Want to feel amazing, be immune to negativity, and take control during any situation? In this podcast, Michael J. Russ, transformational speaker and International bestselling author of "Zero Adversity," shares universal elements you can apply to transcend low self-esteem, fear, frustration, worry, scarcity, and unhappiness, and shape who you are and your experience of life from a position of power. Listen, subscribe, and share. When you change, the world around you changes as well.
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Michael J Russ Podcasts
You were born with the ability to create your reality. Which means you already have complete control over how you experience what happens "outside" of you, as well as every thought, feeling, inner conversation and action that emanates from you. The "Life Moves" podcast (previously the "Beyond the 3D" podcast) shares how you can apply "personal sovereignty" and "alchemy" to consistently create a reality that resonates with higher vibrational frequencies, like happiness, love, fulfillment, joy ...
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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.
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Jesse Eisenberg: "Marv Albert Is My Therapist"
24:41
24:41
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24:41On this Saturday edition, Mike Pesca reaches into the archives for a 2016 classic with actor and author Jesse Eisenberg. They discuss Eisenberg's short story collection Bream Gives Me Hiccups and the "creek vs. crick" linguistic controversy it sparked, while analyzing why a nine-year-old restaurant critic is the perfect vessel for exposing adult hy…
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Bob Saget & Chuck Klosterman: "I Really Have Become Liza Minnelli"
33:13
33:13
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33:13Today on The Gist, the late Bob Saget, who reconciles his Full House image with his "Dirty Daddy" persona while admitting he was a "nerd burglar" in his youth. They dissect the difference between misogyny and locker room talk, deconstruct the logic of his famous "Winnebago" joke. Then, cultural critic Chuck Klosterman joins to analyze The Nineties,…
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Henry Winkler & Clint Watts: "Three Little Fonzies and a Trail of Dead Russians"
38:04
38:04
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38:04On this Thanksgiving edition Mike Pesca serves up two revitalized classics, starting with Henry Winkler (The Fonz), who joins to discuss his Hank Zipser books, the unique Dutch font designed for dyslexic readers, and his tenure-granting plan to design the world's first consumer jet pack. Then, we revisit a conversation with counterterrorism expert …
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Abby Phillip: "The Stones for David's Slingshot"
46:05
46:05
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46:05Mike Pesca is joined by CNN anchor and author Abby Phillip to discuss her new book, A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power. They explore Jackson's soaring, sermon-like rhetorical style and the hubris of the "tree shaker, not a jelly maker" philosophy. The conversation traces how Jackson's push to change delegate rul…
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Not Even Mad: Russ Muirhead & Nick Gillespie
1:03:49
1:03:49
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1:03:49Mike Pesca welcomes back Nick Gillespie (Reason Magazine) and first-time guest Russ Muirhead (Dartmouth professor and New Hampshire State Rep.) for a spirited debate that is—we swear—not even mad. Today, we look at the half-full autocratic glass: Does the dismissal of the Comey and James indictments prove that institutions are holding, or does the …
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Mike Vuolo & Bob Garfield: "Life Is a Flat Pizza Bagel"
50:21
50:21
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50:21Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield of Lexicon Valley join to talk 23 skidoo, Massapequa, and why life, in fact, is a flat bagel. They trace the 6/7 meme from Skrilla's drill track "Doot Doot" through LaMelo Ball highlights and a middle-schooler named Maverick, and explain how a throwaway number became the meme stock of language. The conversation winds thr…
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Mike joins Matt Lewis for a lively crossover conversation that opens with deep dives into Huey Lewis puns before shifting into the Democrats' "affordability" message, why word wars matter more than policy wins, and how political optics collide with economic reality. They unpack everything from tariffs to AI dislocation to the future of the Democrat…
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Funny You Should Mention: Myq Kaplan
1:19:23
1:19:23
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1:19:23Comedian Myq Kaplan joins the show for a deep dive into joke logic, philosophy, and the very slippery business of defining who counts as a comedian. Using his new special Rini as a jumping-off point, he and Mike wander through Grecian maxims, the paradox of the heap, why some laughs are closer to enlightenment than punch lines, and how his relation…
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Fareed Zakaria on Revolutions, Backlashes, and the High Cost of Not Fixing Immigration
41:55
41:55
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41:55Fareed Zakaria joins the show to discuss The Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, arguing that the past 30 years of globalization, AI, and cultural upheaval rival the Industrial Revolutions in their political consequences. He makes the case that today's populist surges—from Sweden to the U.S.—are driven less by econom…
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James Patterson: "My Time Here Is Short. What Can I Do Most Beautifully?"
