The Gist

On The Gist, let’s watch the latest viral video from the conservative right. A certain group of Sherlock fans were convinced that John Watson and Sherlock would fall in love. When they didn’t, those fans turned on the showrunners. But what responsibility do creators have to their fans? Should they take suggestions? Slate TV critic Willa Paskin dove into the question—and the Sherlock fanbase—on the second episode of Decoder Ring. In the Spiel, the Supreme Court confirmation process is broken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Mitch McConnell’s values have changed—again! Lounging around in the heat of a sauna might feel nice, but is it good for you, too? Maria Konnikova has gone through the studies (most of them from Finland, where you can’t throw a hot rock without hitting a sauna) and is here to boil them down for us. Konnikova writes for the New Yorker and is the author of The Confidence Game. In the Spiel, let’s not get carried away. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got fewer votes than some school district board members.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, President Trump’s demonization of journalists is awful, but it’s not the first thing to blame for the Capital Gazette shooting. The Atlantic recently ran a lengthy article about kids who consider the process of gender transition. Many critics took issue with the author’s approach, accusing him of bias and an obsession with trans children. But were his efforts really in bad faith? Alex Barasch wrote a response to the piece for Slate and joins us to add to the debate. In the Spiel, FBI agents Lisa Page and Peter Strzok were sloppy, but their take on Trump was right on the money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, the return of In Search Of hosted by Zachary Quinto, which used to be hosted by Leonard Nimoy, made us notice all the times actors have filled the shoes of others through multiple different reboots. The FIFA World Cup is great, but only the ConIFA World Football Cup has competitors from Székely Land, Abkhazia, and the County of Nice. Slate’s Josh Keating wrote the book on Invisible Countries, those tiny nation-states with little recognition but great stories to tell.  In the Spiel, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Joe Crowley in the recent Democratic primary race for Congress. Many commentators have called her authentic, but does that word have any actual meaning? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory was thanks to low voter turnout. She still deserves it! Lawfare’s executive editor Susan Hennessey says Trump’s SCOTUS-approved travel ban is more dangerous in how it changes norms than how it changes facts on the ground. Also: Reality Winner’s guilty plea is a no-brainer. In the Spiel, Justice Kennedy’s upcoming retirement is the perfect occasion to talk about … Justice Clarence Thomas.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, what a Trump tweet can teach us about wine. The latest school shootings have galvanized an already politically minded generation. Harvard’s John Della Volpe studies the voting habits of millennials, and how they could swing election results in 2018 and beyond. In the Spiel, the Supreme Court’s support for Trump’s travel ban is what happens when our checks and balances fail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, why is the Democratic National Committee being held responsible for Hollywood and the media? Calvin Buari dealt crack in the Bronx, but that doesn’t make him a killer. Buari was convicted of a double murder in 1995 and started a campaign to prove his innocence from behind bars. A big part of that was making phone calls to journalist Steve Fishman, who turned his years of reporting into the binge-worthy Panoply podcast Empire on Blood, and joined us on the Gist. In the Spiel, Mike tackles the decline of civility, whether democrats should jeer at Trump’s staff in public, or if we’ve just found a new stasis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Rep. Jim Jordan’s underwhelming attention to detail.  Franchesca Ramsey burst onto the YouTube scene with her viral video, “Shit White Girls Say… to Black Girls.” Ramsey’s latest video project, MTV News’ Decoded, is similar: fun, earnest, and educational. Ramsey’s book is Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist.  In the Spiel, about Melania’s jacket.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, those beacons of honesty—retiring Republican members of the Congress. Cremation has the carbon footprint of a 1,000-mile road trip, your average bee has nearly 1 million brain cells, and only 3 to 4 percent of gossip is actually “malicious.” Those are all statistics relayed in Walt Hickey’s Numlock News, the daily newsletter he started after four years at FiveThirtyEight.  In the Spiel, graduation songs over the years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, how President Trump made not breaking up families look like his idea. Why are the U.S.’s political parties weak? Is the “job guarantee” policy smart? Do voters perceive the economy accurately? Dan Pfeiffer has all the answers. He’s a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and part of the Pod Save America posse. Pfeiffer’s new book is Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump. In the Spiel, the United States shouldn’t be leaving the U.N. Human Rights Council. It should work to make it better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, the inaugural edition of “whoah there, girl!” Political parties are like people: They grow and change, their values shift, and sometimes they become downright belligerent. Lilliana Mason says America’s two political parties are in the middle of a shift, and it won’t be over anytime soon: “What happened to conservative southern Democrats after the Civil Rights Act passed? They didn’t like it. … It took an entire generation for conservative Southern Democrats to become Republicans.” Mason is the author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. In the Spiel, “angel moms” deserve sympathy, but they’re being used.