Political Gabfest

Latest Episodes:

John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: Sending our Son to College Apr 13, 2024

Show notes

In this week’s essay, John remembers dropping his son off at college, and trying to hold onto moments and feelings while you can.

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 75, page 6. September 2021:

They chose you.

Notebook 15, page 4. April 2004:

Sitting with Brice by waterfall. Throwing rocks in stream. Loading sand from dump truck and loader and back again.

References:

What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

Songwriter Nick Cave

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com

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Host

John Dickerson

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arizona Territory’s 1864 Abortion Law Apr 11, 2024

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the revival of Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban; the end of No Labels; and the past and future of presidential debates.

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

Mary Jo Pitzl and Reagan Priest for The Arizona Republic: Arizona House GOP halt Democrats’ effort to overturn Civil War era law in chaotic session

Dan Balz for The Washington Post: The Arizona Supreme Court just upended Trump’s gambit on abortion

Jamelle Bouie for The New York Times: The Man Who Snuffed Out Abortion Rights Is Here to Tell You He Is a Moderate

Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah for NPR’s All Things Considered: Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that

A.O. Sulzberger Jr. for The New York Times: Reagan Says Ban On Abortion May Not Be Needed

David Faris for Slate: Why No Labels Didn’t Stick

Slate’s Political Gabfest: The “No Mugshot” Edition

Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times: Has No Labels Become a Stalking Horse for Trump?

Michael H. Brown for The Washington Post: Joseph Lieberman, senator and vice-presidential nominee, dies at 82

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Dartmouth’s Leslie Center for the Humanities: People, Place, Podcasts: Emily Bazelon and Erica Heilman in Conversation and the Rumble Strip podcast

John: Slate’s Navel Gazing podcast and Rachel Wolfe for The Wall Street Journal: The Calls for Help Coming From Above the Poverty Line

David: Hannah Seo for The New York Times: Is It Better to Brush Your Teeth Before Breakfast or After?

Listener chatter from Mark Phillips in Baltimore, Maryland: Ben Crair for The New Yorker: The Magic of Bird Brains

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss AI communications with loved ones after they die. See Walter Marsh for The Guardian: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed: ‘I’m totally, 100%, sadly addicted’ and Ira Glass for This American Life: The Ghost in the Machine. See also Niamn Ancell for Cybernews: These apps could resurrect your relatives using artificial intelligence; Rebecca Carballo for The New York Times: Using A.I. to Talk to the Dead; and Tamara Kneese for Wired: Using Generative AI to Resurrect the Dead Will Create a Burden for the Living.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.

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

Hosts

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: An Exploration of Inklings Apr 06, 2024

Show notes

In this week’s essay, John Dickerson looks back on a Sunday morning in 2021, and ruminates on the empty spaces left behind by the people that once filled our lives.

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 75, page 6. September 5, 2021:

“Oh my god. We dropped our son at college and our dog is dead.” – Anne.

References:

“Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

“When Someone You Love is Upset, Ask This One Question” by Jancee Dunn for the New York Times

“A Case of ‘Sunday Neurosis’” by Jena McGregor for the Washington Post

“Waking Early Sunday Morning” by Robert Lowell

Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing by Brad Stulberg

Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed

“Alabama Pines” by Jason Isbell

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Host

John Dickerson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Florida Bans Abortion Again Apr 04, 2024

Show notes

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Scott Bauer for AP: Wisconsin voters approve ban on private money support for elections and Unfair Share: The Gerrymandered Chocolate Bar on Kickstarter

John: Joey Roulette and Will Dunham for Reuters: Exclusive: White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon and John Dickerson Introduces: Navel Gazing

David: Corvid Research: All in the (crow) family; 3 Body Problem on Netflix; The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; and Foundation and For All Mankind on Apple TV+

Listener chatter from Kim in Spartanburg, S.C.: The fish doorbell and thunder_keck on TikTok: fish doorbell season is back

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss the April 8 total solar eclipse. See John Dickerson and David Parkinson for CBS News: Massive storm system threatening millions across U.S. See also Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival; Annie Dillard for The Atlantic: “Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.”; The Guardian: Columbus and the night of the bloody moon; and John Uri for NASA: Eclipses Near and Far.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jared Downing

Research by Julie Huygen

Hosts

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz

Follow

Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/

@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Dickerson Introduces: Navel Gazing Apr 03, 2024

Show notes

Political Gabfest host John Dickerson has been a journalist for more than three decades, reporting about presidential campaigns, political scandals, the evolving state of our democracy. Along the way, he’s also been recording his observations in notebooks he has carried in his back pocket. On the Navel Gazing podcast, John Dickerson invites you to join him in figuring out what these thirty years of notebooks mean: sorting out what makes a life --or a day in a life— noteworthy.

Listen to Navel Gazing every week, starting April 6th, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabfest Live In Washington, D.C.! Mar 28, 2024

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz are live in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Supreme Court (again) and abortion (again); Donald Trump’s ups and downs in New York courtrooms and Ronna McDaniel’s rise and fall on NBC; and Gallup’s World Happiness Report 2024.

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

Ann E. Marimow and Caroline Kitchener for The Washington Post: Supreme Court skeptical of efforts to restrict access to abortion pill

Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727 (1972)

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, et al., 600 US _ (2023)

Juhi Doshi for ABC News: What is the Comstock Act? The 151-year-old law mentioned in SCOTUS abortion pill case

SCOTUSblog: Idaho v. United States

Pam Belluck for The New York Times: What to Know About the Federal Law at the Heart of the Latest Supreme Court Abortion Case

Geoff Mulvihill and Kimberlee Kruesi for AP: Which states could have abortion on the ballot in 2024?

The New York Times: Keeping Track of the Trump Criminal Cases and Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin: NBC News Cuts Ties With Ronna McDaniel After Network Firestorm

Brian Beutler for Off Message: The Political Economy Of Normalization

Gallup: World Happiness Report 2024

Clare Ansberry for The Wall Street Journal: U.S. No Longer Ranks Among World’s 20 Happiest Countries

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: The Wall Street Journal: Evan Gershkovich: Updates on the WSJ Reporter Detained in Russia

David: Tim Newcomb for Popular Mechanics: A Controversial Pyramid Isn’t Actually 27,000 Years Old—and Now, the Mystery Deepens and Paul M.M. Cooper for Fall of Civilizations Podcast: Episode 18 Is Out Now!

John: National Archives: From Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Wadsworth, [20 August 1787]; John Dickerson for Slate’s Navel Gazing podcast (coming soon); John Dickerson on Court TV (not available); Emily Bazelon on C-SPAN; and David Plotz on C-SPAN: Washington Journal Newspaper Roundtable.

Listener chatter from Phil Goldstein in Washington, D.C.: The New York Times: Flesh Descending In A Shower.; An Astounding Phenomenon In Kentucky--Fresh Meat Like Mutton Or Venison Falling From A Clear Sky.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily answer audience questions. See Gina M. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.

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 with special thanks to Patrick Fort for on-site production and Katie Rayford for logistics support

Research by Julie Huygen

Hosts

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz

Follow

Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/

@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Is Government Speech Coercion? Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Supreme Court’s busy week on government speech and immigration authority; Donald Trump’s bond issue and words problem; and COVID learning loss. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now; get ‘em before they’re gone.

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

Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Court sympathetic to NRA’s free speech claim and Supreme Court skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies

Lindsay Whitehurst for AP: Supreme Court appears receptive to NRA free-speech lawsuit against a former New York state officia

Hogan Gore for the Austin American-Statesman: 5th Circuit Court of Appeals leaves SB 4 on hold after dueling orders on Texas immigration law

Ben Protess, Maggie Haberman, and Kate Christobek for The New York Times: Trump Spurned by 30 Companies as He Seeks Bond in $454 Million Judgment

Ruth Marcus for The Washington Post: Fair’s fair: Trump should be able to appeal the judgment against him and Catherine Rampell:Trump can’t find anyone to spot him $424 million. Would you?

Sarah Mervosh, Claire Cain Miller, and Francesca Paris for The New York Times: What the Data Says About Pandemic School Closures, Four Years Later

Slate Political Gabfest: The “Stop Counting Now” Edition

Weakley County, TN

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Small Game: A Novel by Blair Braverman and Small Game: A Novel at the DC Public Library

John: Ramishah Maruf for CNN: MacKenzie Scott donates $640 million after open call for nonprofits and Ahjané Forbes for USA Today: Ticketless passenger found in Delta flight’s lavatory, forcing plane to turn around

David: Sarah Zhang for The Atlantic: DNA Tests Are Uncovering The True Prevalence Of Incest and City Cast: Work with us.

Listener chatter from Joshua Weaver in Austin, Texas: Matthew Brown for AP: Montana man used animal tissue and testicles to breed ‘giant’ sheep for sale to hunting preserves

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk about The Mysterious Case of The Reappearing Princess. See Karla Adam for The Washington Post: Will Princess Kate video put an end to royal communications mess? and Mark Landler for The New York Times: The Royals Tried to Control Their Image Online. The Internet Had Other Ideas.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabfest Reads: How Tana French Uses Genre Tropes to Tell Great Human Stories Mar 16, 2024

Show notes

Emily Bazelon talks with author Tana French about her new book, The Hunter. They discuss the different perspectives French uses throughout her books, how French happened into writing mysteries, writing as an outsider to Ireland, and 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did Hur Exonerate Biden? Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and Special Counsel Robert Hur’s congressional testimony; crime and punishment with the Wren Collective’s Jessica Brand; and Congress’s move to ban the Chinese government from TikTok. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to gabfest@slate.com and you might be picked to chatter live.

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

C-SPAN: 2024 State of the Union Address and Former Special Counsel Hur Testifies on Biden Classified Documents Report, Part 1and Part 2

House Committee on the Judiciary: Recorded Interview: Robert Hur, President Biden Transcript, Date of Interview: October 8, and Date of Interview: October 9

Kaitlan Collins for CNN: Fmr. Mar-a-Lago employee who helped move classified docs speaks with CNN

Adam Serwer for The Atlantic: How Hur Misled the Country on Biden’s Memory

Jack Goldsmith in The New York Times: Jack Smith and Robert Hur Are the Latest Examples of a Failed Institution

Erica Pandey and Russell Contreras for Axios: Blue cities go red with conservative policies on crime

Michael Barbaro and Mike Baker for The New York Times’s The Daily podcast: Oregon Decriminalized Drugs. Voters Now Regret It.

Madaleine Rubin for The Texas Tribune: Sean Teare unseats Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in primary

Stefanie Dazio for AP: Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff

Jeffrey M. Jones for Gallup: More Americans See U.S. Crime Problem as Serious

Stephanie Sy and Shoshana Dubnow for the PBS News Hour: As concerns grown around surging violent crime, the numbers tell a different story

David Leonhardt for The New York Times: Should China Own TikTok?

CBS News: FBI Director Wray says China targeting U.S. civilian infrastructure, economic security

Laura He for CNN: If the US bans TikTok, China will be getting a taste of its own medicine

CBS Mornings: Jon Stewart on why he’s going back to “The Daily Show” anchor desk

Mike Pence on Fox News: TikTok is digital fentanyl and Congress, Biden must act before it’s too late

Josh Dawsey and Jeff Stein for The Washington Post: How Donald Trump switched to defending TikTok

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Josh Gerstein for Politico: Federal courts move against ‘judge-shopping’ and John Dickerson and Jessica Levinson for CBS News Prime Time: New rules aim to prevent “judge shopping” in major court cases

John: Emily Goulet for Philadelphia: Fight Like a Girl: The New Wave of High-School Wrestling and Alex Bellos for The Guardian: He ate all the pi: Japanese man memorises π to 111,700 digits

David: Lend A Box

Listener chatter from Steven in Queens, New York: New York Times: Soon Finds Mother For His 5 Children; Widower Discovers Six Women Eager to Marry Him and Care for His Brood.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk about marriage proposals. See Caroline Kitchener for The Atlantic: Marriage Proposals Are Stupid; Sadiba Hasan for The New York Times: 10 Great Ways to Pop the Question; and Parija Kavilanz for CNN: After 2023 wraps up, get ready for a spike in marriage proposals.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Dismal Biden Polls Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Biden v. Trump polls and Super Tuesday, the Supreme Court’s decision to leave Donald Trump on the ballot, and whether The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending with The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to gabfest@slate.com and you might be picked to chatter live.

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

538: Latest Polls

Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times: Voters Doubt Biden’s Leadership and Favor Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds

Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: The Supreme Court’s “Unanimous” Trump Ballot Ruling Is Actually a 5-4 Disaster

Michael C. Dorf for Dorf on Law: Nine Justices in Search of an Excuse to Nullify Section 3 of the 14th Amendment

Kate Shaw, Melissa Murray, and Leah Litman for Crooked Media’s Strict Scrutiny podcast: SCOTUS Restores Trump to the Colorado Ballot, Unanimously (Kind Of)

Franklin Foer for The Atlantic: The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending

Elena Schneider and Melanie Mason for Politico: AIPAC uncorks $100 million war chest to sink progressive candidates

Center for Antisemitism Research: 24% of Americans Harbor Extensive Antisemitic Prejudice, Up From 20% in 2022, Survey Finds

Romain Chauvet for The Times of Israel: ‘I’m afraid every day for my children’: As antisemitism soars, French Jews flee to Israel

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Madaleine Rubin for The Texas Tribune: Sean Teare unseats Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in primary; Serena Lin for the Austin American-Statesman: Incumbent José Garza wins Democratic primary for Travis County district attorney; Stefanie Dazio for AP: Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón advances to runoff; Mensah M. Dean for The Trace: In Philadelphia, a Program Offers Some People Arrested for Unlicensed Guns a Second Chance; and Jenice Armstrong for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly program keeps gun offenders out of prison. I’m all for it.

John: Bozi Tatarevic for Road & Track: Here’s Why NASCAR Driver Joey Logano Was Penalized For Cheating Gloves and Victoria Beaver: Caught Webbed-Handed: Here’s the Cheated-Up Glove NASCAR Fined Joey Logano Over

David: One Day on Netflix and One Day by David Nicholls; Normal People on Hulu and Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney; Shōgun on Hulu and Shōgun, Part One by James Clavell; Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival; and Danielle Dowling for The New York Times: 31 Things to Do for the Big Eclipse This April

Listener chatter from Jason Dewees in San Francisco, California: Julie Zigoris for The San Francisco Standard: He died in a Jewish ghetto. How did his long-lost art end up on a bench in San Francisco?

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk with Researcher Julie about working as an election judge. See Arapahoe County (Colorado) Elections; Election Judges; Election Transparency; and Arapahoe County Life of the Ballot.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.