35:35
35:35
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35:35James Patterson joins the show to talk about Disrupt Everything—and Win: Take Control of Your Future, his new playbook for turning constant disruption into something useful rather than paralyzing. He explains how he thinks about "positive" versus "negative" disruptors, wrestles with whether the gospel of disruption feeds our narcissism, and defends…
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The former NBA power forward and unmistakably English John Amaechi talks leadership, psychology, and the everyday skills that make organizations work. His book It's Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders anchors a conversation about accountability, ambition, and what people misunderstand about excellence. Also: Europe's frozen-assets…
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Nicole Gelinas on Crime, Bail, and Mamdani's Vibesy Criminology
35:16
35:16
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35:16The Manhattan Institute's Nicole Gelinas breaks down New York's post-pandemic crime surge and what the data actually say about bail reform versus simple pandemic chaos. She explains why the city's rise in murders and disorder looks different from the national pattern and how weak supervision, dangerous subways, and repeat violent offenders all comp…
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David Ignatius on Space Wars, Skepticism, and His Father's Legacy
30:31
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30:31Mike Pesca revisits his conversation with Washington Post columnist and novelist David Ignatius, recorded before the recent passing of Ignatius's father, former Navy Secretary Paul Ignatius. They discuss the future of warfare in space, why the U.S. Space Force deserves more credit than it gets, and how a century of Pentagon experience shaped a life…
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Katie Herzog Is the Kind of Person Who Googles Recidivism Rates in an AA Meeting
32:44
32:44
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32:44Katie Herzog breaks down Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol and how naltrexone—used through the Sinclair Method—let her "drink" her way out of addiction after years of half-hearted AA attempts. She explains why rock bottom kept moving, why abstinence felt impossible, and how targeted medication can disrupt the…
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Not Even Mad: Charles Lehman & Brad Carson
58:40
58:40
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58:40The Epstein files and the Michael Wolff ethics mess. Then Brad Carson (Americans for Responsible Innovation) and Charles Lehman (Manhattan Institute / City Journal) dig into the shutdown endgame, Schumer's calculus, 2026 vibes, and why data centers might be a sleeper issue. They argue affordability vs. "afford to dream," culture vs. policy, and whe…
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John J. Lennon — "I'm Owning My Sh*t on the Page"
45:16
45:16
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45:16John J. Lennon, currently incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, discusses The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us, arguing that true crime's fixation on innocence obscures the harder stories of guilt, punishment, and change. He describes refusing to be branded "Inside Evil" on Chris Cuomo's show—and how …
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Jon Levy: "We Don't Really Want Authenticity"
39:35
39:35
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39:35Behavioral scientist Jon Levy, author of Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius, joins to talk about why he collects astronauts, Olympians, and other outliers for secret salons—and what they've taught him about trust and connection. He explains why status isn't the same as popularity, how our networks quietly determine ou…
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Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon on Life After Cars
40:42
40:42
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40:42Mike reflects on the post-election landscape, including Mamdani's win and the hype around Trump's election monitors who reportedly spent their time chatting about cats. Then Mike talks with Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, hosts of The War on Cars and authors of Life After Cars. They discuss traffic fatalities, Dutch street design, the Brightline co…
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Mike joins Yascha Mounk's Good Fight Club to debate the mid-midterm results: Democrats' surprisingly strong showings in Virginia and New Jersey, Zoran Mamdani's charisma-vs-governance problem in New York, and whether moderates like Abigail Spanberger can still carry a national coalition. Also: the Seattle mayoral race tightens, and the "Dems in dis…
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Funny You Should Mention: Dusty Slay
1:08:57
1:08:57
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1:08:57Dusty Slay drops by with "Wet Heat" fresh on Netflix to talk Opelika lore (a.k.a. Snopalika), becoming parade Grand Marshal, and how a onetime pesticide salesman turned country-music linguist builds jokes from tiny word quirks. We get into his love of language (Carlin vibes), song-lyric autopsies ("It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," Brooks & Dunn's "Har…
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Sadie Dingfelder on "Hair, Feathers, and the Theater of Disgust."
