The Gist
For thirty minutes each day, Pesca challenges himself and his audience, in a responsibly provocative style, and gets beyond the rigidity and dogma. The Gist is surprising, reasonable, and willing to critique the left, the right, either party, or any idea.
1251
Comedy Week: Late-Night
Has the late-night show lost its political teeth?
32 min
1252
Comedy Week: Film
How have streaming and comedic taste changed the comedy movie?
29 min
1253
Comedy Week: Podcasts
Talking to your funny friends might be the ticket.
34 min
1254
Comedy Week: Improv
Is kindness the next step in comedy?
36 min
1255
Comedy Week: Stand-Up Comedy
Has the world gotten too sensitive for stand-up comedy?
35 min
1256
Do the Hustle
Lorene Scafaria on directing Hustlers
30 min
1257
Leave It to Lovett
Jon Lovett’s roundtable podcast is a liberal hit, but does everybody agree too much?
28 min
1258
The Ousting of Donald Sterling
How the NBA purged their ranks.
30 min
1259
The Made-for-TV President
Anti-heroes are great TV characters, but terrible real-world leaders.
25 min
1260
Scientific Solutions to Absurdity
Randall Munroe on how to approach ridiculous problems with scientific rigor.
27 min
1261
It’s an Economist’s World
Number crunchers weren’t always at the levers of power in America—and we should question where their groupthink has led us.
29 min
1262
How We Speak Internet
Time spent scrolling and typing has shaped our vocabulary. And emojis are just the start.
28 min
1263
Lobbying for Good?
Most people think of lobbyists as political manipulators, but really they’re just playing the game the Constitution created.
37 min
1264
The Big Power of Right-Wing Radio
How Rush Limbaugh wrote the playbook on hijacking political discourse.
28 min
1265
To Greta Goes the Glory?
Not everyone has two weeks to sail across the Atlantic like Sweden’s young activist just did. But of course, that’s the point.
29 min
1266
The Mystery of Ivanka Trump
Vanessa Grigoriadis’ new podcast dives deep on the first daughter and the Trump cult.
30 min
1267
They Tried to Cancel You
Katie Herzog went through it in 2017 and now filmmaker Rhys Ernst endures it with his new film Adam.
29 min
1268
What’s in a Face, Anyway?
When Sadie Dingfelder mistook a stranger in a grocery store for her husband she realized she had a thing called face blindness.
30 min
1269
David Koch Was Bad. But Evil? Eh.
The billionaire poured money into enacting his libertarian values. But he sincerely believed—however benightedly—that these were best.
31 min
1270
Visiting the Migrant Families in Crisis
Sen. Jeff Merkley knows we can do better.
31 min
1271
Trump Is America
At least to him and the rest of the world.
27 min
1272
When the CIA’s “Dark Side” Works
28 min
1273
Tim Ryan’s Big Plans
His ideas would sound out there if he didn’t also know how to implement them.
31 min
1274
What Happened to Sha Na Na
And who were they?
30 min
1275
The Leftist Takeover Edition
There! To the left of Bernie Sanders! It’s Gist guest host Sean McElwee.
31 min