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Two gig workers standing side-by-side can be offered the very same job and get offered two different wages. Set by an algorithm and based on calculations that are never explained to the workers themselves, this unequal pay for equal work is already subject to lawsuits that call it a form of price fixing and wage discrimination, but the tech is being tested in other industries.

Guests: Veena Dubal, law professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

Sergio Avedian, senior contributor at The Rideshare Guy

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On today’s episode, Rachelle is joined by Sarah Marshall, writer, critic and host of the You’re Wrong About and You Are Good podcasts. The two discuss Marshall’s recent You’re Wrong About episode about Napster, the ill-fated peer-to-peer file sharing app that helped create the internet as we know it. They dive deep into the moral and ethical quandaries around pirating content in an age where corporations can disappear content from streaming services at a second’s notice.

This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Rachelle Hampton and Daisy Rosario.

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Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith to discuss his new book. They also break down Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News and the end of Buzzfeed News.

In the Plus: A throwback to the olden days of blogging. 

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Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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Twitter’s “blue check” verification went from something you applied for, to something you could pay for, to something you had to pay for…to something that many celebrities wouldn’t even accept for free. Master of horror Stephen King told us he wouldn’t pay for a blue check, but he’s not going to fight it either—he just doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Does anyone at Twitter understand?

Guests: 

Alex Heath, deputy editor of The Verge

Jon Favreau, co-founder of Crooked Media, speechwriter for President Barack Obama

Stephen King, freelancer author

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Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Peter Kafka of Vox. They discuss episode five of the final season of HBO’s Succession, including a drug-fueled party, a very normal trip to Norway, and why the baguette may in fact be mightier than the bagel. Also, bags of blood. Really. 

Check out how the Succession timeline (kind of) works. 

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Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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Weather apps can be frustrating. And with how much we rely on them to know if we should wear pants or shorts, they'll still leave you in the rain. But as the climate gets wilder, the questions of how to tell people what they need to know—and quickly—can be an issue of life or death.

Guest: Charlie Warzel, staff writer at the Atlantic

Daniel Swain, UCLA climate scientist

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the biggest business, tech and finance stories of the week. This week, Fox News settles with Dominion, Elon’s rocketship blows up, and Apple has a savings account now. 

In the plus: Quantifying the value of domestic labor. 

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Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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Reddit announced it will start charging companies to use its huge, ever-growing trove of text to train A.I. chatbots. It’s another expense for the fledgling tech and another knock against the “open internet” ideals that Reddit once embodied. 

Guest: Mike Isaac, tech reporter for the New York Times.

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This week, David Plotz, John Dickerson, and Emily Bazelon discuss the $787.5 million settlement of the Dominion Voting v. Fox News defamation lawsuit; the political game being played with raising the U.S. debt ceiling; and the Russian detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich. 

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

Jim Rutenberg and Katie Robertson for the New York Times: “A $787.5 Million Settlement and Embarrassing Disclosures: The Costs of Airing a Lie”

Matthew Iglesias for Slow Boring: “Medicaid work requirements are cruel and pointless”

Paul Krugman for the New York Times: “A Few Ways Out of the Debt Ceiling Mess”

Freedom House Report: “Freedom in the World 2023: Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy”

John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “U.S. ambassador says she visited detained Wall Street Journal reporter”

Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson, and Brett Forrest for the Wall Street Journal: “’You Are Completely Alone’: Inside the Infamous Russian Prison Holding Evan Gershkovich”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “What Everyone Should Know about the Shingles Vaccine (Shingrix)”

“Pelosi in the House” HBO documentary 

Carrie Blazina and Drew Desilver for the Pew Research Center: “House gets younger, Senate gets older: A look at the age and generation of lawmakers in the 118th Congress” 

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Julie Bosman, Mitch Smith, Jesse McKinley, and Jay Root for the New York Times: “Hundreds of Miles Apart, Separate Shootings Follow Wrong Turns” and Timothy Bella for the Washington Post: “Cheerleaders leaving practice were shot after one got in wrong car, teen says”

John: Ellie Zolfagharifard for the Daily Mail: “’Here there be robots’: Artist draws stunning medieval map of Mars showing off its huge craters and vast canyons”; Mars and its Canals by Percival Lowell; and Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet: “How Astronomer Percival Lowell Mistook His Own Eye For Spokes on Venus”

David: City Cast DC podcast: “D.C.’s Rat-Hunting Dogs And Other Rat Solutions” (Host Bridget Todd, Producer Julia Karron) 

Listener chatter from Nancy Hall: Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau for the Chicago Tribune: “Stalled Justice: Delays in the Cook County courts”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David discuss the dilemma posed by the months-long absence of Dianne Feinstein from the U.S. Senate.

In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri about her latest book, Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up). 

Email your questions and chatters to [email protected] or tweet us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Jared Downing.

Research by Julie Huygen.

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Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by graphic designer Michael Bierut to recap the fourth episode of the last season of HBO’s Succession. The family attends Logan’s wake where big moves are made. Someone gets a surprising phone call. And where did that piece of paper come from?

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our show every week. You’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Slate Money. Sign up now at slate.com/moneyplus to help support our work.

Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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