Emily, John, and David close out the year considering listeners’ most confounding conundrums with special guest Simon Doonan.
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The “2018 Conundrum” Edition

Voted “Favorite Political Podcast” by Apple Podcasts listeners. Stephen Colbert says "Everybody should listen to the Slate Political Gabfest." The Gabfest, featuring Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz, is the kind of informal and irreverent discussion Washington journalists have after hours over drinks.

News

Politics

Government

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Donald Trump’s first criminal trial and the Supreme Court argument on a criminal charge related to another Trump case and talk with The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich about his profile of Governor Gavin Newsom. 
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Norman Eisen for CNN: Don’t call it a ‘hush money’ case
Brian Beutler for the Politix podcast: Alvin Bragg’s Liberal Critics Are Wrong
Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich, Maggie Haberman, and Wesley Parnell for The New York Times: Prosecutors and Defense Lawyers Begin to Seat Jurors for Trump Trial and Maggie Haberman: A Weary Trump Appears to Doze Off in Courtroom Ahead of Criminal Trial
David Bauder for AP: Trump trial: Why can’t Americans see or hear what is going on inside the courtroom?
Ann E. Marimow for The Washington Post: Supreme Court divided over key charge against Jan. 6 rioters and Trump
Michael C. Dorf for Dorf On Law: The Ejusdem is Loose -- SCOTUS Insurrectionist Case Edition
Mark Leibovich for The Atlantic: Gavin Newsom Can’t Help Himself
HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher: Gov. Gavin Newsom

Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Uri Berliner in The Free Press: I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.; David Folkenflik for NPR: NPR editor Uri Berliner resigns with blast at new CEO; Alicia Montgomery for Slate: The Real Story Behind NPR’s Current Problems; A24’s Civil War; and HBO’s The Last of Us
John: The Annie E. Casey Foundation; diversitydatakids.org by Brandeis’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management: Child Opportunity Index (COI); Aliya Schneider for The Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘They’re cheating.’ President Biden floats higher tariffs on Chinese imports in Pittsburgh speech; John Dickerson for Slate’s Navel Gazing podcast; and CBS News Prime Time with John Dickerson
David: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, and Michael Mooney for Audible’s Hold Fast podcast and Jacques Billeaud for AP: Backpage founder will face Arizona retrial on charges he participated in scheme to sell sex ads
Listener chatter from Josh in Brisbane, Australia: Ross Scott’s website Stop Killing Games
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily talk with Anna Sale about her podcast, Death, Sex & Money, which is now on Slate. See Death, Sex & Money podcast: A Sociopath’s Guide to Death, Sex, and Money and Patrick Page in All The Devils Are Here. 
 
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.
 
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
 
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
Research by Julie Huygen
 
Hosts
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz
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Could You Be A Trump Juror?

In this week’s essay, John remembers dropping his son off at college, and trying to hold onto moments and feelings while you can. 
 
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 75, page 6. September 2021:
They chose you.
 
Notebook 15, page 4. April 2004:
Sitting with Brice by waterfall. Throwing rocks in stream. Loading sand from dump truck and loader and back again.
 
References:
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
Songwriter Nick Cave
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
 

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
  
Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.
 
Host
John Dickerson
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John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: Sending our Son to College

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the revival of Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban; the end of No Labels; and the past and future of presidential debates. 
 
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Mary Jo Pitzl and Reagan Priest for The Arizona Republic: Arizona House GOP halt Democrats’ effort to overturn Civil War era law in chaotic session
Dan Balz for The Washington Post: The Arizona Supreme Court just upended Trump’s gambit on abortion
Jamelle Bouie for The New York Times: The Man Who Snuffed Out Abortion Rights Is Here to Tell You He Is a Moderate
Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah for NPR’s All Things Considered: Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that
A.O. Sulzberger Jr. for The New York Times: Reagan Says Ban On Abortion May Not Be Needed
David Faris for Slate: Why No Labels Didn’t Stick
Slate’s Political Gabfest: The “No Mugshot” Edition
Thomas B. Edsall for The New York Times: Has No Labels Become a Stalking Horse for Trump?
Michael H. Brown for The Washington Post: Joseph Lieberman, senator and vice-presidential nominee, dies at 82

Here are this week’s chatters: 
Emily: Dartmouth’s Leslie Center for the Humanities: People, Place, Podcasts: Emily Bazelon and Erica Heilman in Conversation and the Rumble Strip podcast 
John: Slate’s Navel Gazing podcast and Rachel Wolfe for The Wall Street Journal: The Calls for Help Coming From Above the Poverty Line
David: Hannah Seo for The New York Times: Is It Better to Brush Your Teeth Before Breakfast or After?
Listener chatter from Mark Phillips in Baltimore, Maryland: Ben Crair for The New Yorker: The Magic of Bird Brains
 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss AI communications with loved ones after they die. See Walter Marsh for The Guardian: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed: ‘I’m totally, 100%, sadly addicted’ and Ira Glass for This American Life: The Ghost in the Machine. See also Niamn Ancell for Cybernews: These apps could resurrect your relatives using artificial intelligence; Rebecca Carballo for The New York Times: Using A.I. to Talk to the Dead; and Tamara Kneese for Wired: Using Generative AI to Resurrect the Dead Will Create a Burden for the Living.
 
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.
 
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
 
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth
Research by Julie Huygen
 
Hosts
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona Territory’s 1864 Abortion Law

In this week’s essay, John Dickerson looks back on a Sunday morning in 2021, and ruminates on the empty spaces left behind by the people that once filled our lives. 
 
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 75, page 6. September 5, 2021:
“Oh my god. We dropped our son at college and our dog is dead.” – Anne.
 
References:
“Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot
“When Someone You Love is Upset, Ask This One Question” by Jancee Dunn for the New York Times
“A Case of ‘Sunday Neurosis’” by Jena McGregor for the Washington Post
“Waking Early Sunday Morning” by Robert Lowell
Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything is Changing by Brad Stulberg
Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed
“Alabama Pines” by Jason Isbell
 
 Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
 
Host
John Dickerson
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John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: An Exploration of Inklings

Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Scott Bauer for AP: Wisconsin voters approve ban on private money support for elections and Unfair Share: The Gerrymandered Chocolate Bar on Kickstarter
John: Joey Roulette and Will Dunham for Reuters: Exclusive: White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon and John Dickerson Introduces: Navel Gazing 
David: Corvid Research: All in the (crow) family; 3 Body Problem on Netflix; The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; and Foundation and For All Mankind on Apple TV+
Listener chatter from Kim in Spartanburg, S.C.: The fish doorbell and thunder_keck on TikTok: fish doorbell season is back 
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss the April 8 total solar eclipse. See John Dickerson and David Parkinson for CBS News: Massive storm system threatening millions across U.S. See also Atlas Obscura’s Ecliptic Festival; Annie Dillard for The Atlantic: “Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him.”; The Guardian: Columbus and the night of the bloody moon; and John Uri for NASA: Eclipses Near and Far.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Tana French about her book, The Hunter: A Novel.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jared Downing
Research by Julie Huygen
Hosts
Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz
Follow
Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/ 
@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest
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The “2018 Conundrum” Edition

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