Challengers to Incumbent Presidents

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Nikki Haley’s progress and Ron DeSantis’s stagnation in Iowa, Donald Trump’s testimony in New York, and Dean Phillips’s campaign in New Hampshire; the first social-media cases of the term at the Supreme Court; and Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream with author David Leonhardt. And you can be a part of the show: submit your Conundrum at slate.com/conundrum. 

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Brianne Pfannenstiel for the Des Moines Register: “Donald Trump builds on big lead as Nikki Haley pulls even with Ron DeSantis in Iowa Poll” 

Jennifer Rubin for The Washington Post: “Nikki Haley has a shot. But a really, really long one.”

Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess for The New York Times: “Trump Civil Fraud Trial: Donald Trump Jr. Resumes Testifying in Fraud Case Aimed at His Father”

Geoffrey Skelley for 538: The curious case of Dean Phillips’s last-minute primary challenge

538: “How popular is Joe Biden?”

Jeff Neal for Harvard Law Today: “The Supreme Court takes on (anti)social media”

Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court Lifts Limits for Now on Biden Officials’ Contacts With Tech Platforms”

Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: “Justices take major Florida and Texas social media cases”

Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt

Emily Bazelon for The New York Times’s The Morning newsletter, November 2, 2023

David Leonhardt for The Atlantic: “The Hard Truth About Immigration”

Peter Dizikes for MIT News: “Q&A: David Autor on the long afterlife of the “China shock””

History.com: “A. Philip Randolph”

Natasha Singer for The New York Times: “This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here’s What Happened.” and “New Laws on Kids and Social Media Are Stymied by Industry Lawsuits”

Cristiano Lima and Naomi Nix for The Washington Post: “41 states sue Meta, claiming Instagram, Facebook are addictive, harm kids”

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: The New Yorker’s Poetry Podcast with Kevin Young: “Toi Derricotte Reads Tracy K. Smith”

John: The Graham Norton Show: “Dame Judi Dench Masterfully Does A Shakespeare Sonnet”; BBC Radio 4’s Cabin Pressure; Endeavour on PBS Masterpiece; John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music”; and Ray Bradbury in the Los Angeles Times: “’Ice Cream Suit’--Touchstone for the Past and Present”

David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong”

Listener chatter from Albert Fox Cahn: N’dea Yancey-Bragg for USA Today: “Advocates say excited delirium provides cover for police violence. They want it banned” and John Dickerson for CBS News 60 Minutes: “How a questionable syndrome, “Excited Delirium,” could be protecting police officers from misconduct charges”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about classroom cellphone bans.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kristi Coulter about her book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth 

Research by Julie Huygen

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