Slate News

Republicans used to lead the way on environmental legislation. Are they about to come back around on the urgency of climate change?  

Guest: Carlos Curbelo, former Republican congressman from Florida.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

There’s a lot riding on the working relationship of President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. They are bonded by their service in the U.S. Senate, their ideological flexibility, and their respect for norms -- unless those norms stand in the way of their ambitions. 

Guest: Alex Thompson, White House reporter for Politico. 

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Back in 2015, Farai Chideya was a senior writer covering politics at FiveThirtyEight. Her time there was instructive in understanding how the media failed to take Trump’s presidential candidacy seriously. Now that she has her own show, she’s speaking up about how journalists -- and the news outlets that employ them -- could better serve the public. 

Guest: Farai Chideya, host of Our Body Politic.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Ron Lieber of The New York Times joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Anna Szymanski to talk about his book The Price You Pay for College on the economics of higher education, and how to work within the (terrible) system to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

In the Slate Plus segment: Pardons. 

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

Twitter: @felixsalmon, @Three_Guineas, @EmilyRPeck

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

Most people thought developing the vaccine in record time would be the hard part. That, or shipping millions of doses at subzero temperatures to every corner of the country. But nobody--or, almost nobody--guessed that the biggest barrier between U.S. citizens and vaccination would be … online scheduling. 

What went wrong with the vaccine websites? And what will it take to get them right?

Guests: 

Raphael Lee, director of USDR’s Health Program 

Hana Schank, director of Strategy for Public Interest Technology at New America

Jessica Allen

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Most people thought developing the vaccine in record time would be the hard part. That, or shipping millions of doses at subzero temperatures to every corner of the country. But nobody--or, almost nobody--guessed that the biggest barrier between U.S. citizens and vaccination would be … online scheduling. 

What went wrong with the vaccine websites? And what will it take to get them right?

Guests: 

Raphael Lee, director of USDR’s Health Program 

Hana Schank, director of Strategy for Public Interest Technology at New America

Jessica Allen

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Emily, John and David discuss the unusual but uplifting inauguration, Joe Biden’s priorities, and the Trump aftermath.

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

Joe Biden’s inauguration speech

Inauguration video from former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton

Kevin Quealy for the New York Times: “The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021) 

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 

John: The books of P.G. Wodehouse read by Jonathan Cecil

Emily: Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger for the Detroit News: “Michigan Republicans Seek to Replace GOP Canvasser Who Certified Election”

David: Jules Suzdaltsev’s Twitter thread of photos of weird things Trump did in office.

Listener chatter from Clay Jeffries @clayjeffries: Sam Kean for the Atlantic: “22 Orphans Gave Up Everything to Distribute the World’s First Vaccine”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John imagine some classes they would like to teach.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is [email protected]. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.

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

At his inauguration, President Joe Biden argued that “unity is the path forward.” But it’s still an open question whether he’ll be able to get anything done.

Guest: Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer. 

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

For the penultimate episode of Trumpcast, Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Dr. Ibram Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, to talk about his anti-racist work, the Biden era ahead, and a question that’s been on Virginia’s mind since Dr. Kendi came on the show four years ago.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new presidential administration begins today. In pivotal moments like this, it’s hard to know what to say. But eight years ago, Richard Blanco was called upon to say something anyway - in front of a million people at Barack Obama’s second inauguration. And eight years later, he has some thoughts about the crossroads we’re at now.

Guest: Richard Blanco, author of How to Love a Country and the Inaugural Poet for Barack Obama’s 2012 Inauguration.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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