Political Gabfest - Is the Melania Movie a Bribe?

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 facing deposition in House Epstein investigations.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, David, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss a fascinating profile of anti-government militia leader Ammon Bundy, the contrast between Bundy’s and his former allies’ views on ICE tactics, and how messages about individual liberty and government intervention might be affecting the Trump administration’s narratives about immigration enforcement.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with author Curtis Sittenfeld about her short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” 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.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.

Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen.

Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.

Follow

@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest

Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(4958)

What Next - The Data Center Will Not Hold

Donald Trump owes his political career to saying what no other politician would. But now that he’s standing alone in full-throated support of data centers and artificial intelligence, he looks less li...

22 Sep 31min

Death, Sex & Money - My Homeschool Curriculum Was My Mother’s Unhappiness

Stefan’s mother said he was too smart for public school and took him out of 4th grade. But instead of studying, Stefan’s homeschool curriculum was organized around keeping his mother company and prete...

22 Sep 55min

What Next - Why is Everyone Fighting Over... Macklemore?

What it means that Macklemore decided he’d rather keep speaking out for Palestine than continue opening for Ed Sheeran.Guest: Soraya Nadia McDonald, cultural critic and writer. Want more What Next? Su...

21 Sep 30min

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - One Ballot After Another

You’ve seen the headlines about the lists, the claims, the THREE times this same executive order about voting by mail has gone to the Supreme Court. But is Trump’s interference with mail-in voting se...

19 Sep 1h 6min

Slate Money - Avoiding the A.I. Apocalypse

This week: Everyone is talking about A.I. safety as OpenAI shares more alarming security breaches. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck examine the complicated reality of trying to slow down...

19 Sep 52min

ICYMI - Calm Down, There’s No “AI Apocalypse”

A former Anthropic employee claimed AI would lead to the end of humanity, and soon. In the weeks since, the “whistleblower” has done a full press tour, with even Anthropic and OpenAI themselves seemin...

19 Sep 41min

Political Gabfest - Gabfest Reads | The Tax Nobody Talks About: Your Time

David Plotz talks with journalist Annie Lowrey about her new book The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time—and How to Fix It, an investigation into the hours Americans lose to broken bureaucra...

19 Sep 33min

What Next - Off-the-Record: Weddings by Kremlev

Don Trump Jr.’s wedding had everything: a private island, fireworks, a Funfetti cake airlifted in from Florida—everything but the groom’s dad. But that’s the advantage of being rich, you can pay for t...

18 Sep 3min