Political Gabfest Slate Magazine

Emily, John and David discuss the unusual but uplifting inauguration, Joe Biden’s priorities, and the Trump aftermath.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Joe Biden’s inauguration speech
Inauguration video from former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton
Kevin Quealy for the New York Times: “The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021) 

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 
John: The books of P.G. Wodehouse read by Jonathan Cecil
Emily: Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger for the Detroit News: “Michigan Republicans Seek to Replace GOP Canvasser Who Certified Election”
David: Jules Suzdaltsev’s Twitter thread of photos of weird things Trump did in office.
Listener chatter from Clay Jeffries @clayjeffries: Sam Kean for the Atlantic: “22 Orphans Gave Up Everything to Distribute the World’s First Vaccine”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John imagine some classes they would like to teach.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, David and John talk about impeachment, whether Americans can be deradicalized, and guest Juliette Kayyem joins in to discuss vaccine distribution.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “People Are Dying. Whom Do We Save First With the Vaccine? 
Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America by John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavrek 
Amarnath Amarasingam’s Twitter thread on de-platforming extremists. 
Amarnath Amarasingam, Shiraz Maher, and Charlie Winter for the Centre for Research and
Evidence on Security Threats: “How Telegram Disruption Impacts Jihadist Platform Migration”

The music of Ludovico Einaudi
The music of Joan Armatrading
The music of John Prine
The music of M.I.A.
The music of Joan Jett
The music of Maren Morris
The music of Joni Mitchell
The music of Bob Mould and Husker Du
The music of Nick Thompson
Nicholas Thompson for Wired: “To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past”
“Iko Iko” performed by the Grateful Dead 
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” performed by Gerry and the Pacemakers
Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
Desire by Bob Dylan
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 
John: Nathaniel Popper for The New York Times: “Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes”

Emily: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 

David: The Dancing Bird of Paradise Scene from “Our Planet”

Listener chatter from Richard Medlicott: Steven Levy for Wired: “A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John talk about the music they turn to in order to clear their heads.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John and David discuss the invasion of the U.S. Capitol and Democrats’ historic win in Georgia.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: 
Yuval Levin for the National Review: “Failures of Leadership in a Populist Age”
Anne Applebaum for the Atlantic: “History Will Judge the Complicit”
Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “The Pandemic Election”
Emily Bazelon for Slate in 2013: “Voting Rights 2.0”
Steven Lance for Atavist: “The Secret Formula: Could Shrunken Heads From the Amazon Hold the Key to Curing Cancer? One Man Thought So—and Spent a Lifetime Trying to Prove It.” 
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812,by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich 

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 
John: Agence France-Presse, “Exceptionally Well-Preserved Snack Bar Unearthed in Pompeii”
David: David Segal for the New York Times: “It’s Mother vs. Son in Britain’s Priciest Divorce War” 
Emily: Tweet by Kyle Machulis @qDo of the most important competitive dog dancing video
Listener chatter from Cyrus Farivar @cfarivar: Jason Kottke for Kottke.org: “The Last Documented Widow of a Civil War Veteran Has Died at the Age of 101”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John consider in what time period they would first go to see a doctor, given what we know now about the history of medicine.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz reminisce about 15 years of podcasting together. They look back on past mistakes and deliver fresh kindnesses. This live show was recorded on Dec 9, 2020.

You can watch a special tribute video here and a video of the entire 15th Anniversary Show is here. 

Here are some references from this week’s show: 
Jonathan Rauch for the Atlantic: “How American Politics Went Insane”
 
Conor Friedersdorf for the Atlantic: “Working Mom Arrested for Letting Her 9-Year-Old Play Alone at Park”
 
 
Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 
 
John: The Washington Post: “Sept. 8 in History: Evel Knievel’s Canyon Jump, Nixon Pardon”
 
Emily: Catrin Einhorn and Christopher Flavelle for The New York Times: “A Race Against Time to Rescue a Reef From Climate Change”
 
David: Washington Post: “Plastic Surgeons Say Business Is Up, Partly Because Clients Don’t Like How They Look On Zoom”
 
Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John share politically-themed cocktail recipes from listeners and of their own.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John, and David end 2020 considering listeners’ most perplexing conundrums—with special guest Alexandra Petri!

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
The Life of George Washington: With Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honourable to Himself, and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen by Mason Locke Weems

Marching Bands Are Just Homeless Orchestras, Half-Empty Thoughts Vol. 1 by Tim Siedell

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
 
David G. Savage for The Los Angeles Times: “Clarence Thomas is His Own Man

The Glory and The Dream by William Manchester

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey 

The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, Netflix

Fyre Fraud, Hulu

Black Mirror: “Nosedive,” Netflix

Black Mirror: “Arkangel,” Netflix

Here are some of the conundrums tackled on the show: 

To save the world from eventual destruction, you have to live and work in one of two locations that you cannot leave for three years: one on the ocean floor, the other on the moon. Which do you choose and why? 

What pre-1900 social custom (especially one related to how people interact with each other in public) that has fallen out of fashion should be revived in 2021 and beyond?

Would you rather have read War and Peace but not be able to talk about it, or to have read Atlas Shrugged and have to talk about it?

A pair of 80s style magical leg warmers must be visibly worn all day to activate superhuman cheetah speed. Do you wear them? 


For the rest of quarantine, you must share your home with a fictional character. Who is your new roommate?

You can have your portrait painted by any artist from any period of history, or your biography written by any author. Whom would you pick?

If you could banish any widely accepted canard from people’s minds, what would it be?

If you, and only you, could see one statistic hovering over every person’s head, what would you want it to be?


Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, John, and Alexandra explore some bonus conundrums.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
 
The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily, John and David discuss the massive Russian hack-- with guest Alex Stamos, Bill Barr’s resignation, and Joe Biden’s cabinet.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Alex Stamos for The Washington Post: “Enough Is Enough. Here’s What We Should Do to Defend Against the Next Russian Cyberattacks.”

John Dickerson for 60 Minutes: “Excited Delirium: The Controversial Syndrome That Can Be Used to Protect Police From Misconduct Charges”

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 

John: Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times: “America, We Have a Problem”; The New Yorker Documentary, Episode 30: “The Man Who Invented More Than Eight Hundred Iconic Toys”

Emily: Daniel Nichanian for The Appeal: “Newly Elected Prosecutors Are Challenging The Death Penalty”; Rob Hayes for KABC: “LA County Da George Gascon's Plan To Reduce Sentences Sparks Concern From His Own Prosecutors”; Daniel Nichanian’s Twitter feed, @taniel 

David: Azam Ahmed for The New York Times: “She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One”

Listener chatter from @greenneck: Eric Simons for Bay News: “With Fewer than 2,000 Butterflies Counted So Far, Western Monarch Takes an Astonishing Step Closer to Extinction”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John discuss John’s reporting on “excited delirium,” the dubious medical justification for an increasing number of deaths of young Black men in police custody.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.
Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices