Political Gabfest: The World Is Burning

This week, John Dickerson and David Plotz are joined by Vox’s Marin Cogan @marincogan to discuss the extreme weather, heat, and floods that are wreaking havoc across the United States and around the world; the social media phenomenon of Threads; and the American love-hate relationship with cars. 

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

Cara Buckley for The New York Times: “To Help Cool a Hot Planet, the Whitest of White Coats”

Jonathan Erdman for The Weather Channel: “America’s Top Weather Killer Is Not Tornadoes, Flooding, Lightning Or Hurricanes – It’s Heat”

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar 

Antonio Pequeño IV for Forbes: “Zuckerberg Vs. Musk: Everything We Know About The Possible Cage Fight” 

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore 

Insider Intelligence: “US Social Network Ad Revenue Growth, 2021-2023” 

Marin Cogan for Vox: “The impossible paradox of car ownership”; “The deadliest road in America”; and “Cars transformed America. They also made people more vulnerable to the police.” 

Tracy Chapman: “Fast Car”; Luke Combs: “Fast Car”; and Emily Yahr for The Washington Post: “Tracy Chapman, Luke Combs and the complicated response to ‘Fast Car’” 

Henry Grabar for Slate: “Why More Americans Are Using Fake License Plates and Getting Away With It”

Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog NYC: “Paris Mayor Enters Fray Between E-Bikes and Pedestrians – By Fighting Drivers”

Here are this week’s chatters:

John: Hannah Hartig, Andrew Daniller, Scott Keeter, and Ted Van Green for Pew Research Center: “Republican Gains in 2022 Midterms Driven Mostly by Turnout Advantage” 

Marin and David: Tour de France on NBC Sports; Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix 

Listener chatter from Dan Kirkwood: Claire Stremple for The Alaska Beacon: “Angoon students name, launch first dugout canoe since 1882 Bombardment” 

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Marin discuss traffic enforcement, the need for it, and the harms it causes. 

In the latest edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Monica Potts @MonicaBPotts about her book, The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America. 

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

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth

Research by Julie Huygen

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