Political Gabfest

Purposely Negative

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss what we learn from Trump's escalating battle with the press and its track record in the c

Gabfest Reads | The Tax Nobody Talks About: Your Time

David Plotz talks with journalist Annie Lowrey about her new book The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time—and How to Fix It, an investigation into the hours Amer

Kremlin Wedding Present

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether this week's Supreme Court intervention rejecting Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions will preven

Pretend I'm on the Ballot

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why Republicans are holding an unusual midterm convention and what it says about the state of the race a

What Is the Bond Market, Anyway?

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how a narrow Supreme Court majority used aesthetic standing to greenlight Trump's ballroom construction,

Please Do Not Ruin the Post Office

This week, John Dickerson, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss this week's Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to move forward for now

Listener Questions

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz answer listeners' questions of all kinds: the political, the personal, and everything in-between.   Many thank

Gabfest Reads | Look What You Made Me Do

David Plotz interviews John Lanchester about his new novel Look What You Made Me Do, a darkly funny psychological thriller about two couples in modern-day London whose li

Air Faux One

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the security calculations behind Trump’s plane switch operation; the White House’s attempts

Data Center Backlash

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan primary win signals about the future of the Democratic Party, Todd Blanch

Unhinged Obsession

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the expanding Iran war and what it means for Trump that news of U.S. missile shortages is leaking from t

Now We Can Call It a Quagmire

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why the war in Iran has flared back up despite the increasing likelihood of political consequences for T

Gabfest Reads | The Presidency as Pure Pleasure

John Dickerson interviews Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. Drawing on extensive repor

I'm His Lawyer

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how the confirmation hearing for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is yet another example of Trump tr

Maybe That Nazi Tattoo Was a Clue

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why an insurgent candidate with so many red flags got so far, how shocking new details about Trump's 202

America Has a King Now

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Ruth Marcus discuss this week's momentous Supreme Court rulings. The FTC/Slaughter case overturns nearly a century o

New York is Red

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Tuesday's NY congressional primaries won by three Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and what they cou

Gabfest Reads | Why America Is Spiritually Broken and How to Fix It

Emily Bazelon interviews Senator Chris Murphy about his new book Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America. Murphy argues that T

Another Treaty of Versailles

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the U.S. is getting and what it is giving up with the deal to end Trump's Iran war, how Trump's UFC

California Is an Embarrassment

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether this week's resumption of open hostilities in the Iran war has changed the likelihood of an immi