The Gist

Anne Helen Petersen returns to discuss her new posting—as the Western correspondent for BuzzFeed . Petersen will be reporting on U.S. political culture from her new home, Missoula, Montana. "There's a reason every newspaper used to have bureaus in every part of the country," says Petersen, who recently covered the recent razor-thin House race in which notorious Republican Greg Gianforte came out o...

Anne Helen Petersen has made a career on the rigorous, deep, academic study of celebrity culture. In her new book Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud , Petersen explores the rise of norm-breaking women such as Lena Dunham and Serena Williams and what their ascendency can tell us about the political moment we're living in. Petersen's day job is senior culture writer at BuzzFeed . Also, the Supreme Court...

Author Jeremy McCarter (co-writer of Hamilton: The Revolution with Lin-Manuel Miranda) has written a new book tracing five American radicals from the 1910s and '20s. "I had thought this was going to be a book about a chapter of progress in history we could learn from," says McCarter. "But 1917 is a lot closer to what I thought I would see in my lifetime." Young Radicals is available now. In the Sp...

Scaachi Koul , a writer for BuzzFeed , talks about growing up as a brown girl in Canada's "Cowtown," and how she set off a tweetstorm by soliciting job applications from writers who are "not white and not male." Koul's book of essays is One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter . In the Spiel, legislative and executive reaction to the healthcare bill. Learn more about your ad choices....

There are two Wallace Shawns. There's the character actor, known for playing eccentrics in The Princess Bride and The Good Wife and voicing cartoon dinosaurs. ("I don't get cast as a lot of real people," he notes.) Then there's the acclaimed playwright, thinker, and ardent leftist. Shawn is out with a new collection of political musings, Night Thoughts , which address everything from inequality to...

Tom Shapiro is back to explain the thinking behind the title of his book, Toxic Inequality . What's so toxic about it? Shapiro is a professor at Brandeis University, where he directs the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. In the Spiel: Based on the information available, what can we conclude about the media coverage of terrorism? Mike talks to Erin Miller , who oversees the Global Terrorism Da...

The U.S. has a racial wealth gap problem. By one estimate, at current levels of wealth growth it would take 228 years for the average black family to catch up with levels of wealth among white families. Thomas Shapiro explains some of the surprising reasons parity remains so elusive in his book, Toxic Inequality: How America's Wealth Gap Destroys Mobility, Deepens the Racial Divide, and Threatens...

The new movie Okja has pretty much everything. Car chases. Giant mutant pigs. A dystopian future. Jake Gyllenhaal with an outlandish moustache. A subtle social message. Tilda Swinton pretending to be Tony Blair. The movie is written by Korean director Bong Joon-ho ( Snowpiercer ) and returning guest Jon Ronson. Ronson takes us into the craft of writing the year's wildest movie. In the Spiel, why c...

A big problem with political arguments, says Robb Willer , is that everyone sees himself or herself as the hero in a zombie movie. "American liberals see themselves as Brad Pitt warding off a zombie horde," says Willer. "But the problem is conservatives see themselves the same way," and no one is able to make arguments that appeal to the other side. Willer teaches sociology at Stanford and writes...

Bill Schutt says no one from his childhood is surprised to find out he's been studying cannibalism—after all, he was into vampire bats as a kid. For his new book , he's investigated the (natural) history of people eating one another and why it's only been taboo in some countries, like China, for a short time. In the Spiel, how we talk about domestic terrorism. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus se...

You're awkward, but maybe not in the way you think. Psychologist Ty Tashiro explains the hallmarks of social awkwardness, why we're sensitive to it, and why it's not such a bad thing. Tashiro is the author of Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome . In the Spiel, more on Donald Trump's 'dear leader' cabinet meeting. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, ex...

Bassem Youssef hasn't cut open a chest in six years. And he doesn't miss it. "Being into medicine for 19 years, it's a character builder," says the Egyptian comedian, who says his old job prepped him well for his new one. Youssef went from being a surgeon in Cairo to the Jon Stewart of Egypt, a satirist with 40 million views a week. Youssef's brief reign as the king of Egyptian comedy is the focus...

