Political Gabfest

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss the approaching midterms, inflation, and whether social media is imperiling U.S. democracy—with guest Simon Bazelon.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Simon Bazelon for Slow Boring: “Democrats Are Sleepwalking Into A Senate Disaster”Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times: “Trump Poses a Test Democracy Is Failing”Matthew H. Graham and Milan W. Svolik for The American Political Science Review: “Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States”Jonathan Haidt for The Atlantic: “Why The Last Ten Years of American Life Have Been So Stupid”Paul Krugman for The New York Times: “Inflation Is About to Come Down — but Don't Get Too Excited”Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann HariThe Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan HaidtHere are this week’s chatters:David: Little Dorrit, by Charles DickensJohn: Macbeth on BroadwayEmily: Christine Charnosky for Law.com: “A University of Arizona Law Grad on How the GRE Changed Her Life”; University of Arizona Law’s Innovation for Justice work Listener chatter from Nick Gaffney: Alex Hanson for the Valley News: “Croydon School Budget Cut Sets Up High-Stakes Battle Over Future of Town's Education System”; Alex Hanson for the Valley News: “Budget Cut Looks Bleak For Schools After Croydon Meeting”For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, and David discuss what constitutes time well spent.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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John and David discuss Russia’s war crimes; Disney’s reaction to “don’t say gay”; and Amazon’s first union.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Andrew Exum for The Atlantic: “The Russian Military Has Descended Into Inhumanity”Noam Scheiber for The New York Times: “Amazon Workers Who Won a Union Their Way Open Labor Leaders’ Eyes”Microsoft: “The Rise of the Triple Peak Day”When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel H. Pink Here are this week’s chatters:David: Jessica Contrera for The Washington Post: “The Remarkable Brain of a Carpet Cleaner Who Speaks 24 Languages”; The Wedding Party; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art: “Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits”John: Jill Lawless for The Associated Press: “Darwin Notebooks Missing For 20 Years Returned to Cambridge”; Darwin Correspondence Project: “Fanny Owen”Emily: Twitter thread by Manvir Singh @mnvrsngh on time spent “doing nothing” in small-scale, non-industrial societies. Listener chatter from Kate Conquest: “The Avian Soap Opera Unfolding Atop This Berkeley Bell Tower Has Humans Riveted”For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, and David discuss the trend of working a “third shift.”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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Biden's gaffe in speaking too honestly about Russia; Trump’s missing phone logs; and Ginni Thomas’s efforts to subvert the election.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Bob Woodward and Robert Costa for The Washington Post: “Jan. 6 White House Logs Given To House Show 7-Hour Gap In Trump Calls”Hugo Lowell for The Guardian: “Trump Used White House Phone For Call On January 6 That Was Not On Official Log”Bob Woodward and Robert Costa for The Washington Post: “Virginia Thomas Urged White House Chief to Pursue Unrelenting Efforts to Overturn the 2020 Election, Texts Show”Benjamin Wittes for Lawfare: “Donald Trump, John Eastman and the Silence of the Justice Department”Karl Rove for The Wall Street Journal: “Republicans’ Jan. 6 Responsibility”Here are this week’s chatters:David: Beforeigners; City CastJohn: Anna P. Kambhampaty for The New York Times: “Want to See the Weirdest of Wikipedia? Look No Further.”; Morning Brew newsletter; Elden Ring video gameEmily: “The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Refutation”; Anne Frank HouseListener chatter from Andre Walker: All The Sex I've Ever Had at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, and David discuss what they would do if they needed to disappear. 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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Plotz and John Dickerson are joined by Ruth Marcus to discuss Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing; Ukraine keeps fighting through atrocity; and more allegations of Republican candidates committing domestic abuse.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Dana Milbank for the Washington Post: “Cruz Attacks Jackson For ‘Critical Race Theory’—But Sends His Own Daughters to Learn It”Henry Olsen for the Washington Post: “Republicans Are Right to Oppose Ketanji Brown Jackson”Here’s this week’s chatter:David: BioHacked: Family Secrets: “The Genius Experiment: Part 1”; The Genius Factory, by David Plotz; The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World, by Riley Black John: Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, by Dana StevensRuth: Christine Emba for The Washington Post: “Consent Is Not Enough. We Need A New Sexual Ethic.”; Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine EmbaListener chatter from Eric Jason Martin: Nick Paumgarten for the New Yorker: “Retirement the Margaritaville Way."For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Ruth, John, and David discuss their strangest behaviors.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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon talks with author Meghan O’Rourke about germ theory, biomarkers, medical mysteries, long COVID and the quest to return to health as chronicled in her new book The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness. 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 Jocelyn Frank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily and David are joined by guest host Juliette Kayyem to discuss the arming of Ukraine, how to prepare for the next pandemic or catastrophe, and daylight savings time debates.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Megan Garber for The Atlantic: “The Grim Stagecraft of Zelensky’s Selfie Videos”Atul Gawande for The New Yorker: “Costa Ricans Live Longer Than We Do. What's the Secret?”The Devil Never Sleeps: Learning to Live in an Age of Disasters, by Juliette KayyemHere’s this week’s chatter:David: Nina Siegal for The New York Times: “She Discovered What Happened to 400 Dutch Jews Who Disappeared”Emily: Paul Blest for Vice: “Josh Hawley Accused Biden’s SCOTUS Pick of Being Soft on Child Porn”; Emily Bazelon for The New York Times: “The Price of a Stolen Childhood”Juliette: Maria Cramer for The New York Times: “A Year After Suez Blockage, Another Evergreen Ship Is Mired in the Chesapeake”Listener chatter from Jonas Barciauskas: This Land podcast For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Juliette, Emily and David talk about what they think about when they want to increase their happiness.  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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Ukraine's fighting spirit, rising gas prices, and conformity on campus.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:The Science of Politics podcast: “Does the Public Respond to Threats to Democracy?”The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, the Subjection of Women and UtilitarianismThe Guns of August, by Barbara W. TuchmanEmma Camp for the New York Times: “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead.”David A. Plotz for the Harvard Crimson: “‘Politically Correct’ Thought Control”Here’s this week’s chatter:David: Kayla Stewart for The New York Times: “One Huge Hog, One Long Day and a Nourishing Southern Tradition”Emily: Pam & TommyJohn: Henry Fountain for The New York Times: “At the Bottom of an Icy Sea, One of History’s Great Wrecks Is Found”Listener chatter from Carol Walker: BBC podcast 1914: Day by Day For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment John, Emily and David discuss the people they carry with them. 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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss Ukraine's resistance, the State of the Union, and an increasing backlash against reformer prosecutors.Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Thomas L. Friedman for The New York Times: “I See Three Scenarios for How This War Ends”Anne Appelbaum for the Atlantic: “The Bad Guys Are Winning”Gal Beckerman for The Atlantic: “How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero”Rebecca Davis O’Brien for The New York Times: “How This ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ Balances Politics and Public Safety”Heart of Darkness, by Joseph ConradCharged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, by Emily BazelonHere’s this week’s chatter:David: The Postman, by David Brin Emily: In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, by Amy Bloom; Away, by Amy BloomJohn: New York Times, Feb. 22, 1862: “The Execution of Nathaniel Gordon”Listener chatter from Leslie Camp: Phil Davison for The Washington Post: “Monique Hanotte, Belgian resistance member who rescued 135 downed Allied airmen in World War II, dies at 101” For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment John, Emily and David discuss what they do to find and boost their courage. 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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stanford Law professor Nathaniel Persily joins David and Emily to discuss President Biden’s nomination for associate justice of the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson.You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter or post it to our Facebook page. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily and David are joined by guest host Jane Coaston. The three discuss Putin's war with guest Julia Ioffe and also the GOP attacks on transgender children, and Democrats’ “hack gap.”Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Julia Ioffe for Puck News: “Will Putin Get His World War III?”Anne Appelbaum for The Atlantic: “The Reason Putin Would Risk War”The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret AtwoodHere’s this week’s chatter:David: Work at City Cast; David’s “Exploring a Secret Fort” tour for Atlas Obscura; Florida’s Mount TrashmoreEmily: Danny Hakim and Jo Becker for The New York Times Magazine: “The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas”; Jane Mayer for The New Yorker: “Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to The Supreme Court?”Jane: Sports TwitterListener chatter from Charlie Hunt: Christopher Ingraham for the Washington Post “The Owl Pellet Economy: Meet The Entrepreneurs Who’ve Devoted Their Lives to Bird Vomit.”  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, following the death of public health hero Paul Farmer, Emily and David discuss the concept of heroes and the roles they can play in contemporary life. 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 Jocelyn Frank.Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices