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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Justice Samuel Alito Got Out Of Bed on The Perry Mason Side Oct 14, 2023

Show notes

In this week’s big voting rights case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning whether to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that is avowedly partisan (everyone agrees it favors Republicans, but partisan gerrymanders are A-OK under SCOTUS precedent). What is disputed here is whether the mapmakers relied on race to reach their partisan aims. A three-judge panel in South Carolina found it to be a racial gerrymander, and threw out the map. In arguments on Wednesday, it became clear that the high court’s conservatives would rather toss out the evidence the lower court used to reach its decision, an unusual move for the highest court in the land, but perhaps the bed it’s made for itself after ruling partisan gerrymanders non justiciable in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. And so SCOTUS cos-played as a trial court for two hours on Wednesday.

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who argued the case on behalf of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP, and Taiwan Scott - a South Carolina voter and individual plaintiff in the case, who says the electoral power of his Gullah Geechee community is suppressed by the gerrymander.

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.

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Slate Money - SBF (Sweaters, Birkenstock, FTX) Oct 14, 2023

Show notes

Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers and Emily Peck talk about the latest in the Sam Bankman-Fried trial. They also discuss the (maybe bad???) Birkenstock IPO, and why your sweaters are getting worse.

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 Patrick Fort.

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What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - The Israel-Hamas War Instantly Broke X Oct 13, 2023

Show notes

When the Arab Spring was unfolding, Twitter was hailed as a way for on-the-ground reporting to reach the public. But when fighting between Hamas and Israel broke out over the weekend, X became flooded with misinformation.

Guest: Casey Newton, founder and editor of the technology newsletter Platformer.

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.

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Political Gabfest - Gaza War Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Juliette Kayyem to discuss the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Steve Scalise’s fight for the gavel of the House Speaker.

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

Juliette Kayyem for The Atlantic: “A Devastating Attack by Hamas”

Tom Dannenbaum for Just Security: “The Siege of Gaza and the Starvation War Crime”

Zack Beauchamp for Vox: “Benjamin Netanyahu failed Israel”

Aamer Madhani and Ellen Knickmeyer for AP: “Biden’s hopes for establishing Israel-Saudi relations could become a casualty of the new Mideast war”

Kevin Liptak, MJ Lee, Kayla Tausche, and Jeff Zeleny for CNN: “Biden’s dilemma in Israel response: Outrage without escalation”

Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman for Politico: “’Unacceptably devoid of empathy’: DSA is facing an internal reckoning on Israel”

Jack Stripling and Laura Meckler for The Washington Post: “At colleges, violence in Israel and Gaza ignites a war of words”

Bertha Gonzalez for The Stanford Daily: “Saller, Martinez condemn Hamas attack in University statement”

Carl Hulse for The New York Times: “Republicans Choose a New Speaker Nominee, Then Quickly Undercut Him”

Jason Lange for Reuters: “RFK Jr could draw one in seven US voters in 2024 presidential election, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows”

Steve Peoples for AP: “How third-party and independent candidates could threaten Democrats and Republicans in 2024”

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Rabbi Erez Sherman in the Jewish Journal: “Mourning and Joy – At The Same Time”

Juliette: “The True-Blue American” by Delmore Schwartz in Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge

David: Matthew Yglesias for Slow Boring: “The “Deaths of Despair” narrative is wrong” and the movie “BlackBerry”

Listener chatter from Deb Knox: Little Amal and Sean Beauford for Pittsburgh City Paper: “A giant puppet comes to Pittsburgh, and, with it, recognition of child refugees”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, David, and Juliette discuss Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, No Labels, and their possible effects on the presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

In the next Gabfest Reads, 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 Jared Downing

Research by Julie Huygen

Hosts

Juliette Kayyem, Emily Bazelon, and David Plotz

Follow

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

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

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What Next - Could Student Debt Relief Still Happen? Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

After their first plan to forgive billions of dollars of student debt was thwarted by the Supreme Court, the Biden administration is quietly searching for other ways to help borrowers.

Guest: Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, senior higher education reporter for Higher Ed Dive.

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.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.

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What Next - A Bipartisan Border Wall? Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

President Biden’s administration announced plans to resume construction of a wall on the southern border, contradicting a contrast then-candidate Joe Biden drew between himself and his opponent in 2020,

Guest: Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute at NYU’s School of Law

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.

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What Next - Where Israel Vs Hamas Is Heading Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing a complete blockade of Gaza after Hamas militants killed more than 700 Israelis this weekend. The surprise attack caught Israeli intelligence completely off-guard, and has thrown the region into disarray, on the eve of landmark talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

What’s the next stage of this already-volatile conflict? And what’s next for civilians in the Gaza Strip?

Guest: Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent for The Economist

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What Next - One Year 1955: Siberia, USA Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

While the What Next team enjoys today's holiday, we are proud to present this episode on viral misinformation in 1955 from our colleagues at Slate's One Year. What Next will be back tomorrow.

When Alaskans wanted their own mental-health facility, a rumor took hold all over America. This week, Evan Chung traces the origins of that far-right conspiracy theory: that the government was building a concentration camp where Americans would get imprisoned for their political beliefs. Get ready for a strange tale that involves a brainwashing manual, Scientology, and a vast network of Communist-hunting housewives.

Josh Levin is One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung.

This episode was produced by Kelly Jones and Evan Chung, with additional production by Sophie Summergrad.

It was edited by Josh Levin, Joel Meyer, and Derek John, Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts.

Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director.

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Slate Money - Slate Money Goes to the Movies: Barbie Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

In this episode of the Movies series, the gang talks with Slate’s Cheyna Roth about Barbie. Is Barbie an anti-capitalist movie? Does Ryan Gosling steal too much of the show? And what message does Barbie’s success send to Hollywood?

Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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Slate Money - Is Ozempic Eating Into Snack Profits? Oct 07, 2023

Show notes

This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers talk about how Ozempic affects food buying habits, the rise in mortgage and interest rates, and the decrease in stock buybacks.

In the Plus segment: The correlation between life expectancy and having a college degree.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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