This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what happens when the government is untrustworthy as a strong pattern of DOJ lying under oath emerges, why the NYC mayor-elect and the president were so cordial with each other in the Oval Office, and how MAGA world continues to fracture as Marjorie Taylor Greene announces her resignation and the Fuentes/Carlson controversy continues. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the new campaign from th...
Nov 27, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss a new oral history of President Trump’s Department of Justice, the complex transactional nationalism of this week’s visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with guest Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor and co-host of the new podcast The Long Game , and what is likely to happen now that Trump has signed the bill to release the Justice Department’s Epstein files. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily...
Nov 20, 2025•1 hr
John Dickerson talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation . Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, their conversation explores how a decade of optimism, leverage, and moral hazard culminated in the financial collapse that defined modern capitalism. Sorkin details how figures like banker Charles “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell, Senator Carter Glass, and investor Jesse Livermore shaped ...
Nov 15, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why Democrats caved to end the government shutdown and what comes next, the affordability crisis with guest and editorial director for New York Times Opinion David Leonhardt , and the importance of this week’s spectacle of competing Epstein document drops. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the consequential career and historic legacy of Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the...
Nov 13, 2025•58 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how Tuesday’s decisive election results give a legitimate boost to Democrats’ prospects as they work toward the midterms, whether the Supreme Court justices will finally draw a line on presidential power and protect Congress’s power of the purse in the consequential tariffs case, and how the Trump administration is using SNAP recipients as pawns in a cruel political game. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and ...
Nov 06, 2025•56 min
This week, live from Chicago to celebrate 20 years of the Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Trump vs. Chicago showdown and the dynamics between progressive and centrist Democrats with former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel , what threat President Trump poses to the future of American elections and how to push back, and memorable moments from Gabfest history. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, live from Chicago to ...
Oct 30, 2025•1 hr 16 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how President Trump reacted to the No Kings protests by embracing his own “cult of the ruler” in particularly dramatic fashion, whether the shutdown will eventually break enough government functions to force more urgency in negotiations, and why Young Republicans are fawning over Hitler in group chats. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David talk to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl about what it means to be a rabbi t...
Oct 23, 2025•55 min
Emily Bazelon talks with Yale law professor John Witt about his new book The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America . They explore the remarkable story of the Garland Fund—a small 1920s foundation that bankrolled early work by A. Philip Randolph, and others who would go on to shape the civil rights and labor movements. Witt traces how the fund connected race and class politics, supported the intellectual groundwork for Brown v. Board of Education , and anti...
Oct 18, 2025•28 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Gaza ceasefire and prospects for long-term peace with Rob Malley , Middle East policy expert and co-author (with Hussein Agha) of the new book Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine , which side is likely to fold first in the ongoing government shutdown, and who benefits as the Supreme Court hears arguments about whether the 14th Amendment clashes with the Voting Rights Act. For this w...
Oct 16, 2025•55 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the extremely consequential new Supreme Court term beginning this week, the facts on the ground and the legal questions at play behind Trump’s escalating deployments of troops to US cities, and the likely legal defeat of state bans on conversion therapy. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the Treasury Department’s unironic plans to release a $1 coin featuring the current president to celebrate...
Oct 09, 2025•1 hr 1 min
This week, John Dickerson, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the disturbing spectacle of military fealty staged by Hegseth and Trump at Quantico, the possible outcomes of the dramatic government shutdown, and the hybrid war Russia appears to be waging with drones over distressed European cities. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, John, David, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the ugly spectacle of US golf fan behavior at this week’s Ryder Cup and what it says about ...
Oct 02, 2025•1 hr 2 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how Trump is using the powerful machine of government prosecution to reverse-engineer crimes supposedly committed by enemies, his diatribe against Tylenol at the disastrous press conference on autism, and the echoes of past Red Scares in today’s free speech climate with historian Beverly Gage , author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century . For this week’s Slate Plus bonus epis...
Sep 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Emily Bazelon talks with author and Yale professor Judith Resnik about her new book, Impermissible Punishments: How Prison Became a Problem for Democracy . They discuss the history of the prison system’s use of punishments like whipping, how the practice came to an end, 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/priva...
Sep 20, 2025•22 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the government’s intimidation tactics aimed at chilling free speech after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, why Trump seems intent to provoke armed conflict with Venezuela, and how the president and his Republican allies are upending DC self-governance with guest Michael Schaffer ( City Cast DC , Politico ). For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the extraordinary corruption revealed by a new investig...
Sep 18, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk amid an extremely troubling climate of political violence in America, another Supreme Court order with no majority explanation allowing racial profiling by ICE in LA, and a score-settling excerpt from Kamala Harris’s upcoming memoir 107 Days. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the astonishing new details revealed by the release of a book of letters collected f...
Sep 11, 2025•59 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the spate of legal defeats for the Trump administration portends as cases wind toward the Supreme Court, the real world effects of RFK Jr. gutting the CDC with guest Dr. Josh Sharfstein , and whether Democrats should compel government shutdown or avoid it now that Congress is back. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss NASA Voyager’s journey through space as it reaches a new milestone and wa...
