The Gist

On The Gist, sick children and dead ducks are pretty convincing. In the interview, South African comedian Loyiso Gola is here to talk about his stand up special on Netflix, what it's like performing in different countries, and why talking about the economy is so difficult for everyday people. Gola is performing at the Soho Playhouse until April 21, 2019. In the Spiel, time for an early Antentwig....

On The Gist, Trump's fundamental misreading of politics. In the interview, Garrett Graff's afternoon was as busy as any journalist's, picking through the redacted Mueller report released by the Department of Justice. There's something new on every page, Graff says, including the Trump campaign's awareness of Russian efforts against Hillary Clinton—and its expectation to benefit from them political...

On The Gist, the redacted Mueller report as an exercise in Zen. In the interview, economist Tyler Cowen is just about the smartest person in Mike Pesca's podcast feed. He's on the Gist to answer rapid fire questions on the college admissions scandal, what the likes of Herman Cain would mean for the Fed, and the virtues of big American enterprises. That last topic is the subject of Cowen's new book...

On The Gist, sparing a thought for Notre Dame… and how Americans pronounce it. In the interview, Politico's Anna Palmer on what Trump is doing to America as he navigates a government he doesn't understand. Her book, co-written with Jake Sherman, is The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America . In the Spiel, moms are not off limits for quotes—about their children—p...

On The Gist, wait, what did I miss? In the interview, Democratic candidates for the presidency recently flew to Iowa for a forum on agriculture to answer some questions. And asking them was Storm Lake Times editor Art Cullen, who knows a thing or two about corporate agribusiness and its impact on Iowans, the food Americans everywhere eat, and Chinese pork companies. Cullen is the author of Storm L...

On The Gist, two popes is one pope too many. In the interview, songs like "The Sign" and "I'll Make Love to You" dominated the charts in 1994, but they weren't all that emblematic of what was happening in music that year. Chris Molanphy has ideas as to why, and also opines on why there were so few number one singles that year—and why was Lisa Loeb considered alternative rock? Molanphy has answers,...

On The Gist, the political parties of Israel. In the interview, Jean McConville's murder in 1972—when The Troubles were at their bloodiest—sparked what few deaths did in Northern Ireland: a reckoning. The New Yorker's Patrick Radden Keefe joins us to give context to McConville's death, from the various factions at war back then to the country's incomplete reconciliation process and oddly rehabilit...

On The Gist, Candance Owens isn't digging herself out of this ahistorical, Hitler-relativizing hole. In the interview, Ian Chillag is back with another season of Everything Is Alive, a podcast where he interviews the everyday objects around us that we don't think of. Chioke I'Anson is here too because he played a grain of sand with a surprising amount of philosophy packed in (he's a philosopher hi...

On The Gist, Trump's latest campaign video is wild. In the interview, Scotland's Daniel Sloss churns out comedy specials at an almost alarming rate, completing his tenth at age 28. He's here to talk about circumcision, Brexit, and why the left is doomed to eternally shoot itself in the foot. Sloss will be back in the United States in June of 2019, and his specials "Dark" & "Jigsaw" are on Netflix....

The worst part about the Trump administration's high turnover? Every cabinet member is worse than the last. In the interview, Grigori Rasputin bent the ear of the last Russian tsar, manipulating affairs of state behind the scenes as he saw fit. But how did a man like him rise to such power? And what about his spiritual successors like Phil Spector or Tom Brady's trainer? Amos Barshad, author of No...

On The Gist, like every week in Trump's America, this has been a wasted one. In the interview, Maria Konnikova is back for another round of "Is That Bullshit?" She talks chiropractors, whether or not cracking your back and neck is helpful, and what strokes have to do with it. Then, Mike's own chiropractor, Jason Fidler, steps in to offer some adjustments to the conversation. In the Spiel, Mike off...

On The Gist, Mueller's report (or much of it) is bound to go public. In the interview, Wright Thompson has his place on the Mount Rushmore of sports writers, and his signature form is the profile. Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi, Michael Jordan and the like are fascinating in their relationship to fame, but also in their ordinary flaws. "On some level these stories are all about exploring whether or not...

