Slate News

Companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have always argued that their workers are independent contractors, not employees. This distinction has been crucial in their rise from startups to multi-billion-dollar companies.

On Tuesday, Californians sided with these companies by approving Prop 22, a ballot measure that enshrines workers’ non-employee status. Why did progressive Californians side with Big Tech? And will the rest of the country follow California’s lead?

Guest: Sam Harnett, Tech and Labor reporter at KQED

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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Virginia Heffernan talks to Ekow Yankah, professor of law at Cardozo School of Law, about those wacky Trump election lawsuits, the Republican attempts at voter suppression in the wake of close counts, and about how learning someone else’s language in order to sell them something leads you to become more like them.

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Professor Nate Persily of Stanford-MIT's HealthyElections.org joins the Gabfest to discuss vote counting and election lawsuits. Emily, John and David also discuss Democrats’ down-ballot disappointments, and the problems with polling.

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 

Emily: Adam Liptak for the New York Times: “Supreme Court Weighs Legacy of Same-Sex Marriage Case”

John: Margaret McAleer for the Library of Congress Blog: “The Taft Papers and a Titanic Tragedy”

David: Katie Pickens for Eater: “Watch: How Benton’s Makes Its Perfectly Smoky Bacon”

Listener chatter from @ionictonic: Twisted Sifter: “This Animation of How Bridges Were Constructed in 14th Century Prague is Amazing”

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 Emily, David, and John talk about the lighter stories they want to indulge in whenever the Trump era comes to close.

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.

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There’s still a lot that’s unclear about one of the most contentious elections in recent history. Here’s what we do know: that many pollsters overestimated the depth of Biden support. That Trump held onto the white working class more than many pundits predicted. And that if Biden does become our next president, he’ll likely have to make good on his promise to be the great compromiser.

Guest: Will Saletan, Slate’s national correspondent.

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You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. 

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.

We still don’t have a winner for the 2020 presidential election. It’s all coming down to states where vote-counting is happening slowly, amid a flurry of lawsuits. 

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

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Virginia Heffernan talks to Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, senior writer at FiveThirtyEight, about why we’re heading for a record gender gap in our presidential voting, issues for women voters and gender as a political frame, how differently individual voters interpret questions about issues like health care and the economy, and the drop in Trump support among white Christians.

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Larry Nance Jr. is an NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He’s also a first-time voter. After the NBA players’ ranks exploded with activism this summer, Nance and his teammates realized that they could change their states, themselves. They were the political activists they had been waiting for.

Guest: Larry Nance Jr., player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

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Jeffrey Yaw lives in the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York. He’s a recent convert to Catholicism who attended the March for Life back in January. He’s anti-abortion but pro-Medicare for All and has very little faith in the two-party system. So, with his first presidential ballot ever, he’s voting for a third-party candidate, but that doesn’t mean he’s given up on democracy.

Guest: Jeffrey Yaw, a student at SUNY Geneseo and a first-time voter.

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With just one day to go and several hundred lawsuits around the election still swirling about, which legal cases are raising major red flags? And how could they impact not just the 2020 election, but elections going forward?

Guest: Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UC–Irvine and the author of Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy.

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