27:08
27:08
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27:08We test whether a hair in your hummus is truly hazardous, compare bacterial counts on hair shafts vs. feathers, and trace America's hairnet obsession back to Edward Bernays' spin. We play: Is That BS? Hair/Feather Edition. Also: Seattle mayoral race updates, and in the Spiel: the Philadelphia Art Museum's chunky griffin rebrand, the PHAM backlash, …
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Colin Woodard: The Federation Is the Fault Line
42:47
42:47
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42:47Woodard maps America's clashing "nations," from American Nations to Nations Apart, arguing that our deepest divides are regional and newly combustible. He makes the case that post–Cold War policy, social media, and a fraying social contract turned long-standing cultural seams into political fracture zones. We press whether his framework explains wh…
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The Wars Trump Says He Ended, and the One Cheney Began
30:24
30:24
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30:24The veteran media strategist reflects on Chuck Schumer's once-golden Sunday pressers and how his "price-of-milk politics" model needs updating for 2025. He discusses New York Democrats' strategic silence in the Mamdani race, Hillary Clinton's 2000 outreach to Hasidic women, and why he can praise Trump's Middle East diplomacy without voting for him.…
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Matthew Hiltzik on the Craft of Crisis Communications
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33:01Hiltzik, founder of Hiltzik Strategies, explains how his background in law, politics, and media shaped his methodical, fact-based approach to strategic communications. He describes the importance of understanding audiences and using social and digital tools with "precision," rather than relying on broad or emotional appeals. Drawing on experiences …
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Mike joins Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola for a rowdy, caffeine-fueled dive into the NBA betting scandal—where marked decks, mobsters, and million-dollar contracts collide. They unpack how legalized sports gambling reopened old mafia doors, what drives athletes to risk it all, and why men chase competition even from the couch. Also: Karine Jean-…
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Art Cullen on Iowa's Corn Gospel, Cancer, and Capture
32:09
32:09
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32:09Iowa's rivers run brown, its cancer rates climb, and its politics tilt redder. Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Art Cullen joins to discuss his new book Dear Marty: We Crapped in Our Nest — Notes from the Edge of the World, Iowa, which serves as both lament and call to arms for a farm state choking on its own abundance. Cullen traces how corn and hogs…
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Beth Macy: "When the Local Paper Dies, the Community Follows"
42:21
42:21
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42:21Journalist Beth Macy, author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, returns to her Ohio roots to chart what's been lost in the hollowing-out of middle America. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America follows Macy's hometown of Urbana through addiction, poverty, and political drift, and her …
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Karine Jean-Pierre: "Independent," Evasion, and the Party She Says Left Her
43:08
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43:08Former Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre joins to promote her memoir Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House Outside the Party Lines—and faces pointed questions about contradictions between her praise for Biden, her criticism of Democrats, and her claim of newfound political independence. Asked what makes her truly "independent," she…
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Steve Hayes & Damon Linker: The Hole Truth
1:04:42
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1:04:42Steve Hayes and Damon Linker debate whether Trump's demolition of the White House East Wing is another norm-busting outrage or just a gaudy renovation. They argue over visuals versus substance in anti-Trump outrage, Trump's manipulation of public opinion, and whether Congress's abdication of power is the true engine of American authoritarian drift.…
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Barista Michelle Eisen on Face Tattoos, Short Staffs, and Union Shots Fired