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, if we can’t pronounce Peter Strzok’s name right, how will we remember his newfound infamy? If you consider yourself progressive, chances are Trump’s presidency feels like a nightmare. But Politico’s Michael Grunwald returns to the Gist with the argument that Obama’s legacy is mostly intact—at least on the domestic front. Grunwald’s latest book is The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. In the Spiel, lookism be damned, it’s time to make fun of Stephen Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, why he lies: a new theory. “I’ve hit rock bottom. I’m writing for a cartoon.” Such were the thoughts of Mike Reiss when he joined the writers’ room for The Simpsons in 1989. Thirty years later, he’s worked on all but two seasons of the show, and says it’s had one real impact: making television smarter and faster. Reiss’ book, co-written with Mathew Klickstein, is Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies From a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons.   In the Spiel, stop us if you’ve heard this one before: President Donald Trump creates a problem, sometimes makes the problem a little less bad, and then takes a load of credit.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, McClatchy White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez explains the ramifications of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy to prosecute migrants who cross the border illegally. One early consequence: The U.S. government needs more places to detain children separated from their parents.  In the Spiel, the nasty things celebrities say—and their supposedly enormous power to get people to vote stupidly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, some fun facts about U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart. In 2010, a certain Christopher Steele was hired to look into Russia’s bid to host the World Cup in 2018. What he found ultimately led to a U.S. investigation into FIFA’s thoroughgoing sleaziness. There are, around the world, multiple criminal probes around FIFA, and BuzzFeed’s Ken Bensinger says “more shoes will fall.” Bensinger is the author of Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal. In the Spiel, Macedonians, Greeks, and irredentism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, a brief review of President Trump’s roster of losers (and winners). Clint Watts is a man of many strengths. He’s a former FBI agent and a cybersecurity expert. He can break down information warfare to bleary-eyed U.S. senators. He’s been known to track al-Shabaab adherents on Twitter. Watts returns to The Gist to explain how the U.S. government underestimated Russia, and how he himself fell for fake news when trying to protect his daughter. Watts’ new book is Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News. In the Spiel, the folly of Donald Trump’s new friendship with Kim Jong-un. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, if the Trump-Kim summit goes as poorly as the president’s business ventures, we’re doomed. Maria Konnikova is here to smoke out false claims about cannabidiol, or the CBD oil extracted from cannabis. Can it help with insomnia, depression, and epilepsy? We find out in the latest round of “Is That Bulls—t?” Konnikova is a New Yorker contributor and author of The Confidence Game. In the Spiel, the White House’s handling of the G-7 fallout was clueless, thin-skinned, and petty. In other words: peak Trumpism.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, president Trump raised the bar on what’s considered a gaffe, and EPA head Scott Pruitt is taking advantage of that. Very few comedians have never been to therapy. Jerry Seinfeld is one. Tom Papa is another. Papa tells us about cracking jokes at Minnesota Public Radio’s Live From Here and his new book, Your Dad Stole My Rake: And Other Family Dilemmas. In the Spiel, ’tis time for a Lobstar of the Antentwig (right after a response to some sexist tweets). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, comparing Bill Clinton to basketball great Michael Jordan. Bikram Choudhury’s status as a star yoga guru gave him license to be odd (spiritual but with a soft spot for luxury cars, and always wearing a Speedo). But there was more to it than quirkiness, as sexual assault allegations beginning in 2013 basically expelled Choudhury from the United States. ESPN’s Julia Henderson practiced Bikram Yoga, before capturing the rise and fall of its founder in a five-part podcast: Bikram. In the Spiel, punning on some of the weirder names in the news these days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, IHOP is changing its name to IHOb. And Mike is here to make fun of that. James Clapper was a senior intelligence adviser for both Republican and Democratic administrations. He was also part of the team that informed President-elect Donald Trump of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now, as a private citizen, Clapper says he believes Russia actually swung the vote. “That’s why you write books,” says Clapper. “Because you can express your opinions freely. And I did.” His latest is Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence. In the Spiel, our expectations of a first lady are sexist and constricting. Cut Melania Trump some slack for not fitting into them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices