The Gist

Ariel Levy 's 2013 New Yorker essay about losing her son, " Thanksgiving in Mongolia ," was among the most recommended pieces of writing in recent memory. Levy expands on the essay in her memoir, The Rules Do Not Apply . In the book, Levy wonders if, in wanting to do it all, she set herself up for heartbreak over the things she could not have. In the Spiel, a unified theory of President Trump's po...

Maria Konnikova has been a special correspondent on The Gist since it began, debunking common myths and pseudoscience. Now, she's starting her own show, a narrative podcast about cons called the Grift . The first two episodes are available for download on your podcatcher of choice. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today...

If aliens came to Earth looking for a dystopian novel that reflected the current political reality, would you recommend that they read The Handmaid's Tale ? Guest host Alexandra Petri considers this quandary with Mallory Ortberg , Slate 's Dear Prudence advice columnist . In the Spiel, it's time to talk about United Airlines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hos...

Joe Swanberg and Jake Johnson have made a couple of can't-miss indie films in the last few years, including Drinking Buddies , Digging for Fire, and the new poker comedy Win It All . The collaborators talk about improv, making a believable world on-screen, and Jake's unusual leading man role on the Fox sitcom New Girl . In the Spiel, Mike rounds up some news that fell through the cracks this week....

David Letterman was full of contradictions. He hated celebrity, but he hosted a talk show. He was playful, but he never seemed to be enjoying himself. In The Last Giant of Late Night , reporter Jason Zinoman explores the many facets of Letterman's art, and how the TV landscape has suffered without him. In the Spiel, the real stories behind the fall of Alabama's governor, the Wells Fargo clawback,...

Slate 's Osita Nwanevu defended the actions of Middlebury College students to silence visiting speaker Charles Murray last month. If we consider some opinions to be beyond the pale of acceptability, who's to say that the students were wrong in putting Murray's past writings in that category? Nwanevu is an editorial assistant at Slate . In the Spiel: If you really think about it, Bill O'Reilly is a...

What does President Trump want to achieve with Thursday's escalation of force against Syria? Fred Kaplan considers all the angles, including this one: Ordering a strike against a single Syrian air base was one of the lesser military actions President Trump could have approved. Kaplan writes the War Stories column for Slate . In the Spiel, like a clueless boyfriend in a zip-up sweater, Trump went t...

The Chicago Cubs used to be the Susan Lucci of baseball. Now they're looking more like Meryl Streep. As a fan, how do you become accustomed to winning? Scott Simon has written a memoir about his life as a too-devoted Cubs fan and how he's adjusting to life as a winner. Simon is also the host of Weekend Edition Sunday from NPR. In the Spiel, we bid farewell to a beloved, deeply tender jerk. Join Sl...

In The Discovery , director Charlie McDowell imagines a world where the afterlife has been proven, and a man played by Jason Segel is trying to negotiate the emotional consequences. McDowell says he was out to make a kind of "grounded sci-fi," in the vein of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . "It's not focused on a futuristic look or society," says McDowell. "It's a backdrop for exploring the...

Tabitha Soren is not a natural baseball fan. She got interested when her husband, Michael Lewis, was working on his book Moneyball . As Lewis became obsessed with teaching his readers another way to watch the game, Soren focused on showing people how to see the players in a different way: as fallible and broken people who sacrifice their bodies for a chance to play in the major leagues. The result...

Trump was the chaos candidate, but he's finding little success as the chaos president. He's turned off Democrats and the Freedom Caucus, failed to pass a new health care law, and faced blockades in the courts against his travel ban. We call up veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy to discuss the impossible spot the White House is in, and why Democrats shouldn't blockade Neil Gorsuch. Murphy's podcast...

After a long hiatus, the groundbreaking comedy show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 returns to piteously mock the worst movies ever made. Show creator Joel Hodgson and new head writer Elliott Kalan ( The Daily Show ) explain how to get some tiny pleasure out of cinematic garbage. The show returns on Netflix April 14 . In the Spiel, why Melissa McCarthy will never keep up with relentless self-parody a...

