This week, David Plotz, John Dickerson, and Emily Bazelon discuss the $787.5 million settlement of the Dominion Voting v. Fox News defamation lawsuit; the political game being played with raising the U.S. debt ceiling; and the Russian detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Jim Rutenberg and Katie Robertson for the New York Times: “A $787.5 Million Settlement and Embarrassing Disclosures: The Costs of Airing a Lie”
Matthew Iglesias for Slow Boring: “Medicaid work requirements are cruel and pointless”
Paul Krugman for the New York Times: “A Few Ways Out of the Debt Ceiling Mess”
Freedom House Report: “Freedom in the World 2023: Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy”
John Dickerson for CBS News Prime Time: “U.S. ambassador says she visited detained Wall Street Journal reporter”
Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson, and Brett Forrest for the Wall Street Journal: “’You Are Completely Alone’: Inside the Infamous Russian Prison Holding Evan Gershkovich”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “What Everyone Should Know about the Shingles Vaccine (Shingrix)”
“Pelosi in the House” HBO documentary
Carrie Blazina and Drew Desilver for the Pew Research Center: “House gets younger, Senate gets older: A look at the age and generation of lawmakers in the 118th Congress”
Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Julie Bosman, Mitch Smith, Jesse McKinley, and Jay Root for the New York Times: “Hundreds of Miles Apart, Separate Shootings Follow Wrong Turns” and Timothy Bella for the Washington Post: “Cheerleaders leaving practice were shot after one got in wrong car, teen says”
John: Ellie Zolfagharifard for the Daily Mail: “’Here there be robots’: Artist draws stunning medieval map of Mars showing off its huge craters and vast canyons”; Mars and its Canals by Percival Lowell; and Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet: “How Astronomer Percival Lowell Mistook His Own Eye For Spokes on Venus”
David: City Cast DC podcast: “D.C.’s Rat-Hunting Dogs And Other Rat Solutions” (Host Bridget Todd, Producer Julia Karron)
Listener chatter from Nancy Hall: Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau for the Chicago Tribune: “Stalled Justice: Delays in the Cook County courts”
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David discuss the dilemma posed by the months-long absence of Dianne Feinstein from the U.S. Senate.
In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri about her latest book, Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up).
Email your questions and chatters to gabfest@slate.com or tweet us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Jared Downing.
Research by Julie Huygen.
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