David Plotz talks with author Mat Johnson about his new novel Invisible Things. Johnson’s novel tells the story of a group of astronauts that land in a bubble colony on Jupiter's biggest moon. 
They talk about the challenges of writing satire when reality feels fake, how mediocre people rise up by sucking up, and why we need to look at the invisible things in our daily lives.  

Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
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Gabfest Reads: Life on Europa Looks Too Much Like America

Voted “Favorite Political Podcast” by Apple Podcasts listeners. Stephen Colbert says "Everybody should listen to the Slate Political Gabfest." The Gabfest, featuring Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz, is the kind of informal and irreverent discussion Washington journalists have after hours over drinks.

News

Politics

Government

In this week’s essay, John discusses instinct versus obligation, his daughter’s wit, how he has changed since episode one, and more.
 
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 58, page 10. September 16, 2021
“You don’t measure your life the way you measure your writing.” - Nan

Notebook 75, page 46-47. September 2021
When your dog dies and son goes to college and you are confronted with your life’s work it all boils down to one alarm: the clock is ticking. If a scream is better than a thesis, I was hearing some kind of scream, but what was the thesis?

References:
Everything Is Copy – HBODocs 
 The Power of Regret – Daniel Pink

The Mezzanine – Nicholson Baker 
“The Creative Process” – James Baldwin
Slouching Towards Bethlehem – Joan Didion
“Three Paths Toward the Meaning of Life” - Arthur Brooks for The Atlantic

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: The Meaning Behind All This Navel Gazing

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the U.S. Senate seats that might turn from blue to red in 2024; The Fall of Roe with The New York Times’s Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer; and the rise of Lauren Boebert with City Cast Denver’s Bree Davies and Paul Karolyi. 
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter: 2024 CPR Senate Race Ratings
Jonathan Weisman for The New York Times: 10 Senate Races to Watch in 2024
Ben Kamisar for NBC News: Rich people are spending more than ever to run for Congress. A big test is coming in Maryland.
Nate Silver for 538: Are The Democrats Screwed In The Senate After 2024?
The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America by Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer and The New York Times Magazine: The Untold Story of the Network That Took Down Roe v. Wade
Ian Ward for Politico: The Group Behind Dobbs Does Not Want to Talk About What Comes Next
Bree Davies and Paul Karolyi for City Cast Denver: Lauren Boebert Can’t Lose
 CBS Colorado: Beto O’Rourke Talks Gun Violence At Aurora Campaign Stop

Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Law & Justice Journalism Project: 2024 Fellowship
John: Katie Razzall, Darin Graham, and Larissa Kennelly for BBC News: FBI investigating missing ancient treasures from British Museum and Rebecca Mead for The New Yorker: The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals
David: Meilan Solly for Smithsonian Magazine: Giant Pandas Are Coming Back to Washington, D.C.; Maura Judkis and Travis M. Andrews for The Washington Post: Let’s argue about the giant pandas; and Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute: Red panda
 
Listener chatter from Annamarie Smith in Sacramento, California: Sukey Lewis and Julie Small for KQED: On Our Watch: New Folsom
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about pronatalism and the Collins family. See Jenny Kleeman for The Guardian: America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death’. See also Luke Munn for The Conversation: Pronatalism is the latest Silicon Valley trend. What is it – and why is it disturbing?; Sarah Jones for Intelligencer: There’s Nothing New About Pronatalism; and The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank by David Plotz.
 
In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Sierra Greer about her new book, Annie Bot: A Novel.
 
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
Research by Julie Huygen
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is Convicted! Plus, Who is Winning The Senate?

In this week’s essay, John discusses Mothers’s Day, playing tennis with the Attorney General, medical scares, and more
 
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 19, page 16. April 2011
Is it possible, through applied thought, to become systematic in an approach to life? If you were to do that how would you proceed? 

Notebook 16, page 6. July 26, 2005
“I’m here with a bunch of midshipmen and wondering what there is to do around here.” - Boy trying to hit on a girl working @ The Reef in Castine, ME.

Notebook 15, page 30. September 2004
Head problems:
Sunday 9/5 morning
Tuesday 9/7 evening
Wednesday 9/8 before lunch

Notebook 22, page 22. April 24, 2014
Question: 
What did you want to be when you were a kid? 

What do you want to be now?

Why the difference?


Notebook 9. 1995
“That’s just the ticket the doctor ordered”

Notebook 13. 2001
“Free as a clam”

Notebook 17, page 67. December 2006
The man sitting next to me has a face on the boil and garlic and old booze on his breath. When he sleeps, he sighs. For this leg of the flight I am wrapped in his breathy gumbo.

Notebook 15, page 7. April 2004
“In all these there are messages for those who use their reason.” - Quran quotation

Notebook 15, page 80. 2005
Would like to meet her.

Notebook 54. July 26, 2020
“Writing requires a reader. You can’t do it alone.” - John Cheever

Notebook 15, page 71. 2005
In the light of sobriety not sure what this means

Notebook 13. March 2001
Yesterday I played tennis with John Ashcroft the atty. general of the U.S.

Notebook 13, page 108. December 11, 2001
Anne just called. There is one little heartbeat beating in her today. Everything is okay for this hurdle. I must say, I was really worried.

Notebook 20, page 10. December 24, 2013
“Sometimes Dad says weird stuff, just ignore him” - Anne to kids about me

Notebook 15, page 84.
“Life goes on,” Hayawi says. “We are in the middle of a war [in Iraq] and we still smoke the water pipe.”

Notebook 45, page 24. April 16, 2019
Our savior lives by the manner in which we live.

Notebook 19, page 23. 2011
People on their mobile phones in England say goodbye a lot: “Cheers, alright then, speak to you soon, ta.” (That’s four ways of saying goodbye). Amelia tells the story of a man who thanked a ticket-taker by saying “Ta, magical, cheers.”

References:
Disaster on the Penobscot - John Henry Fay for Naval History Magazine
One Man’s Meat by E.B. White
The House at Allen Cove I E.B. White House Tour - New England Magazine
Little Plastic Castle - Ani Defranco
“Two Years of War: Taking Stock” - Anthony Shadid for the Washington Post
 
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: Time Travel Via an Assortment of Journal Entries

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s right-wing flag-flying; David Leonhardt’s take on A New Centrism; and OpenAI’s use – or not – of Scarlett Johansson’s voice. 
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Jodi Kantor for The New York Times: At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display; Jodi Kantor, Aric Toler, and Julie Tate: Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home; Jodi Kantor and Abbie VanSickle: Display at Alito’s Home Renews Questions of Supreme Court’s Impartiality; and Abbie VanSickle: What Do Judicial Rules Say About Alito and a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol?
V: The Original Mini Series on Prime Video 
Mark Sherman for AP: Roberts, Trump spar in extraordinary scrap over judges and Mark Sherman and Lindsay Whitehurst: Supreme Court Justices Barrett and Sotomayor, ideological opposites, unite to promote civility
David Leonhardt for The New York Times: The Rise of a New Centrism and A New Centrism Is Rising in Washington
John Dickerson for Gabfest Reads and New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the Westby David E. Sanger
Bobby Allyn for NPR: Scarlett Johansson says she is ‘shocked, angered’ over new ChatGPT voice
Nitasha Tiku for The Washington Post: OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show and Molly Roberts: Scarlett Johansson’s ChatGPT face-off confirms our fears about AI
Midler v. Ford Motor Co., 849 F.2d 460 (9th Cir. 1988) on Justia
Blake Brittain for Reuters: New York Times denies OpenAI’s ‘hacking’ claim in copyright fight
Michael Sainato for The Guardian: Consultant behind deepfaked Biden robocall indicated for Democratic primary scheme
Her by Warner Bros. Pictures

Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Hacks on Max 
John: Lauren Aratani for The Guardian: Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden
David: 99% Invisible: Towers of Silence
 
Listener chatter from Aaron Tax in Washington, D.C.: Andrea Sachs for The Washington Post: A beloved alley cat now lives in the Watergate. Was she kidnapped, or rescued?  
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about Republican politicians’ answers to the question: will you accept the results of the 2024 presidential election? See Alec Hernandez for NBC News: Here’s what top Trump VP picks say about the 2020 election results – and whether they’ll accept the 2024 outcome; Justin Green for Axios: Listen to Republicans on whether they’ll accept 2024 election results; and Patrick Svitek for The Washington Post: Top Republicans, led by Trump, refuse to commit to accept 2024 election results.
 
In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Sierra Greer about her new book, Annie Bot: A Novel.
 
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
Research by Julie Huygen
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Justice Alito's Upside Down Flag

In this week’s essay, John discusses the differences between moving around New York in 1991 and 2021; remembering 9/11 twenty years later; and more. 
 
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 75, page 12. September 2021
Notebooks to Garret

Notebook 75, page 13. September 2021
Can you make a typo with handwriting? What’s a typo with handwriting called?

Notebook 4. 1991
We have to unplug the light to run the vacuum, so we do a lot of our vacuuming in the dark.

Notebook 75. September 11, 2021
Fritz want something?

References:
Smythson Notebooks in Blue
9/11 ceremonies, events and coverage on 20th anniversary - CBS News
Richard Drew on Photographing the “Falling Man” of 9/11 - CBS News

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Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gabfest Reads: Life on Europa Looks Too Much Like America

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