The Gist: ASMR with Maria Konnikova and James Fallows on the American military.

Maria Konnikova Tenderly Whispers the Truth About ASMR

Maria Konnikova Tenderly Whispers the Truth About ASMR

A daily news and culture podcast with Mike Pesca.
Jan. 8 2015 7:58 PM

Shh! ASMR Isn’t Real

The Gist gets a tingly feeling when Maria Konnikova calls bulls--t on the very scientific-sounding term “autonomous sensory meridian response.”

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Maria produces YouTube videos that induce Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), a tingling sensation. She is the most viewed and subscribed 'ASMRtist' on YouTube.

Photo Illustration by Slate. Photo by Andre Chung for The Washington Post via Getty Images.

Listen to Episode 170 of Slate’s The Gist:

gist_dailyemails

Why do the American public and political leadership have a hard time taking the military seriously? On The Gist, we speak with James Fallows from the Atlantic about his recent feature “The Tragedy of the American Military.” Plus, what’s with all those ASMR videos on YouTube? Mike asks Maria Konnikova of the New Yorker about the hard-to-describe sensation for a game we call “Is That Bulls—t?” For the Spiel, we debut our new line of other NFL erotica.

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Email: thegist@slate.com
Twitter: @slategist


Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate daily podcast The Gist. He also contributes reports and commentary to NPR.