The Man Who Fronted The Weirdest (And Longest-Running) Show On Spanish-Language TV Is A Mild-Mannered German-Jewish Chilean

Sábado Gigante‘s Don Francisco is really Mario Kreutzberger, the 74-year-old child of refugees whose German-Jewish parents fled the holocaust to Chile, where Mario was born. He started hosting the variety show there when he was 21, in 1962. As Sábado Gigante comes to an end on September 19, Kreutzberger talks to Brooke about bringing the show to the US, his 53-year-long career, and criticism of the show’s tone.” (audio)

Oliver Sacks On His Life WIth Gefilte Fish

The Yiddish fish balls had powerful associations for the late neurologist and writer, and he alternated years-long periods of eating it regularly and avoiding it completely. During his final illness, he found it was one of the very last foods he could eat. “Gefilte fish will usher me out of this life, as it ushered me into it, eighty-two years ago.”

How To Make Speeches Better? An Algorithm Can Help!

“After 22 iterations of that process, Beauchamp’s algorithm managed to find a mix of topics, represented in a particular trio of statements, that improved Obamacare approval ratings 30 percent, from neutral (five points) to 6.5. Topics related to laws, rights, and government tended to turn people off Obamacare, while sentences related to employer mandates or pre-existing conditions boosted approval.”