Slate Daily Feed

On The Gist, the Department of Energy has a chief creative officer? Let’s roll with it.In the interview, upstanding Pennsylvanian Amanda Holt updates us on the state’s new congressional district lines.In the Spiel, some hyperlinks are all hype, especially when it comes to censoring conservative opinion writers.

Emily Bazelon, Jamelle Bouie, and Jack Hitt, co-host of Gimlet’s Uncivil, discuss the census citizenship question, Trump’s brewing legal trouble, and gerrymandering. 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

Kurt Andersen talks with performer and artist Laurie Anderson about her long career and her new book, “All the Things I Lost in the Flood,” and new album, “Landfall.” Jess Thom used to be kind of in denial about having Tourette syndrome, but then she decided to turn her tics into inspiration for artists. And an oral history of the the Belly Room, which the Comedy Store opened in the 1970s so female comics like Sandra Bernhard could have a room of their own. 

Gabriel Roth, Rebecca Lavoie, and Carvell Wallace discuss the terror of not teaching a child to ride a bike, Rebecca's "beautiful" daughter, fluids, and a difficult question about a child with a potential and non-specific disability. 

In 1998, Madonna was at a career crossroads. After dominating the ’80s with hits like “Like a Virgin” and “Open Your Heart,” she spent the first half of the ’90s wavering between roles as a provocateur (Erotica, Sex) and adult-contemporary balladeer (“I’ll Remember,” “Take a Bow”). That’s when she took a sharp left turn, working with producers and deejays in the burgeoning electronica scene. If it even was a scene: The very term “electronica” was a music-business confection, and by 1997 it was more hype than hit. But the result of Madonna’s experiment—her acclaimed ’98 album Ray of Light—was not only one of her biggest smashes ever. It also helped turn electronic music into viable pop. Email: hitparade@slate.com   

June Thomas talks with showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, costume designer Katie Irish, and producing director Chris Long about Episode 601 of The Americans, "Dead Hand." Note: This podcast contains spoilers and is meant to be enjoyed after you watch the episode. New episodes air Wednesdays at 10pm on FX. 

Enjoy listening to our panel of Latino journalists cover a topic – in English! This week, the panel debates how big a deal it is to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census. They do agree on one thing - that the Trump administration shouldn't be asking the Latino community to trust it with sensitive information.Listen to the full conversation about this topic, this year's Mexican elections, bacteria-ridden rubber duckies, and much more on El Gabfest en Español!

Jacob Weisberg talks to Timothy Snyder, the author of The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. The two discuss the shift from a politics of inevitability to a politics of eternity and just what that means. Also, Tim describes the ways in which Russia is attacking the American psychosphere and how modern oligarchies are using irrational immeasurable forms of strength to gain power on the world stage.Timothy Snyder's new book is available Tuesday, April 3rd.

Tres periodistas latinos y un historiador mexicano discuten la política estadounidense. Esta semana el panel discute lo impresionante que son los jóvenes de Parkland, Florida, y a donde llegara su lucha por el control de armas. También explica porque es tan importante notar que la administración Trump ha decidido incluir una pregunta de ciudadanía en el censo del 2020; los panelistas no están de acuerdo sobre los motivos detrás de la inclusión. Luego, Carlos Bravo Regidor, historiador y analista mexicano, explica la relación bilateral entre Estados Unidos y México y la elección presidencial este año en México, días antes del comienzo formal de las campañas de los candidatos. Y los periodistas les dan sus broches de oro a noticias de política migratoria y beneficios públicos, cultos abusivos transfronterizos, y los sucios “paticos” amarillos en nuestros baños.

Pierre Bienaimé has three things to know today—from the umpteenth White House shakeup, to Poland's missile defense, to the case of the French waiter.

On The Gist, Sean Hannity doesn’t like this podcast.In the interview, Korea expert Bruce Bechtol tells us what might be going on in Kim Jong-un’s mind and how to set it on denuclearization.In the Spiel, president Trump might be acting tough on Russia, but he doesn’t get what the big deal is. 

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus dissect the latest fallout from the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein the profile data of over 50 million Facebook users was obtained and allegedly used by Trump’s online voter targeting firm. The hosts go deep into some of the subplots of that scandal, and what it means for Facebook, elections, and your privacy. They’ll also discuss the death of a pedestrian in Arizona at the hands of an Uber self-driving car, and what that means for the future of autonomous vehicles. Finally, a tech story that has gotten less attention that it probably deserves: a change in the law that governs whether websites are liable for what their users say. Will and April are joined by David Carroll, a professor at Parsons School of Design at the New School, who focuses on political campaigns and data targeting. He’s suing Cambridge Analytica in the UK to find out what the company did with his data, and where it went. The hosts talk with him about the mechanics of how campaigns use voters’ persona data to win elections.Don’t Close My Tabs:Twitter: Sally Kuchar on Housing in the Bay AreaThe Atlantic: My Cow Game Extracted Your Facebook DataPodcast 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.

Yascha Mounk discusses the limits of philanthropy, how the changey-hopey narrative of the affluent cloaks the power they exercise, and how they can do better with author, former New York Times correspondent and NBC contributor Anand Giridharadas.

Dana Stevens, Dan Kois, and Isaac Butler discuss the revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America which recently arrived on Broadway, The World Only Spins Forward, the oral history of Angels in America, and the film Love, Simon with Slate's Alex Barasch. 

Pierre Bienaimé has three things to know today—from the US census, to Baton Rouge, to Kim Jong-un's cushy train ride.