The Gist

On The Gist, we here at Slate take GDPR compliance very seriously … just not in this monologue. Before SNL, David Wain says, the countercultural comedy torch belonged to National Lampoon. The laugh magazine was created by Harvard graduates and became a creative laboratory for movies like Animal House and Caddyshack. Chief among them was Doug Kenney, the subject of Netflix biopic A Futile and Stupid Gesture, which Wain directs. In the Spiel, the nostalgia we feel around meals and dishes is overrated. It’s not about the food; it’s about the feels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Thursday’s Gist, tips for avoiding fake news? Thanks but no thanks, Facebook. There’s a new documentary out about the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case, and it got us thinking about the flaws in the public’s perception of that saga. Reporter Derek John explains how the dominant narrative of the case was warped by an amateur crime blogger and a protective football team, despite the efforts of local prosecutors. John and Anders Kelto reported the story for Gamebreaker[NP1], a podcast by Audible. In the Spiel, the NFL’s fans are way more liberal than its team owners. So how’s the kneeling ban supposed to restore its ratings dip? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, the NFL can’t give a decent explanation for its kneeling ban. Philip Roth’s novels about Jewish life earned him every accolade short of, famously, the Nobel Prize. Mark Oppenheimer, the host of the podcast on all things Jewish (Unorthodox), argues that Roth’s “radical candor” was sharply original before becoming a model to imitate.  In the Spiel, there are a lot of “peripheral rogues” in Trump’s orbit (how about those “taxi king” headlines?), but their public reckonings don’t necessarily spell trouble for the president himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, whatever happens in the governor’s primary in Georgia Tuesday night, it will be a big step forward for women named Stacey. Neuroscientist and education researcher Sara Brownell explains what she found studying how gender affects students’ perceptions of their own intelligence. Brownell is an assistant professor at Arizona State University. In the Spiel, consider the “no shit” factor in Trumpian news cycles these days.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, Hawaii’s “laze” is some seriously bad branding. In the interview, our two-party system may seem inevitable, but political scientist Sam Rosenfeld digs into its engineered history, including the 1950 government report that pushed the country “Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System.” Before then, what you thought about health care, guns, or abortion had little to do with where your vote went. Rosenfeld is the author of The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era. In the Spiel, the latest school shooter didn’t raise any red flags or wield an AR-15. But gun control is still what we need.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, our attempt to track the new scoops that affected the Mueller investigation. We’re not playing “Is That Bulls--t” on the show today, but if we were, comedy writer Nell Scovell would probably say, “Yes.” Yes, the dearth of women in late-night writers’ rooms is bulls--t. Yes, men’s explanations are bulls--t. And, yes, sometimes women themselves willingly succumb to the bulls--t because, as Scovell says, “Look, this s--t is deep.” Her new book is Just the Funny Parts.  In the Spiel, denigrating the top 80 books sold on Amazon.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, the Alex, Inc. drinking game you can play with the whole family. Becky Hammon is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs and is a leading candidate to become the first female head coach in the NBA. Hammon got passed over this week by the Milwaukee Bucks, but Ringer staff writer Shea Serrano and New Yorker contributor Louisa Thomas talk about why Hammon is still expected to break the NBA’s glass ceiling. In the Spiel, today’s off-the-cuff remarks from the president.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist: laurel or yanny? We have questions about the protests in Israel. Daniel Shapiro is here to answer them. Shapiro was the U.S. ambassador to Israel for most of the Obama administration. He is now a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.  In the Spiel, an irksome aspect to the coverage of the deaths in Gaza.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, we’re tearing up the playbook. We’re playing the first episode of our new limited-run podcast, Upon Further Review, based on the book of the same name. In this episode, Slow Burn host Leon Neyfakh imagines how American history might have been different if Richard Nixon had been any good at playing football. For more fascinating sports what ifs, subscribe to Upon Further Review now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, is Sen. John McCain really the greatest political leader of all time? Have you heard of face gyms? Beauty gurus are rushing to recommend exercises for the forehead, chin, and cheeks to look younger and healthier. Our expert bullshitologist Maria Konnikova is here to scrutinize the case for facial toning. Konnikova is a contributor to the New Yorker and the author of The Confidence Game.  