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Event: David Plotz will interview—or interrogate—his wife, DoubleX co-founder Hanna Rosin, about her new book, The End of Men, on Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C. (tickets here), and on Sept. 12 in New York (more details here).

On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon, and special guest David Weigel discuss Republican vice presidential pick Paul Ryan, Fareed Zakaria's journalistic sins, and progressive rock.

Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:

Dave Weigel mentions a Jonathan Chait profile of Paul Ryan in New York Magazine. Interested in other Ryan profiles? Check-out coverage by Ryan’s home-state paper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in 2009; the Weekly Standard in July, 2012; the New York Times in April, 2012; and the recent New Yorker piece by Ryan Lizza, which was discussed on last week’s Gabfest.

John describes an effort by the Romney campaign to “go on offense” regarding Medicare. Karl Rove describes the GOP strategy in the Wall Street Journal. For rebuttal and a useful rundown of other Medicare links, visit Ezra Klein’s Aug. 15 Wonkbook.

Emily mentions recent evidence that health care costs are falling. Peter Orzag covers those findings in his Ryan reaction.

Dave notices that William Kristol successfully influenced the VP pick in 2008 and 2012, though he thinks the arguments were different. Kristol wrote a Weekly Standard editorial on Aug. 9 that advocates a Ryan pick.  

Dave discusses a piece fact-checking Jonah Lehrer in Meetings and Conventions, a trade journal.

Weigel’s series on the history of Progressive Rock is in Slate.

Dave chatters about David Plotz’s interview with Michael Grunwald about his book The New New Deal.

Emily chatters about updated research from the famous marshmallow/delayed gratification study. Visit Emily’s "XX Factor" post for more.

John chatters in memory of Gore Vidal and recommends his favorite Vidal book, Washington, D.C.: A Novel.

John also thanks producer Dale Willman, who leaves the Gabfest this week. Dale is now the managing editor and publisher of Saratoga Wire.

Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest

The e-mail address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Andrew Bouvé and Dale Willman. Links compiled by Jeff Friedrich.