34:24
34:24
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34:24Michelle Eisen, barista-turned-organizer from Buffalo's first unionized Starbucks, breaks down how Workers United grew from one store to hundreds—and why the real fight now is over pay, scheduling, and the right to keep your piercings. She pushes back on what she calls "the most aggressive union-busting in modern labor history." Plus, examples of g…
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Jeremy Workman — "Walking Every Block, Hiding in a Mall"
38:11
38:11
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38:11Two conversations with documentarian Jeremy Workman: first on The World Before Your Feet (a quest to walk every NYC block), then on Secret Mall Apartment (artists who built a hidden flat inside Providence Place Mall). Curiosity, urban change, and the quiet stunts that reveal a city. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us…
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Funny You Should Mention: Ariel Elias
1:07:33
1:07:33
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1:07:33Kentucky-raised, New York-forged, and newly "A Jewish Star," Ariel Elias breaks down how outsider status becomes comic superpower. We talk growing up Jewish in the Bluegrass, explaining Kentucky to New Yorkers, the "Earl" name bit, airline misery (farewell, Southwest), and writing cleaner for synagogue gigs without losing edge. She unpacks her vira…
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No Capes, Real Peace: U Thant's UN and What We Lost
42:15
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42:15Historian and grandson of third secretary-general of the United Nations U Thant, Thant Myint-U, discusses Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World—how the UN once brokered real ceasefires (Cuban Missile Crisis, India-Pakistan 1965), why its stature faded, what decolonization changed, and Myanmar's present. A reminder that boring…
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Alicia Wanless — "The Ecology of Information"
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33:15
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33:15Carnegie Endowment's Alicia Wanless argues that disinformation isn't new—it's just our latest pollutant. In The Information Animal, she maps centuries of "information ecosystems," from King Charles I's pamphlet floods to the social-media deluge, and shows why attempts to "detoxify" them often fail. We trace the analogies between DDT and digital out…
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Michael Kirk — "RFK Jr.'s Latest Addiction: Attention"
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43:46
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43:46Frontline's Michael Kirk discusses The Rise of RFK Jr., charting Kennedy's path from sex and drug addiction to what Kirk calls "an addiction to validation." He describes a man driven by grievance, and details how the alliance between Kennedy and Trump built the so-called "MAHA movement," and why it may collapse under its own contradictions. Plus: a…
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Michael Townsend & Jeremy Workman: "Secret Mall Apartment"
33:26
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33:26Michael Townsend and director Jeremy Workman tell the wild true story of an eight-artist collective that built a hidden home inside Providence Place Mall—part prank, part art project, and a pointed reply to gentrification. They revisit grainy 2003–07 footage, a tape-art 9/11 memorial, and the logistics (and ethics) of living behind a cinderblock wa…
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"Life happens" as they say, however, it is up to you to choose what it means for you. If Self Love, happiness, excitement, passion, an abundance of everything, and joy are important to you, crafting your own life narrative is how you get there! Of course, this is exactly what you have always been doing, either on purpose with intention or by defaul…
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"Life happens" as they say, however, it is up to you to choose what it means for you. If Self Love, happiness, excitement, passion, an abundance of everything, and joy are important to you, crafting your own life narrative is how you get there! Of course, this is exactly what you have always been doing, either on purpose with intention or by defaul…
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Chris Murphy: "Congress needs to take war powers back."
