The Gist

Today on The Gist, judicial biographer Bruce Allen Murphy explains how Anton Scalia became a lone wolf of the high court. Then Slate’s Emily Bazelon and Mike Pesca debate how sexual assault is being discussed and dealt with on campuses today. Is it possible to overcompensate for the silence and injustices of the past? For the Spiel, a heapin’ helpin’ of portion control.  Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you sue the United Nations over a tragic cholera outbreak in Haiti? Well, first you have to figure out how to serve top diplomats with papers. Today on The Gist, lawyer Stanley Alpert says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was served last week outside of the Asia Society, but U.N. spokesman says a security guard interceded. Then, Invisibles author David Zweig explains a path to professional success that doesn’t involve relentless self-promotion. And forget Upworthy—in today’s Spiel, everything’s crapworthy. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Gist, song lyrics made literal. Wits host John Moe has written a book of imagined pop culture correspondences called Dear Luke, We Need to Talk, Darth. Plus, Mike speaks with RAND political scientist Jonah Blank for an anthropological look at negotiating in Afghanistan’s Pashtun society. For the Spiel, Mike debuts his new imaginary radio show “Least Qualified.” Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s Gist is a special New Haven hotel room dispatch. Mike shares an excerpt from the New Haven ideas festival event “Thinking About Sports.” He was a panelist there alongside legendary sportswriter and NPR commentator Frank Deford, poet Elizabeth Alexander, and author Nicholas Dawidoff. Also in today’s show, we ask Dartmouth professor of pediatrics James D. Sargent about McDonald’s new happy meal branding, and how other countries limit marketing to young children. In today’s Spiel, some ideas about ideas festivals.  Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Gist, political writer Harry Enten from Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight handicaps Democratic and Republican chances in November’s key Senate races. Plus, Adam Davidson from Planet Money explains why economic theory says a higher minimum wage is a terrible, terrible idea, but economic reality may differ. In today’s Spiel, Mike teaches us his special song hack with help from “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot and “Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do nasty comments affect how readers perceive an article? Maria Konnikova of The New Yorker discusses research on the psychology of negative Internet comments. Then, in light of GM CEO Mary Barra’s testimony before the House on Wednesday, law professor David Luban explains why lawyers sometimes hide or compartmentalize information to protect their companies from liability. For the Spiel, Mike does the numbers. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s The Gist, Mike and New York magazine’s Jessica Pressler head to a laundromat to discuss what the hot new laundry app Washio says about the worldview of the bros who make apps. Plus, law professor Dean Rivkin explains how truancy fines work against the problems they’re trying to solve. In the Spiel, Mike explores headlines that overpromise and underdeliver. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With many well-respected liberal thinkers pressuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down while a Democrat’s in the White House, what might be going through her mind? Today on The Gist, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick discusses the latest news from the high court. Then, with ISIS on the march in Iraq, the American Interest editor Adam Garfinkle shares historical and contemporary insight from the right. In today’s Spiel, our countdown of reasons Mike thinks the late Casey Kasem was overrated. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Gist, why Chipotle has become an important battleground for open carry advocates in Texas. Then Mike and language maven Ben Yagoda discuss their pet peeves against words like “amongst,” and revel in the American glottal stop. Yagoda’s new book is You Need To Read This. Plus, this is what it sounds like when Mike spiels about doves crying. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forces for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have taken control of significant parts of Iraq. Mike speaks with Slate’s Fred Kaplan about who’s to blame (hint: not Obama). We’ll explore how unlikely political coalitions could unite to avoid pure chaos in the Middle East. For the Spiel, Mike shows that poll results are in the eye of the beholder. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first two weeks of June 1964, Jimmy Nicol replaced Ringo Starr as the Beatles’ drummer. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times explains how you move on from an experience like that. Plus, Sanjay Basu explains the arguments for excluding soda and other sugary beverages from the food stamp program, and Slate’s John Dickerson answers one question, one question only, about Eric Cantor. And for today’s Spiel, we need to talk about sex with dolphins. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Gist, criminologist and homicide researcher Adam Lankford explains why some mass shooters seem so drawn to extreme ideologies. Then we speak with 11-year-old author Audrey Hinsdale about how her debut novel The Trigger is a metaphor for growing up. For the Spiel, Mike weighs the cultural impact of driverless cars. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on The Gist, reporter and former Afghan Taliban captive David Rohde shares his insights into the Bowe Bergdahl transfer. Then Mike and author Colson Whitehead discuss how to find Zen and excellent jerky at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He represents the “Republic of Anhedonia” in his new book The Noble Hustle. For the Spiel, Mike’s dispatch from the barbecue queue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Gist, Politico magazine editor Susan Glasser talks with Mike about “politicization,” and why politicians, of all people, like to demonize it. Mike also asks Stephen Dubner about the secret sauce that helped the Freakonomics empire take hold in book and podcast form. For the Spiel, let’s partake of national doughnut day. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May’s unemployment numbers aren’t out until Friday, but today’s Gist explores what these monthly numbers actually tell us with Adam Davidson of Planet Money. Then Emily Yoffe of Slate’s Dear Prudence column joins us for a post-Prudie impact statement with a conflicted mother weighing the price of sending her son to his dream school vs. a good, cheaper state school. In today’s Spiel, Mike discusses eulogies and his new state of being uncle-less. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, a look at a Tea Party resurgence in Mississippi’s GOP Senate primary with Slate’s David Weigel. Then, in our regular segment “Is This BS?,” Maria Konnikova explains why psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow study has come to loom so large in child-rearing theories, and what its limitations might be. In the Spiel, Mike asks you to guess which words are used more by Democrats, and which by Republicans. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Obama’s speech to West Point graduates drew criticism for its restrained foreign policy prescriptions and less-than-lofty oratory. Today on the Gist, a look at Obama’s turn toward more restrained rhetoric with former Carter speechwriter and New Yorker staff writer Hendrik Hertzberg. Then, Joe McGinty from The Loser’s Lounge explains how his band performs tributes to our guiltiest of guilty musical pleasures. In the Spiel, we sniff through Mike’s browser cookies until we uncover a truffle.  Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slate…id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Gist, a look at the release over the weekend of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Jonah Blank of the RAND Corporation explains whether the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture matter. Then Mitchell Reiss, author of Negotiating with Evil, suggests that the question is not whether to negotiate with terrorists, but how to get the best deal. For the Spiel, Mike brings you news from places you might not have known existed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, Adam Davidson from NPR’s Planet Money discusses why income inequality matters to most Americans. Then comedian Gary Gulman drops in to discuss how even the smallest word choice matters when crafting jokes. And as New York considers reversing its ferret ban, Mike’s spiel recalls the greatest moment of Ferret-related media. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slates-the-gist/id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the Gist, the case for integrating math into everyday conversation. Mike talks with Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong. Then, a look at a hostile takeover attempt that harkens back to days of Barbarians at the Gate. Jeffrey McCracken from Bloomberg explains how the drug company Valeant is attempting to buy Botox-maker Allergan with the help of an activist investor. Plus, Mike's Spiel honors Massimo Vignelli, the late graphic designer best known for laying out the NYC subway map. Get The Gist by email as soon as it’s available: slate.com/GistEmail Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slates-the-gist/id873667927?mt=2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices