Political Gabfest

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why an insurgent candidate with so many red flags got so far, how shocking new details about Trump's 2025 income show billions in earnings while those who bought his crypto lost billions, and what everyone lost when the president decided World Cup rules didn't apply to us. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and D...

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Ruth Marcus discuss this week's momentous Supreme Court rulings. The FTC/ Slaughter case overturns nearly a century of precedent protecting independent agencies from presidential power while Cook makes a suspicious exception for the Fed, birthright citizenship prevails on constitutional grounds but the close vote further reveals what's broken a...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Tuesday's NY congressional primaries won by three Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and what they could mean for the Democratic Party, two new Supreme Court immigration rulings siding with the Trump administration, and the ongoing Reflecting Pool debacle as the symbol of a presidency of obsessive ego and shiny objects. For this w...

Emily Bazelon interviews Senator Chris Murphy about his new book Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America . Murphy argues that Trump is not the root cause of America's political crisis—he's a symptom. The real diagnosis: a country ravaged by loneliness, disconnection, and the collapse of community. From gun violence to Jan. 6, Murphy traces our troubles b...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the U.S. is getting and what it is giving up with the deal to end Trump's Iran war, how Trump's UFC fight at the White House intentionally used the symbols of the presidency to divide rather than unite Americans, and the intensifying conflict between the government and powerful AI companies. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus epi...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether this week's resumption of open hostilities in the Iran war has changed the likelihood of an imminent end to the conflict, what to do about how California's slow vote-counting emboldens Trump's cries of election foul, and the most hotly contested D.C. mayoral election in a generation with guest Mike Schaffer from City Cast DC...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Graham Platner's accumulating self-inflicted wounds will cost Democrats their best shot at Senate control, how Trump's evolving plans for America's semiquincentennial are giving us all a real time lesson in what the Founders were trying to avoid, and the political and social dimensions of being an American World Cup soccer f...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what Ken Paxton's dominant win over John Cornyn could mean when he faces Democrat James Talarico for the Texas Senate seat in November, how Trump has no good options in the ongoing negotiations over a possible deal with Iran, and why lawmakers need to act on AI before it's too late with guest Alex Bores , New York Assemblymember and...

  This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what Trump is actually trying to buy with his blatantly corrupt "anti-weaponization" slush fund and self-dealing, why Trump can exact primary election revenge on his Republican critics when his own popularity is so low, and how the federal government is obstructing attempts to hold ICE agents involved in shootings accountable...

In this month’s episode of Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Bloomberg columnist Adrian Wooldridge about his new book The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism . In a moment when American democracy is under assault from authoritarian populists and dogmatic progressives, Wooldridge argues that liberalism itself offers the most resilient framework for pluralistic, self-correctin...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the geopolitical dynamics and possible outcomes of the Trump-Xi summit with former New York Times Beijing Bureau Chief  and host of Face-Off: the US vs. China , Jane Perlez , whether or not the United States has essentially lost the war it started in Iran, and how badly the latest round of gerrymandering will hurt the Democrats...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how the Iran War is hurting Trump and the Republicans as its economic fallout grows, the sudden revival of abortion pill politics which ended an uneasy equilibrium between federal law and state bans, and early results of a study on school cellphone bans. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss recent...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the ongoing political fallout from Saturday's attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the monumental impact the Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais will have on minority political representation, and what yesterday's oral arguments at SCOTUS portend for immigrants under Temporary Pr...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump's need for a face-saving exit amid his economically disastrous standoff with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, how Kash Patel's defamation suit against The Atlantic could hurt him more than help him, and a controversial new Yale report on trust in higher education with guest and report committee co-chair Beverly Gage . For this...

Emily Bazelon talks with journalist Mark Oppenheimer about his new book Judy Blume: A Life . Oppenheimer, who spent years with Blume’s papers at Yale and conducted extensive interviews with the author herself, traces how a restless housewife in New Jersey became one of the most beloved—and most banned—writers in American history. They discuss what made Blume’s frank, funny voice so revolutionary f...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump's Hormuz blockade and his feud with the Pope, a new oral history chronicling stark shifts inside the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's second term, and how to unwind authoritarianism after the consequential electoral defeat of Hungary's Viktor Orbán with guest Anne Applebaum . For this week’s Slate Plus bonus epis...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the state of the U.S. war with Iran including what Tuesday night's abject ceasefire means, a deeply unsettling profile of the internet fringe group "Groypers" that shows how they are affecting Republican politics with guest Antonia Hitchens , and legal and moral arguments over mandatory school reading lists being considered in Texas...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss yesterday's oral arguments in the monumentally important birthright citizenship case at the Supreme Court, Trump's primetime attempt to convince Americans that both their wallets and the Iran war are just fine, and strategy versus vibes in key Senate races in Maine and Texas. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, an...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why politicians keep failing to solve the escalating crisis of American air travel as massive lines and ICE agents disrupt airport operations, what could happen to the 2026 elections when the Supreme Court decides the fate of a state law on mail-in ballot deadlines, and how two jury verdicts provide new legal hooks to hold social me...

David Plotz talks with journalist Gabriel Sherman about his new book Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family—and the World . Sherman, who also wrote the bestselling biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, spent 15 years reporting on the Murdoch empire. In this book he turns his lens on the family itself — the rivalries, the wounds, and th...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how policies of anger and dominance structure President Trump’s approach to adversaries, allies, and the independent press alike, how the dangers of the online sports-betting industry are outrunning limited guardrails with guest McKay Coppins , and how a federal judge just handed RFK Jr.’s war on vaccines its biggest setback yet. Fo...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump will be willing to endure the political pain if his capricious Iran war causes gas to hit $5 a gallon, the system of ICE mega-prisons DHS is starting to build, and new fronts in Trump’s efforts to control the 2026 elections and beyond. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss last weeken...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the possible political outcomes of the war in Iran given the complexities of Iranian society with guest Karim Sadjadpour , whether the primary election results could mean that Texas will finally turn blue, and the amazing legal back-and-forth between the embarrassed Trump DOJ and the victorious Big Law firms who fought back against...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump’s State of the Union address effectively convinced voters to ignore the pain in their wallets because he says he’s “winning” the economy, how the Supreme Court finally stood up to the president on something he really cares about, and the Pentagon’s ominous ultimatum against AI company Anthropic. For this week’s Slate P...

John Dickerson talks with Father James Martin about his new book, Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest . They discuss the spiritual lessons learned through eight different jobs, Martin's controversial LGBTQ ministry that made him a target of criticism within the Catholic Church, and what the Gospels demand abou...