In the Spiel, Salena Zito’s populist divining rod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, the mainstream media is too buttoned-up when describing the Trump administration’s shenanigans. There is no Russian Federation as we know it without Vladimir Putin. Former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul explains how parts of Russian society are eager for new leadership despite that. As for its relations with the U.S., McFaul sees continuity in how the Obama and Trump administrations (though perhaps not Trump himself) put pressure on Russia. McFaul’s new book is From Cold War to Hot Peace. In the Spiel, email newsletters are where you’ll find the best and worst headlines. Plus, it’s time to award a Lobstar of the antentwig! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, torture is torture, and the news media should call it that. Tiger Woods dominated his sport like perhaps no other athlete. But that success came at a price. Woods’ almost military upbringing as a golfing machine lead to a lack of interpersonal connections and, years later, numerous scandals in the public eye. Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian are out with the eponymous biography Tiger Woods, and talk about the golfer's struggles, successes, and chances at redemption. In the Spiel, more thoughts on the awful practice that is torture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, Michael Cohen has weaved a tangled web, but the mere fact that it’s confusing doesn’t mean we can assume he’s a criminal. Tim Weiner wrote the definitive book on the CIA in 2008 with his Legacy of Ashes. Today, he helps decipher the Senate confirmation testimony of Gina Haspel, President Trump’s pick to be the next CIA director. Why is the CIA rooting for Haspel? How did she dodge questions about the agency’s torture program? Would the hearing have gone differently if Sen. John McCain had been present? In the Spiel, why Gina Haspel should not be confirmed.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Tuesday’s Gist, the undoing of the Iran deal. Democrats are tense. 2018 is supposed to be a banner year for the left, but the party is struggling to balance an energized base and an unpredictable general electorate. As a result, there have been a lot of bigfoot sightings in primaries across the country, as Democratic Party honchos step in to pick preferred candidates. Who’s wiser, the party or the voters? Alex Roarty, who covers the Democrats for McClatchy newspapers, says it’s not so simple. In the Spiel, the gall of Don Blankenship. After the Spiel, keep listening for a trailer of Slate’s upcoming podcast, Upon Further Review. It’s based on Mike Pesca’s book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t want Gina Haspel to run the CIA. Jake Tapper’s latest book is The Hellfire Club. It’s a work of historical fiction; a political thriller set in the 1950s, when Washington was gripped by McCarthyism. Tapper says he saw echoes of President Donald Trump as he read about Sen. Joe McCarthy’s attacks on his political enemies. “The people who survived the ’50s with their reputations intact were the ones who stood up to McCarthy,” said Tapper. “Either decency and truth are important to you, or they’re not.” Tapper is the host of CNN’s The Lead and State of the Union.  In the Spiel, the armed and fabulous women of the NRA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On The Gist, a movie pitch: Kushner family racket. Returning champion Chris Molanphy takes us back to 1991 and its chart toppers: Mariah Carey's explosive debut, the Swedish group that topped the charts for a fourth time (it wasn't ABBA!), and the Michael Jackson and Madonna music videos that had censors flustered. Molanphy is the host of Slate’s Hit Parade. In the Spiel, the best movie lines of all time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, what’s this about a Tony Award–winning dry cleaner? Presidential inexperience does not always lead to failed presidencies. Some traits can temper inexperience—like the depressive realism of Abraham Lincoln or Lyndon B. Johnson. Other traits magnify inexperience—like narcissism. Gautam Mukunda takes a close look at presidential inexperience in his 2012 book, Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter.  In the Spiel, Rudy Giuliani had a strategy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, a fond farewell to Ty Cobb. Gen. Michael Hayden was running the National Security Agency and then the CIA, he couldn’t talk about our national security risks. If he could have, most people would have listened to him. But things are different now. Hayden talks about the decline of fact-based arguments, the Iran nuclear deal, and the future of privacy. His latest book is The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies.  In the Spiel, Kanye West knows he has flaws. He just can’t learn from them.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, thick-as-bricks Lego thieves come a-tumbling down. Hurricane recovery has been a disaster in Puerto Rico. NPR’s Laura Sullivan wanted to know why. So she found documents revealing a FEMA in shambles. She traced Puerto Rico’s economic troubles back to a 1996 tax vote. And she explains how the island’s remaining wealth was wiped out by years of shady municipal debt deals. Sullivan’s report for NPR and Frontline is called “Blackout in Puerto Rico.” You should really watch it.  In the Spiel, is it spring yet? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s Gist, President Trump’s Nobel in the making. There is no market quite like the boomers—that was true when they were young, and it remains true as they enter their 60s and 70s. So how do you market to the olds? The answer lies in a few busted bits of conventional wisdom, the millennial lifestyle, and probably your mom’s iPad. Joseph F. Coughlin explains it all in his book The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market.  In the Spiel, what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices