This week, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and Benjamin Wittes discuss the Trump investigations; Liz Cheney’s defeat; and Dana Goldstein’s reporting on controversies over how to teach kids to read.

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

Jack Goldsmith for Lawfare: “Prosecuting Trump: A Reply to Josh Marshall”

Dana Goldstein for The New York Times: “An Old and Contested Solution to Boost Reading Scores: Phonics”

Dana Goldstein The New York Times: “In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat”

Dana Goldstein The New York Times: “New Reading Curriculum Is Mired in Debate Over Race and Gender”

Belinda Luscombe for Time: “Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read”

Ronald Brownstein for The Atlantic: “Liz Cheney’s Kamikaze Campaign”

Invisible Things by Mat Johnson

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Sam Levine for The Guardian: “Memphis Prosecutor Who Charged Black Woman Over Voting Error Loses Re-Election Bid”; Kim Bellware and Lateshia Beachum for The Washington Post: “Desantis Sued By Prosecutor Suspended Over Stance On Abortion-Related Crime”

Ben: The Lawfare Podcast: Allies

David: Dwight Garner for The New York Times: “Jared Kushner’s ‘Breaking History’ Is a Soulless and Very Selective Memoir”

Listener chatter from Josh Forsythe: Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Jennifer N. Phillips, Graham E. Derryberry, Michael J. Blum, and David Luther for Science: “Singing In A Silent Spring: Birds Respond To A Half-Century Soundscape Reversion During The Covid-19 Shutdown”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, David, and Ben discuss Ben’s performance art protests at the Russian embassy in D.C.

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

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Research by Bridgette Dunlap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Cheryl Lentz: Running From the Failure of Trying to be a Top-Level Organist