The Gist

Comedian Geoffrey Asmus explains how Catholic school, priests chasing laughs, and a Randy Moss analogy shaped his sense of what technically counts as a joke. We talk about layered comedy that lets different audiences hear different things and how losing fans can be a sign the bit is working. Plus: Lutherans, LinkedIn shame, Wikipedia ambition, country capitals, and why spacing is the real superpower.

Produced by Corey Wara

Video an...

Jonathan Cohen, author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling, makes the case that the only credible reform agenda is friction, slowing bets, delaying deposits, and cutting off the design features that turn even Czech table tennis into a high stakes trap. Also on the show, Conor Patrick Heffernan traces how ideas of strength evolved, from Charles Atlas chests to bodybuilding's takeover of Hollywood, and why the hu...

Today on the Gist, contextualizing Donald Trump's "wrong and crazy" proposal to nationalize elections, arguing that while the rhetoric is alarming, the Constitution makes it impossible to execute. Then Conor Heffernan, author of When Fitness Went Global, joins the show to discuss the history of "physical culture," explaining why he lifts heavy stones in graveyards and how the first fitness influencer, Eugen Sandow, shifted the worl...

The Spiel looks at the latest Epstein document dump and why each release manages to embarrass powerful people while resolving almost nothing. With millions of files still unreleased, disclosure itself becomes a spectacle that displaces accountability. Then, David Greene joins to talk about an act that may be either civic heroism or mild insanity: helping turn Lancaster's 230-year-old newspaper into a nonprofit newsroom built for a ...

David Greene joins us to talk about his new podcast, David Greene Is Obsessed, where opera singers map public restrooms, pizza-tour guys chase the perfect slice, and even David Arquette turns Bozo the Clown into an intellectual-property saga. We get into why an obsession can unlock a different kind of interview, plus Greene's own confessions, from the Hay-Adams bathroom workaround to sports fandom.  Plus: the Mississippi miracle, a...

Today on the Saturday show, Mike shares a conversation he had with Charlie Sykes, former host of The Bulwark and current host of the new podcast To the Contrary. They discuss how ordinary citizens with cell phones in Minneapolis became Donald Trump's kryptonite, exposing the chaos of his immigration enforcement strategy and forcing a rare retreat from the administration. Charlie and Mike break down why the "chaos as a ladder" theor...

Paul D. Miller joins the show to argue that international law is a set of norms, not a moral court. A former CIA analyst and Army intelligence officer now at Georgetown, Miller explains why post-conflict reconciliation only works when locals accept it, why Israel faces a unique double standard, and how democracies navigate war without becoming what they're accused of being. We discuss Rwanda, denazification, Kosovo, Gaza, civilian ...

Mike contemplates the hierarchy of American attention, contrasting the 50 million eyes on the AFC Championship game with the obscurity of the men leading the "Metro Surge" in Minnesota. Then, Ruy Teixeira (The Liberal Patriot) and Jesse Adams (The Ivy Exile) join for Not Even Mad. The panel debates whether the chaos in Minnesota is a strategic "theater" of enforcement or a policy failure that's alienating the very public that reque...

ICE's aggressive actions in Minnesota were meant to project force and restore order, but instead produced chaos, public distrust, and a political backlash. The administration's theory was that confrontation would favor enforcement, making protesters look extreme and Democrats indulgent, yet shootings, muddled explanations, and obvious narrative gaps flipped that contrast. plus Thomas Goetz joins the show to talk about Drug Story, h...

Thomas Goetz joins the show to discuss his new podcast Drug Story, starting with the chain from FDR's death to cholesterol science, statins, and the cold math behind drug effectiveness. The conversation moves through Lipitor and EpiPens to show how evolving medical knowledge, good intentions, and pharmaceutical incentives can quietly reshape public health at massive scale. Plus, Trump is perhaps rethinking his Minnesota deployments...

CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams joins to talk about his new book Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation.  He walks through the courtroom oddities, like a "ballistics demonstration" staged with Guardian Angels as stand-ins, and explains why there was always a legally defensible path to either convicting or acquitting G...

First, Mike argues that Stephen Miller's promise of "federal immunity" to ICE agents is just as reckless as Donald Trump telling Iranian protesters the U.S. is "locked and loaded"—two instances of leaders writing checks their followers' safety can't cash. Then, from the vault (2022): Michelle Tafoya explains why she traded Monday Night Football for political podcasting. She discusses her "conservative libertarian" worldview, admits...

Today on The Gist, Mike explains why he won't be watching Netflix's Skyscraper Live, arguing that Alex Honnold's latest stunt is an "attractive nuisance" that plays on our darkest voyeuristic instincts rather than the Olympic ideal. Then, New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel joins the show to discuss his book Devil's Advocates. He breaks down the "sh*tbag business" of foreign lobbying, covering Paul Manafort's pioneering work with...

Critic and essayist Jason Guriel joins to talk about Fan Mail and how cultural criticism curdled once gatekeepers vanished and celebration replaced judgment. He makes the case that abundance without curation doesn't democratize culture so much as drown it, leaving readers unsure what's worth their time—or why craft should matter at all. Plus, an analysis of Jack Smith's combative testimony before Congress and how "perjury traps" fu...

Chuck Klosterman returns with his one-word book, Football, using the Raiders' brand mystique—and the Pac-12 reduced to two lonely teams—as proof that the sport's identity outlives its on-field logic. He argues the short-term cash grab (conference realignment, NIL, gambling) is eroding the traditions that made college football feel timeless, even while the Saturdays are still great. Along the way: concussions as a rehearsal for Amer...

Author Chuck Klosterman joins the show to discuss his new book, Football, and how football's strange mechanics, from hidden labor to stop-start pacing,and its resistance to casual play, have helped turn it into the last true monoculture. He also makes the case that future critics will misread football as decadence, missing what it actually revealed about the era that embraced it. Also, the double pardon of the same woman convicted ...

Mike joins Jeremy Hobson on The Follow Up to discuss the "awful but lawful" nuances of the Minneapolis ICE shooting, the potential blowback of the Trump administration branding it a "riot," and why threats against Iran often ignore dangerous second-order effects. Plus, a Spiel from the week analyzing the flood of anonymous quotes in Dexter Filkins' New Yorker profil...

Comedian Liza Treyger explains why she prefers the 1:30 a.m. Comedy Cellar crowd—the drunk, the horny, the post-Broadway undead—and why bombing early is harder than thriving late. Her Netflix special Night Owl doubles as a thesis on power, hypocrisy, and why men who "hate Taylor Swift" seem uniquely unable to stop talking about her. Treyger argues that worst moments often are the résumé, that comedy...

Charles Duhigg returns to explain why great talkers are usually great listeners, and how "looping for understanding" can lower the temperature in almost any disagreement.  Plus, a Spiel about going on the record about going off-the-record and we play everybody's favorite Game "Who is Donald Trump Threatening Here"

Produced by Corey Wara

Coordinated by Lya Yanne

Video and Social Media by Geoff Craig

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