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The Gist

John Darnielle Talks About Words and Snakes

The Gist

Peach Fish Productions

News, Daily News

4.53.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Darnielle has always had a facility with words. As singer and songwriter behind the Mountain Goats, Darnielle has made pop poetry about lonely outsiders and cultural marginalia. Now, in his second novel, Universal Harvester, he explores the lives of desperate people in a small Iowa town. He also talks about a song title so good that no singer could ever do it justice.  In the Spiel, how competent people are quietly undoing Trump. Today's sponsors: ZipRecruiter.Post your job listing to all the top job sites with a single click. Try it for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com/gist. Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee is passionate about making a smoother tasting cup. Try it today with$4 off when you buy two boxes of most Green Mountain Coffee K-Cup pods atKeurig.comwith code TRYGMC. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The following podcast contains explicit language.

0:07.1

It's Tuesday, February 14, 2017 from Slate, it's the Gestai Mic Paska.

0:12.2

You know, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump might seem similar.

0:16.0

Strong, autocratic, both favorite advancing Russian interests throughout the world.

0:22.2

But I speak to you today less than 24 hours after National Security Advisor Mike Flynn was fired

0:28.8

for cooling into the ear of the Russian ambassador about sanctions.

0:33.4

Now remember when Trump staffers described not notifying key federal departments and members of Congress

0:39.8

about the executive order blocking immigration from seven nations.

0:43.0

And they dismissed that as perhaps we've disregarded niceties.

0:47.3

You went talking to the Russians, niceties abounded.

0:50.4

And remember the day after that conversation occurred, which Flynn's firing now confirms,

0:56.4

Putin chose not to retaliate for the US sanctions.

0:59.6

Let me remind you of the president's reaction that day.

1:03.4

We have just got a tweet from Donald Trump, his first public response since the sanctions that were issued by the United States against Russia.

1:13.3

And it's really a breathtaking tweet.

1:15.1

Here you have Donald Trump saying, great move on delay by Vladimir Putin, that is to say Putin deciding not to retaliate.

1:24.2

I always knew he was very smart.

1:27.0

It's easy to seem smart when someone sneaks you the answers to the test.

1:31.0

IE, go easy Vlad, we're going to go easy on you.

1:34.6

But will he keep going easy?

1:36.3

A Russian warship is 12 miles off the coast of Delaware today.

1:40.2

It's international waters yet the ship known as an AGI auxiliary general intelligence has advanced spying technology.

...

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