The Elitist and Hypocrite Gabfest
Listen to Slate's show about the White House plan to confront gun violence, the suicide of Aaron Swartz, and a preview of President Obama’s inauguration.
Posted Friday, Jan. 18, 2013, at 2:47 PM
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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz discuss the White House plan to confront gun violence and the overzealous prosecution and suicide of RSS developer and hacktivist Aaron Swartz. Plus, they preview the Presidential Inauguration.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:
- On Wednesday, the White House released its plan to address gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
- Before President Obama’s announcement, John wrote about the short window of time available after a shooting for taking political action on gun control.
- Emily references Slate’s William Saletan’s look at how the NRA is framing a focus on mental health. Saletan also wrote about the NRA’s political strategy after the White House announcement.
- David highlights Slate’s effort to record and map every gun death since the Newtown shooting.
- The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent looks at how the country’s shifting demographics might be changing the politics of gun control in favor of liberal policies.
- Emily cites Orin Kerr’s take on the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. Emily’s view is that the prosecution was overzealous.
- David and Emily recommend Tim Wu’s piece in The New Yorker about how societies should remain welcoming to their “eccentrics and deviant geniuses.”
Emily chatters about the 50th anniversary of The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.
John chatters about Maya Eilam’s infographic depicting Kurt Vonnegut’s theory of story structure.
David chatters about Kate Ascher’s The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper.
Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. 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 Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Jeff Friedrich.
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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and writes about law, family, and kids. She is also the Truman Capote Fellow at Yale Law School and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. Her new book is Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Empathy and Character. Find her at emilybazelon@gmail.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at slatepolitics@gmail.com. Read his series on the presidency and his series on risk. Follow him on Twitter.
David Plotz is the Editor of Slate. He's the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and Good Book. He appears on Slate's Political Gabfest.