Political Gabfest

Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Journalist at The New York Times, joins the hosts to discuss the indictment of Trump and co-defendants for election interference in Georgia. They also touch on a climate lawsuit in Montana and the devastating impact of wildfires in Maui. Additionally, they explore the lawsuit of Michael Oher against his 'Blind Side' parents.

This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Juliette Kayyem to discuss the Ohio vote not to make it harder to change the state constitution; Republican views on Donald Trump’s offenses; and emergency preparedness or the lack thereof.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Jack Goldsmith for The New York Times: “The Prosecution of Trump May Have Terrible Consequences”The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters by Juliette KayyemCharles M. Blow for The New York Times: “The Montgomery Brawl Was, for Some, a Clarifying Moment” Here are this week’s chatters:Emily: WESH 2: “Gov. DeSantis suspends State Attorney Monique H. Worrell, citing neglect of duty”Juliette: Clay Risen for The New York Times: “Charles J. Ogletree Jr., 70, Dies; at Harvard Law, a Voice for Equal Justice” and Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “Why Is Affirmative Action in Peril? One Man’s Decision.”David: City Cast DC 1 Year Anniversary Live Taping, August 28, 2023, and Rachel Pannett for The Washington Post: “She invited four people over for lunch. A week later, three were dead.”Listener chatter from Rob Parsons: Richard Nelson for Encounters North: “Classic Audio Encounters”For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Juliette, Emily, and David discuss the Montgomery, Alabama riverfront brawl. In the most recent edition of Gabfest Reads, David talks with David Grann about his book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.  Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com or X us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna Roth Research by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Donald Trump’s third indictment, this one for January 6th and the 2020 election; Trump v. President Joe Biden poll results; and, joined by David French of The New York Times, the country song “Try That In A Small Town.” Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey for The Washington Post: “Heart of the Trump Jan. 6 indictment: What’s in Trump’s head”Judd Legum for Popular Information: “The biggest misconception about Trump’s third criminal indictment”Reid J. Epstein for The New York Times: “Quick to Mock MAGA, Biden Stays Silent on Trump Indictments”Reid J. Epstein, Ruth Igielnik, and Camille Baker for The New York Times: “Biden Shores Up Democratic Support, but Faces Tight Race Against Trump” and Nate Cohn: “Can the Race Really Be That Close? Yes, Biden and Trump Are Tied.”David French for The New York Times: “Try Tolerance in a Small Town” and “The Trial America Needs”18 U.S. Code § 241 – Conspiracy against rightsJill Filipovic for The Guardian: “Musicians like Jason Aldean love to glorify ‘small-town’ America. It’s embarrassing”Aaron Zitner for The Wall Street Journal: “They’re the Happiest People in America. We Called Them to Ask Why.”Here are this week’s chatters:Emily: Deborah Treisman for The Writer’s Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker: “Camille Bordas Reads ‘Colorín Colorado’” and How to Behave in a Crowd by Camille BordasJohn: Meghan Bartels for Scientific American: “NASA Detects ‘Heartbeat’ from Voyager 2 Spacecraft after Losing Contact” and John Dickerson for The Prime Time Interview, CBS News: “Author Dan Pink on the meaning of regret, how he captures his ideas, more with John Dickerson”David: “Exploring a Secret Fort” with David through airbnb and Emma Marris for Nature: “Could this ancient whale be the heaviest animal ever?”Listener chatter from Alex Callahan: Peter Braul for Maisonneuve: “We’ll Never Be That Drunk Again” For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss “The Socio Political Demography of Happiness” by Sam Peltzman. In the most recent edition of Gabfest Reads, David talks with David Grann about his book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com or X us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Jared DowningResearch by Julie HuygenHostsEmily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David PlotzFollow@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfestSlate Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legislative win limiting judicial powers while hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest; Harvard University and other elite colleges’ reconsideration of legacy admissions; and the revise-or-bust status of Hunter Biden’s plea deal.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “How Israel’s Supreme Court Might React to the Challenge to Its Power”Maayan Lubell for Reuters: “Israel’s Netanyahu down in polls over judicial reform”John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “Harvard professor discusses admission at elite colleges” Claire Cain Miller and Aatish Bhatia for The New York Times: “How Big Is the Legacy Boost at Elite Colleges?” and Aatish Bhatia, Claire Cain Miller, and Josh Katz: “Study of Elite College Admissions Data Suggests Being Very Rich Is Its Own Qualification”Annie Lowrey for The Atlantic: “Why You Have to Care About These 12 Colleges”John Dickerson and Catherine Herridge for CBS News Prime Time: “What’s next for Hunter Biden after plea deal unraveling” Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: “Barbie” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling John: Wall Street Journal: “Yemen Oil Tanker at Risk: An Operation to Avert a Massive Spill”David: “Jury Duty” on Amazon Prime Listener chatter from Susan Bates: The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth LettsFor this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David and Emily discuss their personal thoughts on Israel and reference Exodus by Leon Uris and “Exodus” starring Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint. In the July edition of Gabfest Reads, David talks with David Grann about his book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.  Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com or X us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna RothResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Plotz talks with author David Grann about his new book, The Wager. The non-fiction book tells the harrowing story of a shipwreck off the coast of Patagonia in 1742. They discuss how the British Empire twisted fact and fiction, the process of digging through 280-year-old documents, and why you should always have citrus at sea.Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz are together again and talking about Donald Trump’s next indictment and the charges against his “false electors” in Michigan; the struggles of candidates Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, et al.; and Congressional Republicans’ culture war against the U.S. military.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:James Madison: “Impeachment of the Executive, [20 July] 1787”FiveThirtyEight: “Who’s Ahead In Republican Primary Polls?” Fox News Digital: “Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott says Donald Trump is ‘overqualified to be my vice president’” Manu Raju, Rashard Rose, and Lauren Fox for CNN: “Tommy Tuberville now says ‘White nationalists are racists’ after refusing to denounce them”Zoë Richards for NBC News: “Arizona Republican refers to Black Americans as ‘colored people’ in House floor debate” Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Elise White, Basaime Spate, Javonte Alexander, and Rachel Swaner for the Center for Justice Innovation: “’Two Battlefields’: Opps, Cops, and NYC Youth Gun Culture” and Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon  John: Mona El-Naggar, Johan M. Kessel, and Alexander Stockton for The New York Times: “What Is War to a Grieving Child?”; Jeanna Smialek and Ben Casselman for The New York Times: “The Pandemic’s Labor Market Myths”; and Chris Cameron for The New York Times: “Over 700 Civil War-Era Gold Coins Found Buried on a Kentucky Farm”David: “Exploring a Secret Fort” with David through airbnb; Steve Bohnel for The Frederick News-Post: “$200,000, or the city burns: The story of the Confederacy’s ransom on Frederick”; and Caity Weaver for The New York Times Magazine: “My Impossible Mission to Find Tom Cruise” Listener chatter from Dianne Denton: Harriet McBryde Johnson for The New York Times Magazine: “Unspeakable Conversations” and Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice WongFor this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes, artificial intelligence, and the future of work. In the next edition of Gabfest Reads, David talks with David Grann about his book, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.  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 RothResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 RothResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz are on vacation, but Emily taped an extra episode of Gabfest Reads for everyone. She sits down with author Monica Potts to talk about her new memoir The Forgotten Girls. They discuss growing up in rural Arkansas, Monica’s childhood best friend Darci, and more.For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John chatter about what’s making them happy this summer, an article about how bad things really are, and more.In the June edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Peter Singer @PeterSinger about his book, Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed.  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 RothResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz are live and on stage with Maryland Governor Wes Moore and also discuss the Supreme Court’s legitimacy problem and the not-Trump Republican candidates’ struggle.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:C-SPAN: “Maryland State of the State Address”Jeffrey M. Jones for Gallup: “Trust in Federal Government Branches Continues to Falter” and “Confidence in U.S. Supreme Court Sinks to Historic Low John Dickerson and Anthony Salvanto for Face The Nation: “CBS News poll: GOP primary voters are more concerned Trump’s indictment is political”Rich Lowry for Politico: “The Trump Divide that Should Have Republicans Terrified” Here are this week’s chatters:John: Donald H. Kent for Pennsylvania History: “The Erie War of the Gauges"Emily: Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court Puts First Amendment Limits on Laws Banning Online Threats”David: Elliot C. Williams for WAMU’s The DCist: “Fans Revel In The Atlantis As Foo Fighters Open Venue With ‘Long, Hot, Loud’ Performance”; Matt Richtel for The New York Times: “The Refries That Bind: A Cavernous Cantina Returns, Cliff Divers and All”; and Amazon Prime’s movie “Air: A Story of Greatness” For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John answer audience questions and talk about “Gabfest Reads: The Case for Treating Animals With Dignity”. In the next 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 and Patrick FortResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Keziah Weir for Vanity Fair: “How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Became the Anti-vaxxer Icon of America’s Nightmares”Matt Viser for The Washington Post: “The complicated relationship between a presidential father and a struggling son”Pam Belluck and Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “New York Passes Bill to Shield Abortion Providers Sending Pills Into States With Bans”Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “A Medical Frontier”Here are this week’s chatters:Emily: Samuel A. Alito Jr. for The Wall Street Journal: “Justice Samuel Alito: ProPublica Misleads Its Readers”; Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mierjeski for ProPublica: “Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court”John: Todd Estes for Teaching American History: “New Hampshire’s Ratification of the Constitution”David: U.S. Department of Agriculture: “Nuts”; Taryn Varricchio and Clancy Morgan for Business Insider: “Cashews don’t come cheap – one pound at retail can cost you $15. Here’s why they’re so expensive.”; Doritos Nacho Cheese Flavored Tortilla Chips  Listener chatter from Ruthy Kohorn Rosenberg: Reshma Saujani at Smith College’s 2023 Commencement: Imposter Syndrome is Modern-Day Bicycle FaceFor this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John discuss with James Surowiecki of The Atlantic @JamesSurowiecki his article, “The Bitter Truth About the Bud Light Boycott.” In the June edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Peter Singer @PeterSinger about his book, Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed. 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 Jared Downing and Cheyna RothResearch by Julie HuygenHostsEmily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David PlotzFollow@SlateGabfest on Twitter / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfestSlate Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices