Even George Clooney Has Abandoned Biden

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz continue to debate if Joe Biden should stay in the presidential race and who might replace him if he goes; discuss Project 2025; and ponder if Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett deserves a strange, new respect.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

George Clooney in The New York Times: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.

Franklin Foer for The Atlantic: Biden Has Fallen Into a Psychological Trap

Leigh Ann Caldwell, Marianna Sotomayor, Jacqueline Alemany, and Paul Kane for The Washington Post: Pelosi opens the door, subtly, to replacing Biden

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: coronate and ideate

Tim Alberta for The Atlantic: Trump Is Planning For A Landslide Win

Ryan Teague Beckwith for MSNBC: What is Project 2025? The plans for Trump’s second term, explained

Judd Legum for Popular Information: What Trump doesn’t want you to know about Project 2025 and The alarming new power Trump will claim in a second term

James Taranto for The Wall Street Journal: Strange New Respect

Ann E. Marimow for The Washington Post: Justice Amy Coney Barrett is charting her own path on the bench

Stephen I. Vladeck in The New York Times: The Most Interesting Justice on the Supreme Court Is Also the Loneliest

James LaRock and Jacob Hammond for Balls and Strikes: The Hollow Originalism of Amy Coney Barrett

Oyez: Amy Coney Barrett

Here are this week’s chatters:

John: Joshua Hammer for Smithsonian Magazine: Pablo Escobar’s Abandoned Hippos Are Wreaking Havoc in the Columbia Jungle

Emily: Andrea Robin Skinner for the Toronto Star: My stepfather sexually abused me when I was a child. My mother, Alice Munro, chose to stay with him

David: Natasha Singer for The New York Times: Students Target Teachers in Group TikTok Attack, Shaking Their School and City Cast DC Live Podcast Taping on Saturday, July 13

Listener chatter from Researcher Julie: Alexandra Alter for The New York Times: Romance Bookstores Are Booming, Dishing ‘All the Hot Stuff You Can Imagine’ and Elisabeth Egan: Emily Henry on Writing Best-Sellers Without Tours and TikTok; Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Ellen Gamerman, and Isabella Simonetti for The Wall Street Journal: How Dragons, Magic and Steamy Sex Took Over the Book World; and Bridgerton on Netflix

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, David, John, and Emily talk with Professor Emily Wilson about her translation of Homer’s Iliad. See The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. See also The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Sierra Greer about her new book, Annie Bot: A Novel. And Gabfest Reads now has its own site!

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

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Ethan Oberman

Research by Julie Huygen

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