23:26
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23:26Mike revisits his 2019 conversation with Senator Chris Murphy on the AUMF — the two-decade-old law still used to justify U.S. military strikes from Yemen to the Caribbean. Plus, a new strike on a Venezuelan vessel raises questions about presidential authority and transparency. We trace how "temporary" wartime powers became permanent policy, and wha…
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Lisa Graves: On The Roberts Court's Power Play
39:17
39:17
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39:17Lisa Graves joins to discuss Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights—from court "capture" networks to why she sees the recent immunity ruling and emergency-docket moves as system-tilting, not umpiring. She and our host spar over what counts as a "constitutional crisis," con…
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When it comes to living from Sovereignty and personal power, there is having an understanding of what these are and there is putting them into practice everyday to continually feel amazing. In this episode, Michael shares what it means to invest your focus, attention, joy, and happiness into what you can control, verses what you cannot. Michael's S…
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When it comes to living from Sovereignty and personal power, there is having an understanding of what these are and there is putting them into practice everyday to continually feel amazing. In this episode, Michael shares what it means to invest your focus, attention, joy, and happiness into what you can control, verses what you cannot. Michael's S…
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Not Even Mad: Jonah Goldberg & Zee Cohen-Sanchez
1:06:06
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1:06:06Hamas hostages, Trump and autocracy, and the strangely quiet shutdown — we tackle all three. Why Trump's blunt style played in the Middle East, whether "competitive authoritarianism" really fits his second-term instincts and enablers, and who's taking the fall for Obamacare-premium brinkmanship. Plus: goat-grinders (pointless rebrands at Max and Ap…
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Jonathan Mahler: The Tabloids That Made The City That Made the Country
48:14
48:14
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48:14Mahler walks us through The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986–1990—how a late-'80s crucible of crime, crack, and tabloids minted characters like Spike Lee ("the coolest guy in America"), Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Ed Koch, and Rudy Giuliani. We revisit Howard Beach, Yusuf Hawkins, Do the Rig…
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Cory Doctorow: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
35:52
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35:52Doctorow lays out his "enshittification" playbook—how tech platforms lure users, trap businesses, then extract value from both—tying it to interoperability, right-to-repair, and DMCA lock-ins, with Facebook as Exhibit A. He explains why incremental state laws can break Big Tech's coalitions better than sweeping federal reforms. Meanwhile, Venezuela…
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SCOTUS's Shadow Docket, Calibrated + Steven Vladeck
35:22
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35:22Mike previews the new Supreme Court term: Colorado's conversion-therapy ban, transgender athlete cases out of Idaho and West Virginia, a Louisiana Voting Rights Act fight, and a Rastafarian grooming claim, then dials in the panic meter on the "shadow docket": what it is, why Trump's emergency-order wins look so lopsided, and where concern beats cat…
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Funny You Should Mention: Steph Tolev
1:07:34
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1:07:34Season 3 of Funny You Should Mention begins with the "Filth Queen" herself Steph Tolev to explore why gross can be smart, how crowd work goes viral, Bill Burr's boost to her career, and the Canadian comedy grind. Big laughs, sharp ideas, adult themes. We also get into slapstick dummies, family lore, and why Boston brings the best chaos. Come for th…
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Plestia Alaqad: "The Eyes of Gaza," Witness and Journalist
51:48
51:48
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51:48Today on the Gist, a tough conversation with Plestia Alaqad about what she saw in Gaza and how she frames it for a global audience. They dig into sympathy versus credence, terminology like IDF versus IOF, the Al-Ahli Hospital claim, and whether journalism requires shared vocabulary. Plus, a spiel on U Thant, transliteration, and the "clean" versus …
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Today on The Gist. Jake Tapper breaks down the first U.S. criminal trial of a foreign combatant: why prosecutors chose court over Gitmo, and the painstaking sleuthing that turned a shaky confession into a conviction. We talk DOJ institutional memory, the politics orbiting the Comey case, and why trials rather than commissions lock terrorists away. …
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Obama CDC Director Tom Frieden: "'Believe in Science' Is a Terrible Idea."
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37:35The former CDC director lays out his "See, Believe, Create" playbook from The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives—Including Your Own. He separates settled facts (hypertension control, PM2.5, tobacco) from guesswork, owns early COVID failures, and argues vaccine mandates and long school closures were mismatched to risk. Practica…
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