Slate Daily Feed

This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers chat with Ed Conway, economics and data editor of Sky News, whose new book “Material World” tells how a handful of everyday resources built civilization — and remain incredibly important today. Also: the astounding secrets of car paint…and why new cars look like mud.Podcast production by Patrick Fort and Jared Downing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emily Bazelon talks with cartoonist James Sturm, about his new graphic novel adaptation of Watership Down. They discuss what makes the animal characters so compelling, going tharn[MOU1] , where Watership Down fits in the literary tradition, and so much more.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. [MOU1]A word I haven’t thought of in years—stopped me in my tracks! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald J Trump is signaling a split with the conservative legal movement’s kingmakers, The Federalist Society. Instead, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee is planning a radical (and radically lawless) remaking of American government in his image.  On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Amanda Hollis Brusky, professor of politics at Pomona College and author of  Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society & the Conservative Counterrevolution, and coauthor of Separate But Faithful: The Christian Right’s Radical Struggle to Transform Law and Legal Culture. Together, they explore what the split between the right’s legal project of 40 years and the man who hopes to be the next Republican President means for the law, the rule of law, and the U.S. Supreme Court. In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Jay Willis of Balls and Strikes to discuss the Supreme Court’s new ethics code. Spoiler: It’s not really new. As Jay says, think of it more like frat house rules published for the benefit of naive parents. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and 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. https://books.supportingcast.fm/lady-justice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special mini-episode of Hit Parade, recorded live on at Housing Works bookstore in New York City, host Chris Molanphy is joined by Dan Charnas—author of the New York Times bestseller Dilla Time, The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, and the acclaimed The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop. They discuss Chris’s new book Old Town Road—how he came to write it, what made the song exceptional, and how decades of chart and genre history led to Lil Nas X’s breakthrough.Podcast production by Kevin Bendis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Girls at a New Jersey high school were early victims of a novel and growing problem: their images were taken from social media without consent to create “deep-fake pornography.” Guest: Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal family and tech columnist.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.

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Joe Manchin’s departure from the U.S. Senate and what it means for the Democratic majority, No Labels, and the 2024 presidential race; the Supreme Court’s new code of conduct and whether it’s worthless; and the Israel-Hamas war and how it’s affecting Democratic politics. You can be a part of the show: submit your Conundrum at slate.com/conundrum. And join us for Conundrums Live! December 7 at The 92nd Street Y, New York City.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Zeeshan Aleem for MSNBC: “Joe Manchin’s triple blow to the Democrats” Brittany Gibson and Shia Kapos for Politico: “Pelosi launches an all-out attack against No Labels”Wikipedia: “Assume a can opener”The Supreme Court of the United States: “Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States”Adam Liptak for The New York Times: “Supreme Court’s New Ethics Code Is Toothless, Experts Say”Maria Abi-Habib, Michael Crowley, and Edward Wong for The New York Times: “More Than 500 U.S. Officials Sign Letter Protesting Biden’s Israel Policy”Sam Fossum, Morgan Rimmer, and Manu Raju for CNN: “Top House Democrats evacuated from DNC headquarters as police clash with protesters calling for Gaza ceasefire” Liz Goodwin for The Washington Post: “Bernie Sanders faces blowback as progressives urge cease-fire in Gaza”George Packer for The Atlantic: “Israel Must Not React Stupidly”Thomas L Friedman for The New York Times: “I Have Never Been to This Israel Before”Declan Walsh and Abdi Latif Dahir for The New York Times: “Seizing Darfur Region, Paramilitary Forces Are Accused of Atrocities” Jennifer Jacobs for Fortune and Bloomberg: “Why a group of ‘everyday people’ in Iowa have been invited to dinner by Chinese president Xi Jinping: ‘We’re eager to meet with him’”Iowa PBS: “Citizen Diplomacy”The Economist’s The Prince podcast: “7: Wolf warriors” Muscatine County, Iowa: “History” Here are this week’s chatters:Emily: HBO’s movie OsloJohn: John Dickerson on Instagram and Covenant House Sleep Out; Alex Wilkins for New Scientist: “Robotic chemist discovers how to make oxygen from Martian minerals”David: Michael Balsamo for AP: “Secret Service agents protecting Biden’s granddaughter open fire when 3 people try to break into SUV”; Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police: Carjacking; Exploring a Secret Fort with David through airbnbListener chatter from David, Alameda, California: Chloe Olewitz for Morsel: “Over 100 Years Ago, the US Government Commissioned 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Kind of Fruit in the Country” and U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library: “USDA Pomological Watercolors”In the next Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with James Sturm about Watership Down: The Graphic Novel. See also James Sturm and Joe Sutphin in The New York Times: “In Times of Danger, There’s Strength in Numbers.” 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 Roth Research by Julie Huygen HostsEmily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode: Zak, Jamilah and Elizabeth help a listener who’s struggling with a deep pessimism about the state of this country — and he wants to make sure that his kids have some hope to hold onto. We also go over our week in parenting triumphs and fails. Then, if you’re sticking around for Slate Plus, we’ll share some strategies for explaining the war in Gaza to kids – and hopefully not frightening them in the process.On that topic, here are some resources that our hosts wanted to share:From the New York Times: What I Told My Daughter About The WarFrom NPR: How to talk to children about the violence in Israel and GazaFrom The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Talking to Children about WarJoin us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Mom and Dad are Fighting. Sign up now at slate.com/momanddadplus to help support our work.Podcast produced by Maura Currie and Rosemary Belson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Palestinian allies like Hezbollah and Iran voice their support, is there a danger of more countries being pulled into the war in Gaza? Guest: Gregory Gause, head of the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, specialist in Middle East politics.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.

