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Amazon has installed digital palm readers at Whole Foods. The reader scans your palm, collecting biometric data, and links it to your credit card to pay for your groceries. What does exchanging vein mapping for eggs and butter mean for the future of data security and in-person shopping. 
Guest: Emily Moore, freelance tech and food journalist
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Cheyna Roth.
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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the 2024 presidential debates; a possible warning on social media and another ban of smartphones in schools; and the future and failures of one-party rule.
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Ashley Lopez for NPR: Biden vs. Trump remains close, so next week’s debate offers them an opportunity
James Oliphant for Reuters: The Biden-Trump presidential debate: what to watch for
Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein for The New York Times: Trump, Biden and CNN Prepare for a Hostile Debate (With Muted Mics)
Josh Barro for Very Serious: Of Course Biden Should Attack Trump for Being a Convicted Felon
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy in The New York Times: Surgeon General: Why I’m Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media Platforms and Sherry Turkle: Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
Consider This on NPR: ‘An unfair fight’: The U.S. surgeon general declares war on social media
Howard Blume and Defne Karabatur for The Los Angeles Times: LAUSD approves cellphone ban as Newsom calls for statewide action
Tatum Hunter for The Washington Post: What research actually says about social media and kids’ health
Candice L. Odgers in Nature: The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?
Mitch Daniels in The Washington Post: Indiana is revealing the real consequences of one-party rule
Ballotpedia: State government trifectas
Scott S. Greenberger in NC Newsline: Shared power used to be the norm in state government. Now it’s nearly extinct.
Nicholas Kristof for The New York Times: What Have We Liberals Done to the West Coast?

Here are this week’s chatters:
John: Liquor.com: Vesper; The New York Times: John Hurt in ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’; and John Hurt in The Guardian: Krapp’s Last Tape: John Hurt on Samuel Beckett’s loner hero
Emily: The Innocence Project: Texas Seeks Execution Date for Robert Roberson, An Innocent Man Wrongly Convicted Under Debunked Shaken Baby Hypothesis
David: Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Georgetown University: The Vocation of Journalists in a Time of Testing; Washington City Paper: Paper, Cut; and Bruce Weber and Ashley Southall for The New York Times: David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58
Listener chatter from Tristan Hinderliter in Long Island City, New York: Samantha Pearson for The Wall Street Journal: Even Hardened Convicts Are No Match for These Guard Geese
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John talk about the Brat Pack: then and now. See Hulu: Brats and David Blum for New York Magazine: Hollywood’s Brat Pack. See also RHINO: John Parr – St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) (Official Music Video) and Comedy Bites Vintage: Don’t You Forget About Me (Final Scene) The Breakfast Club.
 
In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Sierra Greer about her new book, Annie Bot: 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
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The Supreme Court is soon expected to decide Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case where a town’s efforts to remove unhoused people from its parks became “cruel and unusual,” according to lower courts.

Guest: Dr. Bruce Murray, chief medical officer for the Mobile Integrative Navigation Team (MINT) in Josephine County, Oregon.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the Christian right seems to be setting its sights on banning in-vitro fertilization. But even though the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against IVF, it’s a very popular and widely accepted procedure, which is why Senate Republicans signed a statement in favor of access to IVF, the same day almost all voted against protecting it by law.

Guest: Megan Messerly, health policy reporter at Politico.

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

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The American economy has gotten more consolidated and more reliant on algorithms—while also, according to most people, getting more expensive, slower, and worse. Is there some causality in this correlation? 

Guest: Matt Stoller, Research Director for the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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The stereotype of Black fathers is that they’re largely absent, and uninvolved in their children’s lives. And that image persists, despite research that suggests that Black fathers are often more involved in the daily care of their kids than white fathers. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Sean Williams, the founder of The Dad Gang, an organization that uplifts and supports Black and other marginalized fathers. They talk about the challenges of fatherhood, and building a community where dads can help each other.

Guest: Sean Williams, founder of The Dad Gang

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

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