of it in the United States, and he's here to talk with Mike about his experienc...

On The Gist, should we rethink the structure of a week? In the interview, founding CEO of C-SPAN Brian Lamb and Co-CEO Susan Swain are here to discuss their new book The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America's Best—and Worst—Chief Executives . They discuss with Mike the creation of the book, visiting presidential burial places, and some Mike's favorite things about C-SPAN. In the Spiel, the pa...

On The Gist, the Hong Kong protesters and Chinese conspiracies. In the interview, Harvard research fellow Thomas Abt is here to discuss his new book Bleeding Out: The Devestating Consequences of Urban Gun Violence—and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets . He talks with Mike about the ways we misunderstand urban gun violence and what concrete steps communities can talk to solve it. In the Spie...

On The Gist, the South Bend shooting and Pete Buttigieg. In the interview, Jason Zinoman recently wrote about dad jokes for the New York Times so he's here to talk with Mike about his grand theories, why we love to hate dad jokes, and if they really are as low-brow as people consider them to be. In the Spiel, the choice the Democrats face. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...