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According to Marc Elias, Dahlia Lithwick’s guest on Amicus, “This week will be looked back on as a pivot point in terms of how the midterms play out.” Elias is a nationally recognized authority on voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance law. He is Chair of Elias Law Group and founder of Democracy Docket.
In the past few weeks, Donald Trump’s election denialism has kicked into high gear, just as his poll numbers hit new lows. Elias tells us the FBI/DNI raid to seize ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and Steve Bannon’s new threats to surround polling places with ICE officers in November, show an administration that is prototyping new mechanisms for election subversion and voter suppression. But the public has power in this scenario, especially if they start paying attention to elections and voting rights now, rather than the day before November 3rd, 2026.

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This week: Anthropic released an update that seems to have tipped the scales against Software as a Service companies, erasing billions in market value. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck, unpack why there was such a massive market response to such a small AI plugin, and what it says about the future of tech investment. Then, Disney has finally named a new CEO in Josh D’Amaro. The hosts get what it says about the future of the company that they chose the head Disney Experiences, including their super-profitable theme parks, instead of its Hollywood division. And then, a report has claimed users lose money on prediction markets faster than on traditional gambling apps which Kalshi claimed was an extortion tactic before walking back its statement. The hosts get into the differences between how users interact with the two kinds of apps and what the data says about losses on each.

In the Slate Plus episode: Epstein and the business of luxury gifting.

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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.

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He’s discontinuing Tesla’s signature models, taking SpaceX public, and putting more chips on A.I. and robotics. As Elon Musk prepares for his next phase, will he rein in any of his excesses?

And in this week’s Plus segment: Elon in Epstein files.

Guest: Faiz Siddiqui, technology reporter for the Washington Post’s Business Desk, author of “Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk.”

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.
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This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the juxtaposition between the devastating layoffs at The Washington Post and the exorbitant price owner Jeff Bezos and Amazon paid for the Melania movie, this week’s ominous foreshadowing of the Trump administration’s real threats to the 2026 elections with election law expert Nate Persily, and why the Clintons are facing deposition in House Epstein investigations.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, David, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss a fascinating profile of anti-government militia leader Ammon Bundy, the contrast between Bundy’s and his former allies’ views on ICE tactics, and how messages about individual liberty and government intervention might be affecting the Trump administration’s narratives about immigration enforcement.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with author Curtis Sittenfeld about her short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” They discuss the recurring themes of the book from troubled marriages and middle age to the passage of time, and characters who are navigating moments of racial privilege and prejudice.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

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Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.

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What Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show means for Puerto Rico, Latin Americans in the U.S., and his haters.

Guest: Dr. Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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