Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there. Or follow us @SlateGabfest! The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
The Slate Political Gabfest is brought to you by Stamps.com. Buy and print official U.S. postage using your own computer and printer, and save up to 80 percent compared with a postage meter. Sign up for Stamps.com and get a four-week trial and a $110 bonus offer when you use the promo code GABFEST.
And by Bonobos. Bonobos takes the pain and hassle out of finding stylish clothes that fit. For a limited time, all new customers can get 20 percent off their first order at Bonobos.com/gabfest. Discover the difference that an expertly crafted, better-fitting wardrobe can make.
And by HelloFresh, the meal kit delivery service that makes cooking fun, easy, and convenient! Each week, HelloFresh creates new, delicious recipes—complete with step-by-step instructions. They are designed to take around 30 minutes. Visit HelloFresh.com and enter GABFEST when you subscribe, and you’ll get $35 off your first week of deliveries.
To listen to the discussion, use the player below:
Subscribe in iTunes ∙ RSS feed ∙ Download ∙ Play in another tab
Slate Plus members: Get your ad-free podcast feed.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, the hosts discuss Chris Hughes’ selling of the New Republic and the lessons about modern journalism. Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at www.slate.com/gabfestplus.
On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and John Dickerson discuss the tightening race between Hillary and Bernie in Iowa, the Supreme Court’s upcoming blow to unions, and Sean Penn’s controversial interview with Mexican drug lord El Chapo.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- Polls essentially show a tie between Sanders and Clinton in Iowa. Is Bernie Sanders truly rising? Is Sanders the dog that caught the postal van?
- Is Hillary’s health care attack signaling a more vehement side? Is the attack nonsensical?
- Is criticism of Bill unfair to Hillary?
- Will Sanders win in Iowa and New Hampshire? Will that be enough to take Clinton down?
- The Supreme Court looks poised to deliver a huge blow to public-sector unions with a case that the conservative majority sees as a First Amendment issue.
- Declining union membership is correlated to declining middle-class income. Without public-sector unions what will protect the middle class? What will happen to the labor movement in the United States?
- We luxuriate in all the ways Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo Guzmán was terrible—a journalistic embarrassment—before our more substantive critique. (Plus, see Lowen Liu’s fabulous line-edit of Penn’s interview for Slate.)
- How would Emily, John, and David have done the interview? What about letting El Chapo review the article before publishing? What if Penn had just given El Chapo a byline?
- Should it have been a Mexican journalist conducting the interview?
- Oh, and El Chapo didn’t even know who Sean Penn was, and was really only crushing on the actress Kate del Castillo.
- Read more of Slate’s coverage of news & politics.
Emily chatters about her teenage obsession for David Bowie, his song
“Hunky Dory,” and a beautiful tribute to him by Rick Wakeman.
John chatters about Maria Popova’s article on the psychology of trust, “The Confidence Game.”
David chatters about Atlas Obscura’s “Obscura Day 2016” and calls for collaborations (email dplotz@atlasobscura.org) and endorses the eerie, engrossing podcast Limetown.
Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest (#heygabfest). (Tweets may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jayson De Leon. Links compiled by Elle Bisgaard-Church.