On The Gist, Trump should avoid healthcare. In the interview, Lori Gottlieb is a journalist and a therapist, and she's here to discuss her new book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed , why she became a therapist, how to deal with patients who've Googled you, and why therapists need therapy too. In the Spiel, the Joe Biden crisis isn't a crisis. Lea...

On The Gist, calming down about Trump's bombast. In the interview, Nicholas Christakis is here to discuss his new book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society , how he studied the progression of goodness throughout human history, the way healthy communities evolve, and why shipwrecks were so important to his research. In the Spiel, the problem with microaggressions. Learn more about...

On The Gist, Joe Biden's nose nuzzle. In the interview, Don Winslow's new book The Border is the final part of his trilogy on drug cartels. He's here today to discuss the work, how it's been twenty years in the making, and the difficulty of trying to get things right. In the Spiel, Betsy DeVos' indefensible Special Olympics funding cuts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

On The Gist, the next wave of start-ups should be like the tech companies we have now, but with a conscience. In the interview, filmmaker Anthony Maras is more wedded to a theme—people in extremis—than a form, and his latest is a thriller based on true events. Hotel Mumbai follows a band of diverse survivors holed up in the Taj, one of the targets in India's 2008 terrorist attacks. "Something kind...

On The Gist, Mike Pesca, in true hipster fashion, laments the end of Wow Air. In the interview, much of the news media was guilty of hyping up the knockout blow that Mueller's report would deliver president Trump. But a few journalists on the left were always skeptical of the investigation's origins and potential. Among them is Nation contributor Aaron Maté, who saw in the Mueller probe a distract...

On The Gist, Boeing is in a tight spot. In the interview, the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas was one for the ages. Everyone so expected Tyson to win that people weren't even placing bets until the odds were 42 to 1. In the new 30 for 30 film 42 to 1 , Gist guest Jeremy Schaap (and Ben Houser) explore this shocking upset and how the fight changed boxing and these fighters' lives...

On The Gist, the latest gridlock facing the Green New Deal should clue in its backers in Congress. In the interview, Huwe Burton was 16 years old when detectives browbeat him into a false confession of murder. He spent about 20 years in prison as a result, and found an outlet in the quarter-mile track that he and other inmates built their endurance on. Since his release and exoneration, he hasn't...

On The Gist, we should be willing to accept that the Barr letter and Mueller report won't lead to any indictments. In the interview, David Priess, former CIA staffer and daily intelligence briefer for Robert Mueller, is here to talk about the Mueller report. What do we know? What questions are still unanswered? And where do we go from here? Priess' latest book is How to Get Rid of a President: His...

On The Gist, ISIS may be defeated, but the people who made up its forces aren't gone. In the interview, novelist John Lanchester is here to discuss his new novel The Wall , the symbolic and practical use of walls, and how closely we should pay attention to our dreams. In the Spiel, Jim Nantz shouldn't be in those Capital One commercials for March Madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...

On The Gist, who paid for those two Chinese-born tech magnates to take photos with Trump? In the interview, Vanderbilt professor Jonathan Metzl is here to discuss his new book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland . In the Spiel, litigating Biden's past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an...

On The Gist, have you heard about the mob hit that took place a few weeks ago? In the interview, journalist Sarah Kliff joins us to discuss maternal mortality rates in the United States, what California has done to fix it, and what the rest of the country should learn from them. Kliff is the host of Vox's The Impact . In the Spiel, Donald Trump on John McCain's funeral. Learn more about your ad ch...

On The Gist, it wouldn't just be morally right for Trump to finally denounce white nationalism. It would be politically smart. In the interview, Jill Abramson's Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts was released to glowing reviews—but valid accusations of plagiarism and factual errors took some of that shine off. As Mike asks Abramson (a former executive editor of the Ne...

On The Gist, Beto O'Rourke, the countertop candidate. In the interview, historian Rutger Bregman got in a spat with Fox host Tucker Carlson, but you wouldn't know it if it weren't for his own video of the incident. Fox never aired it, as Bregman accused Carlson of carrying water for billionaires and Carlson responded with profane insults. Bregman joins the Gist to give us the backstory on that, bu...