Slate News

This week, three of the leading developers of facial-recognition technology announced they would stop, or at least pause, selling this technology to police. The decision stems from evidence of racial bias inherent in these tools. For the researchers who first uncovered the deep-seated issues with these tools, it’s a watershed moment. Will facial-recognition technology continue to grow unchecked? Or will this week’s announcements result in lasting change?

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Guest: Deb Raji, technology fellow at the AI Now Institute.

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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Virginia Heffernan talks to CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams about Cooper vs. Cooper, how white people apologize for and are now confronting systemic racism, the legality around questioning the actions of police officers, and the “Yanny versus Laurel” disconnect some white viewers will have watching viral police brutality videos.

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David, Emily, and John present a special livestream of the Political Gabfest on police abuse, the 2020 election, and John’s new book, The Hardest Job in the World.

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters:

Emily: Charlie Savage and Adam Goldman for the New York Times: “Outsider Tapped in Flynn Case Calls Justice Dept. Reversal a ‘Gross Abuse’ of Power”

David: Emily Cochrane for the New York Times: “That Trump Tweet? Republicans Prefer Not to See It”; Aaron Blake for the Washington Post: “No, It’s Not Just a Trump Tweet”

John: Whistlestop: “The Spring of 1787”

Listener chatter from Josh Delaney @jddelaney and Andy O))) @alchemistscave: Johnny Diaz for the New York Times: “Someone Found the Buried Treasure That an Art Dealer Hid in the Rocky Mountains”

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 answer questions from viewers of the special livestream of the show.

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

Thomas B. Edsall for the New York Times: “How Much Is America Changing?”

Matthew Yglesia for Vox: “Study Suggests Democrats Should Be Running More Ads About Biden, Fewer About Trump”

Anne Applebaum for the Atlantic: “History Will Judge Trump’s Enablers Harshly”

Frederick Douglass: Prophets of Freedom by David W. Blight

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter or post it to our Facebook page. (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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To hear the president tell it, you would think that antifa activists are blanketing the country -- bringing their campaign of vandalism and looting and lawlessness to your town. These fears are sown and circulated through digital whisper networks that can be hard for outsiders to penetrate. But the online rumors are having real-life consequences. 

Guest: Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News correspondent. Read her latest. 

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This week, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced their intention to dissolve the Minneapolis Police Department. And while this moment may belong to the protesters of Minneapolis, it has just as much to do with the conduct of the city’s police, and how they’ve met even small reforms with utter contempt. 

Guest: Steve Fletcher, a member of the Minneapolis City Council. 

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Looking at the images that have come out over the last few weeks: images of police violence and protest, it’s impossible not to think how similar they are to pictures we saw just a few years back in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown's death at the hands of a police officer sparked protests across the country and cemented the Black Lives Matter movement into the American consciousness. Today on the show, we revisit the worst night of clashes between protestors and police in Ferguson.

This episode originally aired in August 2019 and is part of Ferguson Revisited, a series from What Next looking back at Michael Brown’s death, the protests that followed, and their legacy five years later.

Guest: Joel Anderson, writer at Slate, co-host of Hang Up and Listen, and the host of season 3 of Slow Burn.

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It is entirely possible to support the protests while feeling intense anxiety that they will result in additional cases of COVID-19. 

Guest: Dr. Howard Markel, professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and author of When Germs Travel, among other books. 

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Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig of Boston University School of Law to share the feelings and thinking behind her letter to her students reflecting on recent protests and killings. (Also mentioned, the letter from the Washington State Supreme Court and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.)

Next, Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and former head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in the Obama administration discusses America’s overpolicing problem and what’s needed for real change.

In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on the midnight decision in a case brought by churches who objected to state lockdown orders, and why the GOP strategy to block voting by mail has a big swing state problem. 

Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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This week, Stacy-Marie Ishmael, the editorial director of the Texas Tribune, joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Anna Szymanski to talk about the May jobs report, the Black Lives Matter protests, and the economic history of African Americans, and what reparations might look like.

In the Slate Plus segment: A longer conversation on corporate donations. 

“Kicked Off the Land,” by Lizzie Presser for The New Yorker

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

Twitter: @felixsalmon, @Three_Guineas, @EmilyRPeck

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In the midst of the pandemic, protests and police lockdowns, restaurants are turning increasingly to delivery apps like DoorDash and Grubhub to stay afloat. But with shady tactics, soaring fees, and deep-seated flaws with the business model of the entire industry, delivery startups may do more harm than good.

Guest: Ranjan Roy, CEO at the Edge Group and writer of Margins newsletter

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Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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