Slate News

Emily, John and David discuss the state of the pandemic; insider trading allegations in the Senate; and Trump’s firing of the watchdog investigating Mike Pompeo.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John discuss the online videos that have educated and entertained them during social isolation. 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.

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.

Episode Notes

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

Ed Yong for the Atlantic: “America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further”

Ryan Grim for the Intercept: “David Perdue Got Sweetheart Deal That Grew North of $6 Million After Election to The Senate”

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters:

John: These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore;  

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss

The Hardest Job in the World, by John Dickerson

Emily: Meredith Blake for the Los Angeles Times: “The Woman Behind ‘Roe vs. Wade’ Didn’t Change Her Mind on Abortion. She was Paid”

David: Normal People by Sally Rooney ; “Abhushan Gautam for the Nepali Times: When The Air is Clean:

Photographs of Kathmandu Valley With Air Pollution Removed by the Coronavirus Lockdown”

Listener chatter from Valerie Minor: LavaMae‘s design for a DIY handwashing station you can build for the use of people experiencing homelessness.

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

In a normal year, the next couple of weeks would be when excited campers returned to summer camp. Now, because of the coronavirus, summer camps are having to make tough calls about how and if they’ll open this year.

Guest: Lisa Handelman, camp director at Capital Camps. 

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

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

The global scarcity of masks has shown us the federal government’s desperate side. Procurement rules have been loosened. Prices have soared. And a shadowy market has emerged where deals fall through all the time -- leaving people without the gear they need to protect themselves and save lives. 

Guest: J. David McSwane, reporter for ProPublica. 

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

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

We closed down the country because we didn’t have enough COVID-19 tests. Now that testing capacity is improving, there’s another problem: figuring out what all this new data means, and who’s reporting accurate figures. 

Guest: Robinson Meyer, staff writer at the Atlantic, and part of the team working on the COVID Tracking Project. 

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

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

A lot happened in February for Senator Ricard Burr (R-NC). He told his constituents that the country was “ready to face the coronavirus.” He told a members-only club that they should expect school closures, canceled travel, and overwhelmed hospitals. And he sold a bunch of his stock. Now, Burr is under a federal investigation for possible insider trading. 

Guest: Tim Mak, Washington investigative correspondent for NPR. 

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

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

This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Anna Szymanski talk about the possibility of a merger between Uber and Grubhub, the potential collapse of the child care industry, and they get to some of the questions they missed on their Wednesday night Facebook Live Q&A.

In the Slate Plus segment: Questions from the live Q&A 

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

Twitter: @felixsalmon, @Three_Guineas, @EmilyRPeck

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

Every week, it feels like some new piece of coronavirus information dominates the headlines. Mysterious symptoms, changing government directives. This constant trickle of updates can quickly turn into a flood.

How should normal people interpret this deluge of data?

Guest: Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University and co-founder of COVID-Explained. 

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Every week, it feels like some new piece of coronavirus information dominates the headlines. Mysterious symptoms, changing government directives. This constant trickle of updates can quickly turn into a flood.

How should normal people interpret this deluge of data?

Guest: Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University and co-founder of COVID-Explained. 

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Virginia Heffernan talks to writer Scott Sayare about Didier Raoult, the man behind Trump’s favorite unproven treatment for COVID-19, exploring his successes as a French microbiologist, his big personality, and how we got to this point where hydroxychloroquine made headlines during the coronavirus pandemic.

Only Slate Plus members get to listen to every Trumpcast episode in full. Sign up now to access every Trumpcast episode and support the show. (edited) 

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

Emily, John, and David discuss COVID without federal leadership; challenges to Trump at the Supreme Court; and novelist Isabel Allende joins the show to talk about her new book A Long Petal of the Sea, and how crisis can be an opportunity for change.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John discuss (what would be) epic historical counterfactuals. 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.

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.)

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

Marty Makary for The New York Times: “How to Reopen America Safely”

Norbert J. Michel and Drew Gonshorowski for the Heritage Foundation: “1% of Counties Home to Half of COVID-19 Cases, Over Half of Deaths”

Scott Clement and Dan Balz for The Washington Post: “Many Governors Win Bipartisan Support for Handling of Pandemic, But Some Republicans Face Blowback Over Reopening Efforts”

Zeynep Tufekci for The Atlantic: “How Hong Kong Did It”

Perri Klass for The New York Times: Rethinking Covid-19 in Children

Maria DeCotis @MariaDeCotis performs Governor Mario Cuomo’s comments on his daughter’s boyfriend.

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters:

John: Heran Mamo for Billboard: “Relive Prince & the Revolution's Iconic 1985 Purple Rain Concert During a Three-Night Livestream”; Olivia Clement for Playbill: “Audra McDonald to Host Star-Studded Covenant House Benefit With Meryl Streep, Dolly Parton, and More”

Emily: The Music Lab’s Tone-Deafness Test and Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld

David: Haven Orecchio-Egresitz for Business insider: “A White Man Ran Through a Florida Neighborhood Carrying a TV to Prove That Looking 'Suspicious' Wasn't an Excuse for Killing Ahmaud Arbery”; Monica Humphries for Business Insider: “A BBC Sports Broadcaster Held a Zoom Meeting With His 2 Dogs to Deliver Their Annual Performance Reviews”

Listener chatter from Team@shah_of_shaw: Rutger Bregman for the Guardian: “The Real Lord of the Flies: What Happened When Six Boys Were Shipwrecked for 15 Months”

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.

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