Last August, Larry Wilmore 's talk show was canceled. The Nightly Show focused on issues like equality, activism, and how racism subtly wormed its way into American life. In hindsight, it feels ahead of its time. Wilmore is out with a new podcast, Black on the Air . In the Spiel: Sometimes democracy sucks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, a...

Wednesday on The Gist, John Pfaff refuted the conventional wisdom about mass incarceration. Thursday, Pfaff explains some of the obstacles to reform. Pfaff's book is Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration—and How to Achieve Real Reform . In the Spiel, a loyally honest review of James Comey's testimony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplec...

John Pfaff is on a mission to topple the well-worn myths of the U.S. prison population boom. He says the data tells us to focus on the district attorneys, not the Department of Justice. Pfaff teaches at Fordham University School of Law and is the author of Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform . This is Part I of our interview with Pfaff -- listen tomorrow...

There's almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, soy milk, hazelnut milk, oat milk, and milk made from anything that grows , pretty much. But is any of it actually milk ? And is it actually healthier than dairy? Our debunker-in-chief, Maria Konnikova , investigates the lofty claims of nondairy milks. Konnikova is a contributor to the New Yorker , and the author of The Confidence Game . Her new podcas...

People tell Google things they wouldn't say to anyone else. That's the big insight that motivated the research of Seth Stephens-Davidowitz . His book , Everybody Lies , is about the stories and secrets he uncovered by digging into internet search data. In the Spiel, the best jokes that Mike made on vacation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast,...

In 2008, Al Franken was elected to the United States Senate. Since then, he's become a well-respected member of the upper chamber. But he hasn't lost his keen eye for satire. After the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage, "I wanted to release a thing saying, 'Mr. Franken is very happy, but he thinks Justice Scalia's dissent was very gay,' " he tells guest host Zoe Chace. "My team told me...

In April, Donald Trump authorized rocket strikes on a military target in Syria. Most Democrats agreed with it. But when Trump makes a decision, does that make it inherently wrong? New Republic editor and Twitter star Jeet Heer offers a critique of the first few months of Democratic resistance. He wrote about it in the magazine last month. Today's Spiel comes from the archives: For President Trump,...

Reading, Pennsylvania is the poorest city of its size in the United States. It's also where Lynn Nottage did most of her research for the Pulitzer-winning Broadway show, Sweat . Nottage talks with guest host Aisha Harris about the different kinds of working class in America, and how to maintain empathy when talking with people quite different from yourself. In the Spiel, why calling something a "w...

When can we expect the first tell-all book by a former Trump administration official? David Rosenthal explains the physics of personal memoirs and dishes about what he's heard around the industry rumor mill. Rosenthal runs the Blue Rider Press imprint at the Penguin Group. In the Spiel, guest host Leon Neyfakh explains how the president nearly ruined an otherwise perfect holiday weekend. Join Slat...

Richard Nixon once warned of an America cut in two, a colony of poor, disenfranchised people within a nation of wealth. His law-and-order policies went a long way to making that a reality. In his new book, A Colony in a Nation , Chris Hayes looks at how fear has led to some destructive policies in America's cities. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and mo...

Ben Wittes has a term for the nonsense justifications he observes coming from the Trump administration. He calls it ENSH: errant national security horseshit. On Thursday's show, Wittes shovels up some of the larger ENSH dumps of the past two weeks. Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare . In the Spiel, naming a long overdue Lobstar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

Donald Trump looks a lot more comfortable traveling abroad than he ever has in the White House. Josh King says there's a good explanation for this. "Two Air Force Ones, a beast limousine, all the trappings of the United States government … it's hard to screw that up," says King, an expert in presidential stagecraft. He previously worked as an advance man in the Clinton White House. In the Spiel, t...

For Tom Ricks , the whiplash-inducing news of the past two weeks has been especially surreal. Ricks explains why he was stunned to see the National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster defend President Trump. Ricks is out with a new book about two of his heroes, Churchill and Orwell . Ricks writes the Best Defense blog for Foreign Policy magazine. In the Spiel, Mike breaks down former CIA Director John...