On The Gist, an absurd criminal charge in Alabama.  In the interview, the Iron Curtain couldn’t block radio waves, or, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a new form of music called rock and roll. András Simonyi, a former Hungarian ambassador to the United States, was electrified by Elvis and the Beatles, and says that “without rock and roll, I don’t think the Soviet Union would have broken up.” Simonyi is the author of Rocking Toward a Free World: When the Stratocaster Beat the Kalashnikov.  In the Spiel, pat them on the back all you want, not every debating Democrat can be a winner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices