Slate News

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the now-former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and the for-now Republican Matt Gaetz; the Supreme Court’s new term; and crime in America. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Marianna Sotomayor, Leigh Ann Caldwell, and Colby Itkowitz for The Washington Post: “Fight for speakership begins as House reels from McCarthy ouster”David Leonhardt for The New York Times: “America’s Political Turmoil”Matt Ford for The New Republic: “The Supreme Court Eyes Its Next Big Power Grab”Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley for The American Presidency Project: “Summary of the Report of the Committee on Administrative Management [the Brownlow Report].”Ian Millhiser for Vox: “The Supreme Court will decide if abusive spouses have a right to own guns”Mark Sherman for AP: “Supreme Court is asked to reject limits on a drug used in the most common method of abortion”Andrew Chung for Reuters: “Supreme Court ethics concerns aren’t going away”Ernesto Lopez, Richard Rosenfeld, and Bobby Boxerman for the Council on Criminal Justice: “Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2023 Update" Rebecca Crosby, Judd Legum, and Tesnim Zekeria for Popular Information: “Target says it’s closing 9 stores due to theft. The crime data tells a different story.”Trisha Ahmed and Jim Salter for AP: “Some small towns in America are disbanding police forces, citing hiring woes”Gabe Cohen for CNN: “Doubling up on classrooms, using online teachers and turning to support staff: How schools are dealing with the ongoing teacher shortage” John Dickerson for CBS News: “Chronic school absences on the rise in 40 states, study finds”Michael D. Shear for The New York Times: “Bidens’ Dog Is No Longer at White House After Latest Biting Incident”Molly Olmstead for Slate: “The Bidens’ Dog Keeps Biting People. Why?”Judicial Watch: “Judicial Watch Sues Secret Service for Records of Attacks by Biden German Shepherd ‘Commander’” Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: North Woods: A Novel by Daniel Mason and “Tiny Beautiful Things” on HuluJohn: “Endeavour” on PBS; Daniel Garisto for Scientific American: “This Year’s Physics Nobel Awards Scientists for Slicing Reality into Attoseconds”; John Uri for NASA: “65 Years Ago: Sputnik Ushers in the Space Age”; and Charles Fishman for Fast Company: “The birth of the electronic beep, the most ubiquitous sound design in the world”David: Paul M.M. Cooper’s Fall of Civilizations Podcast and Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcastListener chatter from Danny O’Malley: “Canary” For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David discuss President Joe Biden’s dog, Commander, his biting of Secret Service personnel, and his recent banishment from the White House. In the next Gabfest Reads in October, 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 RothResearch by Julie Huygen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For once, Donald Trump is going to court for things that have nothing to do with his presidency. As Trump defends himself and his businesses against charges of fraud, what does his conduct in New York tell us about how his other trials may go?Guest: Zach Schonfeld, courts and legal reporter for The Hill.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Todd Zwillich, deputy Washington bureau chief, VICE News, discusses the shocking removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives due to allegations of special interest ties and favoritism. The podcast analyzes the chaos in the majority Republican Congress and raises concerns about the future direction of the party. It also highlights the challenges of bipartisanship in keeping the government open and the temporary solution to avoid a shutdown.

California Democrats were already jockeying to run for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat next year and Governor Gavin Newsom sidestepped the contenders by announcing he would appoint Laphonza Butler to the seat. While Newsom made good on his vow to appoint a Black woman to the Senate, does Butler’s job offer come with a poison pill?Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate politics writer.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jay Willis, editor-in-chief of Balls & Strikes, discusses the potential harm the conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court can cause. Topics include eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, rolling back the Chevron deference precedent, the implications for the federal government, the Loper-Brite case, the chaos of individual judge rulings, and concerns about misinterpretation of the Supreme Court's moderating stance.

The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried marks the end of an era where crypto rose to dizzying, Super-Bowl-commercial heights. Where does the industry go from here? Guest: Zeke Faux, investigative reporter for Bloomberg and author of Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Refusing to play the traditional first Monday in October game, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern squint through the cloud of ethics scandals enveloping the High Court to see a docket aimed squarely at unfettering commerce from outside supervision, with a side order of second amendment extremism. What could possibly go wrong?Sign up for Slate Plus now to support our show. Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After years of being a rare spot of universal, American-government-funded health care, this fall’s new COVID-19 vaccine is hitting the commercial market for the first time. So far, the rollout has been mired by hiccups and confusion. Guest: Jen Kates, senior vice president at KFFIf you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Anna Philips. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are the two-percent! Well, not Emily, to be clear. They dig into what’s going on with all the changes to Delta Sky Miles, the newest lawsuit by the FTC against Amazon, and why LinkedIn is and is not the worst. In the Plus segment: What do you do with a concrete banana? If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our show every week. You’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Slate Money. Sign up now at slate.com/moneyplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leah Nylen, antitrust reporter for Bloomberg, discusses the FTC's lawsuit against Amazon for maintaining its e-commerce monopoly. They delve into the implications of Amazon's monopoly on consumers and small businesses, the potential breakup of the company, and Amazon's aggressive tactics in response to the lawsuit.