The Gist

In 2014, Amber Ruffin became the first black woman to write for a late-night network comedy when she joined NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers. On The Gist, Ruffin explains the banality of being a trailblazer: "We're just dicking around in a different room."

For the Spiel, the dogged defenders of Donald Trump. Panoply survey

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On The Gist, Jennifer Lawless details the reasons more women don't run for elected office in the United States. Her research documents a decline in media bias against women running for House seats. Despite that, Congress is still overwhelmingly male. Lawless authored a book with Danny Hayes called Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era.

For the Spiel, Bob Dylan didn't need a Nobel Prize to confirm his status as a great writer. Panoply Survey:

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If you had to engineer the perfect wait time for a meal, how would you do it? On The Gist, Dan Pashman explains the art of anticipation as applied to food. Pashman is the host of WNYC's The Sporkful. Check out his show's new series on food, race, and culture: "Who Is This Restaurant For?"

In the Spiel, what should we call Trump's former defectors? Undefectors? Reflectors?

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The implosion of Donald Trump's campaign shows a party that's divided on everything from criminal justice reform to immigration. On The Gist, National Review executive editor and Slate columnist Reihan Salam considers the future of the GOP and conservative thinking.

For the Spiel, why did the Republican Party fall for a demagogue? Is it because conservatives still kowtow to right-wing media outlets that embrace conspiracy theories, lies, and propaganda?

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We have seen the limits of debate prep.

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Just one question on the leaked "Access Hollywood" tape of Donald Trump with Billy Bush: Are we watching a Greek tragedy or a Saturday morning cartoon?

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Phoebe Robinson recounts the tributes and trolling her book has prompted with its title, You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain.

On The Gist, Robinson wonders whether dreadlocks have really entered the mainstream (and are they ever acceptable on white guys?), and gives Mike a lesson in cultural sensitivity. Robinson is the goofball complement to her co-host Jessica Williams' deadpan delivery on the 2 Dope Queens podcast. She is also the host of the interview podcast, Sooo Many White Guys.

For the Spiel, the West Virginia governor race pits a wealthy Democrat against both coal and Cole.

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On The Gist, we look at the proliferation of fact-checking in the 2016 campaign. One empirical analysis found that Donald Trump is telling a falsehood every five minutes during his speeches. But why isn't the aggressive fact-checking of the Republican making a difference? We called up Brendan Nyhan, a professor in the department of government at Dartmouth College and the former editor of Spinsanity, a nonpartisan watchdog site focused on political messaging.

In The Spiel, the faltering cease-fire in Syria.

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On The Gist, dig into body mass index with our resident bulls--t debunker Maria Konnikova. Does a healthy BMI actually mean anything? The question came up after Donald Trump's recent appearance on The Dr. Oz Show, in which his weight and height were revealed—if his numbers are to be believed, his BMI is 30.3, which qualifies as obese. But does BMI actually tell us anything meaningful about health? Or is it an arcane measurement that needs to be phased out?

Also, more on Tuesday's testy vice presidential debate.

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To fill out the survey, just go to megaphone.fm/survey.

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Mike weighs in on the one and only debate between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine.

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