This week, David Plotz, John Dickerson, and Emily Bazelon discuss the Supreme Court challenge to loan forgiveness; lab leak v. wet market Covid politics; and the future of humanities education–with John Plotz.

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

Nathan Heller for The New Yorker: “The End of The English Major”

Recall This Book podcast with John Plotz

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea, by John Plotz

“The Eden of the Author of Sleep,” by Brian Teare

Sarah Fullerton for UC Berkeley: “Defying Negative Stereotypes, Humanities Majors Are Booming At UC Berkeley”

Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop, by Martin Puchner

The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; and The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman 

Here are this week’s chatters:

John: Drew Harwell for The Washington Post: “Tech’s Hottest New Job: AI Whisperer. No Coding Required.”

Emily: Michelle Goldberg for The New York Times: “Don’t Let Politics Cloud Your View of What’s Going On With Teens and Depression”; Matthew Yglesias for Slow Boring: “Why Are Young Liberals So Depressed?”; Ross Douthat for The New York Times: “American Teens Are Really Miserable. Why?”

David: Ben Taub for The New Yorker: “How the Biggest Fraud in German History Unravelled”

Listener chatter from Arthur Baraf: The National High School Ethics Bowl 

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, John, and Emily discuss the Bidens ordering the same entree at a restaurant.

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

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. 

Research by Bridgette Dunlap.

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