Political Gabfest

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the public figures being shamed and punished for their associations with Jeffrey Epstein while others remain unscathed, the insights and lessons revealed by a new oral history archive and interview with former President Obama, and the meaning of the Trump administration’s efforts to whitewash history. For this week’s Slate Plus bonu...

This week, live from Sixth & I in Washington DC to celebrate 20 years of the Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing with AG Pam Bondi and the Trump administration’s violations of constitutional rights with guest Rep. Jamie Raskin , how Trump’s assaults on DC have radically transformed the city, and patriotism...

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the juxtaposition between the devastating layoffs at The Washington Post and the exorbitant price owner Jeff Bezos and Amazon paid for the Melania movie, this week’s ominous foreshadowing of the Trump administration’s real threats to the 2026 elections with election law expert Nate Persily , and why the Clintons are faci...

  This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how the shocking killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents could represent a real turning point for Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, the cognitive dissonance about constitutional rights and conservative principles displayed by political leaders in the wake of Pretti’s killing, and a new book by guest Jason Zengerle :...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump’s lust for Greenland will break the world (or indeed, whether it already has), what this week’s arguments at the Supreme Court suggest about the future of Fed independence, and how FBI sources say the Bureau is being turned into a weapon of the president. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David...

Emily Bazelon talks with author Curtis Sittenfeld about her short story collection, “ Show Don't Tel l.” They discuss the recurring themes of the book from troubled marriages and middle age to the passage of time, and characters who are navigating moments of racial privilege and prejudice.  Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by na...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why Trump is stepping up his attacks on Fed Chair Powell and how it could backfire, the increasingly inflammatory actions of ICE and the slim likelihood of justice for Renee Good in Minneapolis, and the Trump administration’s unsettling efforts to sow doubt about election integrity ahead of the midterms. For this week’s Slate Plus b...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” means for international order after the US military extracted Maduro from Venezuela amid rumblings over Greenland and Cuba, the background and evolving situation in Minnesota after an ICE agent killed a woman during a raid, and how changes to the federal recommended childhood vaccine schedule dan...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz revisit several favorite segments from Gabfests past to celebrate their 20th anniversary: the consequential and eye-opening “don’t call the police” debate, the segment in which John shows Bill Clinton how to apologize with his characteristic eloquence and grace, and that time a data scientist definitively answered the important question: wh...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, David Plotz, and special guest Stephen Colbert answer listeners’ conundrums of all kinds: the meaningful, the trivial, and the delightfully absurd. Thanks to all Conundrums contributors: Karl, Elodie, Mitchell, Brian, Phil, Eric, Christian, Kyle, Matthew, Katie, Jesse, John, Bjorn, David, Colin, Alan, Emily, Marie, and Liam! Email your chatters, questions,...

David Plotz talks with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales about his new book The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last. They discuss how Wikipedia’s culture of assuming good faith and shared purpose became a model for building trustworthy digital communities — and what lessons that holds for companies, social media, and politics today. Wales reflects on how to maintain trus...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the vivid and impulsive portrait Susie Wiles paints of Trump’s White House in a revealing interview with Vanity Fair , what the new unemployment numbers say about the economy and how Americans are feeling about it, and why some studies show that young Americans are increasingly antisemitic. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode,...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what will happen as the Supreme Court considers whether a president can remove leaders of independent agencies without cause, how the overt signals about immigration and “erasure” in the new National Security Strategy are meant to stir up cultural anxiety in Europe, and the high-stakes merger drama between Netflix, Paramount, and Wa...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why the killing of survivors in a US military strike on an alleged drug boat is so dangerous for Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration, what the results of this week’s special election in Tennessee could portend for the upcoming midterms, and the adoption of self-driving cars as a public health measure. For this week’s Slate Plu...

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 continue...

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 bil...

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 ba...

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...

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 recipi...

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 mem...

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 bon...

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...

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 C...

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 Tr...

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...