Sep 04, 2025•57 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump’s brazen effort to smash Fed independence by wielding allegations of mortgage fraud against Fed governor Lisa Cook, the expanding law enforcement role of the National Guard in DC and other cities, and the inexplicable folly of Trump’s all-out assault on the renewable wind industry. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss this week’s bizarre NYC bribery scandal involving an advisor to Eric Ada...
Aug 28, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump’s deepening takeover of Washington D.C. as National Guard troops from red states arrive, what if anything was accomplished in the whirlwind of Putin-Trump-Zelensky diplomacy, and this week’s launch of the new liberal publication The Argument with its Editor-in-Chief Jerusalem Demsas . For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss escalations of the retribution campaigns against Trump’s rivals, spea...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Political Gabfest host Emily Bazelon talks with Jonathan Mahler about his new book, The Gods of New York. They discuss the unraveling of Mayor Ed Koch’s New York City; how the city’s current mayoral race is mirroring the past; 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....
Aug 16, 2025•38 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and guest host Jamelle Bouie discuss the perils of this week’s Trump-plus-Putin (minus Zelensky) summit in Alaska, how Trump’s claimed crime “emergency” provided pretext for National Guard deployment and takeover of D.C. police, and a new presidential memorandum requiring colleges to share admissions data to “verify” that they are not considering race. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and guest host Jamelle Bouie discuss when and, p...
Aug 15, 2025•54 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the future integrity of US economic data after Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what the mid-decade redistricting arms race portends for the future of US representative government, and the phenomenon of “Trump’s Rasputin,” Laura Loomer. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Jake Jones for BBC Sport: The rise of padel and why it's so popular ; LTAPadel: Official padel rules explained ; Padelexpres...
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the international condemnations of Israel’s actions. They also examine how the Trump administration is gaining control of both universities and the judiciary—through settlements with Ivy League institutions and a controversial judicial confirmation. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, David, Emily and John discuss the controversy surrounding American Eagle In the latest Gabfest Re...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 1 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the latest developments in the Epstein files saga, how Supreme Court decisions under John Roberts have dramatically expanded Trump’s power, and whether the Texas Republicans’ redistricting plan will tip the map redder, or backfire. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss what they are enjoying reading, watching, and cooking so far this summer. In the latest Gabfest Reads , David talks with Carl Hia...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 2 min
David Plotz talks with author Carl Hiaasen about his new book, Fever Beach . Fever Beach is a political satire that follows a couple of dimwitted white supremacists, a corrupt congressman, and the people that try to take them all down. They discuss the real-life racist event Hiaasen witnessed that inspired a central scene in the novel, how Matt Gaetz factors into the book, Hiaasen’s next moves, and more. Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com . (Messages could be ...
Jul 19, 2025•24 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the epic MAGA meltdown over the DOJ’s “there’s nothing to see here” Epstein files memo, how the Supreme Court is using the “shadow docket” to bolster Trump’s efforts to dismantle the federal government, and whether rescission will kill NPR and PBS. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss what they are enjoying reading, watching, and cooking so far this summer. In the latest Gabfest Reads , David ta...
Jul 17, 2025•1 hr 10 min
This week, David Plotz and guest hosts Mike Pesca and Susan Glasser discuss what to make of Elon Musk’s quixotic attempt to start a third political party in America, how Trump’s conflation of national interest with self-interest creates an incoherent foreign policy, and the tedious but impactful “summer rerun season” of Trump’s tariff folly. Here are this week’s chatters: Mike: ABC7 New York: Traffic deaths across NYC at record low so far this year as City sees historic drop ; Tomoki Chein for T...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 6 min
This week, David Plotz and guest hosts Will Saletan and Catherine Rampell discuss what the Senate’s regressive budget bill will do to the health of America, whether there is space left for non-Trump conservatives in American politics, and how Paramount’s settlement of Trump’s meritless lawsuit signifies the fall of another guardrail against an authoritarian president. Here are this week’s chatters: Will: Amy MacKinnon and John Sakellariadis for Politico: CIA review of 2016 Russia election probe ...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 7 min
This week, Emily Bazelon and guest hosts Ruth Marcus and James Forman discuss Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities with guest Steven Cook from the Council on Foreign Relations , Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, and an astonishing whistleblower report that sheds incriminating light on Trump’s judicial nominee Emil Bove and defiance of court orders in deportation flight cases. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily Bazelon and guest hosts Ru...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 3 min
David Plotz talks with author Alison Bechdel about her new book, Spent . They discuss what’s memoir and what’s less than memoir in the comic novel, David’s own contribution to the book, 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....
Jun 21, 2025•27 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether the US should join Israel’s war on Iran, the tragic Minnesota assassinations and why US political violence is surging now, and the Supreme Court’s unsurprising but willfully obtuse decision to uphold Tennessee’s youth transgender care ban. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: A Family Matter by Claire Lynch; The Fall of Affirmative Action: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education by Justin Driver; A Flo...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min