When Giulia Lukach had her first manic episode, it seemed to come out of nowhere. She was in her late twenties, and had been married to her husband, Mark, for three years. “For him it was just so new because I’ve always been the happy girl,” Giulia told Anna in an interview in 2015. Her psychosis was dark and intense.“ The only thing she could talk about was the devil and that she needed to protect the world because the devil was inside her,” Mark said in their 2015 interview.In 2023, Mark and Giulia sat down with Anna again. In the intervening years, they had a second child, and after years without Giulia having a manic episode, they thought they were in the clear. “We had this quasi-pseudo-science theory that maybe by sharing our story with the world, that was becoming this like protective barrier,” Mark told Anna. In this episode, you’ll hear parts of the couple’s original 2015 conversation, and how their outlook has changed since, both in how they treat each other, and how they deal with the unknown. “I have been to war with myself and with my mind many times,” Giulia said, “knowing that my episodes can come at any moment – that's like high anxiety for me – and so I literally live in the moment now. I only live in today.”Also, side note: Will you be in New York City on Saturday, December 9th at 12:30pm? Come to a Death, Sex, & Money live event at Caveat, a cabaret on the Lower East Side, to celebrate the show’s run at WNYC. We’re calling it Four Interviews and a Funeral. Join Anna, the team, special guests, and dance along to live music. Tickets are available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Dana and Stephen are joined by Supreme Friend of the Pod, Isaac Butler, who co-hosts Slate’s Working podcast and is the author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act (which is now available in paperback!). The panel begins by pondering Dream Scenario, a provocative new film from Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli. The nightmarish social satire stars Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews, a hapless middle-aged biology professor who begins appearing randomly in people’s dreams in a tale about anonymity and the cycle of virality. Then, the three speak with the brilliant author and classicist Emily Wilson about her recent translation of Homer’s the Iliad, and her unique approach to metered verse and how she came to access the interior lives of Hector, Patroclus, Achilles, and more. Finally, the trio discusses Coyote vs. Acme, a completed film based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 comic in The New Yorker, that was shelved last week by Warner Bros. (reportedly in favor of a $30 million tax write-off) then un-shelved when the studio received backlash for being “anti-art.”  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel descends into a different kind of nightmare: The Beatles’ music video for “Now and Then.” Has director Peter Jackson created a touching CGI tribute to the legendary band? Or has he engineered something truly evil?Email us at culturefest@slate.com. Endorsements:Dana: The Public Domain Review, an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to “the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.” She’s only just begun to scratch the site’s surface, but recommends starting with “W.E.B. Du Bois’ Hand-Drawn Infographics of African-American Life.”Isaac: Deadloch, an Australian feminist noir comedy set in a fictional working class fishing village that’s been, as he describes, “gentrified by the most granola crunchy lesbians on earth.”  Stephen: The song “New Romantic” by British folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling, specifically her extraordinary 2006 live performance of it when she was quite young at a now-closed music venue in West London. Outro music: “Any Other Way” by Particle HousePodcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows. You’ll also be supporting the work we do here on the Culture Gabfest. Sign up now at Slate.com/cultureplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.