2 months ago
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This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Henry Blodget to discuss the financial and political fallout from the President’s threats to fire Fed Chair Powell and subsequent retreat; a Supreme Court case over free exercise of religion that could have broad implications; and why Trump stands by Hegseth after Signalgate Part 2.
Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:
Brian Schwartz, Josh Dawsey, and Nick Timiraos for The Wall Street Journal (Exclusive): Why Trump Decided Not to Try to Fire Jerome Powell
Colby Smith for The New York Times: Trump Says He Won’t Fire Powell. His Fed Battle May Not Be Over Yet.
Nick Timiraos for The Wall Street Journal: Trump Is Laying The Groundwork to Blame Powell for Any Downturn
The Editors of National Review: Trump’s War on the Fed
The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal (Opinion): The Fire Jerome Powell Market Rout
The Economist (Online Extra): Trump fires at the Fed. America’s economy is collateral damage
Nicole Narea for Vox: Trump’s tariffs are driving a gold rush
Kalyn Belsha for Chalkbeat: Supreme Court to rule on right of religious parents to opt kids out of LGBTQ material
Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog (Argument Analysis): Supreme Court likely to rule for parental opt-out on LGBTQ books in schools
Megan K. Stack for the New York Times (Opinion: Guest Essay): My School District Could Have Avoided This Supreme Court Case
The Editorial Board for The Wall Street Journal (Opinion): Gender Storytime at the Supreme Court
Neal McCluskey for Reason: The Supreme Court Is About To Hear 2 Education Cases. Neither Goes Far Enough.
Ian Millhiser for Vox: The Supreme Court’s “Don’t Say Gay” argument went disastrously for public schools
Greg Jaffe and Helene Cooper for The New York Times: Under Hegseth, Chaos Prevails at the Pentagon
Aaron Blake for The Washington Post (Analysis): Even on the gravest of issues, GOP can’t summon the will to question Trump
John Ullyot for Politico Magazine (Opinion): Opinion | Former Top Pentagon Spokesperson Details ‘Month From Hell’ Inside the Agency
Jonathan Lemire for The Atlantic: Why Trump Is Standing by Hegseth, for Now
Brett Samuels for The Hill: Why MAGA World is so protective of Hegseth
Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler for CNN: Rubio unveils first stage of major State Department overhaul
Michael Crowley for The New York Times: Critics Call Rubio’s Overhaul Plan a Blow to U.S. Values
Here are this week’s chatters:
Emily: Novel: Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Movie: Lee, starring Kate Winslet (Official Trailer on YouTube). Fiona Macdonald for the BBC: Lee Miller: In Hitler’s Bathtub.
David: Alexis Soloski for the New York Times: In ‘Ransom Canyon,’ Minka Kelly Enjoys the Ride. IMDB: Friday Night Lights. Netflix: Ransom Canyon.
Henry: Christopher Lamb, Alicia Johnson, Jhasua Razo, and Sarah-Grace Mankarious for CNN: Who will be the next pope? Here are some possible candidates. Carter Evans and Analisa Novak for CBS Mornings: Why the film “Conclave” is climbing the charts after Pope Francis’ death and sparking interest in how a new pontiff is picked. Thomson Reuters: Legal: How AI is transforming the legal profession (2025); Ozge Demirci, Jonas Hannane, and Xinrong Zhu for Harvard Business Review: Research: How Gen AI Is Already Impacting the Labor Market.
Listener chatter from Chris in Oakland, California: Becky Little for History.com: The Deportation Campaigns of the Great Depression.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily and David are joined by Henry Blodget to discuss the weird and somewhat terrifying AI experiment he conducted for his Substack Regenerator.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with author Maggie Smith about her new book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Research by Emily Ditto
English (US) ·