Why does Russia find NATO so deeply offensive? Tom Nichols says it comes down to something quite human. NATO represents all of the successes that Russia couldn't quite manage to achieve: "Part of the reason Russians hate NATO is because Russia just doesn't have any friends in the world." Nichols is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College . He'll be back on the show s...

Our resident debunker of nonsense, Maria Konnikova, returns to take on the billion-dollar homeopathy industry. Why aren't homeopathic remedies regulated in the United States? And what can their dubious history tell us about their effectiveness? Maria Konnikova is a contributing writer at the New Yorker and the author of The Confidence Game . In the Spiel, watching CNN go haywire for a pretty banal...

Two Whig presidents were elected by the American people—Zachary Taylor and William Henry Harrison. They lasted a grand total of one year and five months. The Whigs cracked up in the 1850s over intense policy divisions. Now, many historians are drawing parallels between the Whigs then and the Republicans now. Philip Wallach recently penned an essay for the Brookings Institution about what can be le...

How much time did you spend on an anti-boredom gadget today? We watch entire seasons of television in a day, we scroll through infinite streams of social media, and we are transfixed by games designed as deftly as slot machines. Adam Alter says it's time to consider measures that will help everyone to cut back. His book is called Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of K...

Alyssa Mastromonaco served as White House deputy chief of staff under Barack Obama. Her job was expansive—covering everything from interviewing James Comey to making sure the White House driveway was re-paved [AM1] . Now, she's written a memoir, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House . In the Spiel, Republicans weren't able...

Why does it feel like our political debate was brought to us by the National Lampoon ? Sonny Bunch applies his powers of cultural analysis to the changing face of political conservativism. Bunch is executive editor of the Washington Free Beacon , where he also writes film criticism . In the Spiel, Devin Nunes really messed this thing up, huh? Today's sponsors: Control GX gray-reducing shampoo is t...

With hours to go before the official vote on Trumpcare, the bill is being altered to make sure moderates in Buffalo and Freedom Caucus members in South Carolina stay onboard. [MW1] Any chance this Frankenstein bill will fail? Slate columnists Jim Newell and Jordan Weissmann look at the costs and politics of the American Health Care Act ahead of Thursday's consequential House vote. For the Spiel, l...

What did we learn from Monday's public testimony of FBI Director James Comey? National security ace Ben Wittes says Comey's statements were intriguingly "gentle," though they should still distress the president. Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. For the Spiel, Neil Gorsuch talks about a pointless race he once did and quotes...

Wendy Zukerman isn't like some other science reporters in that she doesn't traffic in false equivalencies. "If there's a 95 percent consensus among scientists, you report the consensus," says Zukerman. Her podcast, Science Vs . , is on its second season. The topics this year range from immigration and climate change to acne and ghosts. For the Spiel, you know that new sound you've been looking for...

Slate senior legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick walks us through the next steps for Donald Trump's revised travel ban. Some judges may not use Trump's campaign rhetoric in their rulings; however, "Every time Trump opens his mouth, he makes it harder," says Lithwick. She also discusses next week's confirmation hearings of Neil Gorsuch. Besides covering the courts for Slate , Lithwick is the host o...

Before Kelly McEvers landed in her current role as host of NPR's All Things Considered , she was a world-weary conflict-zone reporter. But McEvers says she wasn't bored upon returning to the states: "I came back to America, and I was like, Whoa, America, kind of messed up ." McEvers' reporting podcast, Embedded , has just released new episodes. She talked to Mike Pesca last year at the Now Hear Th...

Like so many dubious health claims, stretching before exercise has its roots in yoga culture. Maria Konnikova explains that stretching is exercise in-and-of itself and shouldn't be treated like a warm-up. Then why do so many trainers and health nuts preach stretching as gospel? Konnikova is a regular guest on The Gist, a New Yorker staff writer, and the author of The Confidence Game . In the Spiel...

Todd Barry's stand-up comedy falls along the lower end of the register: in volume, in speed, in tone. So maybe it makes sense that he's happiest onstage when he doesn't have to talk at all. Fans may wonder how Barry translates his dry delivery to the page. The answer: by making liberal use of italics. His new book is Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg: One Comedian's Tour of Not-Quite-the-Biggest...