Slate Daily Feed

Aisha Harris and Mark Harris, Vulture writer and author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back, breakdown their Oscar nomination predictions. Also, Aisha talks to Charles Burnett, a revered filmmaker who emerged from the period of groundbreaking black independent filmmaking known as the LA rebellion, which took place from the late 1960s-1980s.For links on what we discuss check out our show page.Tell a friend to subscribe! Share this link: megaphone.link/representEmail: represent@slate.comFacebook: Slate RepresentTwitter: @SlateRepresent, @craftingmystyleProduction by Veralyn WilliamsSocial media: Marissa Martinelli

On The Gist, how about those Fake News Awards, huh?  Alan Jacobs questions your ability to think for yourself. Can you really rid yourself of your biases, or do you just develop better biases? Are you really any better than your estranged friends at finding answers, or have you just chosen a different group with whom to associate? Jacobs is the author of How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds.  In the Spiel, relive the horrifying 43 minutes during which America thought a just-inaugurated President Donald Trump had removed Martin Luther King Jr.’s sacred bust from the Oval Office.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss if Republicans and Democrats should keep the government open, Trump's opinions on immigration and what positive outcomes can result from public dissection of Grace's Aziz Ansari story. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at www.slate.com/gabfestplus.Twitter: @SlateGabfestFacebook: facebook.com/GabfestEmail: gabfest@slate.comShow notes at slate.com/gabfest

Looking back on the half-century-long legacy of Star Trek, including six television series and 13 feature films. First, Slate cultural critic Marissa Martinelli tells Kurt  about the new TV show, “Star Trek: Discovery.” Writer and producer Ronald D. Moore reveals his childhood fascination with Star Trek and his later experiences as a writer for the show. Linguist Arika Okrent explains the fictional Klingon language. Finally, we hear about how the make-believe products on the show inspired inventors to make them real, and how the Enterprise starship prop from the original series came to be displayed so prominently in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Josh Voorhees with the rundown: Donald Trump (once again) undercuts the GOP agenda with a tweet; Rex Tillerson’s unusual, old-school way of keeping up with his boss’ Twitter feed; and the New York Times’ response to the “Fake News Awards.”

Carvell Wallace, Rebecca Lavoie, and Gabriel Roth interview Ann Hulbert, author of Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies, and take a question from a listener with daddy problems.

León Krauze en Los Angeles y sus colegas en Washington, DC – Dori Toribio y Fernando Pizarro – responden a los comentarios racistas saliendo de la Casa Blanca y a la falta de un acuerdo migratorio. Entrevistan a Kevin de Leon, Presidente Pro Tempore del Senado del estado de California y aspirante al Senado federal, que da su perspectiva de los pleitos en el Congreso, y su candidato Demócrata preferido para el 2020. Mas: visitas del Papa a Chile, injerencias rusas en las elecciones de México, y la moda de comer detergente. ¡Y a penas empezamos el año!

On The Gist, the bad news from Freedom House. U.S. Air Force officer Edward Lansdale promoted a “hearts and minds” approach to diplomacy in the Philippines and Vietnam, only to be steamrolled by America’s elite class of policymakers. Max Boot tells us about Lansdale and his own newfound recognition of white privilege and other ideas from the left. Boot’s new book is The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.     In the Spiel, why the continuing resolution is sucking all the fun out of politics. 

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about the Senate’s stand on net neutrality and why Congress is set to renew a major piece of internet government mass surveillance legislation. The hosts are joined by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of Media Studies at University of Virginia, to talk about Facebook’s big news feed changes and what they might mean for the way we read the news and talk to each other online. And on Don’t Close My Tabs: Google’s gorilla problem and “authentic” Instagram ads.Don’t Close My Tabs:The Verge: Google ‘fixed’ its racist algorithm by removing gorillas from its image-labeling techThe Atlantic: The Strange Brands in Your Instagram FeedPodcast production by Max Jacobs.If Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Josh Voorhees with the rundown: The GOP has a Dreamer-free plan to avoid a shutdown; a tabloid has the latest twist in the Trump-Stormy Daniels story; and Jeff Flake compares the president to Stalin on the Senate floor 

Yascha Mounk discusses the problem with monopoly power; the role of anti-corporate rhetoricin leftist politics; and how to build a winning coalition for ambitious change with SabeelRahman.

Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner discuss Steven Spielberg's movie "The Post", Netflix's "The End of the F***ing World", and Facebook's new algorithm changes with Slate's If/Then podcast host Will Oremus. 

Virginia Heffernan talks to the LA Times' Jamil Smith about Trump's racism, how the Democrats have fared over the past year, and what (if any) parallels they can find between the #MeToo movement and Trump's lies.

On The Gist, the press is too squeamish to clarify that “shithouse” isn’t much better than “shithole.” In the interview, more on fire and fury—nuclear fire, rhetorical fury, and the consequences of both. Jeffrey Lewis and Aaron Stein, hosts of Arms Control Wonk, assess the Trump administration’s tough talk on North Korea and the danger of a South Korea that decides to take matters into its own hands. In the Spiel, Aziz Ansari isn’t blameless, but he doesn’t deserve a total destruction of his career, either.

Josh Voorhees explains the Democratic divide in the shutdown fight, plays you a clip of a flustered Trump cabinet secretary on the Hill, and offers up some recommended reading to help you make sense of the Aziz Ansari story.